Now that Hurricane Rita is nothing more than a disturbing memory, I think the time’s prime to impart my hurricanes-and-how-they-affect-fishing column, and none too soon if you ask me.
First off, though, had Rita taken a more westerly tract toward Galveston, I’d no longer be able to state categorically that the most devastating hurricanes to strike here were the 1900 Storm and Hurricane Carla, both monster Category 4 storms making landfall in early September, and Cat 3 Hurricane Alicia stopping by in mid-August.
But you know what? I could care less. I’m more than content NOT to put some new fly-by-night blowhard on the list, and you can take that to the bank.
Now to the query at hand: How do hurricanes affect fishing? Well, the answer is, quite a bit. For example, damage caused by these storms can curtail fishing in area bays such as West Bay, Galveston Bay and East Bay, and a mere two days after Alicia blitzed through, then Daily News outdoors editor A.C. Becker Jr. and I motored the length and breadth of West Bay, and what we saw could hardly be put into mere words.
West Bay endured a major facelift. Debris was strewn everywhere, and chunks of buildings made their way well into Starvation Cove. We also found two fully-intact shrimp boats moored near South Deer Island, and a car somehow became relocated to its random parking lot in the middle of the bay near Sweetwater Lake.
And if all of this wreckage could be caused by an “average” Cat 3 storm, what would Rita have done had it blustered through as a Cat 4 or, God forbid, 5? I shudder to think.
But when it comes to fishing, hurricanes can also create a few pluses. Not only can these “Greatest Storms on Earth” move mountains, but they are more than capable of relocating fish to new-fangled and far out locations. After Carla, for example, numerous red snapper catches occurred at both the North & South jetties; bull redfish frequented Sweetwater Lake like never before; redfish and drum were caught in Dickinson Bayou, and Bill Cochrane of Galveston said that snapper were caught in offshore depths of 10 to 15 feet instead of the usual 35 to 60 feet.
After Alicia in 1983, her harmful affects on fishing included massive numbers of dead fish and a total, though short-term, disappearance of blue crabs from area waters.
While Hurricane Rita never struck Galveston head on, here’s hoping that Ritas of the future continue the trend. Indeed, while some positives are derived by hurricanes, one look at all the negatives should put that dialogue to an end.
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