FISH CATCHING TRAVEL
Weather
72/91. Increasing cloudiness; breezy this afternoon with a 25% chance of rain. Wind E 12 – 22mph.
Lake Level
Today 96.00 msl. 11 days ago 96.22 msl. (The lake is falling really fast. Nice while it lasted.)
Bite Times
Major 9:08 am to 11:08 am. (It was slow early.)
It has been 11 days since I fished and I can’t say I missed it. The wind has blown like crazy, there is no way to guess when it will crank up every day. And not sure I am as mad at them as I was, it seems with 2 big trips looming it is hard to get myself up and out. Even this morning I slept in and it was 7:30 when I got to the lake. But I did go and even caught a few though “times they are a changing.'”
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The Wade Right Fishing Belt and the new Madre Sling.
For all your wading needs.
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The lake has really dropped and with it the cover is slowly ending up high and dry. The wind was out of the East about 15 mph when I dropped in and the water temp is still in the 84 degree range over most of the lake. And with those big winds coming out of an easterly direction over the last couple of months some areas have sketchy water color. First up was up lake.
Talk about a disappointment.
Since I was an hour late I only stayed with the buzzbait for 2 places and did not have a bite which was not really surprising. Next up was the best stretch of cover that has been holding fish, and that did not produce a bite so time for a real tactic change. Looking back on the blog once our spring bite is over they usually set up on some wood and it is pitching plastics or the bluegill swim jig with a Honeydew Knockin Tail trailer. And from that point until I quit at 1:00 both of them caught fish though most were small.
I won’t bore you with any more. This is what they all looked like this morning.
The best bite was the tilapia above. When I pitched the 5″ watermelon stick worm next to a stick the line jumped a mile. Once I set the hook the battle was on, but once it got next to the boat it was a little disappointing when I saw it was a tilapia. And I did have a really nice bass jump off on the stick worm when I made the perfect cast to a big stump. You should not miss those, but I did.
One short stretch of green grass had bass all over it and 5 or 6 jumped on and I missed that many. The bite this morning was funny, most I never felt the bait would just start moving ever so slow. And if you set the hook on the bite you either missed them or they came off. Once I started letting them move it a ways they started hooking up.
On the swim jig one did the complete slack line bite and by time I set the hook it was 5 feet away from where it was. The rest just got on and I only missed a couple on it. So by time I quit it was an easy 12+ with pitching the stick worm being the best choice, but I did not bother to count. There was a couple of bonus smalls swimming the 4″ Pearl Knockin Tail in the last of the cover but that is about to go away. Not sure what the pattern is but as the water falls and the cover dissapears the shallow ones will be headed to the wood and the deep fish will be on the ledges. It felt good to have a rod back in my hand and there will be more fishing this week as soon as this storm blows through.
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Glad to see Thursday pot tournament is back on Coleto. It will be running from 6:00 until decided on. With a $50 entry and 100% payback it should be a fun time. Guess I need to rustle up a partner and give them a go when I can.
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One of the reasons I took the week off was the Boss is off 4 days before she starts a long stretch then off to Alaska. She wanted to go to the beach so we headed to North Padre and the park. (My underlying reason was to renew my Bird Island Basin boat ramp sticker. Having a place to stay down there there will be a lot more visits.) When we saw the wind forecast we knew it was going to blow, but nothing like seeing the real thing. There was a total of 3 trucks left at Bird island, and they all came back within 10 minutes of each other. There were white caps on top of the white caps. There were white caps in 2 inches of water. It was flat howling and we watched the last 3 boats take their pounding as they hit the ramp. Have I told you I am sick of that lately? But the day was redeemed when we stopped for supper at the Irish bar in Fulton. Nice place. (While I am typing this the weather dude said it was blowing 23 with gusts over 30.)
And Saturday morning I watched the Bassmaster tournament from Lake Fork, and of course they were smoking them. The wind was howling, according to them a little less than the 2 days before. Love that Texas wind.
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After years of work by TPWD the big Texas ShareLunker experiment is about to get the true test. I give them tons of credit for the program and the intent, now we get to see if it will really pan out. They have hatched literally millions and millions of great genetics pure ShareLunker strain fry and will be stocking them in lots of Texas lakes. So here we go. I may be dead and gone by time the real results of the program come to fruition, or not. But they have the genes and if Texas fishermen are lucky plenty of truly big bass are in their future. Hope it works out.
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Michael with My Coast Outdoors and the Knockin Tail was interviewed by Voyage Houston Magazine and here is the article.
It has been so interesting to be along for the ride, he and his family deserve everything that comes their way. Starting a completely new business from the ground up, including the product design is no easy feat. It takes determination and just a little bit of guts to put yourself, and your $$$, out there. It sure helps that Knockin Tail catches everything that swims and I can not wait to throw it in Alaska. Big fun!
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Lacy sent along this comment on my reference to Clinton getting his butt kicked when he raised car tags.
You have to also give Clinton his due being the youngest ex guv .
The 3 C’s cost him the race.
Cubans, Carter, Car Tags
Funny thing about Bill, he really was a good governor. And weird as it might seem so was Mike Huckabee. Talk about both ends of the spectrum. I keep saying it and will not stop, it has taken BOTH parties for this country to get in this shape and until we start voting out incumbents it will not get any better. I could give a crap which party it is – it is the person. Funny how folks who do not know you assume they know your politics.
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I was reading an article and for a moment I thought I was in Texas. Montana land owners are suing the state because they say there are to many elk. (Never heard that before!) They want the state to kill them, including the ones on their property, but refuse to allow public hunting on their property. Reminds me of Texas and wild hogs. The state pays to eradicate them but landowners continue to restrict hunting on their property (Or pony up the $$$.) when there are tons of folks who would be happy to help out. When presented with a reasonable alternative to the problem landowners refuse to cooperate but want taxpayers to foot the bill. OK, it is your land and I get that, so let whoever you want on it or not, it is your right. But then do not expect the rest of us to pay for your PRIVATE problem on your PRIVATE property. I am continually confused why state game and fish departments bow to commercial interests. Their job is supposed to be protecting native wildlife, not sucking up to private interests. (But as I have repeatedly said look at who your state commissioners are and where their money comes from and you might get a feel for the problem.)
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It was a really fun weekend watching the girl’s college softball tournament. The SEC started with 8 or 9 and ended up with 3 left. And how about the lady Razorback Softball Team! Won the regional and are set for a best 2 out of 3 Super Regional against those hated Longhorns. We might not be their rival, but they sure are ours. So Go Hogs!! (And the Aggies got their hat handed to them the last game, it was 20 – 0 when I last checked. Then their coach got fired this morning.)
And speaking of the SEC what got Sabin’s panties in such a wad? Could it be that the Aggies had the number 1 recruiting class? Maybe. Then Jimbo got his panties in a wad and it was a pissing match. (There is a bit of truth in what they both said.) Of course they all cheat in one form or another, what is new. With the new rules the face of college athletics is changed forever, and not for the better.
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I should just probably stop watching the weather as it just depresses me. But tomorrow’s is a slightly different story. Now the high winds will remain for the next few days but they are saying heavy morning rain with thunderstorms tomorrow, I sure hope they are right. We got very little the other night and we sure need it. After that who knows but it will involve a rod in my hands. So keeps stopping in and thanks for reading my stuff.
Good Luck and Tight Lines
