Fish Catching Travel
Normally I write about things in the order they happened, but today it will be backwards. Why? Because I was so tired both days I just did not get anything written, sorry.
Saturday Duck Hunting
Saturday I went with my friend Chris and his wife for the duck opener. Having been up early Friday to fish POC, I was in bed at 9 Friday so I could be up at 4 to head to his lease.
Chris and his friends got a duck lease this year, and have hurried to get it prepped. With several ponds to fill, and work to do, they just got it ready. He already placed a bench in some cattails in one of the ponds and that is where we put out the decoys. They ducks were flying before shooting time, and we were hoping for a good day. It did not happen.
There were lots of teal, and though we had a few come to the decoys, they were not committing. We ended up shooting one duck – one. What a bummer with such high hopes. What made it worse was the continued gunshots from his friend Clay’s lease next door, we could only listen and wonder. Finally we called it day and met Clay for some Mimosa’s. One of their parties killed 31 ducks!
I think the issue was that Clay’s lease has been established, and worked for ducks, for 13 years. Chris’s new lease has just been filled last month. It will probably take some more work and time to get the ducks to use it regularly. But no matter, it was beautiful morning and before the season is out we will kill them. At least that is what I tell myself every fall when I have to crawl out of bed at 4 in the morning.
Friday POC
The wind was blowing about 10 mph out of the north when I started fishing Friday morning about 7:30. Initally I was headed to Indianola but changed my mind based on all the rain some areas got. But when I put the trolling motor in the water in Big Bayou I was not all that happy with the color.
Starting with topwater, I fished 2 banks and ended up catching 3 small trout. There were a few others that were willing during the day but just did not get hooked up. They were chasing, boiling, and just generally messing with it, and of the 5 or 6 I caught on top half were hooked crazy.
This happened 3 or 4 times today. They boiled it without committing.
So I decided to fish Oil Cut #2 because even when the water tends to be off colored everywhere it is usually fairly clear. The Oil Cut is a very consistent, never great, place to fish. I caught several more trout on top, and also a couple of reds in there on top. I also caught a couple on Electric Chicken paddle tails. Most of the fish in there were on banks with no wind. That did turn out to be somewhat of a pattern for the rest of the day. Find the calm areas and there were fish feeding on mullet.
While in the Oil Cut a school of what initially looked like rays swam by the boat, but they turned out to be black drum. There was a wad of them, so flipped a paddle tail in the midst of them, let it sink, set the hook, and there was one.
Not bad eating, fun to catch, but way to much of a hassle to clean.
A couple of casts later I caught another one a little smaller. At this point while I was catching fish but they were not adding up to much. One quick note, looking back on the last couple of fall and winter fishing I have noticed that purple really comes in to it’s own then, and they liked it Friday, so give it a try. It seems the colder it gets the more they like it. So then I eased to the back end and started throwing a Redfish Magic for reds when I caught this guy.
I catch one of these occasionally on spinnerbait. Good to know they are out there and growing.
From about noon for the rest of the day I kept throwing spinnerbait and both trout and reds were eating it.
Most of the reds I caught were like this, big rats that were close to keepers.
At this point everything was eating the Redfish Magic.
While I do catch trout on the spinnerbait, it is not the bait of choice for them, but everything was eating it today. And all the fish were coming from calm water on shallow flats with grass.
Let me give you one quick tip on fishing a Redfish Magic in the grass. When you cast that spinnerbait be sure to throw it into the edge of the grass, it rarely gets hung, and you can reel it out. Often when you shake that grass those reds eat it the minute it breaks free, and it is one cool bite. And be sure to throw it into any pocket or cut, and to any point. And today with the water way up on those really shallow banks there often was open water behind the grass. Toss it in those pools and hang on. They may be tough to get out, but that is the real fun of it!
That is a little more like it!
I finished the day fishing nothing but real shallow grass, some of the places in Barroom are normally not even accessible at low tide, but this tide was super high. Remember when the tide does flood those areas be sure to look shallower than you normally might. When they move into those areas they are there for one reason, to eat, and they are usually catchable.
So for the day the total was 12 trout, 13 reds, 2 black drum and a small grouper. While not fast and furious it was steady all day and got better with the high tide. Of the 13 reds, 9 came in the last couple of hours. With the number of trout I caught on the spinnerbait there is one bait I did not use and should have, a spoon. With the massive mullet run going on it may have really been the ticket. The spoon may really be on right now and if you are out there give it a chance.
So sorry again for the late report. When I burn the candle at both ends to spend time in the outdoors it can be hard to sit down and write. I appreciate you all stopping in, keep those cards and letters coming, I love your comments. Thanks for reading my stuff.
Good Luck and Tight Lines
