With the kickoff of summer, the flats of Texas start to heat up as well as the temperatures. I'm spe

With the beginning of summer, the flats of Texas start to heat up as well as the temperatures. I'm talking about the fishing pressure class of fierceness. Fishing heats up too, but the coercion really warms up. You know what I'm talking about; the thousands of fisherman and fisherwomen that desire to carry the great fishing and the cooler temperatures of the coast. Seems when schools let out most everybody in Texas heads for the coast to test their skills in the brine.

It can get fairly troubling to say the least, you know what I mean, just at the same time you see a decent tail waving at you, or find a school of reds or trout, here comes mom and pop and the gang. They are on their way to making fishing memories too, with dreams of a fish fry in their minds eye. It's not that they are presumptuous or mean, they just don't know any better. They come running right in front of your drift or across the flat you were wading down through. What's the chance of some fish still being on that flat? Slim to none.

So how do we possess fishing against such odds? Well you might try and find a flat that they can't find, but that's almost hardly possible. With so many boaters on the water these days, a quaint, quite flat is almost a dream in itself. But the water belongs to every one and they have just as much right to be where they are as you do. So we just have to try and educate those who don't know any better. It's the only way to be able to share the water and the great fishing that Texas has to offer.

etiquette on the flats is not that hard; it's just getting the message out to those that need to know what it is. So what is etiquette out on the water? Well, lets start by giving other boaters a little room. When someone is fishing and they are in your way of getting to where you want to go, go around them by three hundred yards or more. If you can't do that because of other boats fishing, then go around all of the boats. It won't take you that much longer to get to where you're going.

Pay attention to the wind direction, if they are drifting WITH THE WIND, then they are planning on fishing that area down wind of them and would considerablely cherish you not running over the fish they hope to catch. How far? Well I would say that you should give them at least five hundred yards of clear water to fish down wind of their spot. That way if they are on fish, they should be able to box a few before they get to the water you just ran over.

Wade fisherman should have as much or more room given them as those talked about previously. Give them at least five hundred yards all the way around. You don't know which way they are walking. Waders also don't have the means to move to a new location very quickly after they get MOWED. So give them even more respect than you would another boater. There is nothing more infuriating than stopping your boat, getting out, wading out four or five hundred yards and finally start catching some fish and here comes that boat running right through the water you were hoping to fish. Now, he has to stay there and wait for the fish to come back or wade back to his boat and move on to another spot. He's frustrated either way and fishing is not supposed to be a frustrating sport.

What about those poor fish on the flats also. Too many people run around out on the flats looking for fish or just riding around, and the fish have no where to go. I don't know how many large trout and red fish I've seen chopped up from propellers floating in the water. I caught a 27" trout the other day with five slices across her back. Amazingly she survived her ordeal, but I'll bet she wasn't happy about it. There are times when cruising and looking pays off, but most times if you find fish this way they are not going to eat for a while anyway. Try fishing the area and catching them before you MOW over them.

With the Texas flats boats becoming shallower running than any other boats on the market today, it opens up a lot of water that we used to have to drift over to see if there was any fish in it. I'm not sure that these boats are helping our fishing abilities or not, if you consider the way that they are used to run all over the skinny water instead of fishing it. I know in the old days we used to run to a spot, stop and get out in knee-deep water and wade into the skinny stuff and catch big fish customarily. Now days they don't go shallow for fear of being run over. So why do we need these ultra shallow running boats? To keep the fish run out of the skinny water and into the deeper stuff where we can't find them? Hummmm, maybe I'll have to come up with a deep-water boat.

The moral to the story is to treat other fisherman like you would want to be treated. Everybody wants to catch fish and possess the great outdoors, and everyman can if we just practice a little "Etiquette on the Flats".

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