FISH CATCHING TRAVEL
There was a 60% chance of rain today, and it is supposed to stay that way all week, so I thought I would hit Coleto and see how the weather pattern shaped up. It looks like this week the better chance of rain in is the afternoon into evening, and it never got more than partly cloudy today. And to go along with that, later this week the high tide is around 9am with a pretty good swing, so the water should run during late morning into early afternoon, making it perfect conditions with a falling tide.
But back to today. Dropping the boat in the water as it just cracked daylight, it was calm and it looks like the day has dropped another foot or so. The water temp was 88 degrees and the color is finally starting to clear some, but it is still darker than usual. I had made up my mind to fish only one place with buzzbait and then concentrate deeper with plastics.
When I started in the first cove right near the park they were active but small. I had 4 hits and managed to put 3 in the boat.
The first one.
Unfortunately that was the only flurry I had all morning. That first hour they were whacking it pretty good but when they quit the buzzbait, they quit. So then it was time to fish some deeper stuff and see if I could figure it out. With the fall points and channel banks with wood seemed to be the logical places.
So I just hopped points from here to there, but I just could not get it going. Another 2 or 3 did commit on plastics and ended up in the boat, but they were small, and I do mean small. On one deep point with standing timber I did break one off setting the hook, so who knows what size that was. Most of the bites I did get on plastics came in the 10 -1 5 foot range. I just did not hit the place today.
I also fished a stretch of small trees following a channel leading out of a big cove into the main channel, figuring following it out from about 10 feet to where it dropped off in 20 they should be on it somewhere. Shows what I know. So about 11:30 I called it a day. This is probably the slowest stretch I have had on Coleto since I first started fishing the lake. Of course it is my fault, there is a way to catch them I just have not found out the key. So next time I will keep sticking with the deep stuff until it happens. I miss the vegetation that usually grows in Coleto, hopefully we will have clearer water and more grass next year. But all is not lost if you like to fish the lake, there are plenty of fish being caught right now, and below is a few.
Crappie
I have been telling you about the crappie on Coleto and this morning when I hit the ramp I saw this sack. The two guys who caught them are regulars on the lake who I call Mr. Crappie 1 and Mr. Crappie 2.
Now that is a load of big crappie!
Without coughing up their fishing spots I can give you a couple of words of advice. They are catching them off wood, not brush piles, on minnows in deep water, and I am not talking 10 foot. They are dropping the bait to the bottom and reeling up 2 cranks. They have been catching 25 – 35 a morning lately, which is what the other guy I see who regularly fishes there is also catching. So there is no better time than now to catch a nice wad of crappie on Coleto.
***********
I hope to get the flats boat back in the next day or two. If the weather does not get to extreme the rest of the week it will be a day or two of serious trout fishing. That is probably what I should have done this morning, but you make you choice and live with the results. The jerk bait bite the other day in Keller had real potential, and if I do not get the flats boat back so I can do some traveling on the Gulf it will be back to Keller. And there is one other thing I want to try on the trout, but I will leave it at that for the moment.
I really appreciate you all sticking with me during this period of the summer doldrums, both the weather and me. It is hard to be that mad at them when it is this stifling hot. We are still looking at temps in the high 90’s with extreme humidity, making it fairly miserable mid-day. But July will soon be in the rearview mirror and summer will be on the downslide. I am still intending to hit Baffin soon, and the fishing report from Falcon Lake is really good, so that is a possibility. So keep stopping in and thanks for reading my stuff.
Good Luck and Tight Lines
