As many of you know, Calhoun County purchased Green Lake and plans to develop a County park.  At this time, the Green Lake Advisory Committee is seeking input from the community and others on that project.  If you would like to help, please take the survey as explained below. Your answers are completely confidential.  You are not required to take the survey, but your participation would be appreciated.

Residents, visitors, and friends of Calhoun County:

In December 2012, Calhoun County purchased Green Lake, one of the largest freshwater lakes in Texas, to improve fish and wildlife habitat and to provide public recreational opportunities. The 6,400-acre property is made up of a large, shallow lake (approx. 4-6 feet deep), floodplain salt flats, and a small upland area that borders State Highway 35 and the Victoria Barge Canal. Since the property is mostly undeveloped, the Calhoun County Commissioners Court wants your help in determining how to develop this property into a new county park.

Can you take approximately 4 minutes to provide some input on the project?

By filling out this survey (https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GreenLakeTX), you’ll help us understand what types of activities you’d like to do at the park, what sorts of facilities (fishing pier, campgrounds, trails, etc.) you’d like to see on the property, and how you think the County can best manage the property. Your input is very important as the County develops its plans for building this new county park.

Click here to take this short survey:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GreenLakeTX

Thank you!

The Green Lake Advisory Committee

In case you missed it, October 3rd and 4th was the 9th Annual Christopher Ragusin POC Grand Slam Memorial Fishing Tournament. This event was held at the Port O’ Connor Community Center pavilion. The tournament turned out to be a great time as usual, and even better loads, of fish were brought in for the extremely delicious fish fry put on by the Seadrift Crew (THANK YOU!!).

The tournament was a little smaller this year with only 16 boats, but it was still enough to have a good competition. We had some amazing items donated this year for the live and silent auction, boat trailers, bird hunts, hog hunts, tail gating chairs, BBQ pits, a custom sting ray table and much more.

We are always amazed at the donations we receive. Donnie from Port O’ Connor Rod and Gun donated four custom rods for the winners of the Grand Slam Stringer, which was greatly appreciated. Of course, we appreciate all our helpers. One helper was McCullen Stafford, a recipient of one of our Grand Slam scholarships.

If you were not at the live auction, you missed out on out big announcement, which was that next year (#10) will be our last POC Grand Slam. So if you missed out this year and are planning to fish it, you better be there the 1st weekend in October of 2015 for our 10th Annual Blow out celebration and to say good bye to the POC Grand Slam.

We have accomplished many things over the years, sometimes I have a hard time remembering everything. But it sure is a good feeling to stand up there on the stage Senior Day and award the seniors their scholarships, buy clothes for Christmas angels, help with monetary donations to defray medical and funeral expenses, and just be able to buy someone a heater for a cold winter day. All of this is possible by the many donations you have given us over the years. Nothing would be possible without you and the generosity that comes out when you donate to the POC Grand Slam. Thank You cannot begin to show our gratitude, we will be forever grateful!!

Tournament Winners:

Combined Stringer (3 Reds and 2 Trout) 1st Miller Time 24.18
2nd Dream Team 20.5
3rd Team Vasquez 19.20

Grand Slam Stringer (Trout, Red, Flounder) 1st Boneheads 11.56
2nd Dream Team 11.50
3rd Reel Men of Genius 10.76

Spot Pot – Taylor Made – 5 spots Big Red – Miller Time – 8.2 Big Other – Sting Ray – 28.6

Big Trout – Miller Time – 4.38 Calcutta –

Miller Time – 24.18; Dream Team – 20.5

Team Vasquez

Taylor Made

Reel Men of Genius

Miller Time

Dream Team

Boneheads

The duck season opener is Nov. 1, and that means it’s time to spruce up the decoys and brush up some blinds. The September teal season was excellent with lots of six bird limits taken on flooded fields within a few miles of Port O’Connor. Robert Sloan photo

Right about now wade fishing the flats is great for both reds and trout. And fishing trips for bull reds at the jetties is about as good as it gets. Something else you might want to keep in mind is that when the surf goes flat, directly after a cold front moves through, trout fishing along Matagorda Island can be world class. It’s also a time when you can wade the first gut in the surf and sight cast to shallow running reds.

One thing is certain – if duck season is anything like our recent September teal season we are in for some excellent hunting for ducks that include red heads, pintails, scaup and widgeon. The fast approaching duck season opener is on Nov. 1. While heading in from a fishing trip on Oct. 7, I saw my first group of red heads on West Matagorda Bay.

Capt. Dwayne Lowrey not only runs fishing trips out of Port O’Connor, but he’s one of the best duck hunting guides you’ll ever run across. He had guided hunts just about every day of the teal season and got limits on every one. I was on two of those hunts and he had us out of the field by 8 a.m. with easy limits. During the duck season he’ll be running airboat hunting trips on the bay. He’s also got 250 acres of freshwater ponds that provide some of the best duck hunts you’ll ever experience. For details give him a call at 713 – 410 – 1338.

Season hunting dates and bag limits for ducks and geese have been set, and there are two changes from last season. The first is the reduction to three scaup daily. The second is for the first time in a half century Texas waterfowlers can take two canvasbacks daily.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reports that duck numbers, with the exception of pintail and scaup, are above the long term goals identified in the North American Waterfowl Management Plan.

“Overall, waterfowl are doing quite well,” says Kevin Kraai, Waterfowl Program Leader for TPWD. “We’re near record levels and in some instances in the glory days for ducks.”

The following are the season dates and limits for the 2014-15 duck season.

•South Zone: Nov. 1 — Nov. 30, and Dec. 13 — Jan. 25.

•North Zone: Nov. 1 — Dec. 7, and Dec. 20 — Jan. 25.

Bag Limit: 6 per day not to include no more than 3 wood ducks, 3 scaup, 5 mallards, of which only 2 may be hens, 2 redheads, 2 pintail, 2 canvasback, and 1 mottled duck after the first 5 days. Mergansers are 5 per day with no more than 2 hooded mergansers.

Coots are 15 per day.

Reminder to Take Hunter Education Before Heading to the Field

With hunting season under way, don’t forget hunter’s education if you’re not yet certified.

With the option to take a hunters education course online, now it’s easier than ever to get a hunter education certification.

To hunt legally in Texas, anyone born after Sept. 2, 1971, must complete a hunter education training course or purchase a one-time deferral, good for one license year. To make this process easier, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department now offers the option to complete training courses online for Texas residents 17 years and older.

TPWD also offers other convenient methods of getting certified. One is the basic hunter education course, which is designed for novice and young hunters and requires six hours of classroom instruction. Another is the enhanced hunter education course, a combination online and home study program that requires up to five hours in the field. A third option is the advanced hunter education course, which requires more than six hours of instruction and includes more content than the basic and enhanced courses.

Each of the courses costs $15, and the passing grade for all courses is 75 percent.

As dove season opened this year, one of the most frequent citations game wardens issued was for hunting without hunter education certification. Since mandatory hunter education first started in 1988, the number of hunting accidents and fatalities has declined to fewer than 3 per 100,000 hunters. Accidents involving those who had completed hunter education courses are only in the single digits each year.

To avoid such citations and help improve hunter safety, choose from one of the many flexible options to get your hunter education certification now. To learn more about and register for hunter education programs, visit http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/outdoor-learning/hunter-education.

The certification is valid for life and is honored in all other states and provinces.

Did you know that 100 percent of your hunting and fishing license fees go to conservation?

It’s true, 100 percent of your hunting and fishing license fees go to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department for on-the-ground conservation efforts that help make Texas one of the best places in the country to hunt and fish. Fish stocking, wildlife management, habitat restoration, land conservation, and Texas Game Wardens are just some of the initiatives funded in part by your license fees.

For details on hunting and fishing with Capt. Robert Sloan send an email to sloan288@aol.com or call 409-782-6796.

Capt. Jeff Larson

September was an awesome month for sportsmen and all outdoorsmen. Fishing was consistent and so was the hunting. The Mosquitos sucked! LITERALLY! Dove season always kicks off with a BANG. Teal Season soon followed and was very productive. Friends and Family were able to enjoy some great grilled Diablos and Greek Seasoned whole ducks broiled and basted in the oven. Yummm, yumm finger licking good.

Teal hunting in the rice fields and surrounding areas was phenomenal to say the least. The weekend hunts were wrapped up with full limits of blue wing teal quicker than the weekday hunts because of the obvious high volume weekend pressure. Hunters were well pleased this year with the season from the reports that came inro the office. Weekday hunts were really good but you had to wait on the natural flight pattern due to the lack of pressure. The Predawn minutes were the best but they are hard to pick out in low light when they dive bomb through the spread. This is when the spray and pray method comes into effect. Shoot quick, often, pray that you dropped something and your retriever finds the duck. There were also reports that green winged teal were bagged during the early season but not as many as in some years past. This tells duck hunters that the ducks are already on their migration pattern. So get geared up. Start patching waders and testing them now so you will have time to order you another pair because the patch rarely works. Flex Seal sort of works, messy, the commercial got me to.

A quick Teal story (I know nothing is ever quick with hunting stories especially true ones, hey, hunters can fib like fishermen also):

The second weekend of Teal Season, I hunted the bay. Louie, Steve, and Brett had shot their limit the day before in the marsh on the bay. They encouraged me to go back the next day. Of course going back to the same spot on the next day is never good as the day before. Anyway, I went back to their blind, knowing better. Hoping I could prove myself wrong in my theory. As I was pulling up, to the bay brush blind they had constructed the day before, in my boat, I noticed some glowing orange eyes inside the blind. My first thought was hey a raccoon. Then I remembered that there are a bunch of alligators showing up in the back bays due to the rain and high tides. I had my friend immediately tie his dog off to the center console railing of my boat so he couldn’t get out. As I pulled up closer to the blind it was a huge alligator and it was not scared or moving. The massive lizard just went under the water and laid there. We could see him because the water was super clear. If my dog had been there that morning I believe he would have been an appetizer. I don’t tie my dog down when he is in the boat. Some people crate or strap their dog down when running a boat, which is a debate in itself at the boat ramp over coffee. But the moral of this story is always be aware of what’s going on around you and check the area for hazards to you and your dog as you are boating. Needless to say, we had to move out of his blind. So we just backed out and went on down to the next pothole.

This also brings to question why can’t we hunt alligators in the public waters of Texas? We are becoming over populated with alligators all over the State. Is it possible Texas Parks and Wildlife could have a draw for a tag type controlled system? There are plenty of hunters here who would like to harvest an alligator. It would help with research and bring in more funds to the State. We all know they like more funds. The alligator hunters would help in removing the nuisance gators and keep their numbers in check on public waters. Until then, just keep your eyes and ears open for the territorial lizards.

The beginning of every month seems to be the best outdoor action for fishermen and hunters. This October is no exception. There have been full limits of dove being shot in the fields with sunflowers and goat weed. Call the Lodge and get on an Argentina type hunt before they migrate our of the county. Fishing has been picking up with more trout coming across the cleaning table. The best action that has been reported is from waders who target their favorite fall fishing spots. Top water action has been impressive during the major feed and tails are producing trout on the minor feed. October is notorious for flounder. According to the coastal surveyors that have been doing their surveys in the area, also confirm that flounder are healthy and in great numbers. Even on windy nights, gigging limits of flat fish have been a commonplace for guides, boaters and walkers.

Which brings this question to mind. Why are the laws becoming more restrictive and complicated? Just asking. The old timers that I talk to say it’s a natural cycle and enjoy getting them while they are here. The flounder population cycles up and down no matter what laws are in place. We are seeing about twice as many young baby flounder a night while gigging as we are keepers.

Targeting flounder via rod and reel this time of year is rather interesting and challenging. Mud minnows are the bait of choice but for the skilled angler there are a number of baits to use. Visit our local tackle stores and all the owners are there to steer you in the right direction on the latest and greatest flounder baits. The only advice I can give is to have a net ready because flounder have an innate ability to spit a hook. It’s wild how they can fight so hard, you get them right to the boat, you know they see you and PUUUT! they spit the hook. Amazing!

The lodge has a list of flounder guides that are available so book early and often. The jetty guides, back bay guides, and fly guides at the lodge are all catching fish so call the Lodge and Scott will match you with the type of fish catching style you prefer.
Big ducks are showing up every day so start getting your gear ready. Don’t wait to the last minute.

The Saltwater Lodge reservation line is: 361-785-DUCK (3825)

Wishing you a safe trip with awesome memories.

Capt. Jeff Larson

Two limits by Louie and Jeff with Ryder. Thanks, Capt. Jake Huddleston! -Capt. Jeff Larson