LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Big hogs!

I see Texas Fish and Game is looking for photos of monster hogs. Here are some I took with my bow. Enjoy!

Mike Ray

Host

“The Wild Life with Mike and Heather”

Thanks for the Rattlesnakes

In 1968 I was in Galveston working at the intersection of Port Industrial Drive and the Pelican Island Causeway. We were building a pipe yard to heavy coat pipe to be used in a pipeline in the Gulf of Mexico. We cleared old cars, junk, grass and other objects from the land in preparation to raise the area using sand from the nearby bay. During a six-month period, we killed eight rattlesnakes. One of the workers skinned them and tanned the hides to be used in hat bands and boots. I grew up hunting what is now Toledo Bend Lake near Joaquin.

Each trip I was warned by my grandfather to watch for rattlesnakes. I had to grow up, go to Galveston before I ever saw one. While working there, a Texas state trooper stopped by and told the story of how in the last hurricane he saw many rattle snakes on the Pelican Island Causeway,escaping the high water. I still have people tell me my story is not true because rattlesnakes don’t go in saltwater. Thanks for offering proof that I am not a liar.

William McCoy

Editor: Snake stories certainly get people’s attention just like the infamous sound of a rattler sounding off in the brush. My first dealing with rattlesnakes in saltwater was down in Rockport while doing some duck hunting on islands along the Intracoastal. It was unusually warm for November, and I was told to be careful because the islands were loaded with rattlesnakes.

Phases of Angling

Hi Joe, just finished reading your column on “phases.” Great read! There is one other phase that is between the last two, it’s when you take less experienced anglers with you, and you put them on fish. Watching the great time, they are having is almost as much fun as catching them yourself! Almost.

Thanks,

Oscar Cisneros

Doggett: Thanks for the nice email. You are absolutely right about the phase of sharing the sport. I let that one get away from me (not unlike a few fish).

Regards, Joe.

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