Fish Catching Travel
The weather was still slated to be cool with the wind out of the north, it did not disappoint. As Shoedog had called off his fishing trip with friends we decided to hit Coleto before he headed back to College Station. And just a random comment here: It is just plain crazy, 98 degrees when we fished Monday, and a cool 50 barely hitting 70 here today. What the heck is up with this weather?
And though there was a cold front, we had clouds and a nice breeze, making spinnerbait our bait of choice. We had such a good day yesterday that we were looking to get off to a fast start. We did. In fact, before we even left sight of the ramp and campground we put exactly a dozen in the boat in just over an hour.
A good representative of today’s fish.
We fished from the very upper end to around the dam. The best banks were windy with grass and a little deeper water nearby. Off course any point with a swing had at least one. We ended up switching today, Shoedog fished buzzbait and I threw the spinnerbait.
On occasion instead of the big bladed spinnerbait I usually throw I like to throw the Strike King Burner. It is a double willow and when combined with it’s head design, it comes to the top easily. It is hard to describe the subtle difference between buzzing a spinnerbait on top and burning one in right below the surface. Sounds the same huh? The difference is buzzing leaves a big wake while running it along with a 5.3 -1 reel and burning is just high speed running the spinnerbait right below the surface with a 7 -1. While buzzing is a good technique much of the time, for burning to work the fish have to be on the feed, like post-spawn, and the weather has to cooperate.
You know you have a bite when a bass this size stops a high speed spinnerbait in it’s tracks.
For the morning it turned out to be an easy 30. Both the spinnerbait and buzzbait worked equally. And as they both attract in different ways it is a great time to throw both baits. There are only few times you can run a spinnerbait as fast as I was today. And it is a thing of beauty when they bite, as they just stop it. And it was way cool to have a few smack it right at the boat.
The lake is still down, and for whatever reason the grass has not really started to grow like in years past. We will just have to see how it shapes up. It was clear how important the grass was to the current pattern. Combine the wind with grass and there were fish, grass without wind and you could still catch one, but wind no grass – no bass. If all that makes sense.
Funny how often a good bite coincides with wildlife movement. To bad I did not have the big camera with us today. We saw tons of deer, turkey, pigs and God know’s what else. Stuff was moving around just like the bass.
At least they weren’t there for us.
When we got back the house it was a little work on the boat. Amazing how often stuff needs attention. And that attention in both cases involved switches and connections. Salt and corrosion are a constant issue on the Gulf, and when something quits working that is where you need to start. We almost got it all resolved, pick up a new switch and all will be right with the world.
Yesterday got me thinking about how to use the trolling motor most effectively. A trolling motor is not just a gadget to get you down the bank. It is part of your presentation, a critical part. Fishing high speed baits requires you to cover lots of water, but still maintain good position. Right now perfect is staying in around 8 foot of water and fishing grass edges. And to give both fishermen a good chance to catch fish it required spacing your baits in a pattern overlapping each other. By doing that we were able to catch around 50 the last 2 half days on Coleto. That is good fishing by any standard. So keep in mind what you are trying to accomplish when you are fishing, and use your trolling motor accordingly.
The Captain of Team Nancy starts a week off tomorrow and we should be near some water or beach somewhere. I have not seen any beach reports on trout, but may get a chance soon. The boys from Austin are at Matagorda this weekend, and I can not wait to get their report. Besides the big time I know they will have I hope they catch some fish. And Faye and her husband are down this weekend to flog them at POC, so I can not wait to get her report. To a few other of you folks I am trying to catch up on my emails. As the site has grown so have the emails, it has grown to at least 75 a day. I try to get to them all, and I read every comment I get. So keep stopping in and thanks for reading my stuff.
Good Luck and Tight Lines
