Fish Catching Travel
Though I have a new post for the lake I will get to that when I tell you about today. Since I had not been to the Gulf lately due to the wind, it looked promising, so I headed to the Powderhorn for some spinnerbait fishing. The plan was to find them shallow back in the little back lake on the south side of the Powderhorn. According to a guy I talked to on the water, it is called the Mailbox.
The wind was forecast at 10 – 15 out of the ESE but it seemed to be straight out of the east and was blowing at least that hard right down the Powderhorn. When I got to the back lake it was pretty off colored, which I should have figured out with the rain we had last night. So down went the trolling motor and as soon as I entered the lake, the bank on the left had a little pocket that was dead calm, and there were mullet everywhere. I promptly caught this one . As I have often said, the way a redfish hits a Redfish Magic is a thing of beauty.
This guy was a couple of inches over.
I was throwing the Redfish Magic in the croaker color. The tail looks like a lit up redfish tail, and it was simply a matter of throwing to the grass and cranking it out. One more small one came over the side there, then I just kept working the whole pocket. I caught another small one in the back end, and another small one by the duck blind. Before I headed out I re-fished where I caught the first couple, and this one jumped on.
This one knocked the snot out of it. Notice the blue tail on that Redfish Magic, looks just like the tail of lit up redfish.
I then fished the bank on the south side of the Powderhorn from the shallow lakes on the left heading all the way back to the back lake . I missed a couple which felt like flounder. After having plenty of bites it is easy to tell when it is a flounder. They grab it, but as you know they have a tendency to pull off. If you get one on the spinnerbait just keep a nice steady retrieve and they just might stay on. But I was sure they were flounder bites, and it turned out they were. Nothing like fresh fried flounder. To bad I know absolutely nothing about catching flounder. I do know when the tide is high, and until it really begins to drop, the flounder love those grass edges with a little deeper water close.
16″ of delicious, and he was the guest of honor at supper right before I wrote this.
By now the wind had a head of steam and it was pretty choppy. I stopped at a stake on that bank that marks an oyster bar and caught a 14″ trout off the end of it. It was on a 1/8th ounce jig head with a electric chicken colored paddle tail. That was the last trout I would see, in fact I am not sure I had another bite from a trout. Later I did one drift, but the wind was just blowing that skiff to quickly, and by then I had absolutely no confidence as far as the trout went.
I finished up the day catching another red which was exactly 20″, good thing that flounder was on ice or that red would have been toast, or maybe on toast. So for the afternoon I caught 6 reds, 1 trout and 1 flounder. It could have been a lot better, but I was happy with the reds, and it could have always been worse. The tide was high and it just did not seem the water was moving. The bites were just one here and one there. But no matter what, there are always reds to be caught in the Powderhorn. Today I could not fish the north side leading to the pocket before the bridge. That is one of my favorite redfish banks in the Powderhorn. But whether it is the Powderhorn, POC, Keller Bay, or any other bay on the coast, find some grass near the bank and a little deep water, and you can find the reds. Today I was hoping the water would start falling out of the grass, but the it just did not happen.
I met a guy at the ramp told me a friend of his had 18 trout yesterday, but only 2 this morning. Of course with the wind the way it was, fishing the open lake was not practical, and I saw few people fishing. I did talk with a guy on the water who had been there 3 or 4 days and had only boated one 19″ red and no trout. As usual it is just a matter of who you talk to.
Coleto 4/26/13.
Friday I had to do a little bunk work on the trailer, and since I did not want to trailer to far until it got done, I headed to Coleto. I started in the first big cove in the Coleto arm, and with it fairly calm and cloudy, I decided to start with the buzzbait. On my second cast this girl whacked it.
Not a bad start.
As I knew it was not going to be a long day, I decided to stay with the buzzbait. And like we talked about last time, I tried to make the fish do what I wanted, which was to catch a big fish. So I buzzed my butt off for 5 hours, and though I caught a bunch, none topped the one above. But I did get the bite I was looking for, unfortunately she missed it by a mile.
The fish seemed to be a little more bunched up, if you caught one, you caught a couple. The best bank was a lilly pad field up the lake. As I neared the point a really great fish rolled on the buzzbait right next to the boat. That was the bite I was looking for and though she just did not hook up, it was an awesome sight.
So even though I did not land the big one, it was not a bad way to spend the morning. I did want to shoot a little video, so I decided as soon as I caught several in a row that I would put the camera on. I stopped at a main lake flat with some shallow pockets above the bridge in the Coleto arm, and immediately caught 5 in short order. So on went the camera, and for the next hour of the battery life I put exactly none on film. In fact I only had one bite in that hour. So that ended my short trip to Coleto. While catching those bass the last few weeks has been fun, it was great to get back to the salt, and I intend to keep it up.
Random Thoughts
When I got to the ramp at Coleto I met Rusty, who I have communicated a little in the past on the blog. He has been fishing Coleto some, but his home lake is Fayette. He reported pretty good catches on the swim jig, including 16 the day before we chatted. It was nice to hear his kind comments on the blog, puts a real face to those numbers. So if you see me out there give me a shout out.
I also heard from Don who said reading my stuff, and then attending a seminar where the pro talked about the swim jig, got him to try them. He gets around to several lakes and is catching fish on it, some of them pretty good fish. And while he likes the Rage Craw, he has had good luck on the Yum Wooly Bullie. I looked it up and it looks like a lot of the beaver style baits. Not only would it be good on a swim jig, but also looks like a good pitching and flipping bait. Being a sucker for tackle, next time I come across one at the store I will grab a bag and let you all know how it works.
Tomorrow I am headed to Texana in spite of my best interest. My only trip there resulted in a catfish, and not another bite. I can not remember the last time I went bass fishing and did not catch even one fish. But Aaron is determined to show me how it is done, and hopefully he will.
It was nice to catch some reds yesterday. Things have conspired to keep me at the lake a little more than normal, but feeling the thump of a good red on that spinnerbait reminded me why I love them so much. And it can not be long before it warms and stays that way, which will surely get those trout in full swing. For the love of god, this is South Texas, almost May 1, and it looks like we will have temps in the 40’s Thursday night. Hopefully these next couple of fronts will bring more rain, we need it.
So thanks for reading my stuff. After Texana tomorrow, it will be POC before the end of the week. I have a hankering for some fresh trout, who knows, I might even do a little wading. But no matter what I will be on the water because someone once said that time on the water is not subtracted from your life. If that is the case I might live to be 200 years old.
Good Luck and Tight Lines
