There are a couple of questions that a full-time fishing guide gets almost every day because our customers are curious about our lifestyles, income and equipment, but most of all, want to know where and what!

Some time ago when I was very active in conservation organizations we would host seminars and try to help our membership by being more effective on the saltwater. Most of these lectures and presentations were from area guides on the Texas coast and the common question from the group had always been where and what. What I mean by this is, they want to know where the fish are located, and what you’re using to attract them. It’s a simple question, but a complicated answer because it depends on so many variables such as cycle of the moon, temperature of the air, speed of the wind, time of year and skill level of the angler to mention a few.

WHERE

I realize that you do not spend 295 days on the water like I do or like my fellow guides do, where we can rely on each other’s fish catch information on a daily basis. However, there are certain things that you can focus on to make your trips more successful and give you the best chance for that bite that lead to a satisfying trip.

Let’s say you go out one day in the Fall and just hammer trout but you also catch redfish and flounder so the bite is obviously on! Make a note of that date and go back in your leisure time (while at work) and try to figure out what day that was in relation to the moon phase and the solar lunar tables according to the best time of day to fish. Maybe you fished on the day where the charts tell you it’s going to be the highest probability of a bite or maybe it says it’s the worst day of the month and you should not be out there on the water. I’m going to say most of the time the charts will tell you that was the day and that was the time-so that’s one way to approach this complicated puzzle of when fish eat.

Then you use that information and go fishing once again during the same period of solar lunar bite, commonly known as a feeding major, but the wind is howling and the bay is churned up and there’s no way you’re going to catch the fish you did last time because you cannot even make a set in the rough conditions. In that case, just go to Plan B look around find some new territory; to get out of the wind you may find that no matter where you go you’re getting bites.

You may be confused because you’re thinking ‘well my first spot didn’t work but my second one did, I have to go to the second spot in the future’. I say try to forget about where you were and focus more on knowing where the fish are in the many locations they’re all just eating at that time. Just because you didn’t try that distant reef last time doesn’t mean the fish weren’t there, you may have caught more fish on than you did before.

What I’m saying, fishing is about gathering information as you go and using all available resources to point you in the direction of a bite. Try not to focus so much on what other people are doing or where other boats are and what they’re using. This is fishing not catching and I guarantee you at the end of the day if you find your own fish based on information that you created in the past there is no better feeling or bragging right.

WHAT

Concerning the what portion of this equation, what you use for bait whether live or dead shrimp; live croaker; soft plastics; or top waters just like the where part is something that we figure out on a daily basis. Today I may get a limit of trout using live croaker and talk to a couple of buddies who just got theirs on live shrimp and maybe added a few redfish on dead shrimp and got a few on cracked crabs or cut mullet. It’s a good idea to do what we do which is carrying a variety of offerings with you on your trip. I have live croaker now during these Summer months which is really June through September. Also, I’ll carry fresh mullet that I can cut into chunks and soak on the bottom for redfish sometimes. I’ll carry dead shrimp to try to go after black drum under a popping cork or on the bottom, it really just depends on what the customer wants to do as well.

If I have one person on my boat who has hired me for a 8-hour day and we go out in the first hour and get five trout, which would be their limit, I do not want to take that person back to the dock and say ‘thank you very much your trip is over’! We want to have them experience more of what the bays offer especially if they’re from out of the area or out of state. Those other bait offerings including the live croaker that I have should work for redfish.

Going back to the ‘where’ part, ‘where do I go to catch a redfish?’ You may ask. I try many different options, for instance maybe they’re over shell or maybe they’re in the mud. If the wind is blowing like crazy check the downwind portion of the shorelines where the bait would be blown up against the shore, you really never know until you go try. Same goes for soft plastics on wade fishing, I get the same question every day when we hop in the water on a wade fishing trip, ‘what color are they biting on’.

The answer to that is really another question-what color do you have in your arsenal? Usually an angler will show me four or five packages of soft plastic baits and I say to them ‘well any of them really would work because the fish are eating and they’re going to hammer anything that vibrates or swims erratically in the water. The color matters to a certain extent but you won’t know that until you try a couple of different colors. That’s why it is a good reason to invest in a wading belt with a box for lures you can carry along or a shoulder sling type tackle box and load it up before you ease into the water, you may not catch the fish on your first couple of steps and casts but if you keep after it and find a combination that works you’re going to build confidence in that soft plastic lure; you’re going to build confidence in that slow sinking plug; you’re going to put to the top of your tackle box lures from Texas Tackle Factory like the Killer Flats Minnow the Redfish Killer and the Trout Killer not to mention my personal favorite the Killer Hustler or Hackberry Hustler. Someone once told me that the job of a lure maker is not to catch the fish but the catch the angler and that’s been true for me my whole life. I cannot go to the store without buying a couple of packs of soft plastics and I think that’s true of most Anglers. When a customer shows me, what lures they have I see plenty of offerings that will work and they are more prepared than they might think.

In conclusion, I wish I could tell you where and what for each day of the year but the flat truth is none of us really know. Rather, we go by what we’ve learned the few past moon phases and weather scenarios and try to apply that to today’s trip. What you need more than anything as an angler is patience and understanding of the body of water you’re going to fish along with an ability to get along with others on the water and a desire just to have a good old time no matter what. That’s what separates a successful fishing trip from an unsuccessful trip, your level of satisfaction.

So, do your homework and keep notes on what you’ve done and where you’ve gone and what you used and I promise you if you look at your fishing as a lifetime sport based on knowledge gained by experience you’re going to be a much more satisfied Angler!

It doesn’t surprise me that the month of July is named after Julius Caesar.  After all he was born in this month.  Back then they called it Quintilis.  That meant it was the fifth month not the seventh. I don’t really know how they slipped January and February in because Mother Nature hasn’t changed the length of her year.
Nevertheless July has been a busy month for the United States.  This is in both at the beginning and in the celebrations.  Hot dog folks like July because I understand we consume over 155 million hot dogs. We did our part this year.  Did you?

That’s enough about the calendar for now. I have been wondering what is going on in the world.   I read a lot of History. They say those who don’t know history are bound to repeat it. It must be that many people must not read history because we sure seem to be repeating history over the years.

During the founding of our country I find there were a lot of folks who didn’t like the way things were going. Everybody seemed to like George Washington.
However, the next two guys were an enigma. John Adams, the second President. and Tom Jefferson, the third, fought like cats and dogs. They had two different ideas about what was the right way to run things. Adams wanted a strong central government. Jefferson wanted a more states’ rights, pastoral kind of way to run the place. That is a very general way to describe it but the history shows how nasty the fight was.

As erstwhile friends they ended up not speaking to each other for years after their time in office. Then fifty years after the Declaration they both died on the fourth of July 1826.

One of the big points of contention, slavery, continued to boil in the nation leading up to the Civil War.  The real argument there seemed to be whether the new states would allow slavery. It was not settled.

Finally, around 1860 Lincoln got elected President. And the lid of the pot boiled off.  Southern States started succeeding from the Union.  Absolit1ionists wanted Slavery to be abolished. Lincoln wanted to preserve the Union or as he stated at Gettysburg “that this government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish” He did make the emancipation proclamation.  But it was not taken out of the constitution till after the war was over. Even then the real question lingered. However, as one studies the history it becomes clear that all the battles were not on the battlefield. They had “copper heads”, fake news and all sorts of nasty struggles. The war stopped but it really wasn’t a final settlement.

And nowadays we have a very similar fight. The cries are over whose life counts, immigration, and who the good guys are and who the bad.  However as I read between the lines all the fundamental arguments are history repeating itself.

“The Way I See It” is an attempt by the columnist to enlighten readers on a subject as he views it, and does not necessarily reflect the views of this publication.
ObamaCare Opinion

After eight years of “We must pass it to see what is in it!”, we have seen many things in ObamaCare. Huge governmentt bribes to even get Democrats to vote for it. Massive waste in just the computer programs to get people signed up. Drastic increases in premiums. “You can keep your policy and your Doctor.” was a bald-faced lie and they knew it. Policies must include many things the buyers don’t want or need. There is “Health Care Rationing” and the “Death Panels” to decide who gets what, and it is all more “Politically Motivated” than economically feasible. The Leftist Lib/Prog leaders want “Single Payer” Socialized Medicine, ObamaCare was designed to fail, to lead to a “Popular Demand” for that, the “Inner Circle” all knew it, and most helped plan it, while denying that intent.

The more Govt controls heath care, the more it gets expensive, unresponsive to patients needs, delayed, and even denied. Anyone that doubts this simple truth must study the current “Charlie Gard” kerfluffle. Granted, the Cost/Risk vs. Return for Baby Charlie’s case is so negative that his local “Death Panel” had to recommend that he be un-plugged and left to die. However, since the parents managed to raise donations, and some Doctors may want to treat him simply to study his condition with hopes to learn how to cure/prevent it, why won’t the Hospital release him to his parents and allow him to be treated “outside their system”? That is where the ‘Bureaucratic Totalitarianism” comes in. If the Medical Bureaucrats allow Charlie to be released, and he dies in spite of expensive heroic efforts, then that’s OK; BUT if he should live and actually improve, (Marx forbid!), several problems arise. First – the Bureaucrat Death Panel would be proven wrong and Govt Bureau-wienies hate that. Second – The next patient with a similar condition, their family will demand the treatment that was successful, the Death Panel will be forced to admit their job is “Resource Appropriation” based upon THEIR Cost/Risk vs. Return “equations”, and they will have to justify it. Third- if they surrender control in this case, they may lose control in the next one, and Govt Control of HealthCare is all about CONTROL to the Bureau-weenies. That is the bottom line.

From a practical standpoint, ObamaCare is a massive failure. Massive cost increases for most policy holders, huge deductibles that often make their “insurance” worthless, coverage they don’t want or need, and carriers cancelling and quitting the ObamaCare system. More people uninsured, or with less usable insurance at much greater cost, and difficulty finding a “Plan assigned Dr.” that will see them in a reasonable length of time. But it IS a huge ‘political victory’ for the Lib/Prog/Dems, and they are NOT going to support any Republican efforts to change and improve it. Any Dem that votes with the Repubs will be labeled as ‘a Traitor’, and will become a “Non-person” for campaign help in the next election, or might even face “Party Organized” opposition in the primaries. ObamaCare is a Party “Sacred Cow”, and will stay so until it is repealed, or drives the Federal Govt into bankruptcy. Period. Therefore, it must be repealed before there will be any effort by any Dem Congresscritter to help the Repubs replace it. The Dem Party “Inner Circle” has decided that as long as they can prevent the repeal or change of ObamaCare, THEY WIN, and to hell with the costs, the actual value of of the “coverage”, or the deteriorating quality of the medical care. It is the ‘Political Victory’ of ObamaCare that counts.

If you want decent quality in Health Care, the CongressCritters and their Bureaucrats must be forced to participate. If they and their families are exempt, it doesn’t really matter to them, and stays a “political football game”. We need to protect the Free Market System and separate out the Govt Socialized System so beloved by the Lib/Prog political wonks. But Conservatives must face the fact that some form of Govt Care is inevitable. And the Libtards must realize that anything that must be taken from one person to give to another is not a “Right”. People getting “Free” care do NOT have a “Right” to Doctor choice, or the same level of care as people who pay for it or have the real Insurance to pay for it, and especially don’t get “elective” treatments like abortions and “gender re-assignment surgery” at other people’s expense. That is simply a “Collectivist’s” Fantasy – everything for everybody supplied (by magic?) by Big Mommy Govt? Ain’t happening!

The ‘Quick Fix’ is make everyone that votes for ObamaCare sign up for it, cancel all the Cadillac Congressional HealthCare perks.

Govt interference raises costs. Bureaucracy increases waste, and the potential for fraud. Medical Malpractice fraud is so rampant it is a game. Insurance Companies would rather make “small” pay-offs rather than fight it out in trials, and that encourages more “low-risk’ fraudulent claims. Using the Free Market Insurance model for Govt supplied Medical Care only increases the Fraud. Govt money should be spent directly on care, not insurance. If there is to be Govt mandated HealthCare it must be multi-tiered. Free Market Insurance for those that want it and can buy policies that cover what they want, not what some Political Committee says “everyone” must have. Gov’t workers should pay for the insurance plan they choose, not be given a Gold Star Cadillac Plan with no direct costs. All plans should have co-pays. There should be more choice of Over The Counter medicines, remedies, and preventatives. “Alternative Medicines” should be freely allowed and even encouraged if less expensive and still effective. And if we are to have Govt Health Care, let it be run by the Public Health Service directly and encourage On The Job Training in a para-military environment to provide disciplined experienced medical workers to the Free Market System, as well as opportunities to motivated young people that can’t afford the expense of a conventional Medical education. That efficient, low cost care would find many patients among those that could pay, either ‘out-of-pocket’, or collect from their insurance later.

“Net Neutrality” Everyone concerned about Internet Free Speech and reasonable costs, please see: https://advocacy.mozilla.org/net-neutrality-comments/?sp_ref=318072483.352.181032.e.576755.2&source=email and make a Comment. Help preserve Net Neutrality! Like “Gun Control”, “Information Control” is not about Information as much as it is about “Control”! Big Business, Big Money, and Big Govt controlling the Internet will ruin it. -Bill Brayshaw