FISH CATCHING TRAVEL

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I did not get in a real hurry this morning but managed to get on the water at 9am.  The first thing I noticed was the tide was rolling out.  So when combined with the natural river flow, and a 15 mph wind blowing right down the river, I was hauling butt floating down.  It is the kind of day that will try your patience, tough to fish.

Since I had some great blow ups on topwater yesterday it was up first.  I started down river where I caught them and had some super blow ups.   There was one shallow point you could not see on a long deep bank unless you noticed it on your locator, and there are some really nice reds on it.  And boy oh boy did I have some bites.  It was almost mesmerizing to see those big fish materialize out of nowhere.  You would think a guy who has caught lots of them would not feel that way, but they were big and the bites/misses were epic.  Why those big fish are here and not gone out the jetties I don’t know but they are surely old enough and big enough.

If I had to guess I had 6 really big ones blow up on it, roll on it, chase it to the boat, but none hooked up.  It would have been better if I had changed baits earlier, but it was just awesome.  After making several passes on both sides of the river without boating, or even having, a trout blow up, it was time to throw spinnerbait and catch one of those reds, and the one below made the commitment.

Hooked 1 out of 5 or 6 who missed the topwater, but lots like this on plastics.

After catching a good one, and several smalls, I was on a shallow bank way down by the bay and I started getting the trout bites on the spinnerbait.  You can always tell, the quick jerk/tap.  So after spending way to much time trying to catch these guys it was time for plastics and to see if the trout are really in there.

The first thing I had to do was go to a heavier, in this case a “heavy” 1/8th jig head to compensate for the current, tide, and wind.  When they are getting after it you had to throw a little downstream and maybe get 4 hops before you were past your cast.  It was just a little tough to deal with.  So I motored back up the bank to where the spinnerbait bites started and it was game on.  As the tide fell they were up against the grass and feeding on what looked like small finger mullet.  As they were coming over the side they were puking baitfish all over the boat.  A pearl/dark back 4″ paddle tail was the preferred bait, seemed to match the hatch.  I probably fished a mile without lifting the trolling motor.

   And a limit was no problem, but catching one over 16″ was no bueno.

Not sure how many I caught down river but it was plenty, most in the 14″ – 16″ range.  I don’t think I even had a bigger one on.  But once I went to plastics exclusively the rat reds were also plentiful and willing.  Then about 1:00 the water quit moving.  And with it the big bite.  Funny how you can re-fish a bank you just caught 15 or 20 and not get a bite.  So it was time to head back up river and see if some of the places I have caught them in the past held a few.

One of the better banks did not produce a bite so I tried another, and they were there.  And again like down below they were against the grass, especially if there was a pocket or a cut in the grass.  Once the wind laid later in the afternoon it got a lot easier to fish and they bit pretty consistently until I quit at 4:00.  I was surprised by a couple of things.  First, not boating a few bigger trout, but I figure that will come with colder weather.  Second, that one bunch of reds was big, bigger than I have found in the river in the past.  And last, no flounder.  With a good 3 hours fishing a falling tide on grass edges it is almost always a recipe for flounder.  That may have just been luck, they are surely in there.

So what to take away from today.  They are in the creek/river and are catchable. While a real whooper cold front would help tremendously, the fishing is good enough to go.  It should be the same way on the Lavaca.  It may takes a little more work to find them, but find them and they will bite.  So we have the window to catch them, only time and weather will tell how the rest of the fall shapes up, and how long the bite lasts.

River fishing out of the boat is fun.  As I said yesterday it can be described as a hybrid style which fits me well.  A side benefit of fishing down river was seeing flocks of geese, ducks rising out of the marsh, and the Sandhills making their racket.  All in all a great day to be on the water.  The only downside to the day was having the bait break on my Penn spinning reel.  Oh well, broken things comes with the territory if you fish enough.

Not sure what is next, but as long as the wind does not howl it will be back to the bay and wading.  I have a little work to do on equipment and will be ready to go on Monday.  And of course there is weekend football.  Arkansas has the Coon Asses from LSU tonight.  Our season is over in the bigger sense, but we always play them well so it should be a real game.  A&M has Ole Miss and a chance for some redemption.  It will be interesting to see if they can recover from that devastating loss last week.  And the Cowboys see if they can continue their winning ways.  So keep stopping in and thanks for reading my stuff.

Good Luck and Tight Lines