FISH CATCHING TRAVEL

The Wade Right Fishing Belt

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It was not quite daylight when I dropped the boat in at Froggie’s.  The tide was high, the water was off color, and the water temp was 86.  Today it was off to South Pass to fish a couple of drains so as soon as I could see it was off for the long run.  Nice to not get the snot knocked out of me running across.  Summer is here.

Just about to jump in, what a beautiful morning.

Weather

81/97.  AM clouds giving way to sun.  20% chance of rain.  Wind ESE 10 – 20mph.

Tides

High 9:12 am  1.32 ft      Low 9:58 pm  -0.38

Solunar Times

None during the time I was out.

*****************The new bait is coming, I have seen it and it will be a fish catcher.

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It was calm with a slight ripple so I started with topwater.  I missed a small red right off the bat, then I hung a good one who somehow came off after a pretty good fight.  So of course I stayed with the topwater for way to long, without success.  I would learn later I was way to shallow.  After an hour in the first drain without another bite I moved down the bank some and finally started getting bit.

A nice flounder.  The best of 3 reds this morning.

It took a while to figure it out but I finally got something going.  The fish were definitely not shallow and until I moved out over waist deep, tossing it as far as I could, they were just not having it.  The best I could tell the trout were in about 5 foot of water and they wanted it hopped erratically off the bottom.  Small paddle tails on 1/32 jig head and 8lb line turned out to be the way to go.  I did catch a couple slow rolling the white Controlled Descent Paddle Shad and a couple on the popping cork and fake shrimp, but I think with all the small shrimp and the glass minnows they wants something smaller to match the hatch.  I eked  out a small limit, but a limit all the same.

These were the 2 best of the 8 caught in that area.

After the bite slowed down I made one more move to another drain close to South Pass and while another one or two jumped on they were small.  But at least I was catching fish.  Around noon I decided to head to my favorite drain back down the island, and that turned out to be a bad choice.

With all the shell and little mud the water was clear in the pass area, back down the island not so much.  The water was rising rapidly and the area I chose had floating grass everywhere and the color was awful.  Really a bad idea, not even a touch.  In fact the closer you got to POC the worse the water color.  Big Bayou was a mud hole as the water rose.  Since I made such a bad choice, and with the wind starting to blow, it would have been a long run back down the bay to the clear water so I called it a day at 1:30.

On the way back I saw lots of folks fishing, most dragging a bucket, croaker I assume.  And everyone was at least waist deep and deeper.  With the water temp rising rapidly it looks like the trout have settled in a little deeper, the usual summer time pattern.   Not a real croaker fisherman I will give it a go at some point in the near future, but nothing beats hopping the plastic up and feeling the thump.

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Ok here is the “damages” from the holiday weekend according to the TPW

• 11,ooo vessel safety checks
• 1,279 citations
• 1,339 warnings
• 39 Boat while intoxicated
• 10 DWI
• 11 drownings across the state
• 21 boating accidents
• 2 fatalities – 1 on Granbury – 1 on Aransas Pass Channel

13 lives lost, what a shame.  Think about it, with 11,ooo checks there were 2,500 tickets, which means over 20% of the boats had some form of violation.  These are big numbers and a perfect example of why it is so important to be careful every time you hit the water, especially on the holiday weekends.  It just might be the other guy no matter how careful you are.  The final word – almost every one of these might have been avoided.

And as I prepared this apparently a boat ran aground in Baffin this weekend sending 3 people to the ER.  And I will say it again, like jacket and kill switch.  It has taken me decades to wise up and this morning, like almost every day, I wear mine.  You never know.

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And speaking of TPWD another fool was ticketed for an online post of him messing with an alligator.  Just think it through before you hit post.  Nothing like confessing to a crime online.

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And speaking of alligators the Boss has a friend who had an encounter with a gator wading the bay this weekend and apparently Jesse the neighbor had a one around his bunch last week.  And I have seen several more incidents posted on line.  And I might have had a close call this morning.  As I waded along all of a sudden a huge boil about 5 feet from me, and if I was guessing, and I am, it was probably a gator,  Seeing many of them on the lake it was that tell tale gator moving out as big as that boil was.  I sure had not seen any thing else moving around.  So keep your head on a swivel right now when wading, there are lots of them out there.

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Starting tomorrow afternoon looks like we have some rain moving in for a couple of days and on the way home today I drove through a big one.  I know other folks don’t need the rain but we sure do.  So with that in mind, and the Boss working the late night shift, I will get up in the morning and head to the lake for a couple of catfish.  Whether they are still hard at it remains to be seen but the Boss has ordered a fresh catfish dinner so hopefully I will have dinner caught and cleaned and be back before she even gets up.

I want to say how much I appreciate all of you.  Your continued readership and comments keep me writing.  I have still have lots to say, no surprise, and there is a lot more fishing to come.  So keep stopping in and thanks for reading my stuff.

Good Luck and Tight Lines