FISH CATCHING TRAVEL
“SAVE OUR WATERS”
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The Wade Right Fishing Belt
Brought to you by
The Best Wading System on the Planet.
My buddy Rusty is still catching them on both the creek and the river so today it will be off to the creek later, slept in the morning for some reason but usually no problem on the creek or river. The day looks beautiful so off I go.
Weather
50/76. Partly sunny and pleasant with no chance of rain. Wind ENE 5 – 15 mph.
Tides
Low 1:52 pm. (Only tide today.)
Activity Periods
Minor 1:16 pm to 2:16 pm. (Only period when out today.)
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The new Knockin Tail Lures are coming soon. Now I am really excited.
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About halfway through the day I made a cast with a DOA Cal paddle tail and when I lifted up it was a “red’ and it was fighting like crazy. It was heavy and unfortunately I just kept reeling and never did set the hook. So I reached down and picked up a white Controlled Descent Paddle Shad on a 1/8th swim bait hook which was ready to do a little red fishing, and started reeling. One smacked it and the fight was on.
That is no redfish! Hard to get her all in the picture.
CPR and back she went. No crappy pictures can do this fish justice.
Initially the plan was to fly fish some, but the big girl above put that one to bed. There is a real chance that the one that got away on the prior cast was also a really big trout. So I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to catch another big girl, but it was not to be. But the fishing was really consistent.
Putting in at 10:30 the tide was really low and the water had that copper color to it. The wind was fairly light, but since I was in the skiff no water temp. First up was a bank that always has them on it and 3 came over the side which started things off just right. And until quitting at 3:30 there were fish everywhere I fished.
Other than the big girl all the fish came on small 3″ paddle tails, with a dark back, fished on a 1/8th, and hopped off the bottom. Hard as I tried they just did not want the reeled Controlled Descent. Most came around half way back, and often it was just a little twitch, or a funny feeling, few smacked it. On one point alone I caught 8, which were basically fish sticks, but they were biting.
This is what most of the 30+ caught today looked like.
You could squeak out a limit, all were CPR, but you had to wade through a bunch.
As hard as I tried to catch another big fish it just would not happen. With the low tide it really seemed they just wanted a smaller bait, and if it was not hopped off the bottom the strikes were few and far between. And the fish were positioned a little differently than normal due to the low tide. Today it was the steeper banks, some straight up and down, that had the better fish. You really had to slow down to keep contact with the bottom with some of the steep drops. Many of the flatter banks I like only had little ones on it, and it seemed the farther down I went the smaller they were. Wish I would have had the other boat with a temp gauge, it might have been instructive.
Only 2 reds today, but as usual they were appreciated.
Other than the 2 reds above, I did add a small flounder to round out a slam. Always nice to have that happen even if they are small. While the bite was consistent they were tricky today, you had to be on your toes, and that certain sweet spot off the bank let me get ready cause the hit was coming. So at 3:30 I called it a day. I seem to have a trout “limit”. After catching a ton it reaches the point of pointless, if that makes sense. When it is an easy 30+ that seems to be my go home limit, but it sure is fun to catch release a bunch.
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And another horrible water story. A sperm whale stranded and died on the Scottish coast. And in the stomach was “Fishing nets, bundles of rope, plastic cups, plastic bags and other garbage were found in the whale’s stomach, according to a necropsy done by SMASS.” A total of 220 pounds of trash! We are destroying our waters and have polluted the ocean to the point where they are finding all kinds of stuff in mammals, birds, and fish. It can not keep going like this. So if you fish this is important and time to do what you can, when you can. No clean water, no life, that is how it works.
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And I managed to do it again, I inflated my self inflating life jacket. Almost exactly one year from when I did it last time it happened again. I toss it on the seat when the boat stops and this time when I went to put it back on the pull cord got hung on the backrest and it inflated. Nice. At least I had another re-arm kit so no big whoop, other than the $20 for the kit. So now I have put the pull cord in the edge of the jacket where it does not hang down looking for a reason to inflate. But it is nice to know it works just fine, it may save my life. But another lesson learned in a 50 year fishing life. One thing we can say for many of those life fishing lessons, they always cost money.
And speaking of costly lessons I broke a spinning rod today, my favorite trout rod for light line and small baits. I hate it when that happens. And then when I decided to quit I reached down and pulled the trolling motor cord and it broke and I almost fell on my ass. Oh well, just the cost of doing business.
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Rusty fishes Fayette regularly and he let me know there was a fish kill on the north end of Fayette recently. He reports that the fishing has been slow, same as Louis told me the other day. Not sure what the fish kill is all about how about a quick uneducated guess: They killed the grass on Fayette and I wonder if the loss of grass led to a much lower oxygen content when the lake reached it’s peak warm temperature causing the die off. I continue to bitch about what is happening to our waters but a fish kill is a symptom of something. And my usual question: Does TPWD give a crap? And did they investigate? Seems that might be something biologists would want to know.
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So another good day of fishing this week, as far as big fish go. A big bass on Monday, a big trout on Wednesday, can’t wait to see what is coming the next 2 days because the plan is to be on the water somewhere. Big fish are what I like about winter. It is not as fast as spring can be, but the odds for bigger fish go up. And it helps when you get a little lucky like I did today. But it proves the adage, the more I fish the luckier I get. So keep stopping and thanks for reading my stuff.
Good Luck and Tight Lines