Thursday, February 22, 2001

Program offers new hunt trips

Many of you are familiar with state raffles that offer big-game hunts to raise money for wildlife conservation and public hunting opportunities.
   Since the program's inception five years ago, it has raised more than $950,000 to reinvest in projects such as bighorn sheep restoration, quail research and various wildlife management and enhancement projects that help preserve our way of life.
   The success of the Big Time Texas Hunts program has prompted the folks at Texas Parks and Wildlife to propose an expansion of the state's public hunting program. Never-before drawn hunts are slated for 45 state parks for the 2001-2001 hunting season.
   More on this if or when it's definite.
   Another reciprocal benefit of the success of the BTTH program is called Reel Texas Adventures, a program whereby you and I can purchase as many $10 chances as we want for a variety of high-end dream fishing trips.
   Next month, anglers will begin vying for chances at drawings in four fishing categories, a largemouth/smallmouth bass combo, an inshore/offshore saltwater trip, a flyfishing expedition and a family fishing package.
   Money raised will not be added to the TPW general fund, said Larry McKinney, senior director for aquatic resources. It will be used exclusively to increase participation in fishing throughout the state through urban fishing programs, construction of piers, kid fishing events, etc.
   The pilot program is expected to generate about $1 million this year.
   To learn more, visit the TPW Website at www.tpwd.state.tx.us or call (800) 792-1112.
   Moon's heart
   I probably hadn't said two words to James Moon, the fish cleaner at Woody's Sports Center, before I found myself asking for his help.
   Even so, Moon trusted me with a strong rope to pull my truck out of the mud near Wilson's Cut, even though I told him I had broken two ropes during previous attempts.
   The rope held, just as the big quiet man said it would.
   Friends of Moon tell me he's as reliable as that rope, always ready and willing to help friends and strangers. Despite an ailing heart, he was demonstrating this trait last weekend while moving a friend's trailer off their deer lease.
   Something wasn't right, though. Moon dismissed his pain as indigestion.
   The symptoms subsided, and James continued with the job at hand. The next day, it hit him again.
   This time, he got the message. Friend Smokey Gaines took him to the hospital in Aransas Pass, where doctors confirmed Moon's fears.
   It wasn't indigestion.
   An ambulance brought him from Aransas Pass to a Corpus Christi hospital where he spent the next four days.
   Moon is home now, resting comfortably. And doctor's say he can return to work we he feels up to it. But his medical treatments are far from over.
   Without much family and no insurance, friends are uncertain how Moon's mounting medical bills will be covered. So the community is trying to ease his financial worries.
   If you'd like to help, send donations in his name to the Port Aransas Branch of American Bank, 216 South Alister St., 78373 or to Woody's Sport Center, c/o of Glen Martin, 136 West Cotter St., Port Aransas, Texas, 78373.
   Horn services
   Port Aransas, and the Coastal Bend sport fishing community as a whole, lost a favorite son this week when Bill Horn passed away Monday. He was 71.
   His laughter, wit and fishing tales that spanned a half-century, heard regularly on the back porch of Woody's Sports Center, will be missed. Horn's absence also will be conspicuous at scholarship fundraisers and charity events for the Port Aransas Boatmen Association, such as the annual Take a Kid Fishing Tournament and the long-running Deep Sea Roundup, for which he provided fish and lent his culinary skills.
   In print, Horn has been labeled a jetty-fishing virtuoso with the dexterity of a concert cellist, a high priest of angling and, most recently by me, jetty royalty. Few anglers knew better the granite groins and surf of San Jose Island.
   I had the pleasure of fishing with Bill and considered him a friend.
   A memorial service is scheduled for 10 a.m. today at Community Presbyterian Church, 113 South Alister St. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donation be sent to the American Cancer Society, 4101 South Alameda St. Corpus Christi 78411.