Texas’ Largest Hunting and Fishing Newspaper Since 2004
January 27, 2023
Volume 19, Issue 11
Rods made start-to-finish in Texas Composite Forge creates Made in the USA rods, blanks By Craig Nyhus
Lone Star Outdoor News Frank-Paul King took over as president of Temple Fork Outfitters from founder Rick Pope in 2016. At the time,
the company’s rod blanks were being produced in South Korea. A few years later, supply-chain issues became frustrating, with pandemic-related mandates and lockdowns around the world, and widespread shortages of shipping containers, equipment, vehicles and increased transporta-
tion costs. King and his business partner, Bob Penicka, who until 2020 was a partner and the general manager of the largest fishing rod factory in North America: Mexicobased Axiom North America, came to an unusual and to some, radical decision. They created a company
and brought all of the rod manufacturing to Grand Prairie. The original thought was to manufacture what was needed for TFO rods, but then the pair started thinking bigger, with a goal of creating a “Made in the USA” product option available to all American brands
Devin Leissner watched this axis buck grow for two years on a lease in Schleicher County. Photo from Devin Leissner.
Please turn to page 11
Velvet axis buck finally patterned By Nate Skinner
For Lone Star Outdoor News While hunting a lease in Schleicher County, Devin Leissner harvested the largest free-range axis buck he has taken, after having a gut feeling he should be in the stand. The spotted deer sported antlers in full velvet, with bases 8-inches around. “I had watched this buck grow for the past few years, and he really caught my attention earlier in the fall when I got game camera photos of him just starting to grow a new set of antlers,” Leissner explained. “His body size was impressive, and he stuck to a pretty steady pattern of hitting feed throughout the entire period when his antlers were growing out. I knew I wanted to try to take him before his antlers rubbed out and he lost his velvet, and I just hoped he would stick around as he continued to grow.” Leissner said the axis buck typically showed up around his time-release protein feeder late in the evenings through the nighttime hours, and then early in the mornings. “From what I was seeing on my game cameras, he was fairly regular in my area at nighttime,” he said. “But I realized after looking through hundreds of photos, that if the whitetails ate most of the proPlease turn to page 6
Older bucks staying hidden Bucks are still checking for does coming into late estrous in some parts of the state. This buck has only been seen one time this year when he made a circle around the feeder while checking out a doe this week in Stonewall County. Many hunters have reported that most of their old deer have stayed hidden for the bulk of the season. Colton Beam, the wildlife manager at Lowrance Ranch, said the movement of mature bucks in King and Knox counties was drastically impacted. He attributes the difficult hunting to late-season forb production after October heavy rains; water availability due to the late rains spreading out the deer; and heavy winds causing the deer to focus on scattered mesquite surrounded by juniper thickets, honing in on the thickest cover. While most hunting seasons have come to a close, Managed Lands Deer Program permit hunting continues statewide until Feb. 28. Photo by David J. Sams, Lone Star Outdoor News.
PRSRT STD US POSTAGE PAID DALLAS, TX PERMIT 3814
Body booting for ducks By Nate Skinner
Jeff Elder uses an age-old technique for hunting diver ducks on reservoirs and West Texas ponds, body booting, that originated on the Chesapeake Bay. Photo from Jeff Elder. Freshwater Fishing Report . Page 10 Game Warden Blotter . . . . Page 12 Heroes . . . . . . . . . . . Page 14 Sun, Moon & Tides . . . . . Page 16 Saltwater Fishing Report . . Page 21 Datebook . . . . . . . . . Page 22 Classifieds . . . . . . . . . Page 22
INSIDE
CONTENTS
Time Sensitive Material • Deliver ASAP
For Lone Star Outdoor News A Texas duck hunter and guide has adopted a style of hunting devised by hard-core Chesapeake Bay watermen in Maryland. Called body booting, it involves hunters standing in waist- to chestdeep water while hiding behind large silhouette decoys, smack dab in the center of the action inside the spread. Jeff Elder, of Silver Creek
Guide Service, has adopted this technique when hunting large ponds and reservoirs west of Dallas and in West Texas. “We hunt some large bodies of water that hold a lot of diver ducks, and one challenge has always been getting the ducks to decoy close to the bank or shoreline,” Elder said. “They always seem to want to land 45 to 50 yards out, and it’s just hard to get them in much closer.
So, body booting seemed like the perfect solution.” Elder’s setup has many moving parts when it comes to creating the decoy spread in order for a hunt to come together. “It took a lot of trial and error, but we are starting to get it down to a science,” Elder admitted. “It all started by me asking one of my guides, who is a skilled carpenter, to make some goose silhouettes in order for us to give body Please turn to page 6
HUNTING
FISHING
Saddle up (P. 4)
Tourneys begin (P. 8)
Nilgai bull, cow arrowed.
Bass Champs, Troutmasters.
Public water ducks (P. 4)
Winter targets (P. 8)
Scouting and going remote, keys to success.
Stripers, sandies, crappie and cats.