Outdoors Digest
Calendar
Through Jan. 30 – Texas North Zone duck season second split.
Through Jan. 30 – Oklahoma Zone 2 duck season second split.
Through Jan. 30 – Texas East Zone light and dark goose season.
Through Jan. 31 – Oklahoma pheasant season.
Through Jan. 31 – Texas woodcock season.
Through Feb. 6 – Oklahoma white-fronted goose season.
Through Feb. 13 – Texas West Zone light and dark goose season.
Through Feb. 13 – Oklahoma light and dark goose seasons.
Through Feb. 15 – Oklahoma quail season.
Through Feb. 27 – Texas quail hunting season.
Jan. 27-30 - MLF Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Stop 1 tournament at Sam Rayburn Reservoir. For information, visit www.majorleaguefishing.com .
Jan. 28 - Third TPWD trout stocking at Denison’s Waterloo Lake Park Pond.
Jan. 29 - Denison Family Fellowship Trout Derby at Denison's Waterloo Park Pond. For information, visit the City of Denison website at https://www.cityofdenison.com/parksrec/page/fishing-derbies or call (903) 465-2720.
Jan. 31-March 13 – Texas East Zone Light Goose Conservation Order Season.
Feb. 14-March 13 – Texas West Zone Light Goose Conservation Order Season.
Feb. 14-March 30 – Oklahoma Light Goose Conservation Order Season.
Feb. 1 - Monthly meeting of the Red River Fly Fishers at the Rec Hall at Eisenhower State Park. For information, visit www.rrff.org .
Feb. 5 – 2022 Red River Fly Fisher’s “Red River Rendezvous” at the Rec Hall at Eisenhower State Park.
Feb. 5-6 – Bassmaster Kayak Series tournament at Lake Fork. For info, visit www.bassmaster.com .
Feb. 19 – Red River Valley Ducks Unlimited Dinner at the Gainesville Civic Center.
Feb. 19 - Denison Youth Trout Derby at Waterloo Park Pond. For information, visit the City of Denison website at https://www.cityofdenison.com/parksrec/page/fishing-derbies or call (903) 465-2720.
Notes
Don't forget the next trout derby in Denison, the Family Fellowship Trout Derby coming up next weekend on Saturday, Jan. 29, 2022. The event will be held at Denison's Waterloo Lake Park Pond from 9 until 11:30 a.m....The 2022 professional bass fishing calendar is ready to kick off soon as the Major League Fishing Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit makes a season opening stop at Sam Rayburn Reservoir for the Jan. 27-30 Guaranteed Rate Stop 1 derby. For information on that event, visit www.majorleaguefishing.com/circuits/pro-circuit ...The Major League Fishing / Bass Pro Tour schedule begins with the BPT season opening Stage One event on Caney Creek/Lake D'Arbonne/Bussey Brake in West Monroe, La. from Feb. 5-10. A few days later, the BPT pros will invade East Texas as the circuit's Stage Two event will be held out of Quitman, Texas from Feb. 19-24 at Lake Fork. One of the season's biggest events, the 2022 REDCREST Championship, will be held March 23-27 out of Tulsa as 41 BPT pros vie for the title on Oklahoma's Grand Lake. And on April 9-14, the BPT pros will head for Tyler, Texas where they will participate in the April 9-14 Heavy Hitters Event on Lake Palestine. For details, visit www.majorleaguefishing.com ...The Bassmaster Elite Series will visit Lake Fork from May 19-22 for the 2022 Simms Bassmaster Elite Series derby. Lake Fork will also be the site of the 2022 Bassmaster Kayak Series derby in only a couple of more weeks, a kayak tournament that is powered by TourneyX from Feb. 5-6...The 52nd Bassmaster Classic is about a month and a half away as the 2022 event looms on the calendar, sponsored this year by Academy Sports + Outdoors and presented by Huk. This year’s Super Bowl of Bass Fishing will take place from March 4-6 at Lake Hartwell in Greenville, S.C. That's where Hank Cherry, winner of the last two Classic titles including last June at Lake Ray Roberts, will try to become the first angler in B.A.S.S. history to capture three Classic titles in a row. For information, visit www.bassmaster.com ...As the Texas Trophy Hunters Association plans its 46th year of Hunters Extravaganza gatherings later this year, the TTHA has announced that dates of the 2022 events. Those gatherings this summer will be Aug. 5-7 in Houston at the NRG Center; Aug. 12-14 in Dallas at the Kay Baily Hutchinson Center; and Aug. 19-21 in San Antonio at the Freeman Coliseum Expo Hall…Observers will note that the show in Dallas is a big move as the Hunters Extravaganza will relocate from downtown Fort Worth, where the show has been held for many years, to downtown Dallas…When Erath, La. duck caller Haiden Richard captured the 2021 World Duck Calling Championship title in Stuttgart, Ark. in late November, he became the first caller to win the title with a Rice Land Duck Call and only the second caller from Louisiana to ever capture 1st place in Stuttgart. Fred Parnell of Baton Rouge, La. won the only other championship for Louisiana, capturing the 1953 world title while using an unknown duck call...Did you know? There have been three duck callers from Texas who have won the highly coveted world championship in Stuttgart, Ark. The first was the late Jim "Cowboy" Fernandez of Port Arthur, Texas, who won the 1959 world championship using a Yentzen Double-Reed Duck Call from Sure-Shot Game Calls. Three years later in 1962, Charles Stepan, also of Port Arthur, won the world's championship using a Yentzen call from the Groves, Texas company. And in 1979, Vernard Soloman of Marshall, Texas won the title using a Weedy's Pinoak Call...Richard’s win in Stuttgart marked the return of the World’s Duck Calling Championship after a one year absence. The 2020 contest was not held due to the COVID-19 pandemic…Richard is no stranger to duck calling contest wins with the 2021 world’s championship win being the 31st of his career. Ranked 10th in the CallingDucks.com caller world rankings, Richard won eight contest titles in 2021 including three at the DUX Expo at Texas Motor Speedway. Those wins at DUX included the 2021 Team Mallard Meat contest, the 2021 DUX Team Specklebelly, and the 2021 Ducks Unlimited Regional Duck…
Hunting Reports
The guides at North Texas Outfitters are continuing to pick up some good late season shoots according to NTO posts on social media…One hunt found a big group taking several limits of ducks consisting of mallards, gadwalls, wigeon, green-winged teal, and canvasbacks…The new plunge of cold air this week has also ushered in some additional late season ducks. One poster in a North Texas duck hunting forum on Facebook indicated that he bagged a limit of ducks in four minutes on Thursday…The duck season in both the Texas North Zone and Oklahoma’s Zone 2 will end on Sunday, Jan. 30…
Fishing Reports
At Lake Texoma, water is lightly stained; water temp is 50 degrees; and the lake is 1.02 feet low. Guide John Blasingame of Adventure Texoma Outdoors tells TPWD that fishing will be hit and miss as these strong wintertime cold fronts roll through the region. The guide says that striped bass are good on swimbaits in shallow water, hitting points and spots. In open water, Flukes and deadsticking are landing fish. On windy days, Blasingame says to cast Alabama-rigs and keep it still because the fish are less active now in the cooler water temperatures, so they are not chasing bait aggressively. Big fish are in the main lake now with 20-pound giant stripers being reeled in with some frequency…Meanwhile, guide Trey Franklin of Tight Lines Guide Service tells TPWD that catfish are good ranging from small to 30-60 pounders as anglers use gizzard shad. Franklin says to start the day off in deep water, transitioning to main lake flats off the river channel later in the day. He is also finding out that striper fishing is good for those using live bait, with gizzard shad working best. Other striper options include swimbaits, and Alabama-rigs. Look for stripers suspended in 30-50 feet of water off main lake points with baitfish holding around those points…On the Oklahoma side of Texoma, ODWC reports that fishing this week has been great. Striped bass are good on Flukes, live shad, soft plastic baits, and Sassy Shad fished along big channels, in the main lake, over points and in the river channels. ODWC says that stripers are being caught deadsticking with live shad right now…Meanwhile, blue, channel and flathead catfish are fair on cut bait, dough bait, hot dogs, live bait, live shad, punch bait, shad, stinkbait and sunfish fished below the dam, along main channels, in coves, near docks, over points and in the river channels. Blue cats are being caught on juglines by those using live shad in 10-28 ft. of water…Crappie at Texoma are fair on hair jigs, plastic jigs, minnows, nymphs and PowerBait fished around brushy structure, coves, docks, points and standing timber. Crappie are being caught on jigs around docks with brush underneath…At Lake Ray Roberts, water is lightly stained; water temp is 51 degrees; and the lake is 0.89 feet low. TPWD says that white bass are moving quickly in 20-28 feet of water on main lake points, biting on one-ounce silver and chartreuse slabs. The agency says that anglers are finding better luck on smaller slabs because the smaller size is most similar to the size of baitfish that the sand bass are currently feeding on. Anglers are also catching sandies by using Alabama jigs in 30-35 feet, letting the bait hit bottom and slowly reeling up. The bite is best while the wind is blowing and dies down when the wind goes calm. Meanwhile, Ray Bob’s crappie are good on main lake brush piles sitting in 20-30 feet of water for those using minnows. As has been the case in recent weeks, the bigger crappie are in the Buck Creek area, particularly in the standing timber around 20 feet deep as anglers use bait suspended in the 10-12 feet range…At Lake Fork, water is lightly stained; water temp is 53 degrees; and the lake is 6.22 feet low as work on the dam continues. Guides Jason Hoffman and Marc Mitchell indicate that Lake Fork is slow right now due to cold weather and the lake being so low. They say that the best bite is with Viper XP jigs fished around big wood zones as anglers fish the timber and work the edges of creeks in 6-10 feet of water. Suspending jerkbaits in the same zones are also working…Fork’s crappie are good in 40-53 feet of water for those using minnows. Right now, guide Jacky Wiggins of Jacky Wiggins Guide Service says the jig bite is non-existent and the bigger slabs are coming in bois d’arc trees…There is no report this week from ODWC for the Blue River. At last report, the river was running low and clear with water temps in the upper 40s. Look for success on small spoons, in-line spinnerbaits like a Mepp’s Rooster Tail, and PowerBait. For fly fishermen, best choices will be small caddis dry flies, small BWO dry flies, nymphs, and various midge patterns. Look for trout to be along channel seams, behind flow-obstructing rocks, and near waterfall regions…At Oklahoma’s McGee Creek Reservoir near Atoka, ODWC says that largemouth bass and spotted bass are fair on Alabama-rigs, crankbaits, and swimbaits fished along creek channels, flats, and over points…On the Texas Gulf Coast at Port Aransas, TPWD says that as wintertime patterns set in and fishing action slows with each strong cold front, tarpon and pompano have not begun their migration yet and remain good on freelined shrimp. The jetties are holding good numbers of trout, sheepshead, and redfish at Port A. Bull reds all coming aboard for those using shrimp. There is also an abundance of flounder in the bay as well, with Aransas Bay also having good numbers of black drum in the deeper holes when the water drops out on an outgoing tide. Considering that it is wintertime, the action is still pretty good at Port A according to Capt. Doug Stanford of Pirates of the Bay Fishing Charters.…
Tip of the Week
The 2022 SHOT Show continues through today out in Las Vegas, Nev. as the shooting, hunting, and outdoors industry gathers for the first such show since Jan. 2020. To see all the new rifles, shotguns, handguns, clothing, and outdoor goods being introduced for 2022, visit Petersen’s Hunting (www.petersenshunting.com ), Game and Fish Magazine (www.gameandfishmag.com ), Guns and Ammo Magazine (www.gunsandammo.com ), and Outdoor Channel Plus (www.outdoorchannelplus.com).
This article originally appeared on Herald Democrat: January 21 Outdoors Digest Calendar Fishing Hunting reports tip
