Primary Locale for Fishing, Birding
Published Oct 08, 2008
Fishing charter boats dock at a marina in Port Aransas, awaiting the next day’s influx of hopeful anglers.
When Tim Duncan was just a kid growing up in Rockport, his father used to take him fishing in the waters of the Coastal Bend.
“My dad loved to fish,” Duncan says, “so I’ve been fishing since I was two years old and still in a life jacket.”
Though he didn’t know it at the time, Duncan’s father was cultivating a pastime his son would one day make his livelihood. Today, Tim Duncan is the owner of Laguna Madre Charters, a fishing guide service that provides a variety of expeditions for everyone from experienced fly-casters to family vacationers.
The company is based on Padre Island at the northern end of the Laguna Madre, which is home to many species of fish, migratory birds and sea turtles.
“I enjoy taking people out and seeing them have fun, especially families with kids who are catching their first fish,” Duncan says. “People love to see the beautiful clear-water grass flats. You can see crabs, stingrays, jellyfish and small sharks swimming around the boat. I still get excited – and I’ve been doing this a long time.”
Duncan has a 22-foot bay boat for family and group trips and a smaller fly-fishing skiff for one or two anglers. Speckled trout and redfish are the most commonly caught fish, though occasionally anglers catch flounder, black drum, Spanish mackerel, ladyfish and other species.
“This area is great for fishing because there’s an abundance of fish. Also, the upper Laguna Madre doesn’t have freshwater runoff like other areas, so the fish here are bigger without that stress put on them,” Duncan says.
Haven for Bird Watchers
Fishing isn’t the only outdoor activity that’s second nature in the Coastal Bend area. There are opportunities for hunting – but also for the more pacific hobbies of observing nature and bird watching.
The Audubon Outdoor Club of Corpus Christi organizes field trips twice a month to local ranches and nature sites for bird watching and other activities. In addition, the club offers free guided bird walks at Blucher Park in Corpus Christi every weekend in April.
“In April and May, we have the spring migration of birds through here, so there are all kinds of neotropical migrant birds flying up north from South America to breed,” says Leah Pummill, president of the Audubon Outdoor Club. “And in September, Corpus Christi has a hawk watch at Hazel Bazemore County Park. There’s a hawk flyover daily, and one year we managed to count over a million hawks.”
Pummill says some of the most common birds seen in the Coastal Bend area include the roseate spoonbill, the painted bunting, the great kiskadee and the kingfisher.
“Corpus Christi has been named ‘America’s Birdiest City’ five years in a row” by Florida’s Dauphin Island Bird Sanctuaries Inc., Pummill says. “There were 240 different species of birds recognized here in 72 hours. That gives us good bragging rights.”
Story by Jessica Mozo
Photo by Jesse Knish
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