It seems that not all the news coming out about the declining number of hunters and fishermen nationwide is bad. I reported last week that Maine was bucking the national trend of reduced numbers but someone forget to tell Texans there seems to be a lack of interest.

The Houston Chronicle is reporting that hunting and fishing license sales are extraordinarily rapid paced.

Over the five-day period Aug. 30-Sept. 3, Texans purchased a little more than 385,000 hunting and fishing licenses, pumping about $12 million into TPWD accounts used exclusively for wildlife and fisheries programs.

Aug. 31 — the day old licenses expired and the day before the start of dove hunting season in most of the state — saw more than 136,000 licenses and other documents (public hunting permits, special-use stamps, etc.) purchased.

“That’s the biggest single day (of license sales) we’ve ever had,” Newton said.

Texans spent about $4.6 million on hunting and fishing licenses that day, Newton said.

And at the peak of sales, Texans were buying almost 250 licenses every minute — more than 14,000 an hour.

What’s also interesting is that officials are estimating that they will exceed license sales from last year, which was a record year.

This past year, TPWD issued a record 3.2 million hunting and fishing licenses.

And the state seems on a road to improve those numbers this license year.

“Last year was our best year,” Newton said. “So far this year, we’re about 2 percent ahead of where we were at this time a year ago.”

Is there something going on in Texas that other states should be looking at?

Tom Remington

Scott Curry caught a weird fish – weird by Texas water standards by not so unusual if you were wetting a line in, let’s say, South America. Yesterday I brought you the story and picture of the 20-pound fish he caught that had teeth like a human.

I hadn’t anymore than gotten the story up when I received a comment from reader “Tina” saying the fish was a Pacu, a relative of the pirahna. Thanks, Tina!

This morning it was announced that Texas Parks and Wildlife officials have identified the fish as a Pacu.

Curry says there was more than one of the fish he caught and so officials have added a $100 bounty to anyone who catches the other(s).

Tom Remington

We ask that question hundreds of times in our outings fishing when we are curious about how anglers are making out catching fish. In Texas, that question my take on a bit of a different meaning.

Scott Curry has caught thousands of fish in Buffalo Springs Lake but the other day he caught a fish he had never seen before. As a matter of fact, officials contacted after the catch who examined the fish, where left scratching their heads.

The fish he caught had teeth in it – like human teeth. The fish weighed about 20 pounds.

Officials are going to determine the species. They are assuming it is some kind of fish found in perhaps the Amazon or some other unlikely place. Curry said he saw more than one fish and thus the Texas fish officials have put out a bounty reward for whoever can catch another out of Buffalo Springs Lake.

Tom Remington