Last night SEA attended the scoping meeting that Texas Parks and Wildlife held at Texas A & M University. The room was pretty full with fishermen both commercial and recreational, guides and others of interest. The only fish TP and W is bringing to the table for adjustment on regulations this year is Snook. They don't have much data on it actually and more snook is caught in the lower Laguna Madre then here but the adjustment they are proposing is with lowering the size limit. Right now it is 24-28" Bag/Possession is 1/2. They are suggesting changing the slot to 22-28" to allow more capture of what they call the Fat Snook species.
There were some suggestions from the floor to just leave it and others indicated closing for a season just like Florida currently does. Nothing very evident that snook was seeing a problem right now. In addition to the possible snook regulation changes, there was some administrative wording that needed to be adjusted and was presented but it was just a formality to bring it to the scoping meeting.
Right now public comment is being taken on the snook issue and you can still make your comments known by emailing your comments or suggestions to Tonya Wiley at tonya.wiley@tpwd.state.tx.us or Art Morris at art.morris@tpwd.state.tx.us. After the scoping meetings a proposal will be submitted at the TPWD Commission meeting on January 27.
Some discussion occurred afterwards about trout. The rumor was that this maybe coming up for review. The gill net surveys have not been good at all. All data is pointing to a possible problem but Art Morris with the Coastal Fisheries Division of TP & W was cautious with raising any alarm right now. He was not convinced that there may be a problem out there with Spotted Sea trout yet. We will keep you posted.
Brent Burkhart is currently a member of the Coastal Resource Advisory Group that will keep us informed on the data information and possible other fishing regulation changes.
In other business. The Coastal Bend Chevy Dealers are in with their offer of the Chevy Truck. Some details are still needing to be worked out but they are excited to be a partner with us. We will probably announce this partnership with a press conference soon.
The boat show starts next Friday, January 22 at the American Bank Center. We still need volunteers especially for Saturday afternoon/evening and anytime on Sunday. Email or call me to volunteer.
The Billings/Clems Boat Ramp group will be meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 2 at 11:00 am at City Hall. We will have more to tell after this meeting.
Mark your calendars now for our 10th Anniversary Banquet Kick Off Beer Tasting on Tuesday, February 2 at 5:30 pm at Andrews Distributing Company. We will have banquet packets, boat tickets and more for you to pick up and enjoy some beer tasting provided by Andrews Distributing Co. Let's get ready for the best banquet yet in 2010! Sheri and Bryan Jurecek are the banquet Chairmen and we look forward to another great turnout. Please RSVP for the meeting!
SEA will also be at the Captain's Weekend at Cabela's in Buda, TX on February 13 and 14. They have also invited us to bring our boat up for display. Carlos Garcia has agreed to pull the boat to Buda for the weekend. Thank you Carlos! There is a special discount for vendors during this Captain's weekend. This is a good time to come up and shop. Let me know if you plan on coming up.
As you can see things are really rolling at SEA now. This is just a portion of what is really happening...
The SEA-San Antonio group was here on Tuesday to meet with infrastructure at the Hatchery on the pavilion project and it looks like everything is go ahead with Austin so Jack Word with SEA-SA ,who is heading up this project ,will be making a final plan including the bathrooms and kitchen area and getting that back to us and the hatchery for review. They will be seeking our help financially to complete this project which can include some in kind with materials. They also will need our help with bidding out to contractors for various areas of the project. Stan Willson and Brent Burkhart will be helping San Antonio with this process.
Mike Hurst is working hard on the artificial reef project and did a lot of background stuff over the holidays. We will keep you informed on how that is all progressing.
I had a lunch meeting with Brandi Reeder, Game Warden with TP and W and organizer for the "Women in the Wild" Weekend which is slated for May 1 & 2, 2010. This is an outdoors weekend for women who may not have had the opportunity to experience shooting a gun, fishing, kayaking, boating, outdoor cooking and more. She is seeking funding from SEA for this event as we did last year. SEA Officers will meet to review her presentation.
I can see it will be a busy year for SEA already. If you want to be involved in a certain area, please let me know. We can always use the help. As always Go Fish!
Pam Arredondo
SEA Director
711 N. Carancahua Suite 915
Corpus Christi, TX 78475
Phone: 361-886-1100
Cell: 361-739-9757
Fax: 361-886-9444
Email: seaccadm@sbcglobal.net
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