Texas Saltwater - Texas Fish & Game - March 2013
 Texas Saltwater - March 2013
Ramble Rumble
I’ve got a pretty important piece for May, so I’m timing my annual rambling session for March. Why not? It’s a windy month, and plenty say I’m a huge windbag, so it’s most apropos, no?
• • •
In January, the Rio Hondo City Council held a meeting to discuss the contract it had signed for the city water plant and a San Antonio company, Dewatering Partners Industrial, to create an industrial waste processing facility at the plant. The facility would process, among other things, the liquid waste from grease and oil traps from restaurants and carwashes. DPI has run a similar waste processing facility in La Costa since 2002 that has been cited 25 times for environmental violations.
Oh, yeah, Rio Hondo’s water plant is on the Arroyo Colorado, which is the primary fresh water source for Lower Laguna Madre.
There are still several steps to go before the waste processing facility becomes a reality, if it does. There are environmental impact studies to be conducted, hearings, negotiations, more hearings and licensing. There is still a chance that the state won’t sign off on the deal. After a Jan. 18 public meeting at Rio Hondo City Hall hosted by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality drew over 100 concerned citizens, including members of CCA, the state has a lot to think about.
Another thing to think about: had the story not been broken by a local television station (a tip of my hat to KGBT-TV and Nature reporter Richard Moore) Rio Hondo mayor Alonzo Garza, Sr. and the Rio Hondo City Commission could have snuck this by on everyone with a vested interest in the health and future of Lower Laguna Madre.
Politicians wouldn’t do something like that, would they?
• • •
Every so often, a reader---or a close associate---asks me if I had any tips for them about entering the professional guide business. Every time I get that question, I think about a trip I had with Captain Chad Kinney during a writer’s event in Port Mansfield. It was a slow day offshore, but Kinney worked very hard for the entire day to find numbers of fish for us for photos. By the time we got back to the dock with a mess of fish and pictures, Kinney was exhausted, and he still had to wash down his boat and process fish. He did everything he could to ensure we had a successful trip, as I’m sure he does for all of his clients.
"The best guides aren’t afraid to work hard," I always say. "Really hard!"
• • •
One thought on gun control: It isn’t the cure. What we must do as a people is take a long, hard look at ourselves and see what we can do to heal the evil that lurks in the heart of so many around us. Until then, anything we try, gun control, more prisons, stiffer sentences, arming teachers, is akin to trying to clear the sand from a beach with an umpire’s broom.
• • •
Best boat name I’ve seen in a long time: Shut Up It Floats.
• • •
A few years back I wrote about 90 year old Albert Rutledge, who had fished Lower Laguna Madre for an then incredible 80 years. He had seen the boon years of fishing, as well as the lean years. I actually get occasional inquiries about him and how he’s doing. Mr. Rutledge is 95 years old now, and he’s still going strong, mowing his own lawn, arguing Texas Longhorn football recruiting with anyone who’ll listen, and still going up to the Mud Hole north of Port Mansfield on overnight fishing adventures with his friends and relatives. I see him at Mass every weekend, and I even see him going to Confession (what does a 95 year old man confess?). He is truly a marvel.
We all know an Albert Rutledge. Cherish them. They are irreplaceable resources.
• • •
Got a call from Gene "Scooter" McGee regarding the opening vignette in "Mosquito Fleet," which detailed his then-teenage son Mason going out of the Mansfield Jetties in a 16-foot scooter to catch kingfish. It wasn’t 16 feet. It was 13.
• • •
95 years old and still going strong...wow.
• • •
I must be getting old or something. I’ve discovered that I am getting as much pleasure out of watching my friends and family catch fish and have fun as I do when I’m catching fish and having fun. Watching my son catch a redfish, or putting the net under my best friend’s flounder makes me feel great. Joy is a social emotion that is infectious. There was a time where watching someone catch fish while I was just tiring out my shoulder casting and ruining my eyes by tying on different lures would have driven me nuts. Now, not so much.
Well, maybe a little once in a while.
• • •
One last fishing tip: If you are like I am and have a monstrous time trying to thread a shrimp tail straight onto a jighook, try running the hook through the tail’s belly rather than the back. The segmented design of most shrimp tails make it difficult to flex it against itself and the hook sometimes doesn’t pass true. The bait bends more easily when following the natural contour of the body and threads better. Fish don’t seem to notice that the bait is essentially swimming upside down.
• • •
Yup. A 13-foot boat. I don’t think my mom would have ever let me on a boat ever again if I had pulled a stunt like that.
Contact Calixto Gonzales at CGonzalez@fishgame.com
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