Fish Catching Travel
Keller Bay Reds and Trout
When I got up this morning it was doing just what the weatherman said, raining. Now that is a good thing, but I really wanted to do a little wading. So I looked at the forecast and the radar. It looked like it was about to bypass Victoria so I decided to head to Keller Bay for some wade fishing. So when I left I was expecting it to clear and for the wind to be coming out of the southwest at 10 -15. As usual, it did not happen that way.
When I got to the public ramp the wind was blowing almost straight out of the north at least 20, and it was raining. So with that in mind I headed across the bay to the bank at the mouth where the old platform is and jumped in.
I worked around the area trying to catch some trout first, without success. Now I am still throwing the purple with the chartreuse paddle tail made by Texas Tackle Factory as it has worked consistently. I also got to use a new 3 piece rod I picked up for traveling. A Temple Fork, it is not only a beautiful rod, it is very sensitive and will fit in the rod tube just right. One word on Temple Fork rods. I have 2 now and they are awesome, light weight, yet strong. But I still could not get a trout bite no matte what I tried, so I headed to the bank.
Here are the baits I have been using the last month.
Texas Tackle Factory, Reaction Baits, and Zoom Gobi
Now I am not claiming these have been the be all to end all. In fact I have caught on other colors, it is just the fish continue to hit them, so I continue to throw them. I know location is actually everything, and if you are in them you can catch them, these just keep getting me bites. Anyway, off to the bank I went.
There are a couple of small oyster bars near a short high bank covered with oysters. I have caught reds there year round so it was time to catch a couple. There is a small tree in the waters edge near the short high bank, and I managed to catch 3 small reds out of it. I caught another one down the bank near an area that had a few mullet jumping, but it was slow. They were all in about 1 foot of water, and I was just not getting any trout bites deeper.
The water started to run about 3, and of course the fish started to bite. I turned around and headed back to the small bar and the good reds were there.
Sorry about the picture, I caught this one right at the boat. Since I was not keeping any today, the camera was in the boat so this is the only picture I took.
I read an post by Capt. Martin on 2Cool the other day and he talked about fishing into the wind. It was the perfect set up. The tide was moving in, I was coming from down tide and down wind, and the reds were sitting right on the end of a small oyster patch just down from the platform. At most it was 2 foot deep. 5 made their appearance and were CPR’d. After I wore them out, I decided if the water was moving it was time to hit the flat heading towards the platform.
I was in over waist deep when the trout started. I was able to catch 8. As a group they were pretty measely. Probably 3 measured, the rest while willing, actually jumping all over it, but they were small. Most of the bites came in water over 3 foot deep. I did try topwater for just a little while without any blow ups. Finally the wind began to lie and the sun came out, which I hoped would help.
Now this is definitely not the preferred type of bank right now. With a fairly hard bottom, and a few grass patches, it is a much better summer bank. This time of year you need that soft dark bottom to hold just a little more heat, and this was not it. As I had been in that area for about 3 hours, it was time for a move.
Now this was one time when I over thought things, or maybe I did not think enough. I headed to the east bank, on the ramp side on the pasture, where I have been catching them, and jumped in. While it is a much better type of bottom right now, the mud actually hurt me. Right off the bat I knew I had messed up. The water was off colored from the wind blowing on it all afternoon. I fished deep and shallow, fast and slow, but they were not there. Obviously, not only was the wind messing it up, and combined with cool day and the north wind, it was probably a lot cooler.
So it was an ok day. I ended up catching 9 reds and 8 trout. Now that is enough to keep it interesting, but not what I was looking for. My intention today was to try and catch bigger trout, but as with all good intentions it just did not happen. I guess that will have to wait for tomorrow.
Good Luck and Tight Lines.
