FISH CATCHING TRAVEL

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Happy Birthday to the Boss

Since I did not post on her birthday, I wanted to tell my lovely wife Happy Birthday.

She doesn’t always fish, but when she does it is a thing of beauty!  Love the Boss!

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It is raining with some thunder this morning as I write this so no bay for me today.  Before I get to the report I wanted to tell you what I found on the lake yesterday.  A big bucket with holes drilled all over it, hanging from a deep tree.  That my friends is a “tournament” cheating bucket.  Used for putting fish in the day before, it is used by real low life’s to cheat.  I have found them in Arkansas, Amistad, Falcon, and now one on Coleto.  This is the reason that except for small pot tourneys I quit fishing partner tournaments years ago.  One thing that is sad is much of the cheating uncovered over the years often involves “winners”, folks who seem to always be in the money on their local lake.  Without the threat of polygraphs, and often it is nothing more than a threat, there will always be scum willing to cheat.  So sad.

Weather

45/66.  Cloudy, slight (20%) chance of stray shower.  Wind E 10 – 20mph.

Lake Level

Today  98.24 msl.   5 days ago  98.26 msl.

Solunar Times

Good  9:38 am to 11:38 am.  Best  3:51 pm to 5:51 pm.   (Day is classed as poor.)

*******************Fresh or salt it has a place in your arsenal.

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My catfish mastery continues.  He ate 2 tails, and like usual this catfish slammed it!

With possible thunderstorms on the bay I decided to do something completely different on the lake.  And while the results were less than stellar I really had fun.  In fact so much that when the Boss called on her way to work and told me it was 4:00 I almost fell out of the boat, I thought I just started!  The water is clearing slowly, but in coves that had the wind blowing in them some had color.  It seems like when the wind blows it stirs up easily.  The water temp was 63 – 66 over most of the lake.  And a telltale sign of how the fishing is, one truck at the ramp at 9:00, no trucks when I pulled out at 5:30.

The plan was to throw the A Rig today, and to keep after it.  I decided to fish the smaller one, but it still has 5 tails on it, each on a jig head.  The plan was to fish points at the mouths of known spawning coves, channels, and secondary points in some areas.  Unfortunately the wind was blowing almost 20 so some places that were a little tough to fish correctly, but I stayed after  it.

Of course I got fooled right off the bat.  Second cast on a secondary point in the first cove and I caught one.  It might have been a small but hey, something new.  From that point on I fished all the places mentioned above.  Another small jumped on, I missed 2 more, and I lost a big fish.  It actually felt like I was hung, and then it started swimming.  As my old guide customer used to say – “He caught me unawares.”  And my response to Albert, you are fishing how is that unaware.  But it happens.  And no bass pics, I was sure a big one was coming.

I went up lake and fished a couple of channel banks, and had a good run, to bad they were not bass.

The whites were willing but not what I was after.

Starting on a long channel bank up river one smoked it, and my relationship with catfish on lures continues.  He had 2 baits in his mouth, no wonder it felt like he smashed it.  Then the whites started, nothing big, but 3 or 4 got on and I missed a couple.  But no bass.  So on the way back down lake I stopped to hit a good brush pile for shits and giggles, and ended up catching a couple of more white bass but no crappie.

About 2:00, before I left up lake, it started pouring pretty good.  And then big scary thunder with lightning in the distance.  It kept up about a 1/2 hour, and then it just quit.  A little drizzle here and there the rest of the day but nothing hard.  Unfortunately after that little storm not a bite, not a touch.  The only variation from the plan was after the bite quit, I fished a swim jig on the last place without success and called it a day.

You can put all I know about fishing an A Rig, which I have done 2 days in my life, in a thimble.  One thing I learned is it is definitely a braid technique.  Being heavy, and fishing it deep, line stretch was clearly an issue when I set the hook.  No problem as it is easily remedied.  Other than that it is a fun way to fish, at least it kept it interesting today.  So the day was not a rousing success by any means, but there was one more happening that helped make it a great day to be outdoors.

Every winter we get a few eagles and lots of ospreys and I have seen the eagle getting hassled by the ospreys a lot.  Today the eagle fought back, and it was awesome.  They did a cool dance, twisting and turning until the eagle won the skirmish.  Then he turned and came right over me in a cool glide.  What a sight.

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When I got to the ramp the gentleman who comes there most days to read and watch the lake was there and as usual we chatted.  He was there for the weigh in of the tournament this weekend on the lake and reported the guys caught lots of smalls and lots of whites.  There was only one big fish and one good one weighed in and the talk was as it has been,  Where are the big fish?  My answer, they are there and trust me, when they come to the bank it will be late this spring and I expect it to be something.

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When I was talking about fishing the shaky head last post I had a little brain fart, I just could not remember the bait that was the “prototype” for that style of fishing.  It was made by Charlie Brewer and was called the Slider Head, the first for many of the techniques to come.  Basically the same as fishing the shaky head, it used the same method of burying the hook in a small worm to make it weedless.  Fished on really light line it was one of the first finesse baits.

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Texas Parks and Wildlife just posted the proposed changes for freshwater fishing regulations, some on individual lakes, some statewide.  The big changes proposed are on alligator gar.  Trust me, if you like shooting or catching gar you need to head to the website.  Remember no complaining no matter how it goes if you do not comment on those that affect you.  Same goes with the proposed hunting changes.  The changes include some doe hunting in Victoria Country and the waterfowl season and bag regulations.  Saltwater proposals include a statewide 5 fish regulation.  At least go and read them, it is important to stay informed and if the spirit moves you comment.  Remember they work for us and are not always right.

https://tpwd.texas.gov/newsmedia/releases/

And speaking of TPWD, another violator was busted after posting on social media.  They are watching and rightly so.  Keep it up Wardens, we support you and thanks for your service.

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And Joe sent this along.

1) Thank Doug and Steve from Waco for the guide help.

2) Do the wildlife people at Coleto office know whats going on with the grass?

3) Your Bored? Lets make a trip to Miami to fish peacocks in the canals, or we go to the amazon and fish for them there. Only problem the big boat guys cost $5000

First hope you found a guide for the boys.  A cool thing to do.  Second, it was the guy who was the biologist at the lake, now retired, who told me what he thought.  He is the one who told me his theory was following a few years of drought we had the big flood and huge raise and the grass did not get the sunlight it needed to grow.  My only comment on that theory is the lake had just started to have a bunch of hyacinth up river, and it ended up dying also.  So not sure if it was all that simple.  I did snag some deep grass today, but only on one cast and only in one place.  Maybe some hope?  No matter what it has changed the lake.

And thanks for the Florida offer, but I already have a trip scheduled for late September.  I will be towing there to fish several places, to be determined, then meeting the Boss at the place we are looking at for retirement.  One plan once we get there, after 40 years of towing a boat finally putting the boat on a lift in a marina.  The area is on the Harris Chain of Lakes, and only an hour from each coast.  It sure will be nice to just drive up and head out.

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Tuesday looks a little sketchy on the coast so Wednesday or Thursday I will be up early and gone.  It will just depend on which day has the least chance of thunderstorms.  But just like freshwater, cloudy days tend to extend the bite.  Looking at the weather a week out we are still in the same pattern, though temps are slowly rising.  Hopefully some of this water will be warmer than what we have, which will definitely get things going.  It looks like a late spring.  So keep stopping in and thanks for reading my stuff.

Good Luck and Tight Lines