Had a chance to hit POC yesterday, and it was an interesting day. The wind was blowing out of the northeast at about 20 mph and is was a cool morning. When we got there the wind was blowing right down Saluria Bayou but the birds were diving everywhere.
We started out in the mouth of Oil Cut #1, and headed in, and the birds were working the whole area pretty good. We basically drifted back in, and there seemed to be trout in most of it. I managed to catch maybe 2 that were keepers, and my friend Chris managed 1. We caught quite a few in there, but most were small. All of them on plastics. But one thing that became evident immediately was that I had the right plastic, and that kept up for the rest of the day.
The 4″ Soft minnow in the Electric Chicken – The bait of the day.
This was clearly it. So a few words about this particular plastic. I like it for a couple of reasons. First, it is fairly tough and you can catch several fish on it before they tear it up. Second, it is a little thinner. I believe that the reason it works so well is I throw it on 8lb. test, with a 1/16 jig head. It falls a lot slower, and has a great action. Of course when you are using lighter line, you will break a few more off, and the lady’s will also bite more of them off. I ended up going through almost a whole package, but if I have to use that many baits because they are eating it, I will suffer along. Enough about that, suffice to say the light line, light jig head, and it’s great action combined to catch fish.
We were headed to Big Pocket via the Saluria and when we were on the way there were lots of birds diving on Gross Reef so we made a stop. The water there was way off colored and we only managed a few trout until I picked up the popping cork, and it helped attract them so we caught a few more, and when the wind drifted us past them we left for Big Pocket.
Next we went to Big Pocket. We made one drift and I picked up a couple of rat reds, and I believe Chris picked up a trout or two. At this point the tide was out and we ran in to the point in the center of the pocket and jumped out. There was a small ditch leading from that point that was about 4 foot deep. I worked it over pretty good, and managed to take 5 more rat reds, and 2 really nice flounder out of there. Mike headed out to the edge of the reef and managed one good trout.
If you see small “puffs” of mud be sure to throw it in there, and if you don’t get a bite, drag it.
I caught both those flounders dragging it through “puffs” of mud. They gave themselves away, and I probably should have had a couple of more. It is hard sometimes to let them eat it when our natural inclination is to set the hook. After we worked it over, we headed up into Lighthouse to make a couple of drifts out.
We started in really shallow water there and drifted out. Here we caught several. Now during this time it was really becoming evident that the plastic I was using was the ticket. Chris tried lots of different things, and caught fish, but hands down it was that MirrOlure 4″ Soft Minnow. One thing we noticed here, as in the first couple of places we went, was they were in the clearer water, the usual for trout.
This turned out to be the best of the day, though I did catch one more later about like it in the bay between the Saluria and Grass Island.
We basically caught trout almost everywhere we fished. Like it has been for me it was a matter of wading through the little ones. Now we were not keeping fish Monday, but by time we headed back to the Saluria and behind Grass Island we had probably caught about a one limit or so, not bad for a morning. When we got back there there were pods of birds diving in the whole area. We made multiple drifts, catching some here and there but just did not seem to have them down. At this point I did not have any of my bait left, so I tied on a dark Tsunami with a chartreuse tail, and Chris also went with a darker bait.
We moved to the channel leading to Grass Island and made a drift down along the stakes leading to Grass Island. The fish were there. We caught a bunch, lots of small ones, but had one of those moments where it was a bite on every cast for awhile. They seemed to be in the channel more than out in the bay. By this point it was time to call it a day so we headed in.
All in all a good day. As we were not keeping fish I can not tell you how many keepers we caught, but it was enough for me. I wish I was not out of baits, but it was interesting once we switched to darker colors we started catching them pretty good. So who knows whether it was the place, the time of day, or we just missed the other color. Either way there is nothing like catching them fairly consistently most of the places we went. Of course we had some slow times, but we did not blank anywhere we tried.
So what is next? I am headed to Coleto Creek as soon as I publish this to see if I can get in on an afternoon bite. After that I am headed to Lost Wages for a couple of days. When I get back it is time to move to a few other places, look at some different water, and hopefully find some more fish. I appreciate you all reading my stuff. And please take the poll at the bottom on the left hand side. I want to write about things you want to read about, so let me know.
Good Luck and Tight Lines.
