Texas Fish Kill Update: Trout Decimated, Redfish Report & More
- By: Wyatt Parcel
- on
- Found In: Conservation, Fishing Tips, Weekly Newsletter: 2-28-21
It’s been over 100 years since Texas has had this bad of a freeze.
And it was horrendous.
In my small area alone, I saw 1000s of dead fish.
To show you what it’s really like out there, plus what you can do to help our fisheries recover, I’ve got this video with reports from South Padre Island to Galveston.
Check it out below.
Texas Fish Kill Update [VIDEO]
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Please pray for our fisheries over here in Texas!
And if you can, give them a break for a little bit and let them recover.
Have any questions about what’s going on out here?
Will you give our fisheries a rest?
Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
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Thanks for the timely report Wyatt. I had planned to come down to the Aransass Pass area to fish this week, but I’ll put it off for a few weeks to give the fish a chance to recover from what had to be a terrible situation. So sad to see the loss of all those big trout, the future could be very disheartening for those of us who like to fish for trout on the flats. Keep up the good work.
Great report, Wyatt! Thank you for acknowledging all three coasts! Glad you’re here!
Catch and release all game fish for the rest of the year, plus a stiff fine for those who disobey the RULES
All is not lost
We had a huge fish kill in eastern NC 3 years ago- where the creeks leading to the Pamlico sound froze over
They are back- big and numerous
They are resilient ( trout) they spawn many times per year
Mother Nature takes and gives back
Do release over 20’s as they are the future
I’m in Rockport Texas during this time. I’m from South Dakota and know cold. The house were renting got to 37 degrees Tuesday morning. No water, no power, and little food. Luce reality moved us to a house with power. Now food and water. Store shelves were low. No power, no gasoline can pump. It was cold so just getting out of a warm bed (room temp 37 decrees) get a drink, use the bathroom, to make a peanut butter sandwich. This was stressful for my wife and me.
I don’t know if we would have made another 24 hours. I’m sure the next morning we could have been found in the bedroom frozen to death.
If you don’t think this isn’t a glimmer of what the fish are going through. Think again.
Our savings grace was the Texas people reaching out to with help.
I don’t think the fish can do that by themselves to help others fish
God has put us humans on this earth to enjoy God’s Beauty AND TO TAKE CARE OF other living things
Let GOD’s SON Shine
And be kind to everything living.
With more reports coming in from biologist, Guides, and others, the major fish kills seem to be fairly localized. Redfish seem to have faired quite well. Speckled trout took a hit in some areas but many areas appear to have been spared. If you look at the predominant mullet size in the kill, they are juveniles. This may affect breeding stock next Fall. The mullet spawn wrapped up about 30-45 days ago in the offshore waters. Less pinfish will allow more shrimp and crabs to mature as well. Although quite painful to see, I remember the 80’s and 90’s fish kills being far more widespread.
Other than all of the dead fish on the shore, we won’t see the true effects of this kill until the spring gill net studies and the next class of fish that are supposed to come to maturity in 2-3 years. Really unfortunate.
Great Report Wyatt and welcome to Texas. Glad to have the Salt Strong Team over here representing.
Absolutely! Glad to be here John!
When you are talking about a kill of this magnitude, you have to think about the future more than yourself. Unless you’re feeding your family, there is no reason to keep a fish under these circumstances. I enjoy filets as much as anyone, but I want my kids to be able to fish the same as I have grown up doing it. We tend not to think about things at scale, e.g. “well I’m not hurting anything, just taking a few fish home,” but when you and 10,000 other guys are doing the same thing, it adds up.
I agree 100%.
Glad you’re thinking about the next generation of anglers Aaron!
Saw a video from local fishing guide Joey Farah showing many many dead trout in the upper Laguna Madre flats – just sickening! He stated that 1000’s of fish lined the ICW in the land cut. Noted that when they released the barges into the icw last week that the barges pushed the cold water down deep into the icw and because that caused the trout to be lethargic and did not allow the silt to be ejected from their gills killing them.
Yep. It was tough over there with all of the shallow flats. I am worried as well about the effects of the mud and silt from large barges that are covering the fish…
According to several biologists, a lot of fish that were lost in the 80’s freeze didn’t die from the cold itself. They were forced to the muddy bottoms because of the cold, but the mud stirred up by the constant wakes ended up clogging their gills up. If you see fish that are floating tail up, you can grab them and check their gills and there’s a very good chance they’re filled with mud.
I think fishing and conservation go hand in hand and have been angling for years Seeing the aftermath definitely not keeping fish caught but laying off a while isn’t a bad idea so they recover and not have that much pressure. I do have a question how can we help with that conservation to restore the fish? Not only that I’m thinking of guides and fisherman that’s the livelyhoods of many.
The best way we can give back to the fishery is taking care of the fish we interact with, and if you should choose to do so, practicing catch-and-release as often as possible with the fish you catch.
I want to be clear, it’s your legal right to keep fish, and I absolutely support your ability to do so.
But if you’d like to be an active part of restoring the fishery, the knowledge that every fish you choose NOT to keep that you catch, and release back into the ecosystem, will likely contribute to the next stock of fish!