Fish Catching Travel
Today was the first day of what will be several days of fishing this week. The weather is coming around and we don’t have that many days until the time change. With that will come getting up and hour earlier to be somewhere at daylight. Today it was fishing with my buddy Jeffish, who hasn’t fished with me in while.
We got to Froggie’s around 9:30 and the plan was first Big Bayou for some reds, then the Oil Cut for some to trout, and then a wade. That plan worked out, sort of. When we got to the Gulf it was blowing 10 mph or so out of the north, I don’t know what the water temp was, but I know it has cooled significantly, and as it has been for weeks, the tide was super high.
With the wind blowing straight down the Bayou it was definitely a spinnerbait kind of day. We started right at the mouth and fished the whole left and right side. My real goal today was to get Jeffish a nice red. When I was getting him a spinnerbait I had one white Redfish Magic and I thought what the heck. They are eating white shrimp and mullet so it made sense. And it was definitely better than the colors I tried. I think he caught 5 in there, and these were the keepers.
Headed for broiled redfish on the half shell.
It probably took about 2 hours to fish the whole thing. He caught 5 or so, I caught 3 or 4, the only problem was several of his hit the cooler, mine were midgets. I also missed a red that might have made the grade. The better fish were on the soft bottom, flat grass banks. We just stayed off the bank and cast to the edge of the grass followed by a nice steady retrieve.
On the way to the Oil Cut the wind started picking up to 15mph plus. It was blowing right in so we started near the mouth of the cut, and I caught a trout on my first cast. As we went down the bank 6 or 8 came over the side, with one sand trout, all on paddle tail plastic. As usual it was tough to fish with a bow in your line, but you just had to man up. Jeffish kept with the spinnerbait, and while he missed a couple of small trout on it, that bank is deep with a sharp drop, rarely a good spinnerbait bank.
We made a pass and a half down the Cut, and though we caught some trout and a couple of rat reds, just like last trip there were no keepers to be had. So with that result we decided to head back, make one more spinnerbait pass in Big Bayou, and then see if my favorite wading bank had some clear water. Once we made it back down to the Bayou the water was really beginning to cloud up. I missed a good red, and I think we both caught one or two small ones before we headed to Barroom. Unfortunately by this time the wind had a serious head of steam and was blowing down Barroom. So we did one drift on the POC side and caught another 2 or 3 rat reds. So instead of running way the hell and gone to find clear water with little wind we called it day.
We did have something happen today that was just interesting. When I fileted the one it had something hard in her gut so I cut it open, and boy was it weird. In her belly was a rubber grommet about the size of a quarter. That just shows you, those wacky redfish will eat anything if you just get it in front of their face.
If you are a black drum fisherman you need to get out there now. We saw black drum here and there during the day. A couple of them were hooters. Funny we just didn’t throw at them but neither of us wanted one so we passed. And while we were cleaning fish a guide came in with his customers and they had a cooler full of them. And speaking of no better time, Aaron caught 4 flounder with a new method the other day. Not sure where he heard of it, but as soon as we get back to the Gulf flounder will be on my menu and I will fill you in.
The Shoedog is getting up at some ridiculous time tomorrow and heading to a small lake in East Texas. Lake Naconiche is near Nacogdoches TX. It is around 700 acres, and while we are not sure what he will find, we have heard good things. Of course a bass almost 13 lbs being caught there doesn’t hurt anything. So good luck Shoedog, hear how it works out.
We had a good time, and considering we didn’t marathon fish, we caught some fish. And it was real nice as there was hardly anyone out there. Jeffish was happy, that is one of the better reds he ever caught. I was happy, I was fishin’. Now I just have to decide what is next. I haven’t hit the lake in a while, but if the wind doesn’t blow it will be back to give the flounder a go. So keep stopping in and thanks for reading my stuff.
Good Luck and Tight Lines
