Fish Catching Travel
I know I might be sounding like a broken record, but our weather is really dictating the fishing right now. We have lots of thunderstorms coming in off the Gulf. Some of them have big lightning and high winds, but I am not complaining as we are at least getting some rain out of them. The downside is when you combine these ongoing storms with our continued heat in the 100’s, it has kept me at the lake. But things are looking up, we have a couple of more days of these fronts left over from the hurricane that came ashore south of us in Mexico and it looks like Monday it might stabilize some, which will be nice so it will be worth hitting the Gulf.
Aaron and I left the morning plans open as it could have been either the Gulf or the lake. When I got up at 6 it was not raining, then it started. The radar had scattered storms coming ashore so I went ahead and met him at Coleto. Our first bank choice was the isolated patch of grass where I caught them last time. Aaron started with a Pop-R type bait, and of course I threw the frog. As we eased to the point of the mat I had a good one jump all over it and I put her in the boat. I didn’t take a picture of that one because I wanted to keep casting. And just like Monday they were absolutely exploding on the frog.
Still catching this size, which will do for hot summer fishing. Nice squint job I have going there.
One thing that became apparent, even though he was front ending me (just kidding) my bites were bigger and more numerous. He threw a white frog and I was still throwing that brown KVD frog. I even had one of those cool tarpon like bites where she exploded out of the water and came down on top of it. Though I didn’t hook up, it was a cool bite as the fish came completely out of the water.
They were completely hammering it this morning.
And again the fish would hit it both hopping it right along, and then a couple hit when I stopped it. I did notice that the ones that hit it when it was stopped were often where I threw at moving bait, hopped it couple of times, and then stopped it. By time we fished the whole mat we had a good 10 bites and boated 5 or 6, which is about the average hook up percentage. It was also deja vu all over again, again, and again. If you are on the right bank at daylight the bites are fast and furious, and by 9 a.m. it is over, no matter how many other places you try.
We left there and started hunting and pecking from down lake to a couple of banks up lake. Creature baits, worms, senko type, flipping, we did a little of all of it. Just like it has been we would pick one up here and there, but it was slow and by noon with the rising heat we called it a day. Of course catching none on the next to last bank, and 2 little ones on the last bank, had a lot to do with our quitting.
So I am not really sure what to tell you about Coleto right now. The only other report I have gotten is fishing is poor. Poor does say it all about anything after 9, so get out early. And one last piece of advice, with the water dropping steadily and the fish moving shallow first thing, they want to be secure in that they have protection. I think that is why they are positioned on isolated patches off the bank that are surrounded by water. I have had very few bites on long straight stretches of grass.
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I have been meaning to post this comment from Evan I got last week so here it is:
“Well I won’t complain about the weather, because we still need the rain in a bad way. However it did slow down my plans. Cancelled a trip to the salty waves and travelled to KS to visit family. My in laws have a small pond in their subdivision. It’s one of those places where you throw a leather boot in and catch some decent LMB. It’s my honey hole for everything an outdoorsman would want. Big LMB, oversized catfish, and more ducks and geese than I find in my dreams. It’s heaven – right in the middle of town – where I can’t fire a shot. (Maybe more like hell) At least I can chuck a lure! Caught a few nice ones. Ran a frog on top of the crap floating around and as soon as that bad boy would drop into open water – the water would explode! Frog fishing at it’s finest! Thanks for the report and the update! It was the perfect read while I wait on the next plane ride home.”
His comment is right on for me. The weather has kept me off the Gulf a few times lately, and there is nothing like the frog bite. So thanks for the comment Evan, it reminds me that the big lakes are not the only places to catch bass. Reminds me of getting on my bike and riding to any water I could find, just to catch a fish. I still have that problem. Thanks for your comment Evan, I appreciate it. So keep those cards and letters coming folks, we love to hear from you.
I did get a picture of a nice redfish on my phone from Chris, looks like he was in the process of having a good day. With my superior technological skill I managed to delete it immediately. Sometimes I wonder how I get this thing done. Shoedog is in Nebraska selling shoes at the state fair, (He is retired you know.) and he got a chance to do a little fishing and last I heard he caught a big catfish on a jerk bait. Since I did not hear anything else the rest of his outing was probably not that eventful.
The boss of Team Nancy has a long work stretch, the weather is going to straighten out on Monday, so it will be fishing with a vengeance. I look forward to fall and the gathering of the redfish. In my limited experience I have had my best luck on tailing redfish during this period. The prefect set of conditions is a low tide, either just about all out or just starting to come up on the rise, and it all comes together as it cracks daylight. Nothing like tails everywhere! So there will be some serious scratching of the Gulf itch the next couple of weeks. So keep stopping in and thanks for reading my stuff.
Good Luck and Tight Lines
