FISH CATCHING TRAVEL

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Today’s Tip

I constantly harp here on keeping a close watch on your trailer.  Todd’s flat tire just reinforced this.  Make sure you check your spare occasionally, if it is under inflated you may not make it another 10 miles, and make sure you have a good 4 way and extra tools.  Having had a fender ripped off myself a few tools in the trunk beats sitting beside the road trying to figure out what the heck to do some Sunday morning at 5:00 am.

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My usual beginning of the week, today does not count as it was a get my stuff together day, will be fishing Coleto.  With a good dose of trout fishing this weekend I am interested to see if the fish have completely abandoned the shallows yet.  So I will be on the water at daylight, just have to see how long I can take it.  And it will definitely be a Mako day because when the wind is blowing the skiff gets blown all over the place, definitely not conducive to pitching.  Just have to see how it goes.

Weather

96/74  Partly Cloudy.  Wind SSE 15 – 25 mph.  10% chance rain.  (The wind is projected to blow for at least a  week, even to 30 mph in a couple of days.  We need rain.)

Lake Level

Today  95.10 msl   8 days ago  95.35  (The drop continues.)

Solunar Times

9:44 am to 11:44 am.  (Should be awesome other than super hot, high winds, falling lake level.)  

********************Get inhaled!  If you fish Port Mansfield do not go without a couple of packages.  Fishing it weedless it handles floating and shallow grass like a champ. 

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Some days you do – and today I didn’t!

After catching a big bass last trip I was up and raring to go.  I got out at daylight, there was a light breeze, a few clouds and the water temp was in the mid 80’s over the whole lake, and I fished both ends.  It is definitely on the way down, but still not as low as 3 or 4 years ago, but it might not be long.  First up was a shallow bank, one of the few with some vegetation on it, and 3 jumped on the bluegill color swim jig with a craw trailer.  They were smacking it, but just did not make the grade.  Next was a deeper bank and another ate the swim jig, but again small.  So being about 8:00 it was time to turn around and run to the other end.

I finally took some pictures when it was apparent they might not get any bigger.  And they didn’t, but the swim jig fish were a little bigger than the buzzbait fish.

Once I got up there the water was fairly clear and the wind was blowing so it was time to fish the buzzbait.  Unfortunately while they were hitting it, they were nothing to talk about.  I finally got smart and put it down, sometimes I just can not help myself.  At this point with the wind it was tough to pitch.  In fact out of one brushy spot I could not get a bite in the wood because I could not make a good pitch, so I picked up the buzzbait and caught one first cast.  So with them running small I went back to the swim jig.

They were willing and I kept waiting for the big bite which never came.

In one spot I caught 1 and missed several, then I broke my line on what would have been the best fish of the day.  There is such a give and take when using 10 – 12lb line.  After setting the hook thousands of times in my life there are times when I set the hook before I “know” it.  Pure muscle memory, and definitely to hard apparently.   Then it was down lake and trying a little crankbait, but no results. By noon they were not having it.  I ended up catching 9, the 4 above were all they amounted to, most on the swim jig.  But I did see several pigs, lots of deer, birds, and a couple of big gators, which makes every day on the water worth living.

So being hot and blowing I headed to the ramp.  There was one at the ramp when I left, and 2 when I took out.  And the few other boats I saw were crappie fishing, which is still the best choice on Coleto.  But hey, it is summer and there is always tomorrow.

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I got this interesting question from Bruce and I had to think about it for a minute.

If I put in at 1289 and go toward the big part of powderhorn do you have any advice on good spots.

First I have never put in by the bridge, for me the Indianola Marina is it, and I am not sure you can launch there unless you are talking a kayak or maybe a Ghenno, or know something I don’t.  Which is highly possible.  Since they redid the bridge not sure there is anywhere to launch, I never have looked.  But generally when you head from the bridge down the channel out to the main bay it is really shallow depending on the tide until in the open bay, you have to be really careful.  A perfect example of why: my $3,500 repair bill after hitting a pipe.

But that being said the back end usually has some good reds in it and I have caught lots on spinnerbait back there.  The left bank coming out seems to usually hold them, and though shallow you can follow that bank almost all the way to the boat lane near the marina.  And as the bay opens there is a small pocket/cove, which I believe they called Mail Box on the opposite side, it is really shallow, really muddy, stick to the left idling in or use the trolling motor.  Both sides going in and out have reds, you just have to stay off the bank, again depending on the tide.  Generally the trout are harder to find in the Powderhorn, but I generally do better in the front end on the east side after the old point sticking out.  And at the end of the pipes lining the boat lane coming from the marina there is an oyster bar you can see on the map and that place has produced trout for me.

It really is not the easiest place to fish but it can have it’s moments.  No matter what take it easy as you learn it.  It is not that big and caution will go a long way.  I am not trying to scare you, just a word to the wise.  It can be a fun place to fish and rarely has traffic that is an issue.  I would suggest you get the hard map, and do a little study, and if you have any other questions let me know or know something I don’t drop me a line.  Good luck and let us know how it goes.  And thanks for reading.

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And I got this good report and a question from Tommy.

Hey redfishlaw, I really enjoy all your coleto creek reports…..I fishes the coleto bassmasters tournament with my girlfriend as my partner….we took 1st place in some terrible weather….at times I would like to post pics to the blog, how do I go about doing that?

Email on the way.  Listen folks, anytime you want to share anything drop me a comment and I will forward my email address to you.  We don’t care if it is one trout that squeaks 15″ or a 10lb bass.  And when we can get a little more participation from “girls” instead of old smelly guys that is a plus.  (Except for my buddy Faye!  fishcatchingtravel’s resident best girl.)  So send them along.

And listen the rest of you, you do not have to be Hemingway to send a report, we love them just the way we get them.  This is not an exercise in the proper written word, this is a place for fishing stories in our own words.  So thanks Tommy and I will be looking forward to your pictures and reports anytime you want.  And one thing if you do not know, I have one rule with reports.  If you do not want me to “tell” where, etc. let me know, your choice.

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And before I got this posted here is his picture.

Had around 35 fish,  weight was only 13.22lbs….for the win of 40 teams….winds reached 30+mph multiple times and hailed on us twice….at one point the weather was bad enough to beach the boat and take cover in some thick woods….I was not going to try to run into the hail and chance it….

Tommy Vinas and Melissa Duncan

Congrats to you and your girlfriend on a real grinder of a day.  Coleto has been fishing like this off and on, more off, quite often this spring.  (See today.)  The big fish are still there but come few and far between.  And as far as I am concerned hiding in the trees when it is hailing sounds good to me, running in it is not all it is cracked up to be.  Been there, done that.  So thanks for the picture, anytime you want to chime in feel free.  And if you get the urge to write something, on a technique, method, pattern, whatever, give it a go.  I try to make this a place where we can share and all learn something.

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Doing a little reflecting on the Port Mansfield report one thing that I found interesting was the size of the trout.  They were really pretty living in that grass, definitely different than other areas I have fished.  But I was somewhat confused as to the body size.  We had plenty that were in the 16′ range with a few bigger but they definitely did not have the bulk and body size of the ones in the POC area.  Lots of real skinny trout.  That could have been what and where we fished, but the difference was notable.

Now on the area itself it was easy to see why it is a trout factory.  Acres and acres of grass with some pretty good depth in places makes it what it is.  And not blowing smoke here, using the Controlled Descent Lures weedless made it so much easier to fish. I never did figure out, and the trout refused to tell me, what color was best, or whether they preferred the Paddle Shad or the Jerk Shad.  Additionally finding the right swim bait hook (1/16th) and adding a rattle kept the bait above the bottom grass and below the surface grass.  And if you remember my last day at POC they wanted it ripped/pulled right along, and that worked.  I fished beside David and we alternated retrieves from straight steady, slow jerk, fast jerks, hopping and dropping, but were never able to find “the” retrieve.  Guess I will have to go back and see if I can remedy that.  It was a cool place to fish.

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One thing that is irritating me right now is stupid, or tone deaf, best I can tell.  Here we are, possibly in a drought and the state will be hearing a petition from GBRA to sell more water upstream from Victoria.  Any day now we will be in rationing and they want to sell upstream water for oil and gas.  Hey, I love oil, it keeps my motor from blowing up, and I love gas, but selling more water out of the Guadalupe is nuts.  Just my .02 worth.

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I just spent the last hour checking on the weather in lots of places from POC to Zapata to Texoma to Del Rio, and all are about the same, some real big wind coming any day next week and according to the weather dude it is going to pour down rain here.  Man we need it.   I kind of have another travel itch, but looking at it I am not feeling inspired.  So I will sit back and see if anything changes.  The wind will not stop me from fishing, but it will play a role in where.  So keep stopping in and thanks for reading my stuff.

Good Luck and Tight Lines