The Record Newspapers - Hometown News For Orange County, Texas

If you have kids or grand kids that love to fish do not forget to mark down October 11th on your calendar.The S.A.L.T. club is hosting a kid’s only tournament that could not be any more convenient for parents and grandparents!

You can launch anywhere and the kids can start fishing at safe light that morning.If you are fishing off the bank the same starting time applies.There is no entry fee, the weigh-in will begin at11:00 and close at 12:00 and Ancelet’s will be serving free hot dogs and drinks.

Kids from 3 to 16 years of age will be fishing for cash and trophies in three different age divisions. Each youngster is eligible to win only one category, but every child that weighs in a fish, or in some of the divisions even a crab, will receive a ticket for a drawing at the end of the event.The winner of that drawing will receive a life time fishing license compliments of the folks at Honeywell!

The weigh-in will take place at the S.A.L.T. Club located on Pleasure Island directly across the street from the marina.Steve Simmons called just last night to say that the club has also added a “special needs children” division for all three age groups with the same money and trophies up for grabs.

Each age group will fish for three different species which includes everything from crabs to redfish, trout and flounder.You can get more information on all of the particulars by calling Cliff at 626-2606 or Stan at 963-0433.

Start getting the kids ready today and do not forget…….the money and trophies are nice, but the main object is to just weigh something in and earn a shot at that $1000 fishing license!

The weather this past week was absolutely made-to-order for local anglers.A stiff east-northeast wind in the afternoons eliminated a little bit of the lake, but it was an acceptable trade-off for cooler temperatures.The exceptionally high water has scattered the bait and the fish, but there were still enough consistent patterns to put together a family fish fry!

The anglers targeting the deeper water in the river, bayous and ICW have not only found a few gulls working over small shrimp, but a very good bite on live shad and finger mullet as well.I spent a little time fishing under gulls in the Neches twice last week, but I saw a 27 inch trout, a 5 1/2 pound flounder and numerous slot reds that were caught by live bait fishermen fishing the Sabine River.They were also starting to catch very good numbers of sand trout up to a pound or so.

We have had to work at it a little harder in the lake, but the results have been worth the effort most days.The real bonus has been the occasional huge flounder caught while targeting reds and trout on the shoreline.Everett Johnson, editor and publisher of Texas Saltwater Fishing Magazine, called last week and asked if I could get him a good photo of one of those big flounder.

So……..for a solid week every trip started with a quick pass down a stretch of shoreline that has produced some really big flounder over the years hoping that a client would catch just one of them. Finally, on the fourth day, Carol Linz fooled the largest flounder I have had in my boat in years.

The fish was bleeding a little as the Swim Bait had lodged in its gills, but it was easy enough to remove without hurting the fish.I grabbed the camera while she dipped the fish, still in the net, over the side to wash her off.When she picked the net up the flounder was gone and I was even more disappointed than Carol.

We weighed the fish on the Boga Grip while removing the bait and it pushed the scale just a notch below the eight pound mark.Before the week was over we caught two more very nice flounder and I eventually got my picture, but fish like that are rare indeed.

The flounder run south of the Causeway and down at Cameron are not yet in full swing, but they are definitely warming up.Paul Gilliam fishes for nothing but flounder and has limited on fish up to four pounds nearly every weekday for the past two weeks.He said that he is fishing the ship channel and using only Gulp shrimp rigged on a Carolina rig with a three foot leader.That is as much information as he was willing to share, but that is a darn good start to finding your own flat fish hangouts.

We have had some very good outgoing tides, but while they moved a lot of water they have not been enough to significantly draw down the marshes and bayous.We are about one or two stiff northers shy of the most user-friendly fishing of the year.Until then, take advantage of the pleasant days and a very decent bite.