For the past two years, the fishing hamlet of Port Mansfield has looked like the staging area for a major highway construction project.
Thousands upon thousands of huge concrete culverts have been stacked near Capt. Bruce Shuler's Get-A-Way Adventure Lodge.They are not the small driveway culverts; some of them are big enough for grown men to walk through them standing up.About half of the culverts are gone now; the other half will disappear by the middle of the month.Soon, those miles of concrete will be at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, forming an artificial reef that will bring new habitat for fish and new opportunities for divers.The reef is a joint project between the Coastal Conservation Association, Habitat Today for Fish Tomorrow and Texas Parks and Wildlife.In a recent news release, TPWD said there will be more than 4,000 culverts dropped in the gulf waters to go along with another 800 culverts that were placed there two years ago. An old oil-rig crew boat was also scuttled at the site.The idea, of course, is to create a habitat, a new fishery, on the gulf floor."Oh, it works," Shuler said this week from his lodge. "You could drop a car battery out there and within a week there would be snapper on it. All the fishermen down here know where the spot is and they've been fishing it."You just go out to the jetties, turn south and go seven miles along the beach, then turn left and go out seven miles, he said. "There is even a buoy out there. You don't need any GPS numbers to find it."The seven-mile number is important, so too is the fact that the site is south of the jetties.Texas state waters extend nine miles from the shoreline, and Texas does not have a limited season on red snapper.Travel beyond the nine-mile limit and you're in federal waters, and there the red snapper season is arguably too short and already closed.Also, the prevailing winds on the coast are southeasterly, so fishermen in smaller boats can slip out in the calm of the morning, and have the comfort of a following sea on their way back later in the day.Shuler, and other locals, say the new reef will definitely help the economy of the small fishing town, but they quickly point out that several years ago, the speckled trout limit was reduced to five fish in that part of the Laguna Madre and, as a result, the trout population has flourished.Port Mansfield is already a popular fishing destination.Everyone readily admits, however, that the work on the reef did bring an additional boost to the local economy.Dale Shively, the program leader for TPWD, said the arrival of the Louisiana contractor whose crews brought in the culverts aroused more than a little local interest.Cajun Maritime came to town with a large ocean-going tug, a 200-foot barge, 330-ton crane, 100-ton crane, four tractor-trailers, two front-end loaders, one bucket tractor and 18 crew members plus other supervisory personnel.According to the Handbook of Texas, the population of Port Mansfield is just slightly more than 400 people. It would be hard to miss the commotion."They rented a whole set of condos," Shuler said. "And they hired some local people to work with them. It did help the economy; there is no doubt about that."And it will help the offshore fishing. Still, Shuler, who guides the local waters, said there are plenty of other places around to hook up with deep-water fish.Port Mansfield is closer to deep water than any of the ports to the north, plus there are some natural rock formations in the nearby waters that hold plenty of snapper."Those places, those natural rock piles, are the holy grail to fishermen around here," he said. "People guard those sites and they don't share the GPS numbers with anyone."That's where I like to go. They don't get nearly as much pressure."The TPWD Artificial Reef Program plans to establish artificial reefs offshore of every port along the Texas Gulf Coast.They include everything from the concrete culverts, to old Liberty ships, to the larger, 473-foot Texas Clipper that was scuttled offshore from Port Isabel.Have more to add? News tip? Tell us
