The arrival of March and the Houston Fishing Show means spring is near.
Spring’s been running late in most of Texas, the USA National Phenology Network announced earlier this week. It’s been about 10-14 days behind the 1981-2010 average in the eastern half of the state, figures the consortium of government, academic and private organizations tracking the seasonal shift based on vegetation changes.
That pronouncement will get few arguments from Texas anglers who endured a January and February with unusually persistent cold — frigid, even — stretches that kept fish and fishers mostly locked in winter’s lethargy.
But that’s changing, fast. Over the past week or so, spring’s made up for some of that lost time. So have fish and fishers.
Several huge largemouth bass — fish weighing more than 10 pounds — have been landed over the past week, including an 11.12-pounder from Lake Somerville and a 11.25-pounder from Lake Conroe. White bass are pouring up Texas rivers on their annual spawning run, and anglers able to figure out how to deal with the fishes’ reactions to a plague of late-February rains have been plugging into what’s always the first big event of the fishing.
Along the coast, the first rumblings of the annual black drum spawning run reverberated along the Texas City Dike when anglers this week wrestled ashore a handful of adult “big uglies” weighing 30 pounds or more. And there have even been scattered reports of anglers finding schools of speckled trout willing to crash topwater plugs fished over shallow flats in East Galveston Bay and West Matagorda Bay.
These are signs Texas anglers look for as preamble to the coming of the spring fishing season.
But for Houston-area anglers, two of the most dependable, traditional and welcomed signs that spring, late as it might be, really is right around the corner come this week. March and the 43rd annual Houston Fishing Show arrive.
March brings with it the certain promise of warming days that animate both fish and fishers. No other month sees such a dramatic, accelerated shift in the behavior of fish and the fortunes of anglers.
And then there’s the Houston Fishing Show, a communal gathering of anglers and all things fishing related that for more than four decades has been a five-day anticipatory event that’s more than the sum of its parts. For tens of thousands of Texas anglers, the Houston Fishing Show is a rite of almost-spring, a kind of unofficial start to the fishing year.
That’s pretty much the idea Dave Holder had when he pulled together the first Houston Fishing Show in 1975.
“I had no idea if a show that focused only on fishing would work,” Holder said of the “consumer” show that brings anglers together with fishing tackle manufacturers, boat makers/dealers, fishing guides/outfitters and other businesses in the recreational fishing world. “But I figured if it would work anywhere, it’d work in Houston.”
Show No. 43
Houston — with Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico to the south and the nation’s premier largemouth bass fisheries in the reservoirs of East Texas — holds hundreds of thousands of recreational anglers, with many switch-hitting between freshwater and salt. Perhaps no other city/region in the nation has as large or as diverse a population of anglers. So, of course, anglers flocked to the event.
This year’s Houston Fishing Show, running through Sunday at the George R. Brown Convention Center, will be the 43rd annual event. And it has grown to be the largest fishing-only consumer show in the South and perhaps the nation.
But the Houston Fishing Show’s timing has been as crucial to its success and drawing power as its singular focus on fishing.
“We have it in March, after hunting seasons have closed and just before fishing really begins getting good and fishermen are getting antsy after being cooped up during winter,” Holder said. “It’s something to get them fired up. Give them a chance to check out new gear, replace old tackle, talk with manufacturers, visit with guides and outfitters and maybe book a trip.”
This year’s event holds more than 300 exhibitors spread over more than 200,000 square feet of the Brown Center.
Some of the show’s highlights include dozens of fishing boats, from 30-foot-plus vessels suitable for offshore fishing to kayaks that allow anglers silent access to shallow coastal flats, reservoir backwaters or Texas abundant and fish-filled rivers and streams. Boating electronics, especially the fast-evolving GPS navigation and side-scan imaging units, also are represented.
Tackle is a major part of the show, with major manufacturers staffing booths giving the details on their latest rods, reels, line and other accessories. Lure manufacturers, many of them local companies that have developed lures and tackle designed for Texas waters and Texas fish, as well as retail fishing tackle businesses offering tackle for purchase, often at “show discount” prices, are also a major component of the event.
One of those businesses — Houston-based Fishing Tackle Unlimited, one of the largest fishing tackle-only retailers in the country — has been a part of the Houston Fishing Show since the start.
The event also offers a chance for anglers to have hands-on experience with gear, and face-to-face conversations with folks who make and use the boats, tackle, lures and other equipment for a living. And that’s not limited just to adults. One of the most popular events at the show is the Kid’s Fishing Clinic, which offers young attendees hands-on instruction in angling skills and a chance to leave with one of the 400 tackle boxes show sponsors make available.
The show offers anglers plenty of practical information, too. Dozens of fishing guides and outfitters, most from Texas and surrounding states but some from as far away as Alaska and South America, have booths at the event and are willing to “talk fishing” as well as book trips.
Some of those guides are among the speakers during the show’s perpetual seminars covering topics on fishing for specific species such as largemouth bass, redfish and speckled trout, and fishing tactics for specific lakes and bays. The seminars give anglers the opportunity to learn from experienced pros and pick their brains.
A schedule of the seminars, as well as event hours and other information on the Houston Fishing Show, is available on the event’s website, houstonfishingshow.com.
Things have changed
The Houston Fishing Show has changed over its 43 years, Holder said. When it began in the 1970s, 90 percent of the focus was on freshwater fishing, a nod to the tremendous bass fishing in the state’s then-new reservoirs.
That shifted in the 1980s and ‘90s as Texas’ coastal fisheries thrived in the wake of and end to commercial fishing for trout and redfish and the success of increased conservation and management moves. By the 2000s, saltwater fishing boats and tackle accounted for 90 percent of the show’s focus.
That pendulum has swung a bit the other direction in recent years.
“This year, I’m guessing its 75-80 percent saltwater,” Holder said.
While the specific interests of Houston-area anglers have shifted back and forth over the past four decades, one thing has remained constant. The Houston Fishing Show, like the arrival of March, has been an anticipated marker on the calendar. It means spring is close. And that heralds good news for Texas anglers.