A dominant feature of the Texas bay system is the Intracoastal
Waterway (ICW), a 3000-mile-long passage for commercial barge
traffic than runs from Boston, Massachusetts to Brownsville,
Texas. Construction of the ICW commenced in the 1920s, but the
last section -- connecting Corpus Christi to Brownsville through
the Upper and Lower Laguna Madre -- was only completed in the
late 1940s. Today, the ICW effectively links otherwise isolated
ports on the Atlantic and Gulf coastlines, creating a seamless
exchange between supply and demand. Few coastal anglers can
remember what it was like before “the ditch” existed. For most
of us who grew up on the Texas coast, the ICW has always been
there, and it was a place that excited our childhood dreams. In
the age before shallow water sight casting, we would stand side
by side with friends and brothers aboard old boats distinguished
only by service, and we would cast live shrimp on treble hooks
into the deeper water and wait for the bobber -- which we
properly called a “cor