Top Stories of 2022

People often ask how difficult it is to come up with a meaningful outdoors story every week. The answer is always the same. Texas is a massive state with an outdoor menu befitting of a king.

If you can’t sniff out the a few goodies around here, you are not turning over enough rocks. Sometimes the good stuff comes barreling right down the pike.

Here are a few of the top outdoor tales from 2022:

No Quitters Here

A wealth of good fishing stories came knocking this year. None were more inspirational than those told by Hunter Baughman of Judsonia, Arkansas and Brady Winans of Caddo Mills.

Not even close. Baughman is a 35-yearold bass pro who has lived his entire life in the face of physical adversity.

He was only ninemonths old when he contracted bacterial meningitis and nearly died. He spent three months in the hospital and endured 10 surgeries. The illness resulted in the loss of both legs below the knees, his left hand and partial loss of the fingers on his right hand.

“At one point I had a 113-degree temperature,” Baughman said. “Doctors wanted to turn off my life support — they said I would be brain dead if I did survive. But my parents wouldn’t allow it. It’s a miracle that I survived, but I did. I’m really strong on my faith because of it, too. I know God let me live for a reason.”

Shift to September 2022. Baughman won the pro division in the the three-day Major League Fishing Toyota Series bass tournament on Missouri’s Truman Lake.

It’s not only win on Baughman’s resume, but it is by far the biggest. Many called it the most amazing accomplishment in the history of pro fishing.

Baughman gets around the boat on his knees and never looks for special treatment. He remembers the victory as a blessing that was a long time coming. His message to others facing troubles in life: “Never give up,” he said. “Some people are like me — they face a lot of stuff you can see. Others face a lot of stuff on the inside that you can’t see. Everybody faces something. You just have to grab hold of it and beat it, whatever it is. Live with what you’ve got and make the best out of it. That’s what I try to do.”

Brady Winans can relate.

In December 2021, Winans was involved in a tragic accident on Cedar Creek Lake. The bass boat in which he was a passenger crashed into the dam after the driver misjudged a fog bank.

The impact sent Winans tumbling across the front deck. He was ejected over the bow and onto the earthen dam, just a few feet above the rocks.

His injuries were extensive. In addition to two broken legs, Winans suffered a broken back, a shattered ankle, a busted clavicle and two broken ribs. He was placed in a medically-induced coma for three days and spent nearly a week in intensive care.

Doctors told the 47-yearold angler, husband and father of two young boys he may never walk again. He spent all of 2022 proving them wrong.

Following multiple surgeries and months of rehabilitation, Winans is now able to walk with the aid of canes or a walker, and he recently got certified to drive a vehicle again. In November, he fished a two-day bass club tournament on Cedar Creek from the back of a friend’s boat. And won.

Though far from 100 percent, Winans’ recovery has been miraculous. A Christmas day Facebook post summarizes a journey he knows is far from over.

“What a difference a year makes,” he wrote. “This time last year, I was lying flat on my back in a hospital bed. Wearing two leg casts, an arm sling and a back brace to my chest. I had to watch my kids open their Christmas presents via Facetime. I am so happy to be able to revel in all things Christmas this year!”

Texas Hunting Accidents Hit All-Time Low

A February 2022 report from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department indicated hunting-related accidents hit a record low. TPWD says here were 12 hunting-related accidents, including one fatality, in 2021.

By comparison, there were 70 accidents and 12 fatalities in 1988, when hunter education became mandatory in Texas. The all-time high number of accidents since TPWD began keeping records is 105 in 1968. There were 37 fatalities that year.

Experts say the most common cause of hunting accidents each year is swinging on game out side a safe zone of fire.

Jones sets high marks

Oklahoma big bass expert Josh Jones has been in the national spotlight a lot over last two years, largely because of his knack for reeling in Texas whoppers and expertise with forward-facing sonar. In February 2022, Jones became first angler in the 37-year history of the Toyota ShareLunker program to turn in four Legacy-class ShareLunkers. Legacy fish are Texas-caught bass weighing 13-plus pounds that are turned over to TPWD for spawning and genetics research. Jones caught a pair of Legacy fish in 2021 and two more in 2022, all from Lake O.H. Ivie near San Angelo.

The angler set another tall mark at ‘Ivie less than two weeks before Christmas, December 15. Jones claims to have caught what may be the heaviest fivefish limit ever recorded in a single day from U.S. public waters and the largest stringer ever caught on video, cast to catch.

Jones says he caught 31 bass over eight pounds that day, all on a 3/8 ounce 6th Sense swim jig. Among them were two 13 pounders, four between 10-12 pounds, 11 over nine pounds and 14 over eight pounds. The heaviest five bass weighed 61.37 pounds.

Amazingly, Jones says most of the fish came off the same spot, making identical 100 foot casts to what he called “a featureless flat in 25 feet of water” near a deeper river channel. You can see the video at youtube.com/ watch?v=5n7EDc-BDCI.

Jones guides clients for big bass at ’ Ivie each winter. He is currently advertising January/Feburary trips for $2,000 per day. He has more than 147,000 followers on social media.

Other ‘Ivie Giants

Lake O.H. Ivie was good to plenty of anglers in 2022. It produced 73 double-digit ShareLunkers, including 12 Legacy fish over 13 pounds. The biggest was a 17.06 pounder caught by Brodey Smith. Smith’s fish ranks as the No. 7 heaviest Texas bass of all-time and is the biggest reported since 1999.

Fishing guide Brady Stanford of Midland also found big bass gold last February when he reeled in a 11.07 pound smallmouth/largemouth crossbreed the ranks as International Game Fish Association world record.

North Texas archers speak

Citing public opposition and direction from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission, TPWD wildlife staff nixed proposed rule changes aimed at legalizing the use of firearms to take white-tailed deer during the general, youth and special Managed Lands Deer Permit seasons in Grayson, Collin, Rockwall and Dallas counties, prohibiting crossbows during the archery only season and creating a four-day antlerless season around the Thanksgiving holidays.

Grayson County has been open to archery only hunting since 1999; Dallas, Rockwall and Collin counties since 2012. Hunters there are adamant about keeping it that way.

More than 200 people including state and local politicians reportedly attended a TPWD public hearing in Denison last March to voice opposition the proposed changes. Prior to the hearing, Grayson and Collin counties passed resolutions opposing the idea of allowing rifles for deer hunting in their respective counties. The cities of Anna and Sherman filed letters opposing the change, and a petition was submitted containing over 2,000 opposing signatures.

BASS Founder Ray Scott passes at 88

BASS founder Ray Scott passed away of natural causes on May 8. He was 88.

A former insurance salesman who liked to bass fish, Scott was a visionary and magnificent story teller who had big aspirations of elevating the sport bass fishing to tall heights when he invited 106 of the nation’s best-known anglers to ante up $100 each to compete in the first All-American bass tournament on Beaver Lake in Arkansas in 1967. He made it known to several anglers that he got the idea from the late Earl Golding of Waco. Golding held the first Texas State Bass Tournament on Lake Whitney in the mid-1950s.

One thing lead to another, including the launch of Bassmaster Magazine and the formation of the Bass Anglers Sportsman Society, both in 1968.

Scott’s brainchild, the Bassmaster Classic, has been held annually for 52 years and is widely known as bass fishing’s Super Bowl. Well known for his ability to cast electricity on a crowd, Scott rode a Ringling Brothers Circus elephant into the weigh-in arena during the 1993 ‘Classic on Logan Martin Lake in Alabama.

Tawakoni guide lands rare piebald catfish

March 4 started out as an ordinary day at the office for Lake Tawakoni fishing guide Noel Ibarra. It ended with an extraordinary fish.

Ibarra was drift fishing over a main lake point when he reeled in a catfish unlike any he had ever seen. The 26 pounder was mostly white with a few bluish-grey splotches mixed in. The technical name for the condition is piebald. It’s a natural pigmentation mutation that can occur in all sorts of animals.

TPWD fisheries biologist Jake Norman evaluated a photograph of Ibarra’s catch. He called it one cool cat. “That’s the first picture of one I’ve seen since managing East Texas reservoirs, and likely the third or fourth ever,” Norman said. “I have seen both channel and blue catfish display the piebald pigmentation trait, but it is still a very rare occurrence overall.”

Stanley nets Hall of Fame induction

In October, legendary Texas lure designer and bass pro Lonnie Stanley was inducted to Bass Fishing Hall of Fame in Springfield, Missouri. Stanley, who founded Stanley Jigs in 1979, passed away in August of 2021.

Stanley won two top level Bassmaster events and several local tournaments, many on his signature jigs and spinnerbaits. His most lucrative victory came at the 1987 BASS Megabucks event in Florida, where he won $108,000.

Matt Williams is a freelance writer based in Nacogdoches. He can be reached by email, mattwillwrite4u@yahoo.com.