Posted By: karstopo
Windy Marsh Fishing - 06/23/18 07:52 PM
Decided last night about 10:30 as I crawled into bed to not set my alarm for the morning and if I woke up in time to go fishing then it was meant to be. Waking up at a little before 04:00 gave me plenty of time to read, make coffee, and cut up an ice cold watermelon for my trip. I then load up my decrepit Wilderness Systems Commander and it’s fitting as I’m pretty beat up and decrepit these days as well. I texted my buddy if he was still going and he was so we met up at a Freeport area marsh at about 6:30.
The water was pretty low and falling. The water was also muddy and full of tiny shrimp hopping. My buddy was outfitted with his usual assortment of tops and tails. I brought with me three fly set ups each with three favorite patterns, a Black and Tan redfish crack, an Olive Borski slider, and a light gray Tungsten Shrimp.
We spooked a few fish as we worked our way deeper into the marsh. He gets a big swirl right behind his skitterwalk, but no hook up. I made a few casts with the slider, but more just to loosen up as I really didn’t see much to catch my eye.
We moved into a more shallow area, shallow enough to reveal any redfish that were moving by virtue of their wakes. So the water might have been more or less opaque, but the redfish really couldn’t hide unless they remained stationary. That’s really not the typical m/o of redfish so we cast at wakes. I drew first blood on the olive slider. About the time I was unhooking my 20-21” fish, he stuck one on a topwater, about the same size as mine. I got a tiny rat red, then he stuck a much better one that took off with his new skitterwalk and about 20 feet of line. Watch that oyster shell.
The wind kept us pinned in tight to a shoreline. It got even more shallow and there was just enough water to manhandle the kayak through the slurry. That’s when I spot another lower slot backing and crawling along and edging toward the deeper stuff. First cast was short, second cast too close and I spooked it. I took another couple of shots and spooked it some more. After that, we didn’t see much there, so we moved to a deeper spot with moving water. Here the water was much better, not opaque, but more like trout green.
So naturally, a trout makes an appearance. Water was moving by a barrier and I let the shrimp fall in the current next to the obstruction when the fish takes the fly. I get another moments later on the same fly in the same spot, both running 15-16”. Then my buddy gets one on a tail in the same place. And that was it. We tried the spot for a while, but no more fish. The wind bumped up a notch and we both had our fill of the wind so we came on in.
Considering the wind, I’ll take it. It was a marginal day wind wise for kayaking.
The water was pretty low and falling. The water was also muddy and full of tiny shrimp hopping. My buddy was outfitted with his usual assortment of tops and tails. I brought with me three fly set ups each with three favorite patterns, a Black and Tan redfish crack, an Olive Borski slider, and a light gray Tungsten Shrimp.
We spooked a few fish as we worked our way deeper into the marsh. He gets a big swirl right behind his skitterwalk, but no hook up. I made a few casts with the slider, but more just to loosen up as I really didn’t see much to catch my eye.
We moved into a more shallow area, shallow enough to reveal any redfish that were moving by virtue of their wakes. So the water might have been more or less opaque, but the redfish really couldn’t hide unless they remained stationary. That’s really not the typical m/o of redfish so we cast at wakes. I drew first blood on the olive slider. About the time I was unhooking my 20-21” fish, he stuck one on a topwater, about the same size as mine. I got a tiny rat red, then he stuck a much better one that took off with his new skitterwalk and about 20 feet of line. Watch that oyster shell.
The wind kept us pinned in tight to a shoreline. It got even more shallow and there was just enough water to manhandle the kayak through the slurry. That’s when I spot another lower slot backing and crawling along and edging toward the deeper stuff. First cast was short, second cast too close and I spooked it. I took another couple of shots and spooked it some more. After that, we didn’t see much there, so we moved to a deeper spot with moving water. Here the water was much better, not opaque, but more like trout green.
So naturally, a trout makes an appearance. Water was moving by a barrier and I let the shrimp fall in the current next to the obstruction when the fish takes the fly. I get another moments later on the same fly in the same spot, both running 15-16”. Then my buddy gets one on a tail in the same place. And that was it. We tried the spot for a while, but no more fish. The wind bumped up a notch and we both had our fill of the wind so we came on in.
Considering the wind, I’ll take it. It was a marginal day wind wise for kayaking.