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The sun is barely beginning to peek over distant clouds as Captain Terry Neal lands his first trout of the day. 

It’s the perfect start of a beautiful morning.
 
Late summer is a wonderful time to fish the Lower Laguna Madre. 

The hectic tournament season is winding down, boat traffic has slowed and sometimes you have the golden sunrise all to yourself.
 
 “Nice little trout, Richard…,” Neal said. “The next two months, three months really, are some of my favorite times. Like you say, it cools down, there is not as much traffic on the water, and the fish are kind of relaxed a little bit.”
 
It only takes a couple of more casts before Terry has another spirited trout. 

He doesn’t keep the big ones, and after carefully removing the lure the fish is released.
 
 “The big ones, they make a lot of babies,” he said.
 
This has been a remarkable year for trout fishing in the Lower Laguna Madre, as spotted seatrout numbers overall have been high and big trout abundant.
 
“About the only thing that could mess us up on this trout…the quantities and qualities we have would be a freeze this winter,” Neal said. “That would really mess things up, but we are going to pretend we are not going to have one of those.  We are not even going to talk about it.”
 
And the hookups just keep coming.
 
 “Just another day in paradise,” Neal said.
 
And the best days may be yet to come.
 
“It’s amazing,” Neal said. “All the pressure we have had on these fish this summer and all the people that have come down here and caught fish…that there is this kind of fish left… and that means there are going to be some really good ones for next year too.”