Fish Catching Travel
One of the New Year’s resolutions I made was to fish with at least 5 people I have not fished with before. I have easily passed that. And after I got that done I started thinking about just asking some random person if they wanted to go fishing. Well last week when I was taking out at Coleto I saw a guy at the ramp who was fishing off the pier. We chatted and he told me he was camping there for the month. He had been fishing from the bank with a green Zoom Fluke and was catching fish most times he fished. So I asked him if he wanted to go sometime, and yesterday we got to fish the day away.
Brian Westfall is a former resident of Victoria who is currently living in Arizona. He is back in the area to see family. He arrived at the ramp at daylight, right on time which I love, and in a couple of minutes we were off. We started up lake and of course I started with a buzzbait. Though we had a couple of hits and caught 4 it was slow. The lake was still dropping, and the night had been cool, and there was little activity. Like I said in my last Coleto report, in the fall I look for those calm banks with sun on them. They are usually the most productive in the afternoon. As it was slow I decided to just hit some places from one end to the other, and to return late afternoon up lake.
Both Brian and I caught one here or there. I caught this one just past the bridge on the Strike King Anaconda. Basically just swimming it with a 1/8th ounce slip sinker pegged to the head of the wom.
No giant, but I love the average size you catch on the swimming the Anaconda.
We basically hunted and pecked catching one here and there on fluke, buzzbait, and worm. There are still best related to the points, and I believe as long as the water keeps dropping, they will want easy access to deep water. Falling like that just seems to make them nervous.
I think we caught about a dozen when mid afternoon we headed back up lake. Once we got there the shad were flipping on the calmer warm banks. Brian threw his fluke and I went to a balsa topwater minnow. For the rest of the afternoon until dark they bit better and better.
I guess the reason I am smiling so big here is I was real glad to catch this guy. About 2 casts before this I had one a whole lot bigger than this one break my line, boy I hate that.
As light began to fade they really started biting and we boated a bunch. Brian may have set the record for the smallest bass I have ever seen caught on a fluke, they were about the same size. We finished on a point up lake and I missed a good one. The next cast I had one really eat it, and he broke me off. Then I got lucky and got the one above a couple of casts later.
They definitely wanted that minnow bait twitched under about 2″, a gentle twitch, and then they were grabbing it below the surface. You had to watch real close. And since the hooks on that bait are so small, you have to be real careful fighting them so they do not pull off. But you pay the price like I did when you don’t put enough pressure on the that they can get around something and break you off. Additionally, I am using the topwater on 15lb. test, it allows for a more subtle presentation and does not detract from the action. And the baits I am using right now are just 4″, a good shad match. And finally on that, this is the exact same bait I used so successfully from January until April. It was killer and I hope this is a sign of things to come.
So what a fun day. Brain is great company, and we shot the bull all day. He likes to fish and it was nice to have someone in the boat who is so interested in learning. When I made a suggestion about using a bait, he immediately did it, and he caught more fish as the day went on. We never did whack a big one, but maybe tomorrow. One of the great things about fishing, there is always tomorrow and one more cast.
Some random photos.
Here is a couple of pictures Clyde sent me off our Falcon trip, and a little somthing for the freezer.
Good Luck and Tight Lines.
