I got to fish a day with one of my readers, Todd Martin out of Austin. He was a good guy who has just really got back into fishing after a few years of not getting to go much. It was nice to fish out of someone else’s boat, nice not having to wash and flush, it takes at least a half hour to get this done, and so I got home, rinsed off my wading stuff and I was done.
We started off fishing from the boat in the area of I have been catching them, which is a deeper place in Big Bayou, after what for me was a late start. I am usually one of the first ones to the ramp, but yesterday we started about 10.
My fish had definitely moved as we were only able to catch a couple of keepers there. So we started hunting and pecking. The tide was low, and I use the term lightly, as it was already up in the grass. The water started moving about noon, but not a ripping tide, more of a slow rise.
Using plastics, in almost every color, we caught about 15 here and there, but nothing to write home about. One of the places we checked was the north shoreline in Barroom Bay. We had a bite or two, but it did not seem to promising. Now that was the point were I could have made the right decision, but I didn’t. There were schools of glass minnows everywhere, and that should have tipped me off.
We then decided to throw spinnerbait awhile, and that turned out to be another bad choice. We had not bites from redfish, which was to bad as I wanted him to catch a good red. Now during the day we caught 3 or 4, but just rats.
At this point I decided we needed to wade. We fished a couple of bars in that area, and while we could catch one or two, again they were not what we needed. So I decided to fish the small channel leading out of Big Bayou near the second to last island leading into Barroom. We caught 4 or 5, but still not what we were looking for. It was about 7 when we decided to move again, and I finally dawned on my thick skull, with all those glass minnows on the far bank in Barroom where we checked before, that is where we needed to go.
We headed across Barroom to the north bank, we headed to where you can see the big condo on the Intercoastal from Barroom. That turned out to be the only good decision I made all day. In a day where I just did not fish all that well, we managed to have one good run before the day was over.
The 2 best for the day.
And when we got there I figured that if they are chasing those small glass minnows, it is time to match the hatch. I got out a small lightly tinted blue clear minnow body with flake in it. They really liked it. As the sun started to go down, the fish really started to bite. They bit literally until it was to dark to see.
Both of us caught fish wading less than wasted deep. As the sun got lower and lower the schools of minnows came up and so did the trout. Now I had thrown topwater off and on all day without success, and should have thrown it then, but I was to lazy to walk back to the boat to change rods when the fish were biting. There was none of that light bite thing, they were eating it. I guess that clear flake provided just the right amount of flash in those schools of minnows to trigger them into biting.
Todd caught at least 10 and I easily caught a dozen or more. And when they were going it was a bite on every cast for about a half hour. They quit when it was dark, and I mean totally dark.
So it was a good day, though we only ended up with 7 keepers. Totally we caught about 35 trout, with many just on the line. I try to have the following policy with trout, keeps down the interaction with the wardens, if you have to see if it measures, throw it back. It either makes it easy or it doesn’t, and so why tempt fate.
I enjoyed fishing with Todd, he is a good guy and was a pleasure to spend the day with. I wished I had fished better, and the fish would have been a little bigger. But Todd wanted to see the area, and learn enough to come back and fish it on his own, and I think we got that done, and I hope he enjoyed it as much as I did.
So today it is off to Coleto Creek. It has been a couple of weeks since I was there, so I am looking forward to seeing how the fishing has changed, and to maybe put a big one in the boat. So thanks again for reading my stuff. I enjoy hearing from you so let me know what you think on anything, your comments are appreciated.
Good Luck and Tight Lines.
