Texas
Fishing for bass on a small Texas lake brings back great memories of past days | Leggett
MULDOON — My friend Maurice Estlinbaum sat, boat tied to a dead tree, casting into a bathroom-sized spot along the outside edge of a line of aquatic vegetation in a small lake on land owned by his neighbor in this small community on the outskirts of La Grange.
For more than an hour, I don’t think either of us was able to retrieve the plastic lizards and creature baits we threw without getting a strike and catching or hooking a bass. Most were in the 1½-pound to 3-pound range, but every once in a while we’d latch on to a fish that would weigh as much as 6 or 7 pounds.
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It was the ultimate adventure in small lake fishing, much like the times I fished in my childhood with my brothers and father and grandfather in East Texas. We were able to switch around to different lakes and properties owned by Maurice’s friends and still catch about as many fish as one person could stand.
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One morning on a rather large lake on property owned by a neighbor, the two of us caught and released more than 100 bass on top water plugs, spinner baits, worms and lizards.
All through turkey season, Maurice had harangued me about coming down to visit him on the ranch he’d bought several years before just on the outskirts of the Muldoon community. We used to fish together in Galveston Bay, always wading for speckled trout, and Maurice is legendary for his ability to find and catch trout. He’s been doing that for nearly 50 years.
A great start on a day walking the lake
We met in 1981 during a trip arranged by our mutual friend Charlie Paradoski, shortly after Maurice had retired and began fishing full time. Not guiding, just fishing, from an old yellow Lamar that he still uses. He just changes out the engine every few years. I knew if he was willing to pass up time fishing for speckled trout, then the bass fishing must be truly remarkable. And it was!
I caught a fish on the first cast I made the first afternoon we fished, which was following a huge rainfall event that had left the lakes off color and the creeks running bank full.
Obviously, if you’re catching bass at rates such as these, you’re fishing lakes that probably are holding far too many fish. However, the lakes have been around for many, many years and are still producing large fish, so the adult bass are getting enough to eat in the form of bass fry and fingerlings and the occasional bluegill. The fish are healthy and fat and not showing signs of not having enough to eat.
One of his friends has 16 lakes on his place, from swimming hole size to more than 100 acres. One of those lakes produced a bass over 15 pounds a few years ago. The largest I caught was between 6 and 7 pounds, so I’m planning my next trip right now.
The times have changed, but the fishing’s the same
We walked the banks of several lakes, which carried me back to my childhood in Panola County. We would climb a fence to reach the lakes (most of which we had permission to fish) and throw spinner baits such as H&Hs to catch the fish.
It was fun and productive fishing, especially when a friend and I could sneak onto the golf course and fish at night. I’m not recommending poaching like that since the worst that would happen to us then was maybe getting yelled at and run off by the landowner. Now things like that can be felonies, and people don’t have as casual an attitude about snot-nosed kids sneaking in to fish their lakes.
But you didn’t need a fancy boat to fish, just a kind of strong belief that those things brushing against your legs aren’t snakes or snapping turtles or alligators and that the next cast could be the big one.
Maurice knew where to go to catch fish walking the banks of the lakes, and I used my instincts honed over years of fishing like that to find my own. I caught two fish around 5 pounds the first afternoon we fished. I saw Maurice hook and land maybe 50 bass on a tiny white lure he called a jig. I explained that in freshwater it was called a “swim bait.”
It was the only time I could gain a little advantage over him, but it felt pretty good. If I could have had a moderate-sized water snake bang into his leg as he walked, that would have felt even better.
Texas A&M will be without its leading scorer for this weekend’s top-10 matchup against Alabama. The Aggies listed senior point guard Wade Taylor IV as out in its SEC-mandated availability report on Friday night.
Meanwhile, Alabama will be without backup guard Houston Mallette, who was listed as out for the matchup against Texas A&M. Earlier on Friday, Alabama head coach Nate Oats said Mallette is having his knees evaluated as the team decides whether or not to sit him for the rest of the season and apply for a medical redshirt.
Taylor leads Texas A&M in both scoring (15.7 points per game) and assists (4.8 per game. The 6-foot, 180-pound senior has scored in double digits in all of his 13 games this season. During Texas A&M’s 100-75 loss at Alabama last year, the Tide held Taylor to 10 points and five rebounds on 4 of 15 shooting, including 2 of 5 from beyond the arc.
According to a report from KWKT FOX 44, Taylor experienced knee tightness during Texas A&M’s 80-60 win over Texas on Jan. 4. The guard left for the locker room during the second half against the Longhorns but was able to return to action, finishing with 13 points on 25 minutes. Taylor did not play during the Aggies’ 80-78 win over Oklahoma on Wednesday. He was replaced by senior Manny Obaseki in the starting lineup.
With Taylor out, Texas A&M leaned on senior guard Zhuric Phelps, who scored a career-high 34 points against Oklahoma, making 11 of 25 shots from the floor, including 6 of 10 from beyond the arc.
Alabama (13-2, 2-0 in the SEC) is set to tip off against Texas A&M (13-2, 2-0) on Saturday at 7 p.m. CT inside Reed Arena in College Station, Texas. The game will be televised on ESPN.
On Friday night, two of college football’s iconic programs will meet with a spot in the College Football Playoff National Championship game on the line.
The Ohio State Buckeyes and Texas Longhorns have their fingerprints all over the sport’s history yet somehow have squared off only three times.
A Fiesta Bowl meeting after the 2008 season. A home-and-home series in 2005 and 2006. That’s all the history the Buckeyes and Longhorns share on the gridiron — until they take the field in the CFP Semifinal at the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic on Friday.
Here’s how each of those three matchups played out.
Jan. 5, 2009: Texas 24, Ohio State 21
Although the 2009 Fiesta Bowl experienced a low-scoring first 30 minutes (the Buckeyes led 6-3 at halftime), the fourth quarter offered an ending to remember.
First, Ohio State roared back into the lead with 17 unanswered points after entering the final period trailing 17-6. With just two minutes to respond, Texas put together an impressive 11-play drive that culminated in quarterback Colt McCoy finding wide receiver Quan Cosby for the winning touchdown with 16 seconds remaining.
The McCoy and Cosby connection dominated all game, with the pair linking up 14 times for 171 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
Sept. 9, 2006: Ohio State 24, Texas 7
McCoy’s first encounter with Ohio State wasn’t as pleasant as the Fiesta Bowl.
In a battle of the then-No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the land, it was the top-ranked Buckeyes who made an early-season statement against the defending national champion Longhorns on the road in Austin. Ohio State quarterback Troy Smith, who would go on to win the Heisman Trophy that season, threw for 269 yards and two touchdowns as the Buckeyes scored in all four quarters of the win.
Sept. 10, 2005: Texas 25, Ohio State 22
The first meeting between the Longhorns and Buckeyes came with nearly the same high billing as the 2006 contest, with the two squads squaring off as the No. 2 and No. 4 teams in the country, respectively.
As in 2006, it was the higher-ranked visiting side that came out on top, although the game itself proved to be much closer. Texas jumped out to an early 10-0 lead, but Ohio State battled back and eventually entered halftime, and then the fourth quarter, ahead.
Said final quarter, however, belonged to the Longhorns. Quarterback Vince Young’s 24-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Limas Sweed proved to be the winner, with Texas adding some insurance in the game’s final moments with a safety-inducing sack of Troy Smith in the end zone.
The top-five win was the Longhorns’ first major statement in a campaign that would end with a national championship.
NORTH TEXAS – This week’s snow event will end with a “few flurries” during Friday’s morning commute, according to CBS News Texas meteorologist Jeff Ray.
“But roads will have frozen over,” Ray said.
Expect hazardous road conditions in the morning, as it will be “the worst” the roads have been since the event started on Thursday morning, Ray said.
Late in the morning, temperatures will rise above freezing, which will “help drivers get around the Metroplex,” Ray said.
A cold front is expected Friday, he said.
“We are going to have wind chills in the 20s all day,” Ray said. “By nightfall on Friday, temperatures will drop quickly and water will re-freeze on the roads across the evening. This ice will remain until mid-morning on Saturday before the sun and warmer temperatures in the mid-40s clear the roadways.”
CBS News Texas will continue to provide updates as information becomes available.
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