This sounds fishy to me,....

Thanks for the tips, y'all!

You smoked me out, River Man. Thanks for the kind words!

Some of the boat ramps and launches here in Brazoria County will have folks fishing from the shoreline. Once in a while in the past, I’ve given them a fish or two, it was always about I didn’t have time to clean the fish so would you help me out and take them for me story, and they seemed very willing to help me out and appreciative to have the fish. Don’t really know their life stories, but I wondered sometimes what the situation was. Some will be crabbing and fishing. Often Nothing fancy or new about their gear or transportation, that’s for sure.

I don’t know how economical fishing is as a put food on the table activity, as most folks, including myself, have small fortunes and in some cases even substantial fortunes tied up in gear, boats and whatnot related to fishing. It could work as a cheap food getter if one scrounged up the basics and was good at catching fish and maybe not picky on the types of fish consumed.

Most the folks I know and fish with enjoy fresh caught fish and so it is with me. I can eat fish maybe only once a week at most, so it doesn’t take a lot of fish to meet that level. The math would work out better if I forced myself to eat fish more often or had less or cheaper gear.

Come on down to any of the boat ramps like at the mouth of the Brazos River, or near the mouth of the San Bernard, or along Bastrop Bayou near Demi John/Clay Banks. Try along the intracoastal waterway near the swan lake boat ramp. The Surfside jetties is loaded with folks that make me wonder what’s up, but you might have to have some foreign language skills along the rocks there.

I think most of the people along these spots just enjoy fishing and maybe some of them have pretty limited means, but it’s more about enjoying the time out than some desperate move to put food on the table. Maybe it’s a fresh croaker dinner tonight if luck has it or beans and franks for dinner if not. Fry up a mess of sand trout or if they aren’t biting, it’s fried eggs again.

I watched a big clan from the Middle East, turns out Jordan as I talked to them, catch whiting after whiting from the surf one time. There must have been thirty people plus. Husbands, wives, aunts, uncles and the kids. All or mostly all Muslims as indicated by the clothing. They had extremely long rods without reels and tiny hooks with bits of peeled shrimp. Two or three would catch the fish, one women did some of the fishing, and the rest, women, would clean the fish and then others cooked them right there on the beach. It was a big fun day family out fish fry.

I would think you'd have a hard time finding anyone that fishes to live. Society has made it too easy to sustain oneself without ever wetting a hook. You might have better luck finding someone that chooses to live that way. I suspect you already have. As I recall, one of the characters you ran into in your book "Running the Sabine" might actually fit that bill. Either way I wish you luck. Thoroughly enjoyed your books, Wes!

Check out a guy called the old fisherman on youtube he keeps fish every trip, he fishes alot.

I was going to recommend the same thing about Lake Fairfield


Mo

Go anywhere there is Tilapia in the lakes and you will find families fishing for food.It is neat to see the families working together kinda like a assembly line everybody has a part even the little ones.

My mother's family in East Texas was very much a fishing and hunting family. I would bet there are plenty of people along the Texas/ Louisiana border.

Here is a good story from back in the 60's when I first started fishing with the Old Timers that fished for food. Mr. John Carpenter was 80 years old and gave me a call. He had started me throwing a Buzz Bait called a GO-DEVIL It was uses on a long cane pole with about 5 ft. of Heavy Braid. These old timers would run a figure of 8 around the stumps in the Oxbow Lakes off the Ohio and Mississippi River Slues. He wanted to go on Friday so there would not be anyone on the small lake that he had chosen. As it turned out it was pouring down rain that Friday; but we went anyway; because his family needed food.

Mr. Carpenter still uses the 20 ft. Cane Pole method and technique of slow rolling that Buss Bait around stumps in the slues off the river. I had advanced to the smaller version built by Lunker Lure and was casting to the Vegetation along the route that we took through the Slue. I just had to make sure that I put him in contact with all the larger rotting stumps on that stretch of bank.

We were wearing the Yellow PVC rain suits with hoods up to stay as dry as possible. The noise of the rain beating on your head was not in conjunction of communicating with your partner. We each was paying attention to our techniques of trying to produce and not much talking. All I heard each time was another 5 lb. Bass flopping in the bottom of the 14 foot Alum. Boat. After he put the third big Bass in the boat; I though it was time to pay attention to detail; as I had not even had a blow up. As I watched he was fishing the Big Buzz Bait on the bottom instead of along the surface as usual. The Bass just did not want to break the surface to take the bait on Top Water. I ask; why he didn't tell me what I needed to do? He said, "I figured you would figure it out sooner or later". It didn't take me long to contribute to John's Table Fair with 5 nice Bass before we finished at noon. He had all those Big Bass dressed and in his small cooler before we got back to the truck and back then there were no filleting of fish. They were scaled, gutted and with the heads on. The tail when fried up was a real treat; as it was very crispy. According to Mrs. Carpenter it was like a potato chip.

Go to Fayette County Lake almost any day for the cast netters who do the entire lake for Tilapia. They also destroy the fish habitat. Might as well just let them seine they would do less damage.

Any of the river crossings/boat ramps in rural areas.

I would go to some local family fish markets along the Trinity river. Those families are usually several generations of commercial fishermen. They eat what they want and sell the rest. There used to be several around Liberty, Anahuac and up around Livingston. I am sure there are communities along all of the larger rivers that go out and fish and hunt their food every day but they may or may not tell any outsider what or how they do it.

There was a name for that kind of bass fishing, but I can't remember it. They sculled around the cypress trees.

Doodle Socking!