12/20/2018 Avoiding the gulf coast skunk

My family typically typically goes to see my Mom south of Houston, TX every other Christmas and Thanksgiving. While I don’t look forward to the grueling 10 hour drive with two kids under five, I do appreciate the opportunity to hunt and fish in the very different gulf coast environment. While I had intended on sneaking a duck hunt in at either the Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge or Sam Bernard NWR, the timing of the hunt dates didn’t match up with my energy and availability.

i settled instead for a little Southeast Texas pond and ditch fishing, wetting a line at Resoft Park, Mustang Bayou, and the American Canal, all near Pearland, TX.  I took Cal with me to American Canal and Resoft park.

He enjoyed the park because it was full of very bold resident waterfowl and had a nice park. 

Cal wasn’t feeling the cold while we were canal fishing  

Despite several hours of earnest fishing over several days, all I could manage to drag out of the water was a healthy largemouth bass that I caught cat fishing with dead shrimp and a treble. I’ve never caught a bass on dead shrimp, so the novelty was amusing enough to consider the whole effort a success.