The Buffalo Slayer M ost people would agree that the side-hammer Sharps buffalo rifle is an icon of the Old West. There is no doubt that over a decade, buffalo hunters used the side-hammer Sharps and other rifles to kill buffaloes […]

Passing the Torch A ttracting youths and novice hunters to outdoor and sporting traditions is vital to the passing of the torch to those who will be the next stewards of our wild places. One way the Texas Parks & Wildlife

The Magic Month of May T he magical month of May has arrived and the entire Sabine Ecosystem should begin to open itself up to anglers seeking plenty of rod bending options. We now find ourselves in a period of transition from

May is Indeed Magical T he changing of the seasons demonstrates as much as anything else the wonders of the natural world—even on the upper Texas coast where those changes can sometimes be difficult to actually pin down. There is

Rafts of Mullet W hen the wind comes from the west, southwest, or northwest, it turns the water brown in East and West Matagorda Bays. This makes for challenging fishing. It is possible to find a spot with fairly clear water,

May Trout Waders Need to Make Their Own luck W hen you wade-fish the coastal regions of Texas, speckled trout are available to those who put forth the effort to locate such prizes. In doing so, however, it is important for

Instead of Gratitude, All I Got Was an Attitude T he call came at 6pm, Thanksgiving Day. It was a desperate plea for help. Their boat had run aground and they were stranded in Carlos Bay. The wind was picking up

Tide Runners Move Back into the Bays B y the end of May, we are  moving into early summer fishing and hot temperatures. Plug in the GPS settings for Estes Flats, North Mud Island, Hog Island, and Dagger Island or

Getting Snookered A n asset that makes Lower Laguna Madre such a remarkable place to fish is the wide variety of fish available to anglers. There literally is something for every fishing preference. Besides the usual suspects, speckled trout and flounder

This Fathers Day, Give The Old Man A Real Texas Adventure With Father’s Day upon us, you may be pondering what to get Dad. Well, if your Dad reads this magazine he probably fishes. And since I began my career

Age Kills O kay, maybe that title is  a bit melodramatic, because there are a million and one very old boats out there that are completely safe. Without question, however, as a boat’s age becomes measured by the decade instead

Getting Froggy With It S pring rains impart life-sustaining moisture to the soil and storm runoff enriches our watersheds with nutrients. The dampness encourages amphibians to reproduce once the weather warms towards the end of March and into April. About a

High Velocity E ver since the invention  of smokeless powder and even before, we have searched for higher velocity in our hunting guns. I think this search really kicked off when the .30-03 was loaded with a 150-grain spitzer bullet

Adrenaline Junkies L ance W. Lowery of Mt. Vernon and Mike Williams of Sulphur Springs have wrestled with dozens of fat cats since they began noodling for the piscatorial titans several years ago. They’ve won a bunch of the battles. Not

Lowen’s Texas-Sized Swim Jig Approached B ass university instructor Bill Lowen learned his trade on the fish-poor Ohio River, but when he started traveling to Texas for big events he didn’t really alter the swim jig style that had gotten him

SHOT 2017 A s promised, this month’s column is dedicated to the 2017 SHOT show, which I had the pleasure of attending. Turkey season is a memory now here in Texas, and if you are not planning on doing any hog

  CASA of Tarrant County Hosts Pull for Kids Change the trajectory of a child’s life by attending the CASA of Tarrant County Pull for Kids Clay Shoot presented by XTO Energy, a subsidiary of ExxonMobil. Join us and Honorary

Fajitas, Slaven Style This is an awesome recipe that I developed back in the mid 1980s. I have won many a cook-off with this recipe in and around Houston, Texas. It took many cold Tecate’s and Lime, and sometimes a

Faulty Memory I ‘d already searched our closet, looking for my hiking boots. It didn’t take long on my side, because I only own two pairs of boots, one pair of sneakers, and a pair of flip flops. Just to be