Fish Catching Travel
Strike King Lure Company – home of the Redfish Magic.
Our flooding may be done, but you can still see the effects of all that water and wind we have had the last 2 weeks. When I got to Froggie’s at daylight the water in the barge canal was off-colored, but the wind was not blowing and it was not raining. Yahoo!
The original plan was to wade but I got sidetracked and never did make it in the water. Of course I could not drive past Big Bayou on the way to the old Coast Guard ruins. It was dead calm so I decided to toss the small KVD topwater in a bone color. It was a bank or two before I had my first bite, and it was a 17” trout. (Note; 2 keepers went in the cooler for supper so no dead trout pictures.) I ended up having 6 blow ups in the Bayou, all on the shallow grass side, at the end of the small islands.
The tide was really high when I got there, and was to top out around noon, so it stayed high all day. Of the 6 hits I caught 4 and 3 measured, and it was number 3’s lucky day, I had my 2 for supper. (Which I just ate and were fabulous.) I did have something happen that may have happened before, I just did not know it. As I worked the topwater out of the grass a nice big red jumped all over and I missed him when I jerked. The plug hopped in the air and landed and one of those trout smashed it. Cool. I did not throw anything else in there and left for the Oil Cut.
Rounding the bend in the Saluria there was a sight not often seen, millions upon millions of what I think were good size Menhaden on the surface for probably a half mile. It was something, they were thick. If you are heading offshore or to the jetties you need to stop there, one throw of the cast net and you probably would have hard time lifting it back in the boat. But I digress.
I could not get them to bite a topwater as the sun was full up and it was almost dead calm. So time to catch a redfish.
A nice 24′ red on the Strike King Redfish Magic.
The first cast with a brand new Redfish Magic resulted in a great bite, and my line broke where the mono joined the braid. So out came a new one and off I went. It was real important to throw it right into the grass as the water was so high. The guy above came on one crank off the grass. Before I decided to trout fish I caught a rat, and missed a couple of trout I saw roll on the spinnerbait.
I then threw some plastics with absolutely no success. With the water a little off-colored even there it was time for the popping cork and Rage Shrimp. I was using a light brown with a Chartreuse tail about 18″ below the cork. Though I caught 5 or 6 in there none measured. So it was time to head to the Coast Guard ruins and wade. Of course when I cam around the corner there was a couple of croaker fisherman wading right where I wanted to fish. So I headed way up the bank a did a drift the whole length of it and totally struck out. Plastics, popping cork, and topwater could not coax a bite. So to finish out the day it was back to the Bayou. It was about 2 when I got there and the water was way up in the grass. I had a couple of flounder smack it and not stay stuck, then I boated this 16″.
The Redfish Magic catches flounder too.
The only purpose of going back there was to see if the redfish were moving, and they weren’t. But fishing about half of it I had several flounder bites, you can always tell on the Redfish Magic when one whacks it real sharp and does not stay on. But the more important point, the water was full up and getting ready to start moving out. When that happens the flounder move up against the grass on those muddier banks where there is a drop. If a person wanted to fish the 3″ Gulp New Penny on a popping cork in front of the grass right on the falling high full moon tides they could probably sack a few.
The last bite of the day.
So for the day not so bad considering. 3 reds (2 keeper sized), 9 or 10 trout (4 keeper sized), and 1 keeper flounder. If I had boated everything I should have it would have been a little better than that. Just looking at the water it will be a few days before it really settles down. Even the Coast Guard flat was not what I would call super clear. And Barroom and Big Bayou are definitely off-colored. Not having lived here for these set of condition I have no clue how soon it will clear up, but it looked better by time I quit than it did when I started.
It was good to get back on the salt. I really do love how a redfish hits a Redfish Magic. It is probably my favorite lure off all time, and if you throw it they will eat, it is just a matter of covering the water. And the keeper size seem to love it, almost as much as I love catching them.
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When I saw Nick and his dad the other day his Dad was planning on fishing the Powderhorn yesterday and they said they would send a report, and he did.
Hey Doug, I was going to let you know that my dad and sister went to Powderhorn today and the fish wanted live bait and live bait only. The mouth of Powderhorn was brackish looking and when they started going into Powderhorn near that big sandbar by Hurricane Cut, they said it was a peanut butter color. My sister ended up catching two keeper trout on shrimp. There were pods of bait out front along the ranch shoreline and quite a few redfish tailing there as well.
Thanks for the report. I figured the Powderhorn was off-color and it sounds like it really was. Who knows how long before that clears up. While all the freshwater may screw the trout up a little the reds sure do not mind. And funny they fished the ranch shoreline, that is actually where I am thinking about fishing next. So stay tuned for that. And tell your Dad thanks for the report, it might save someone from driving to fish the Powderhorn and then having it to off-color to catch fish.
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One thing about the last few days calm winds is the offshore boats were out at POC. When I put the boat on the trailer the guys were cleaning a couple of boxes of nice big red snapper and had a couple of cobia mixed in. With the wind expected to blow 5 – 10 again tomorrow conditions should be good. So if you have an offshore boat, or know someone who does, get it while the getting is good.
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I think the rest of the week will be split this way. Tomorrow will be the Powderhorn Ranch Shoreline, at least depending on the wind. I never did get in the water yesterday, and that is a good wading bank where I have caught them this time of year. Then Friday it will be Coleto, it will be interesting to see the water color by then. I have wanted to fish the Wednesday night tourney but I need to get on a few fish before I do that. And hopefully the bay will really begin to settle down. And I want to fish Baffin a day, but with sunrise at 6:22 it requires one early get up time. Maybe we will get that done as soon as Shoedog gets his house painted. So keep stopping in and thanks for reading my stuff.
Good Luck and Tight Lines
