Fish Catching Travel
I am finally back from the lower Laguna Madre, and it was an interesting trip for several reasons. The Shoedog, Chris, and I headed out Tuesday morning for the Orroyo area towing the airboat. It was Chris’ second trip down there, and while Shoedog and I have fished out of South Padre several times, this was a relatively new area for us. It took us a little longer than usual to get there as we had to stop a Roy’s Bait and Tackle so Chris could pick up another Yeti. No he did not buy it, he won it with a raffle ticket he bought from the Shark-A-Thon. Believe me, we needed another Yeti on this trip like we needed a hole in the head, but who would turn down a free 75 quart. He also won a heavy duty offshore rod and reel last year so his raffle money has been well spent.
Day 1
I will get you the name of the place we stayed from Chris and add it to this post later, but it was a small 2 bedroom cabin with kitchen facilities and a lighted pier for night fishing. So we settled in and headed to get something to eat. It was Chili Willies for supper. Good food at a good price. Be advised in Arroyo City there are only 2 places to get something to eat, 3 on the weekend. But Chili Willies hits the spot for hungry fisherman and is worth a try if you are down there. We did a little night fishing under the light and other than 4 or 5 small trout it was slow so we called it a day.
First thing the next morning it was off to Peyton’s Bay, north of the Orroyo Colorada Cutoff. Chris headed to the west shoreline to chase reds with his flyrod, Shoedog and I waded out into the bay looking for trout.
Shoedog and Chris. The only way to go.
Shoedog caught a couple of ladys on topwater, as I did. I got a little luckier, so to speak, and lost a good trout near bait, and had a big red boil my topwater about 3 foot from me. I think Chris might have missed a red, but other than that we are shut out so we headed to the islands in front of the bay and tried the one of the cuts between them. Chris had a couple take a swat at his fly, but none hooked up. Meanwhile Shoedog and I just could not put a trout on the stringer.
Next it was across the bay heading a little south to the east shoreline. That shoreline is a true sand flat. It has miles and miles of shin deep water clear as moonshine. The goal was to sight fish for redfish. It reminded me of bonefishing, a real spot and stalk area. Chris had a tailer go down on his fly and not eat it, and he got a couple of other shots that did not pan out. Shoedog missed one, caught another ladyfish, and then had a good keeper break his line. Right after I got out of the boat I got a shot at a red who followed it all the way in and then spooked. Finally I made a perfect cast to one in about 12″ of water and he turned on it and ate a plastic. It is flat out cool to see them do that. I did not take the flyrod this time but will definitely return and give that a go.
We made one more stop on the flat further down and something happened I have never seen before. As we came to a stop there was a nice red who got seriously confused and turned and slammed into the side of the boat so hard he knocked himself out! Now that was crazy. We all had a shot or two on that wade, but none hooked up so off we went.
Next it was an area labeled 46 East of Green Island. The wind finally kicked up some and we drifted the north end of the island east and finally put a couple of nice trout in the boat. Shoedog got us started with a nice 19″+, and I put one in the boat. We had been giving him some crap about how firm the Coccahee Minnow plastics are, and of course he caught several more on it. It was a green and red body and he had it rigged upside down. But no matter how it was rigged they liked it. We made a couple of other drifts in that area without success so it was time for another move.
From there it was off to the area on the Padre Island side of the Intercoastal in front of Rattlesnake Bay for some drifting to finish off the day. That area is marked on the map as number 34 Grass Beds and 48e Mike’s Drop Off. Shoedog put another keeper trout in the boat on plastics. It was funny when we were talking about fall fishing and I commented I had not caught a big black drum in a while. And of course what happened?
A great fight on my light trout rod and 8lb. test.
When he hit it was one of those toss it in there and the minute it hit the water he was on. I knew it was a black the minute I set the hook and while it was a good struggle, he did not make the box. We did not even check if he fit the slot, none of us considers them worth the effort to clean for what you get. So our day was done and it was back to the cabin.
Headed for the fish fry as the guests of honor.
The airboat was a great asset there. The amount of shallow water down there is astounding, and as it was a learning trip we wanted to cover lots of places to get a real feel for the area. And with the day 1 fishing we did some serious riding around and looking at stuff. One piece of advice if you have never been down there, be careful. Those of us up here in the POC area think we have some shallow water but there are miles and miles of water less than 2 foot, with lots in the 1 foot range in the lower Laguna, be advised.
Day 2
The next morning we hit the ramp a little after 6 and headed down the Laguna to start in an area labeled 26 East, of Three Islands. It is a has a depression that is 3 foot deep and the trout were there. To bad they were small. We did catch a couple on top, and some on plastics, but just could not get the better ones to bite. We tried a couple of other drifts here and there and then it was 25, Oil Field Flats. I think we might have caught another couple of small ones, but as the tide was slack they were taking a break.
We did some cruising around the Cullen Channel area just looking, stopping here and there, tossing to a few deeper channels. The only excitement was Shoedog stuck a big ray on his trout rod and it was quite the fight. It finally broke off near the boat after a long fight. Hard to land those things on light line and a trout rod.
One thing that was amazing this trip is there was almost no wind both days. Well finally the wind started blowing about 10 mph out of the Southeast, blowing into Cullen Bay. We made our first drift from Townsite Point into area 32 Flounder Hole. There is a sandy area on the Townsite Point side that turns to grass in about 2 foot of water. On drift number 1 Shoedog had a big blow up on topwater, and Chris had a couple of hits on top, they were definitely redfish so we motored up and did another drift when a nice school of redfish, maybe 12 – 20 were right in front of the boat. Chris hooked up, Shoedog hooked up, and I almost hooked up. To bad when I retied earlier I forgot to wet the fluorocarbon knot and my knot came untied, rookie mistake.
A nice red. Look at his mouth, that thing choked on that Zara Spook, you don’t see them eat it that far to often, especially head first.
So now things are really looking up. They are eating, we see them moving all over the flat, and it looks like it is on. But wait just a minute fish heads, the fish Gods were about to remind us what can happen out there.
Chris went to start the airboat and the bendix on the starter was not seeming to catch. He tried a couple of times and then we heard a piece of metal hit the bottom of the airboat. Yikes, one of the starter bolts broke off at the block. We tried a quick fix with a strap and of course it wouldn’t work, and when he tried it again we heard the other bolt give way. So there you have it, the starter is hanging off the motor. Now we are at least a mile from the intercoastal via super shallow water. But all was not lost, Chris has SeaTow.
Folks, it has been quite a while since I have been broke down and I had let mine lapse, but that will not happen again. The tide was way out and we were in a place where there is no way in unless you had an airboat. And if we had to wait until someone saw us we would still be sitting there. But Chris called them and they sent an airboat to get us.
Getting hooked up. When I say shallow water we are talking shallow.
As Chris had the full package they actually sent the airboat and they towed us back to our home port, in this case the ramp at Orroyo City. So off we went at a blazing 5 miles an hour. As we cut across a shallow flat our boat hung on a sand pile and the rope broke so we hooked back up and kept on going.
Re-tying and off we went.
Our trip back ended up taking over 2 hours, it is hard to get a head of steam with a smaller airboat towing a bigger one. But we spent the time watching the bottom for cuts and holes, and we added a couple of more places to the list of where to fish next time. We saw a couple of deer, a coyote, and one Nilgi cow that I couldn’t see. It was interesting as we entered into the Orroyo Colorado we ran the mangrove shoreline along the wildlife area and watched shrimp by the thousands bailing out of the mangroves as we went by.
The guy pulling us in told us later that the river has lots of trout in it right now with all the shrimp there. He said any cuts along the river leading into the refuge have trout stationed in front of them munching on the shrimp. A good tip if you are down that way in the near future.
We finally got it on the trailer and the fishing was over. We immediately headed to the car wash to rinse the boat. The spray from the towing boat blew on our boat for 2 hours so we cleaned it up right away. Talk about over spray, the fan from the tow boat put an inch of water in the other boat before we got back.
I want to take a moment to talk about the towing insurance. Whether it is Boat US or SeaTow, it can be worth every penny. And get the whole shebang including the trailer rider. Chris has used his 3 times in the last few months. First when his trailer axle broke, then when the tide went out under his boat while wading and he was grounded, and then this time when the started broke. 3 different times, for 3 completely different reasons, any of which could happen anytime. And for his under $200 a year he got what could have easily been around $3000 ended up costing nothing. So I am going to renew tomorrow and keep it up. It has been 10 years since I really needed help, so the odds are not with me. This could have been a real hassle, instead it was just an inconvenience.
Though our trip ended up being a day and a half of fishing, it was a really good time. New water, different techniques, and the fun of running water shallow enough that it wouldn’t even cover your ankles. Though we did not “kill” them, we caught enough to not get skunked, and we learned a lot. We were able to really look stuff over, and next trip I would be comfortable with taking the flats boat down there. Now I did not say over confident, just that we have enough knowledge to keep out of trouble. But I would never fish that area, or any other, without the towing insurance. You just never know..
I am not sure what is next, but this trip did not leave me fished out by any means. It looks like the weather is about to change with more rain in the forecast and fall is just about here. And with full scale hunting about to hit there will be lots of folks off the water, with some days on the water feeling like I have it all to myself. So I will finish putting stuff away, check the boats, and then some more fishing. So keep stopping in and thanks for reading my stuff.
(Joe – sorry I did not answer your question, I accidentally deleted it so send me a new comment with your question. Sorry.)
Good Luck and Tight Lines
