IB Hooked - Sept. 14, 2007

Big Daddy Crawford must be spinnin’ in his grave, the big fella pursued
big trout the same way he went after good food, with passion. He’d be
boo-hoo-hooin’ at what appears to be a trade off for Global Warming, an
explodin’ snook population that appears to be crowdin’ out trophy trout.
Big Daddy moved his operation to the Sandspit because he found his beloved
Galveston bay system wonting for the damsels he was after even if that
meant a down grade in cuisine. Big Daddy caught more trout over
two-and-a-half-foot long than any other angler I’ve known cept the TP&W
biologists and their nets or maybe Bud Rowland, he averaged over a dozen a
year if memory serves correctly.
Just had a rather long chat with Randy Blankenship, late of TP&W and now
with NOAA Fisheries located in our countries great male appendage. He be
the boy that promulgated the rule that cut the recreational trout bag
limit in half and instigated the uno fish over twenty-five inches deal a
ways back. He been runnin’ with the bad dogs for less than two years but
he pretty much confirmed what some of us free marketeers have suspected,
the soccer moms now rule the world, SUV or no SUV. The waters east of the
Sandspit are gonna become a pettin’ zoo and when Hillary and Slick Willy
and their Red China buddies take over the country ya’ll are gonna have to
use latex gloves to handle any of the critters that swim or fart in the
Gulf of Mexico, I say fart cuz some dude has applied for a grant to study
whale flatulence. I’ve only been witness to uno whale fart, it was a right
whale, it produced an extraordinary amount of sickly sweet smellin’
bubbles that crackled on the surface and we had a double hook up on the
biggest damn dorados I’ve ever seen, just ask Canadian Bob cuz he was
there in the chair thumbin’ the spool so we lost both critters. Hell, I
think Jimmy Lawson was aboard the boat that day and wrinkled his nose at
the smell but he didn’t thumb the reel.
Anyhoo, sorry for the tangent, per Randy he ain’t that shocked that at
the snook explosion cuz them civic minded folks that’ve been on a crusade
to clean up the Arroyo have made some progress since the shrimp farms went
broke or cleaned up their act. The snookie and the tarpoooons have been
breeding in the Arroyo for decades since the sewer to the south was damned
and since we ain’t had a humongus fish kill thanks to Al Goricle the big
beggars have taken over, ya want tarpooooon go to the saucer, ya want yard
stick plus snookies go to any place where the big trout were known to
hang, it be catch and release heaven but bring some big ass fried pork
chops to honor Big Daddy, the rotund majesty of gorilla trout fishin’.
Last but never least, congrats to Skipper Mock and Eddie Curry, they
probably did get screwed last weekend by the locals at the weigh-in for
the Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Tour in Port Aransas. I spect it probably had
somthin’ to do with their lack of sponsorship from this cheap ass region,
this national orgy of good ol’ boyz makes better visuals if your shirt is
plastered NASCAR style with patches rangin’ from Tampex to Gulp. The
winners were allowed to weigh their final catch three times cuz their fish
were feisty, they went from eight ounces short to a three ounce win over
Skipper and Eddie, I ain’t gonna name the heathens cuz they’re probably
sponsored by a snowback whiskey conglomerate and a chewin’ tobacco
conglomerate. The boyz won just enough dinero to make it to the
championship and probably fish some of the tour next year, even if they
can’t get Cotex or the Border Patrol to sponsor their happy asses.