5' Below Normal

[mgstei1]

Bay environment has got to be affected by lack of 60" less average rainfall since 2008. Just read this am and was shocked and I immediately started wondering how it has affected our fishing. Without Ike coming through it would have even been worse. At least this may explain the amount of Ladyfish everyone seems to be hassled with. Never even saw or caught, that I can remember, seeing a Ladyfish except in last few years in our bays. Kinda like the geckos, banana spiders, horn toads, and fire ants, crazy ants, cow birds, all being here or not or missing.

[Jeff barton]

This is just a cycle the climate goes thru, mother nature doing what she's supposed to do. It has nothing to do with the global warming lie.

[plugger]

That is a lot of missing water and it must have an adverse effect .


Ummmm.......drought started 2008 ......same year obama elected .


Sorry , i couldn't help myself .

[mgstei1]

Sorry Ol Plugger but this was meant for the fishing side of me and not Mr Robalos threads. Maybe a good subject to toss around. When did you start noticing the Ladyfish ? I'm trying to remember my days in the 60's on the gulf shrimper boats where we slept during the day and shrimped at night and cant remember it being hot but it had to have been stifling and what all we brought up. Cabbage heads, flounder, turtles, piggies, manowars, croakers, mullets, you name it and an untold amount of shrimp but I can honestly say I don't remember any Ladyfish or SkipJacks. On one boat outa Galveston I worked for an old old man named Gus. He could not stand sea gulls but that's a different story and worth telling on another thread. My next catch of a Lady is goin in cooler and I'm gonna find a way to cook and eat one.

[plugger]

I hear the ladyfish aren't worth the effort . Boney and oily i think . But , you can try and say you did it

me and some friends fished the surf a few times in high school , about 1968 , and without much success nor guidance , gave up . I started fishing in 1999 when i caught a trout on dead shrimp fishing at a relatives pier with our 2 kids . I'm born and raised in houston , parents also . Walking to elementary school in september meant wearing a sweater . When we went to the galveston surf as a child , i remember more light se winds , greener water , 1-2 foot waves . It seems it has gotten hotter and drier through the years . We would play baseball all day during the summer , or run around the neighborhood like wild indians all day and not have a heat stroke . My fishing buddy and mentor has been fishing galveston and the coast since the 1960's . I'll ask him about the ladyfish . Seems we have less sweet southeast winds these last few years .

[Baby Tran Cat]

only thing ladyfish are good for is offshore bait...those oily suckers bring good snaps!

[Ibtsoom]

I don't seem to see much of a change in lady fish populations since the 70's. I remember catching them by the scads when I was 7 or 8 years old. Dad always said they could be expected if I was chasing trout. He's been a shrimper for 65 years - ill ask him about it too.

[mgstei1]

I don't seem to see much of a change in lady fish populations since the 70's. I remember catching them by the scads when I was 7 or 8 years old. Dad always said they could be expected if I was chasing trout. He's been a shrimper for 65 years - ill ask him about it too.

I never caught any until the last several years probably before Ike. I did find a Florida Recipe for them and he recommended keeping them on ice for a few days and then filet them like a trout and take a spoon and scrap the meat off the bones which he said are attached to the skin. Mix garlic and old bay in with them and breading and then fry em up. I gotta try it at least once. I don't keep Redfish unless someone really wants one(neighbors) cause I don't believe they are that great to eat either. Compared to trout or Flounder of course. Your dads name isn't Gus is it ?

[Ibtsoom]

No it's George. But if Gus was from Galveston I bet he knows or knew him.

[Moonpie]

I've been down here on the coast since 1981.
Been catching skipjacks the whole time.
What I have seen change is the severe drop in flounder numbers as well as the influx of mangrove snapper.
About 12 years ago when I caught my first mangrove I had to go to the library to look up what it was.
Had never seen one. Now the things are all over the place.
Flounder are under a heck of a lot of fishing pressure. Since they reproduce naturally, they're having a difficult time keeping up.
In some areas they are pretty much gone.

[Termo]

I've noticed through the years that specks seem to be mixed in or in the same areas when you start encountering a lot of ladyfish. Could be a coincidence, but I sure have caught a lot of trout when they are around. I don't think the trout are targeting them, just running with the herd, I think. If you are fishing with live shrimp, you'll never know since them stinking ladies with beat a trout to a shrimp every time. Mike, here's a ladyfish recipe...............Ingredients: 1 ladyfish, 1 liter Wild Turkey............Fry Ladyfish, drink Wild Turkey, try to eat ladyfish.

[H.Maier]

I hope the water levels in chocolate don't drop too much before Friday. Me and the Termonater going to hunt down some fish. If you're out there mgstei1, we'll be in the little whaler, idle on in and Termo will give you some tips and a cold beer.

[Winter fisher]

I don't seem to see much of a change in lady fish populations since the 70's. I remember catching them by the scads when I was 7 or 8 years old. Dad always said they could be expected if I was chasing trout. He's been a shrimper for 65 years - ill ask him about it too.

Yes mike.asked your dad I have been eating his shrimp since I was around 5 & 51 now

[Ibtsoom]

Yes mike.asked your dad I have been eating his shrimp since I was around 5 & 51 now

He's gettin old Geno but he's still at it. Hope I'm as spry at 81.

[Winter fisher]

He's gettin old Geno but he's still at it. Hope I'm as spry at 81.

That's what keeps him going!