Good Place to Catch Rio Grande Perch! And bass. The 34th Texas Paddling Trail and second one in Seguin opened on Wednesday, Dec. 7, along a scenic stretch of the Guadalupe River.

On Dec. 5, the NRA filed its opening appellate brief on behalf of several law-abiding young adults challenging the federal ban on dealer sales of handguns and handgun ammunition to persons between the ages of 18 and 20. The case is Jennings v. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, and will be heard in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. (A similar case challenging Texas' age limit of 21 for issuance of concealed handgun licenses remains pending in the trial court.)

Here are some of the top stories we brought you in the NRA-ILA Grassroots Alert in 2011.  With what will be a critically important 2012, we must increase our efforts to ensure we're prepared to meet the great opportunities and challenges we will face next year.  We will continue to provide you with information in future Alerts to ensure our mutual success.

After being closed for more than three months due to a massive wildfire that burned much of the park, Bastrop State Park will reopen today (Friday, Dec. 2). Campers, picnickers and hikers are being welcomed back to the park in what is being called a "soft opening."

Texas Parks and Wildlife fire-fighting personnel were continuing with clean up work at Bastrop State Park Thursday, having saved almost all the historic Depression-era structures on the 6,000-acre park just east of fire-ravaged Bastrop.

Cheating in saltwater fishing tournaments and trying to sneak illegally taken or possessed saltwater fish through Texas waters promise to become much riskier propositions later this year, when bills recently passed by the Texas Legislature take effect.