Fish Catching Travel

Baits for all your fishing needs.

Happy Halloween!

Well obviously if you live in Texas, or watch the weather channel, you know why I have not been on the water the last few days.  Friday the wind blew like crazy, and we got just a little bit of rain, but not near what other areas got.  It was just sketchy enough to keep the boat on the trailer.  How most of it managed to miss us I do not have a clue.  But other areas were not near so lucky.  Over a foot of rain all around Austin and the hill country with tons of rain in Houston.  One area hit very hard was the Sam Marcos – New Braunfuls – Wimberley, who got hammered this spring.  My buddy Jeffish sent me these pictures from his cousin who lives on Lake Dunlap.

His family reports everything is ok with them. They were able to get their stuff up and help the neighbors. She reported that apparently a flood gate got stuck open and the lake almost dried up at one time.  They saw kayaks, jon boats, and about 12 jet skis go by along with an RV, utility and horse trailer, and tons of floating devices.  Now that is a flood.  We will see a ton of that water down here on the Guadalupe River in the next week so hopefully it won’t be that high here.  What a year it has been.  For 2 years we could barely get a drop of rain, and now we are up 15″ for the year, and north of us it is more than that.  And as I write this it is raining harder here than it has during the last 2 days.  But it is moving east and will be out of here by late afternoon.  So to all of you north of here, hope it is all ok with you and your family.  Remember -Turn Around, Don’t Drown!

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With my superior skill I managed to drop my laptop and now the screen looks like a 60’s tie dye shirt.  Maybe I could have deciphered it back in the 60’s but now it just looks like a shirt at a Grateful Dead concert.  So I am breaking in a new laptop and trying to figure out the app thing.  So to do a trial run, since I have no fishing report, here is a comment I wanted to share with you. I got this comment from Rick, a regular reader, and I thought I would explain a little more about my fishing and my fishing history.

As always, really appreciate your awesome salt water reports. When they are biting that good on the coast I can’t understand why you would opt to chase those over grown green mud minnows on Coleto. Just kidding!!!. Thanks for all your efforts keeping these well written reports coming. ( yeah, even the freshwater reports). Your blog is at the top of my favorites, keep up the great work that you do.

I really appreciate your continued readership and kind comments.  As to why I switch back and forth let me tell you all a little bit about my fishing history.

I moved to Arkansas in 1973 and started guiding in 74.  For the next 20 years or so I guided on Bull Shoals, Norfork, the White River, and North Fork.  We caught bass, stripers, crappie, and rainbow trout.  Also during that period I fished club tournaments and several open and team tournaments.  One of my tourney partners was the night plant manager at Ranger Boats.  He always had the newest hottest boats, lucky guy.  One of my tournament buddies was John Story, who founded Champion Boats, Viper, and Hawk boats.  And Bass Cat Boats is also located in Mtn. Home.  The Twin Lakes area of north Arkansas was all about the bass fishing and the second winner of the Bass Master Classic was Rayo Breckenridge who was a member of our club.

During this period I worked for a lure company and lived and worked at a boat dock (Thanks John).  Then I was a Nationally Registered Paramedic for about 10 years until I went to law school.  The jobs allowed me to fish and guide whenever I needed to. Then I went to law school and the last guide trip I took was right before moving to Fayetteville AR for school.

During this period I started fishing Florida and got bit by the salt bug.  Then of all things I managed to find my wife a job in Victoria.  No ulterior motive there since I had been driving down here with the Shoedog to fish POC several years before that.  I actually fished the salt exclusively after we moved  until about 3 years ago when I took my first trip to Coleto.  Since then it has been about 50/50.

One of the reasons I love Coleto is that it is a shallow water lake.  The highland lakes in Arkansas are deep and clear, and basically devoid of cover and could be a bear to fish.  Coleto was like a kid in a candy store for me.  Where I had been bass fishing where our fish would go deep, some over 60 feet and get really tough to catch at times, Coleto was easy, if there is such a thing in fishing.  So here I have a lake where they can not get away from me due to all the shallow cover.  An old bass fishermen’s dream.  So bass fishing is my first love and probably always will be.  That is also why I love to catch the redfish on the Redfish Magic, spinnerbaiting for bass and redfish is exactly the same.

Now I am living the good life.  My fishing choice is often simply a matter of making a choice based on several factors. One, where is the fishing the best?  The weather of course plays a big role, the wind being the primary factor.  Plus the lake is only 18 miles from here, much easier for a half day trip.  And the nice thing is about the lake is when you are home just back the boat in and you are done, not the same after a day on the Gulf.

Unfortunately the Gulf is a 120 mile round trip, give or take a few, no matter where I put in.  I do know that if the distance were reversed I would be fishing the bay more often.  I really prefer to fish for bass by myself, but when it comes to the Gulf I really like someone to come along.  And with my totally flexible fishing schedule it is tough to find folks that can fish during the week.  It is an all day proposition, and with boat cleaning, equipment cleaning, and expense, it just takes more time and money. Trust me, fishing like a maniac is expensive.  And sometimes it is simply a matter of being lazy.

And finally, one of the great things about having both areas close is I have the best of both worlds.  Variety is the spice of life and I never get bored.  If I do I just fish one or the other a little more.  So there you have it.  There is no master plan or rhyme or reason to it, sometimes it is simply what tackle is in the boat.

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I always like hearing from Dan in S.A.

Hey there, I know this is a little late but I am just catching up on the blog. Great tips by the way about walking the boat and trailer. It only takes a minute and you may wish you had when finding something broken especially after driving 120 miles to your favorite lake.

Here is a tip for you and your readers about braid. You mentioned when the braid fades to just reel it onto another reel. I have done this and it is a great idea. One thing I find that works is take a green Sharpie and run up the line about 10 feet or so on the faded end of the line. The color stays on the line and I still catch a bunch of fish. Try it next time you see your braid fading and see how it works for you. An added bonus is to keep an assortment of different color Sharpies in the boat to color a crankbait if you need to change one up a bit.

Keep up the great reports.
Dan in SA.

Sounds like you have had something happen on a trip.  There is nothing worse than having a problem taking away fishing time, especially if you are not close to home.  It only takes a second to take a look, and if you make it a habit it will pay off some day.

I like the idea of using the sharpie to color the line, and with one losing it’s color I will give your trick a try.  I would like to make a couple of comments on braided line.  First I have used the Cabela’s line and there was so much color on the line that it actually came off, though they all do, after going through the reel arbor.  So much came off it would clump up and impede it, jamming up the gear.  So if you have a little trouble with your reel inspect the arbor and see if the color is building up and not letting it cycle back and forth freely.

And using a leader has been a matter of experimentation for me.  I use the knot recommended in the Power Pro box and as long as it is tied properly I have not had one fail yet.  As far as leader length I started with 3 feet and that seems to work fine on both fresh and salt applications.  It took me a little while to figure out the proper drag setting so when using a 30lb braid and a 10lb fluorocarbon leader I did not break them off.  As many of you know I was not a fan of braid, but my buddies and some of you have encouraged me to use it and I am learning.  One thing that does not seem to be a problem is tying it direct to spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, and other reaction style baits.  I always try to get folks to send me your comments, we can all learn something.  Thanks for the suggestion.

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Shoedog is muzzle loader hunting for hogs today and has sent me a couple of texts from the field, it is a new world for us folks who still have not taken the IPhone plunge.  He shot a coyote but couldn’t get a shot at a big hog.

Nice job!

Folks are getting the hunting fever.  Now we have duck hunting opening, and we saw several boats all dressed up and ready to go yesterday.  From what little I know about duck hunting it should be a good day for it. I will be waiting on a report from my buddy Chris and anyone else having a go at it.

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Later next week we will be traveling to OKC to attend my daughter and son-in-law’s fund raiser for their foundation, Vilakazi.  They have been raising money and then directly turning it into aid for poor children in South Africa.  They work tirelessly out of a sense of duty to the children.  Every buck goes directly to the children.  When they go, and my wife and I did one year, everyone pays their own expenses.  To see the faces of those kids who do not have squat, I mean nothing as they get their backpacks is humbling.  Everyone involved does it out of love and you have to respect folks who care for no other reason than it is the right thing to do.  So if you are just hanging out stop in their website and read about the work they do.  They appreciate the visits.  And with my parents and brother coming it will be nice to catch up on the herd.

http://www.vilakazi.org/

(Sorry this is not displayed a direct link, still trying to figure out how to do that on the new computer.)

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One last note on fishing.  I am sold on using the super light jig head.  With very few choices out there it has been tough to find a really light jig head with a big enough hook on them.  Bagley makes a 1/32 but most I have found are 1/8 or 1/16th, but each companies weight varies.  One type that seems to be light enough is lead heads used by bass fishermen for drop shotting, which is a light line technique often used in clear water, perfect for the Gulf.  So if you are looking for some really light jig heads check them out.  They use a bronze hook and that is a great weight reduction from your standard saltwater hook.  It is all about fishing it really aggressively and not hanging up no matter how shallow you are.  And when a nice big trout hits it is with authority they eat it.  I am not telling you it is easy in high winds, but it works and my average size on the trout has definitely gone up.  So next time you are out give it a real chance, trust me, it works.

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That is it for today’s ramblings.  As I type this I am watching A&M play.  It will be interesting to see how the freshman quarterback does today.  Then it will be the Hogs playing Tenn/Martin, and if they don’t win I can hear the screaming for Bielema’s head.  While I am doing that it will be new line on reels and organizing some tackle in anticipation of hitting the water for 3 days.  Keep those cards and letters coming.  So keep stopping in and thanks for reading my stuff.

Don’t forget to turn those clocks back tonight when you go to bed.

Good Luck and Tight Lines