PREDATOR ANNUAL INSIDE
February 23, 2024
predator hunting texas
Texas’ Largest Hunting and Fishing Newspaper Since 2004
ANNUAL 2024
PRIME TIME FOR COYOTES PAGE 10
Volume 21, Issue 13
Big wahoo when seas settle
Carson Deer caught this 91.3-pound wahoo while fishing offshore out of Tiki Island in about 200 feet of water. Photo from Carson Deer.
Dimmit County hunters are seeing fair to good numbers of quail coveys, while other areas in South Texas are spotty. Photo by David J. Sams, Lone Star Outdoor News.
Quail numbers flighty
By Nate Skinner
For Lone Star Outdoor News Calm seas along the offshore waters of the Gulf of Mexico seem to be few and far between recently, but offshore anglers have taken advantage of a few weather windows. Most have been targeting wahoo, while others have been locating red snapper within state waters. Joey Schiller has been running offshore out of Surfside during ideal conditions, and has mainly been targeting wahoo. He’s been dragging baits around the Flower Gardens, about 120 miles out in 130-220 feet of water. “There’s been a ton of wahoo in areas
By Craig Nyhus
Lone Star Outdoor News Bill Hagen, of Bayview, hunts quail with his dogs in South Texas, and said this season has been a little bit better than average. “I spend most of my time off of Highway 281 south of Encino,” he said. “On my personal lease, we don’t do feed lanes and we hunt a different area each time to not harass
the same birds. When the weather is conducive, we’ll see 15 coveys in the mornings. If there was a nice day with cloud cover and we could run dogs all day, I think we would see more.” Hagen said covey sizes have remained big, with more than 8-10 birds per group. “There are some young birds, too,” he said. With good conditions last spring followed by a scorch-
ing, dry summer, Hagen said the pastures look great for February. “It looks like Ireland out here it’s so green,” he said. John Austin, owner of Cochina Hunting Club, said their best success has been coming out of Dimmit County on 15,000 acres west of Carrizo Springs. “Our hunters are getting 15 to 20 coveys per day, and they are still seeing that many,” he
said. “We don’t hunt them real hard, but after deer season we have had several groups of around six hunters.” Other areas in South Texas don’t have the numbers to hunt, Austin said. “Around Cotulla they are pretty slim and even the King Ranch area is slower this year,” he said. David J. Jones said he has been having good hunts near Encino, and positive reports
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PRSRT STD US POSTAGE PAID DALLAS, TX PERMIT 3814
The other noodling Setting floating lines for catfish By Robert Sloan
There are many ways to catch a mess of catfish, but it’s downright tough to beat setting out noodle lines. That’s one way guide Chris Bullock likes to put his customers on a cooler full of catfish. Bullock has been noodling for catfish for over 20 years. But this
to each end of the pipe. That’s after you push the pipe through a pool noodle that you can get from Dollar General. After that you take about 13 feet of mason line and tie one end to the PVC tee on one end of the pipe. At the end of the line tie on a swivel to a leader. That leader is 2 feet of 30-pound test monofilament line. You don’t want to use a leader that can get hung up on logs and brush. If a big catfish gets hung up it’ll be able to break the leader and the hook and Please turn to page 17
Freshwater Fishing Report . . Page 10 Game Warden Blotter . . . . . Page 12 Heroes . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 14 Sun, Moon & Tides . . . . . . Page 15 Saltwater Fishing Report . . . Page 18 Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . Page 19 Datebook . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 19
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For Lone Star Outdoor News
type doesn’t involve grabbing catfish with your hands. He has invented a way of catching catfish, lots of them, with a rig that’s easy to use, fun to fish with and about as laid back as catfishing gets. Here’s his noodle assembly plan. It starts with a length of PVC pipe. “The pipe is 28 to 30 inches long,” Bullock said. “The diameter of the pipe is 3/4 to 1 inch. Next you take two tees and glue them
A swimming pool noodle and a piece of PVC pipe can help bring catfish in the boat. Photo by Lone Star Outdoor News.
HUNTING
FISHING
A long journey (P. 4)
Low tides for big drum (P. 8)
First buck comes after 5 years.
Reds and blacks bunching up.
Muy Grande bucks (P. 4)
Lusk to enter HOF (P. 9)
Leaderboard winners announced.
Fisheries expert recognized.