FISH CATCHING TRAVEL

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Put your favorite Knockin Tail under a Four Horsemen popping cork and hold on!  A deadly combination.

I looked at everything and decided to hit the creek again.  It may not be the 5th different place but I so enjoy fishing there.  And there are several places there I did not get to fish that are calling me.  This was a vote for the experience, the fish are a bonus.  So time will tell but it will be a great ending to a good week.  Nothing like fishing 5 straight days!

Let the games begin!

Weather

70/86.   Sunshine and clouds mixed. 20% chance of a stray shower or thunderstorm. High around 90F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph.

Tides

High 5:11 AM +1.6.    Low 6:09 PM 0.6.  (Another day of high water.)

Solunar Time

Major 1:01 pm to 3:01 pm.   Minor  7:25 am to 8:25 am.

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The Wade Right Fishing Belt and the new Madre Sling.

All your wading needs.

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It is not a Mansfield Magic Knockin Tail, it is now the Mansfield Mauler!

Running down the creek at daylight I made a conscious choice to just have a good time and don’t worry about the blog.  And by having that mind set it was a fish catching good time because I stayed with the small ones early, and I still managed a few good ones before the day was over.  The tide was super high again and the color the nice tannic looking stuff.  And the wind was perfect, with occasional clouds and really freakin’ hot by noon.

Here are a few of the tons I caught the second hour.  All small but all fun.

Starting on my favorite long bank close to the bay it was a no go for over an hour, it looked so good.  Not plastic, not topwater, not popping cork.  It was like the fish were gone.  As I got closer to the bay I could see birds working here and there on a couple of small flat points, so I idled over.  The ones above are examples of what was there.  You could see bait moving and the water also started moving just a little.  I stuck with them for over an hour fishing everything in the box.  They kept biting and I wanted to see just what they would hit.

It is a thing of beauty when one this size smokes a Skitter Walk.

One thing that is still puzzling me is why they just are not interested in any white/pearl color on the jig head or popping cork.  As most of the activity is on mullet and other finned bait and not shrimp, that may have something to do with it.  They bit long enough that I went through the box and one thing has become clear on both the creek and the river – the Mansfield Magic Knockin Tail.  I finally settled on 1/8 jig head and just a slow roll.  Last year on the creek and river I caught some nice trout slow rolling the prototype Knockin Tail, and it looks like it is the ticket.  It seems like the nicer trout want it swimming along at a moderate pace with the tail rattling, and when they bite, the smack it.

They were thumping it.

Points, no matter how small, had a trout on it.  I worked my way back up river stopping here and there, and some of my old places are starting to come on.  Not sure how many fish today, but it was steady for most of the morning.  And once I got the speed down slow rolling the Mansfield Mauler it was fun.

The best trout of the day.

One point had bait going by and the occasional trout busting them.  A couple came on the Knocking Tail and one on a topwater.  As I rounded the point the red above just smashed the Skitter Walk.  Since I did not do any intentional red fishing today she was a bonus.

I finished on my other favorite bank that I did not fish the other day and it had keepers on it.  And the fish were really active and close to the bank.  And at 1:00 I called it a very successful and fun day.  It was just getting to the prime period and you could tell as they got better as the morning wore on.  But it was time to head to the house.  There just might be a thing or two that need to get done before the Boss flies in tonight.  Typical batching it, why do anything at home when you can do it all before she catches you!

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Got this comment from Ross, who I believe is a first time commenter.

Glad to hear you are feeling better and fishing consecutive days now! Thanks for the reports on the creeks as well! I don’t fish those, but it does coincide with an area I fish a little further down the coast and I am heading down for 4 days starting Nov 1. Should be good timing with the better front coming through next week. Hoping it will flush some water out of the bay and get the winter fishing set off!

Enjoy your reading your Saltwater posts while I am stuck up here in DFW area!

You took the words right out of my mouth.  Hoping the weather is at least as “bad” as they are forecasting, and maybe a little worse.  We need a couple of fronts to cool the bay off, and with it some really low tides.  They are so high right now, which is not my forte by a long shot.  But give me that clear super low and I can make do!  As a side note pick up a bag of Knockin Tail and give them a go, right along side with your favorite plastic, you might be surprised.  And let us know how you do, we always love folks reports.  Thanks for reading.

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One word on the ramp on Garcitas, you will get wet if you are by yourself.  It is rarely that good a place to launch normally, shallow when the creek is up.  And the ramp on the Lavaca is still the same though the wooden walkway around it is trashed.

With this little front coming, looks like it will not be as bad as they initially thought, there should be more fish hitting the rivers.  And it was interesting how the big school of small trout I beat on were at the mouth of the river.  So here they come.

I am tired and sore.  And kind of sick of cleaning the boat, especially as just getting it in the water and rolling involved mud most places.  But by the same token I am getting my mojo back.  By that I mean the physical act catching fish, including the “feel”.  One of the better bass fisherman I was friends with, John Story, owner of Champion Boats along with several others, always said:  “Fishing comes down to feel.”  Along with that the old saying, the more I go the luckier I get is so true. Nothing beats time on the water and I intend to keep it up.  So keep stopping in and thanks for reading my stuff.

Good Luck and Tight Lines