Fish Catching Travel
You got to love this weather. From blowing 25mph+ one day to dead calm the next, you never know. But once I saw the weather report for Thursday POC was the plan for the day. My last few trips to the POC area have made one thing abundantly clear, the trout are just not in their usual spring haunts, at least not for me. The areas that were holding lots of nice fish last year have just not produced. And today was no different.
When I got to Froggie’s the color of the water in the barge canal reminded me of the Skunk River in Iowa, nice and dirty. Barge traffic was heavy and there was lots of floating grass. When I got to Big Bayou it was not much better. An hour later, with not even a bite, it was time to head for the Oil Cut area and see if the water was any clearer. It took about 5 minutes before I put my first trout in the boat
17″ of supper!
The wind was light out of the south and blowing out of the Oil Cut. When I got there around noon the fish were biting. While I threw several different plastics, and dark plumb with a chartreuse paddle tail in the 3″ was the bait of choice. The wind was blowing out of the cut perfect to take me down the bank. The trout were on the second or third hop of the bait off the bank. After my first drift, where I caught 5 or 6, I headed back in to drift again when I saw a coyote in the edge of the water.
The tide was down and there was a crab trap sitting in about 6 inches of water. That coyote was trying to get what ever was in the trap. I stopped the boat, and since I had the small camera, I was only able to get the picture below. And then the battery went dead ending the picture taking for the day.
This guy was booking after I stopped to watch him try to rob a crab trap.
To bad I didn’t have the big camera because when I first noticed him he had his nose stuck in the trap. He was just not having it when the boat stopped, and back on the island he went.
My second drift fishing the bank resulted in about the same number of trout. Of the dozen or so I caught in there, probably 5 were keepers. I kept 2 for supper and released the rest. Both of the kept were 17″, and I did not catch any bigger. Most looked to be border line. And though I tried several colors, it was that dark paddle tail, maybe due to the off colored water. And I did toss the topwater some, though nothing took a pass at it. We need the water to clear and warm just a little. And incidentally, the water temp was only 69 degrees when I got to the ramp. A far cry from where it normally is this time of year.
There were a few reds on both sides of the cut, but only a small one managed to hook up. Several others took a pass at the Redfish Magic without getting hooked up. And with my superior skill I did manage to lose a really big flounder when I got in to much of a hurry. It really sucks when they only have their teeth in the plastic, and finally think to open their mouth and off they come.
On my way in I stopped at 2 of my go-to places for trout, and did not have a bite. This has been the weirdest spring in the 5 years I have lived here. But change is coming, it is warm again today, and the forecast looks great. And when I was putting the boat on the trailer I saw a 2 guys with the a couple of the biggest King Fish I have seen down here. Not sure where they came from, but there are Spanish at the jetties, so looks like things are heating up.
Guiding
The 70’s and 80’s when I was guiding were some of the best times of my life. I am not sure I was mature enough to really understand, but looking back on it now, it was a cool time. What got me to thinking about that was a young guy I know was telling me a friend of his, who I know, was thinking about taking up guiding. This young guy is a really good fisherman, and catches fish in both fresh and salt, a good thing. So what is the advice to this young guy?
Do it. There will never be a better time. It has no 401K, no dental or medical, no paid vacation, in fact, it has absolutely no benefits other than spending your days in the outdoors. So now is the time, before kids, wife, house payments, and all that comes with maturity, to start. And being competant at both salt and fresh will greatly increase your potential to make money.
But there is one real important factor to consider, there is a big difference in being a good fisherman and being a good guide. While not mutually exclusive, they work together hand in hand, you need to be good at the fishing to be a good guide. But guiding is providing a service, it just happens to be the service is fish, but it is still a service industry. You get great fishermen, terrible fishermen, and people who need to go back to the dock to the bathroom 2 minutes after you drive 10 miles to start fishing. People will say things like a customer, who I just detested, told me after leaving with filets from 83 fish – “I will be back when the fishing is better.” And of course there is always the power head coming apart, the new props, broken rods, and on and on. Believe me the job is work.
But for a young man there is never a better time. And with hard work it really is possible to make a living, but it takes years of work to get there. But when you pick them up in the morning, start catching at the first place, then the next, then they catch the biggest fish of their life, it is all good. You only live once so go for the gusto.
Tonight it is off to Coleto to hopefully shoot a couple of Tilapia. Not only are they great table fare, they are awesome cut bait for jugs. Jeffish has been wanting to run a few jugs, so we will get bait one way or the other to set a few jugs for big cats. It is always fun to head out first thing in the morning to see what you have caught. And with our last experiment using cut Tilapia for bait being so successful, there should be some nice big catfish waiting for us in the morning.
Next it is back to the Gulf. I have really been wanting to hit Keller Bay, and with some calm weather the water should clear and heat up. Keller is still one of my favorite redfish areas on the coast and I am needing a redfish fix. And if the wind is not to bad I may just put in at Indianola and motor over hitting a couple of the rigs out in the bay on the way. They should be holding trout right now. So keep stopping in, the assault on the saltwater is beginning. Thanks for reading my stuff.
Good Luck and Tight Lines
