FISH CATCHING TRAVEL

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I just could not help myself!

I was feeling pretty good yesterday and had plans to do a couple of things, which did not include fishing, but by noon I finally could not take it any more.  About 1:00 there was not a leaf shaking on any tree and it was cool but nice and sunny, and the no wind thing was driving me nuts.  So without looking at the weather or tides I loaded up and headed to Keller Bay.  As this was an impromptu trip the conditions did not matter, I was going anyway.

It has been while since I fished there, but it is a lot easier to fish on a short day.  The ramp had a bunch of trucks and trailers  when I got there, obviously everyone else was enjoying the no wind thing.  My plan was simple – Wade the whole pasture/east bank.  That is a good bank as it is long, has a mix of grass, sand, and some shell, and usually holds both trout and reds.

There were 2 boats on it so I headed quite a ways down and ended up making 4 wades over the next 4 hours, slowly working the bank as others left.  To cut to the chase, when I jumped in it was freakin’ cold.  Our overnight temps in the 40’s cooled the water, and the light north wind had a bite to it.  I was hoping to throw topwater some, but that was obviously out, so it was all about working with the Controlled Descent Lures.

You have to give them their due, they are real fighters.

Today I had a full load of foam in my CDL, and was using a blackgold/limtreuse jerk shad on a 1/16th ounce wide gap 3/0 which had the bait at a slow drop.  If figured as cool as it was they were not going to be overly aggressive, and they weren’t. The reason I like that bank is you have so much varied structure shallow to where it drops out in the 3 – 4 foot range into about 5 depending on the tide.  It really gives you plenty of places to locate them.  You can usually catch one there somewhere if you can pinpoint where they are holding, it is one long bank.

Get Inhaled!

The water never did move much and the bite was slow.  First wade I missed one and caught a fish stick.  Next wade I lifted up on one, which I never felt bite, and the fight was on.  One thing about a black drum, it usually only takes a second before you figure out what you have, they love t0 bulldog, and on 8lb line are a great fight.

A nice one.

After no action I kept repositioning down the bank, as everyone else had left.  On the third wade I could see some mullet action so I waded towards them, it was a big mullet mud.  It reminded me of seeing big muds like that in Belize. So I got up in them and managed one nice trout and 2 more small ones.  It was not fast by any means, even with the sun shining there was no real warming happening, and the bites were subtle.  I might have missed one more there, but that was about it.

So one last move to my favorite spot on the bank resulted in one bite.  But is was a freakin’ bite!  I made a cast to shallow water and one just exploded on it.  When I set the hook water flew everywhere and off he went, and went, and went.  My thumb is getting fried, I am trying to head down the bank with him, but it is no contest.  I flat got spooled.  As I watched the line melt off the spool it was now or never, time to see if I could stop him.  Ha!  That went no where as I could see the spool and it popped like a rifle shot, and cleaning the fingerprint off my thumb.  One thing about Keller Bay, it has some big jacks, and this was one of those I was happy to break off, to bad he took about 75 yards of fluoro with him.  And that was the last bite of a short trip.

That was a $10 bite.

The water color reminded me of the lake right now, that brown, tanic looking water.  Obviously Keller had a big influx of rain water, and with the clear cool night in the 40’s really cooled off the shallow flat.  I ended up catching 3 small trout, one keeper, the black drum, missed a few and got spooled.  Not to bad considering I had not fished there in months and the little cold front had definitely knocked them down a little.  Nothing like a mile high sky, a temp drop, and a north wind to keep them off their feed.  But I was happy with the results for a 3 hour trip.

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Tomorrow I am fishing the lake with Jim, one of my readers from the Houston area.  One thing I hope to accomplish this year is fish with a few more of you.  Jim is a die hard bass fisherman, who like me is retired.  Anyone who is willing to get up and drive 2 hours to fish is a man with a touch of the fishing disease.  It is good that we will have some warming today, hopefully the lake will have cleared some.  And with some clouds in the morning we should have a good day. Today will be getting some things done for the Australia trip, hard to believe it is only 6 days away.  So stop in tomorrow and thanks for reading my stuff.

Good Luck and Tight Lines