Hey y'all!
I haven't had much time to sit down and type up a report. Most of my time is taken up on the water. Fishing during/after the lunar eclipse was insane and stayed insane all the way into last week. Now, i'm sitting at my gals apartment in Dallas 8 hours from the salt. So here is whats been going on!
The winds were CALM and the lunar eclipse is something I have always enjoyed watching from the kayak. I launched kaufer and made the paddle over into Alazan bay. I wanted to be far away from all lights so I could watch the stars uninterrupted. The fishing was pretty slow with only one drum landed. 1AM rolls around and the full moon is back to its original glory! Then everything suddenly changed!
I paddled into a small cove that pushed to another shallower cove. The back cove was FULL of drum FULL OF THEM! Hundreds of tails coming up out of the water. I anchored up and tossed some fishbites into the mix. At the same time herds of mullet and other baitfish stacked up onto the first cove. It went from barely any bait to completely stacked. Redfish had worked them down the shoreline and trapped them in there. I was stuck in the middle of feeding blackdrum and redfish busting baitfish all around me.
You can see fish stacked in my kayak. Every fishbites rod would get smashed within 30 seconds. Redfish would crush my topwater every cast. Lots of misses with the crazy amount of baitfish in the water. For about a hour or two I was constantly casting and reeling in. Ended up with about 24ish black drum and 7 or 8 redfish with a majority being oversized.
It was a great day at baffin. One of my favorites by far. I get back to corpus and crashed out to do some more fishing the next morning. I met up with my buddy Fred the next morning to fish some nueces bay. The weather report was a little off though and we arrived with a high north wind. If you fish nueces then you know how bad a north wind can be. Around 10AM we give it up and move over to the laguna to check on other spots that I havent seen in a while. The water quality in south laguna has been cryyystal clear! 6' of visibility easily. We immediately come across school after school after school of blackdrum. HUndreds of blackdrum just cruising down the shoreline. I managed to get a few on fiddler crabs and finished my limit with some bonus reds on a savage gear crab.
I came across lots of flounder sitting on shorelines but none would eat a lure. We ended the day with some nice limits and a killer sunset.
I met up with MECE the next day to try and find some reds and trout. It really didnt take long! First cast with a topwater had a redfish coming clear out the water for it. We set up next to a spoil protected from the unexpectedly strong west wind. Nearly every cast was a pop from a undersize trout of a blow up from a redfish. We both managed to pull in a limit of redfish. I think MECE should have a picture or two to post up but I dont think I do.
The next day we had a small tournament with a few friends. The rules ran on the same idea of kayak wars. You take photos of the fish on a ruler and are awarded points based on size. I had my gameplan and was in full tourny mode. I started out drifting deeper water 3'-4' over grass, throwing soft plastic tails. The trout bite was pretty good but you had to sort through lots of smalls. I picked up around 12 or 13 slot trout and a redfish in the mix. I knew I needed one more good point fish so I went to check on the flounder spot and pulled out a nice flounder that gave me just enough points to win.
Last friday-ish my family wanted to do a fish fry. I hit the water with a buddy to try and stock up the fresh fish pile. North winds still blowing lightly so it made for easier drifts though the shallow/deeper water. Redfish were taking only topwaters, trout on plastics, flounder on plastics, drum on fiddlers. There was a TON of bait hovering in the water. Find the bait and find the fish!
The next few trips followed the exact same pattern. Redfish wanted topwaters. Trout would eat plum or pink soft plastics with a subtle twitch, they are sitting over 3'-5' of grass. Flounder are allll along shorelines, RIGHT on top of shorelines. I recommend casting on shore and rolling the plastic into the water. Drum have been scattered but carry fiddlers or savage crabs just in case you find a school. Random schools of 24"+ trout cruising around the grass. I found one not too long ago and released 4 trout over the 24" mark in one 20 yard area.
Now im in Dallas enjoying the dry air. State fair bound this weekend. Be back to the salt around mid next week.
SO!
Till next time
Life is good!
-Tino
