Fish Catching Travel
Before I get to yesterdays trip to Coleto I thought you might like to see this. We have finally got some rain the last couple of days that we sorely needed. After a little storm blew through this afternoon I looked out in the backyard to see how much water was standing around, and I saw this.
Nothing like this to make your day.
We just had all the trees trimmed last fall and they looked to be in good shape. There are a couple on the property that are in worse shape than this, but you never know. But if that is the cost of some rain we need so bad, so be it. Just one of the little joys of home ownership. Hope the guy who does the work doesn’t come tomorrow, I have fishing plans.
Coleto
Speaking of rain, it was raining pretty steady, but not that hard when I got up. Having had a pretty fair day the day before I got out the rain gear and headed to the lake. Now there is nothing like a plan coming together, to bad that did not happen.
I decided to hit the bank up by the plant where I caught a nice bunch and throw the buzzbait first thing. The very first point I had a big blowup which I missed, then one pulled it under and I managed to miss him. I finally got the hook in the third one.
All three of the bites were from fish this size.
Now it was time for my first mistake. I kept going down the same bank all the way to the plant, it seemed like the thing to do. I fished the whole thing without another bite on the buzzbait. What I should have done was immediately turned around and re-fished that area with a worm. So when that finally dawned on me I went back there, and caught one little one on the point, and re-fished it the whole way and caught another small one.
By now I finally realized that there was no water running like the other day. But it was till cloudy and raining off and on, so with all the cover in the area I switched to a frog. It took about 10 minutes to put this guy in the boat.
Not a bad one and she smoked it.
That was the good news. The bad news was that an hour later I had not had another hit on the frog other than a small one. At this point I put 5 in the boat, and only these 2 were worth a hoot. So it was time to start heading down lake and hitting points as I went.
The next point I stopped on was deep with standing timber on it. In the past it has been a good flippin point, so I decided at this point in the day it was definitely worm time. So I kept throwing the pumpkin Senko Texas style with a 1/4 ounce slip sinker. Another small one jumped on it, then I caught this one.
An ok one considering how slow it was.
That was the only bites I got on that bank, so I headed down to the deep point where I had my best fishing the day before. It is really deep with isolated grass on it and in the middle of the pocket next to it. It almost always holds fish, and my plan was to be up lake and finish there. To bad that did not happen. I fished the snot out of that point and grass bad and did not have a bite. Now at that point the sky was clear and the wind was not blowing. Over to the south I could see a big storm head coming my way, and then I heard the first thunder. So like the day before it was about noon and here it came.
I took off and made it to the ramp before the rain came. Unfortunately I did not get the straps and motor support on quick enough, and boy did I get wet. Of course I had already taken my rain suit off and put it in the back of the truck.
So for the morning it was 7 fish, and what you saw was the best of them. It just got slower and slower as the morning went on, it was almost a complete standstill when I quit. I wish I had fished it from downlake up to the plant, but oh well, you take what they give you. One thing is really clear right now, plastics on points near deep water is still the ticket. I guess I catch on the buzzbait and frog because I throw them a lot.
This time of year you have to pick your days, and the clouds and rain are great days for that type of stuff. But when it is clear, calm, and hot, stick with the plastics near deep water. And lastly, where they are is where they are. In other words if you get a bite or two slow down and work the area over with a couple of different presentations. It seems there is no scattered around pattern right now. Where they are not, they are not.
And a thanks to Faye for her kind comments. And congratulations on that big redfish at POC, that was a good one. To bad I deleted the pics you sent me the other day, brain fart I guess. And thanks to you to Todd, it was good to hear from you. As I moaned to you all last week I was kind of burned out, who would think that fishing could be this hard. It is funny how I felt lots of pressure when I used to guide, but the pressure to catch fish and post it here has been harder than I thought. A little time off has helped me to put it all in perspective. I love fishing, and I love talking, so what could be better than this. So thanks all of you for reading my stuff.
Good Luck and Tight Lines
