FISH CATCHING TRAVEL

Fresh or saltwater the Knocker B catches fish.

Weather

61/88  Sunny 0% rain  ENE  5 – 10

Tides

High   9:15 AM     0.9
Low  11:51 PM     0.1

Solunar Time

• Best Times   10:53A – 12:53P  (The bite time today, and I am really beginning to see a
•                        11:22P – 1:22A       correlation between the tide and the bite at the lake.)
• Good Time   4:38A – 6:38A

I am fishing now.  For the third day in a row, and it looks like I am going catfishing at the river tomorrow.  It is a fishing extravaganza.  After wading all day Shoedog and I decided to do a short day on Coleto.  My whole goal was to catch a fish on a Whopper Plopper.  Designed by Larry Dahlberg, who I consider the best all around fisherman in the world, it is a buzz/plopping torpedo that should be killer in Canada.  So after throwing it about an hour I finally boated one, then another.  If you like visual strikes it is another tool to add to the arsenal.

My first, but not my last, on the Whopper Plopper.

Shoedog started with a topwater and I alternated between a buzzbait and the Whopper Plopper.  The first couple of places struck out and he finally had a really good one flush his topwater on a mainlake bank, but failed to get the hook in him.  So it was time to head up lake and see if it was any better.

At the ramp that morning we met Nick (who reads the blog) and his son Nick from the Houston area who were down to fish.  As we were headed up lake when we saw them and stopped and chatted.  They had caught several on worm but we were determined to catch them our way, at least until I got one on the Whopper Plopper.  We fished miles of bank up lake until I finally caught a couple on it, but we just could not get them going “our way”.

Finally game on pitching.  And no picture of the biggest one, I will not put you through me with my shirt off!

It was time to start pitching.  We fished both a senko style plastics and a lizard, both in the watermelon red.  Using braid with a 20lb fluoro leader we were just pitching it to heavy cover.  I think I caught the first one within about 2 minutes, and for the next couple of hours we caught them fairly consistently.

Love that hand to hand combat.

One thing that was fairly evident, they were right on the bank and the majority of them came on the initial or second drop.  We never did catch a “big” one, but it was a little hard to determine as I broke 2 off setting the hook and Shoedog broke 1.  There is a fine line in having the drag set tight enough to allow just a small amount of slippage to drag them out of heavy cover, and not to heavy so that the line breaks.  And one thing to remember about fluoro is to keep an eye on your leader as once it gets a nick it does start to break down, especially when jerking them out of cover.  When you are sticking some of them 5 feet from the boat it is real hand to hand combat.  You know you are setting the hook hard when you throw one over the boat!  This is not a light tackle technique.

It was getting hot.

I am not sure how many we caught in a couple of hours, but it was in the 15 plus range.  The pattern was real evident, long banks with little points and cuts, with almost all the fish coming on the upstream side of small points.  And usually when you caught one there was another one close.  We decided the one more bank thing, and it turned into 2, but the bite was definitely dying out.  So with the sun absolutely pounding down on us we called it a day.

Though we ended up catching some it is clearly time to pitch before the lake falls to far and they pull off out of the cover.  I am still not seeing any real deep grass starting to grow yet but with the lake clearing fast there just might be hope.  So if you want to rip some lips get out the heavy stuff and go to pitching!

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My lovely wife says I may be the absolute worst catfisherman in the world.  Over the years I have had my moments, but generally my luck is not that good.  My buddy Jeffish had heard a couple of good reports on catfish being caught from the river in Riverside park so we loaded up the stuff and headed to the park.  We fished, and fished, and fished some more.  And boy did we suck at it.  The only thing that added some excitement to the day was the qualifying for the Texas Water Safari was being held so we saw lots of folks coming by.

I am not kidding, I suck at catfishing!

We ended up catching 2 small catfish and one freshwater drum.  Other than that it was just a nice day to sit in the shade and enjoy the weather.  Though it did not go all that well, to put it mildly, I will be back.  Takes me back to my childhood of riding my bike to whatever river was close and catching catfish and carp.

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I attributed the great Coleto fishing report from Joe to the wrong Joe.  Who woulda thunk there might be 2 Joes that love fishing?

That must be another Joe. This is the Joe from San Antonio. Currently in Chicago for a week, rippin some lips at some retention ponds around the in-laws and cousins houses. Caught a couple of 4lbs ers in them. But i’m the guy that replies once in awhile also. I guess i’ll go by Joe Bass from now on !!!!!

Yes, you are the Joe who I thought sent the report.  My bad.  So other Joe – thanks for the report and keep them coming.  To the real Joe – You are now Joe Bass.  We love those nicknames around here.  Thanks for clearing that up.

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Today I get to take care of all those things I have ignored the last 4 days.  Tackle to organize, boat and truck to clean.  The love bugs have been terrible the last week and they are stuck all over the truck and it is a good idea to get them off as soon as possible.  So before it gets to hot it is time to get off my rear end and get to work.  But I can sure say I am thankful that I can still fish 4 days in a row, and want to go right now.  I am about to review weather and tides for the week and with the Boss still on her rotation it is off we go again.  So keep stopping in and thanks for reading my stuff.

Good Luck and Tight Lines