Texas Fish & Game Magazine

CURRENT ISSUE

November/December 2024

In This Issue

Bucks on a Budget: Make the Current Economy Work for Your Hunting • Chilled Specks: Tips for Big Fall Trout • Five For Fall: Top 5 Lakes for Fall Bass • Deer Season is Also Fall Turkey Season in Texas • Pronghorns: Texas’ Native Speed Demon • Special: Christmas in the Wild … and much more …

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INSIDE FISH & GAME by Roy and Ardia Neves

THIS ISSUE OF FISH & GAME is hitting the streets around the time most of us will be exercising our right and sacred duty at the quadrennial election polls. No one—at least no one still in possession of a controlling ...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

I JUST WANTED to shoot a note over and say I love the work Kelly Groce does in the magazine and in the e-newsletter I get a few days a week...

EDITOR’S NOTES by Chester Moore

SOME OF THE FUNNIEST moments of my life have happened in the great outdoors. In the last issue, I shared one of my funniest moments: I thought a poodle I encountered on a stream in Montana was a grizzly. But by ...

PIKE ON THE EDGE by Doug Pike

FORGIVE ME FOR BELABORING a disheartening point, but I miss the Texas coastal prairie in its waterfowl-attracting prime...

COVER STORY: Bucks on a Budget

HUNTING AIN'T CHEAP. This is especially true in Texas where 97 percent of the land is privately owned and instead of getting a public hunting permit or special tag to hunt, you have to pay for a season lease, day ...

Gift Ideas for the Hunter on a Budget

INFLATION IS NO JOKE. In case you haven’t noticed, the cost of everything has gone up and that includes hunting gear. If you would like to hook your hunting loved one up with some great Christmas gifts I have a few ...

FEATURE STORY: Chilled Specks

FALL IS A PRIME TIME for speckled trout. They are generally working under the birds and feeding along the surface so finding specks can be easy. Finding big ones, however, is not so easy. It can seem as if you have ...

TEXAS BOATING by Lenny Rudow

YOU KNOW HOW IT GOES: always be prepared. This is a good motto to live by, especially when it comes to captaining a boat. This is true whether you boat in the backcountry or blue water, whether you’re miles from the ...

FEATURE STORY: Five for the Fall

FALL ALWAYS MARKS the arrival of a long list of much anticipated Texas hunting seasons. But don’t make the mistake of stashing those flipping sticks and topwater plugs just yet, bass busters. You could miss out on some of the ...

FEATURE: American Speed Demon

AS A KID, I remember hearing the late great comedian Richard Pryor do a skit about watching cheetahs hunt gazelles in Africa. It was hilarious because he had the gazelles getting the advantage and poking fun at the cheetahs. I ...

BARE BONES HUNTING by Lou Marullo

THE GOLDEN TIME HAS FINALLY ARRIVED! Those long hot days of summer have given way to beautiful cooler fall weather. Whitetail season is here baby! All those hours of walking through your favorite hunting spot are a memory. Now it ...

FEATURE: Bucks & Toms

THOUSANDS OF TURKEYS are killed during the fall months in Texas. Most of those turkeys however are not called in like they are during the spring breeding season. They are shot at feeders and usually when deer don’t show up...

TEXAS TACTICAL by Dustin Ellermann

LaRUE TACTICAL HAS BEEN well known for years for their high tier AR style rifles as well as their return to zero quick detach optic mounts. The Siete is one of their newest editions to the LaRue line and it ...

SPECIAL: Holiday in the Wild

THE GREAT STATE OF TEXAS offers some truly unique outdoors experiences during the Thanksgiving and Christmas season. Here are six easily accessible (for the most part) opportunities awaiting you and also some great wild game recipes...

THE FISH & GAME REPORT: November/December 2024

AS TEXANS GEAR UP for waterfowl season and the fall fishing season, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) urges boaters, paddlers and waterfowl hunters to do their part to protect the Texas lakes we love from aquatic invasive species.

UPPER COAST FOCUS—Sabine

AS WE FIND OURSELVES nearing the tail end of yet another calendar year, I find it hard to ignore the feeling of excitement that keeps trying relentlessly to get my attention...

UPPER COAST FOCUS—Galveston

EVERY YEAR, TIME SEEMS to keep going by faster and faster and this year was no exception. Great fishing, record heat and crazy weather hoping to be followed by a great winter of fishing and hunting sure has made 2024 one ...

UPPER COAST FOCUS—Matagorda

I am on the water 125 days a year on average. The most common question is when is the best time of year to go fishing? My answer is anytime you can go. Followed by the best month is November ...

MIDDLE COAST FOCUS—Port O’Connor

Fall/winter fishing is squarely in our sights. Anglers up and down the Texas coast are dusting off waders and jackets to enjoy some of the best saltwater fishing of the year. If you like fishing in the summer, you will ...

MIDDLE COAST FOCUS—Upper Laguna Madre

MOST MORNINGS DURING this time of year we feel like kings and queens of the bay as we find ourselves all alone on the islands and shallow flats along the shorelines, as if we own all this vast beautiful water system. ...

MIDDLE COAST FOCUS—Rockport

BY NOW WE HAVE HAD a couple of cool fronts we’ll allow to pass as a cold front or two. The water has lost a heavy amount of boat traffic. Your favorite little slice of shoreline may not be touched unless ...

LOWER COST FOCUS—Lower Laguna Madre

WITH COOLER DAY APPROACHING we can expect a lot of changes in our fishery and the way we target our fish. I’ll start chasing snook of all sizes from 16”-39” in water slightly deeper than usual, targeting main bay points, deep ...

FORECAST CENTER: Saltwater – November/December 2024

Upper Texas Coast HotSPOTLight: Anahuac on Trinity Bay • • • LOCATION: Christmas/Bastrop Bay HOTSPOT: Wildlife Refuge Shoreline GPS: N 29 3.633, W 95 12.185 (29.0606, -95.2031) Christmas/Bastrop Bay: Wildlife Refuge Shoreline SPECIES: Flounder BEST BAITS: Live bait, topwaters, ...

FORECAST CENTER: Freshwater – November/December 2024

Reported by TF&G STAFF More Hotspots Available in the 2024 Texas Lakes & Bays Fishing Atlas www.FishGame.com/fishgamegear CURRENT WATER LEVELS • • • East Texas HotSPOTLight: Lake Nacogdoches • • • LOCATION: Lake Bob Sandlin HOTSPOT: Monticello Cove GPS: ...

SPORTSMAN’S DAYBOOK-Tides & Prime Times – November 2024

The following tables contain TIDE and SOLUNAR predictions for Galveston Channel.

SPORTSMAN’S DAYBOOK-Tides & Prime Times – December 2024

The following tables contain TIDE and SOLUNAR predictions for Galveston Channel.

Fish & Game Photos

ALLIGATOR GAR | Copano Bay Brandon Ayers caught his first alligator gar while fishing on Copano Bay. The 48-inch gar was successfully released. CATFISH | Lake ConroeClinton Edwards Jr. and Hayes Puls caught several blue and channel catfish on Lake ...

OPEN SEASON by Reavis Z. Wortham

WITH HER HANDS ON BOTH HIPS in the back forty of our Lamar County place, the War Department stared upward at the 55-gallon barrel feeder sitting a hundred yards from our deer stand. “It’s awful rusty.” ...