Doug,

Glad to hear you had a good day on Keller.  I promised you on the last email to report back after a short trip to POC late last week.  I fished Thursday and Friday with a buddy that hasn’t spent much time fishing the bay with artificials.  I had a solid limit of reds (26”, 27”, and 28”) by 8AM and checked in with him but he still hadn’t landed a fish.  I had him paddle over to me and spent the rest of the morning doing a little guiding.  He was able to get the hang of it and ended up getting his first limit on artificial.  He’s officially a convert.  I attached a pic of the cleaning table.  Now I just need to work on getting him some bigger fish.  We played catch and release the rest of day and I ended up with about 10 good reds before we called it a day.

A nice sack!

Pop-up storms were all around us Thursday but we never did suffer a direct hit.  Our luck ran out on Friday and we were run off the water by 9AM.  I managed a few good fish before the storms rolled in but the wind was tough.  We stuck with chicken-on-a-chain paddletails both days.  The reds seemed to favor mud to sand transition areas and were often visible working shrimp in shallow water.  I probably landed 25+ trout on Thursday but only one made the mark.  The pesky smaller trout cost me an entire bag of plastics by ripping off the tails but I won’t complain because they kept the day interesting.  

I hope to get in one more trip before spending the rest of the fall back in the woods.

Aaron

 Sounds like a great day and nice job getting your buddy hooked on reds.  There is nothing like catching your first red, you are instantly hooked.  And your experience with those little trout is the very reason I started gluing my plastics to the jig head.  It doesn’t really help if they are eating the tail off, but if it stays on you can catch a wad without changing plastics. Thanks a lot for  the report and good luck in the woods this fall, will be looking forward to some good pics.

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I did want to clear up something that might have been confusing, I never thought about it at the time.  The Colby I met at Academy years ago is a young gun who is now guiding on the bay.  He is a great fisherman and can put them in the boat.

The other Colby is Colby Sorrels.  That Colby is responsible for much of the technical and practical information we have gotten on the tides.  From now on to reduce any confusion young Colby (The guide.) will stay Colby, and Colby Sorrells (The outdoor writer.) will be Colby S.  We are so fortunate to have his input as he is a well respected outdoor writer and author who has written for Gulf Coast Fisherman for decades.  (Outing his age just a little!)  I consider it an honor that he elevates this blog with his every comment.

He is also the author of Flyfisher’s Guide to the Texas Coast: Includes Light Tackle (Flyfisher’s Guides), which is available on Amazon.com.  Along with flyfishing it covers conventional tackle.  The book includes a wealth of information including tons of stuff on the entire coast in detail, with information on each specific area. He lists the fly shops, outfitters, charter captains, marinas, accommodations, and much more. There are 60 detailed maps showing every bay, cover, harbor, reef, island, park, marina, and boat launch. There are also seasonal fishing charts showing the peak seasons for each species of fish. Not sure where else you can get this great information in one place, but even if you don’t fly fish, it you travel the coast this a great reference.  So thanks again Colby S., we are honored that you take the time to help us all out.  And looks like you had a great trip to Hackeberry.  Gotta’ get there myself some day!

https://www.amazon.com/Flyfishers-Guide-Texas-Coast-Tackle/dp/1932098666

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All I have to say it man the fishing is good on the salt.  The reds are really on the move and with cooling nights it will only get better.  Some of the Austin boys will be down for a long weekend early November and I am looking forward to fishing a couple of days with them.   I still have not made up my mind where I will be fishing while the Boss is out of town, it is so weather dependent.  Nice to be flexible enough to make a decision on that as late as  possible.  I will be on the water Friday so keep stopping in and thanks for reading my stuff.

Good Luck and Tight Lines