Hey there!

I've been fishing as much as ever with almost no breaks. This weather might slow me down a bit though. This past week I've gone back to baffin with high hopes.

Earlier in the week Oscar had called me up to do some fishing. A area I've never been to before and a drive I wasnt looking forward to make. The plan was to meet at 6:30 but I mistimed my drive and got there a little late. Oscar decided to launch instead of waiting on me. 2 minutes away from launch he calls me and says, "I just caught a 29"+ trout, first cast on top!" I roll up to launch and sure enough he comes peddling up with a HUGE trout. She officially measured 29.75". None of the pictures we took did justice to the gut on her. He felt really bad that she didnt make it but thats the game with big trout. I've seen a majority of big trout just die once they hit the boat. Even if she swims away fine there is still a chance she wont make it. It happens. Either way he was pretty hyped up and we had a good sign for the morning to come.



We paddled out and I started casting around a strike pro hunchback for the first time. Immediately hook up on a mid slot redfish. I got the red to the net and noticed that the split ring broke off on the back hook and the front hook was bent. IDK how I managed to land it. It bugged the hell out of me. If I pay $12 for a lure then it shouldnt need to have any hardware upgrades done to it. I replaced the hardware then cut and retied to trustly spook jr pink chrome and we paddled out to follow the original game plan.

The topwater trout bite was ON! Every cast from 7-830AM was a blow up from either a trout of undersized redfish. The stringer started to get heavy with the smallest trout of the day being 21" and the rest 24"-26".



The bite slowed down but eventually we see a huge wake following my top. I paused for just a second and it explodes! The rod was a shrimp tail special with not much backbone so my reel started smoking. Only a few wraps left on the spool so I had to have Oscar pull my anchor just in time! Eventually I got a nice 32" bull red into the net!



Somehow we managed to avoid the storms all around us but the bite was pretty much dead by 10AM. Definitely one of the more epic trips of the year.

A few days ago my good buddy Fred called me up to do a baffin trip. Red tide has us moving around a bit and I haven't seen baffin in a while so I figured why not! The night before I get a call and message from my company that they cant make it due to trailer issues. I load up the truck and decide to head out anyways. I hate taking people to baffin without giving myself time to prefish. She can be fickle and Its a long drive for people to make for a skunk.

I hit the water around 645AM and got into some dink trout right away. Baffin looks GREAT! Grass was growing everywhere, blue crabs were all over, shrimp kept popping up! Haven't seen this much going on in a looong long time.

I made the LOOOOONG paddle to check on a old spot. The water was CRAZY high so I knew they would be sitting shallow on areas that are normally shoreline. I hit a nice red right off the bat on a sub surface rattling plug.

It was about noon and I decide to check on one more spot before the paddle back. On a normal tide its a ooold caliche road that use to run out to a fishing platform. Reds had been crawling up and down the shoreline all morning so I sat next to the road waited. The red would have to just up on that road to continue down the shoreline making it much easier to see them. I'm getting ready to paddle home when I catch a gold shine out the corner of my eye.

"That is a big ***** redfish..."

I snuck over and made a cast in front with a swimming mullet but the wind catches the line and pulls it too fast in front of its face. The red turns and is looking for around for it. I cast back taking the wind into account and *thump*. I disengage the reel and let it take some line to make sure he ate it. Said my prayers and engaged the reel. The rod immediately starts to bow over! I set the hook and it ON!

I tried my best to keep it on the road in the shallow water but the very green red finds the deeper water and starts dumping my reel. Im kicking myself for not throwing a heavier setup at this fish because my medium light is getting taken for a ride. Eventually I get pulled on top of the road. I had to jump out and ditch the kayak and run into the water to avoid being completely spooled. The in the next 20 minutes I saw my spool 5 different times and had walked a solid half mile into baffin mud away from the shoreline. Eventually I get it sitting up without pulling back and I start to walk my way back to the shoreline. The most nervous walk! It took 3 tries but I finally got her to the shore.



I got her on the grips and started the long walk in the water back to the kayak for photos. I got her on the board and she taped out to 47.25" - 47.5" depending on how well she was behaving. Fishing in several big redfish tournaments, this wasnt a bad time to catch a beast.





This was a crazy week to be on the water. I'm hoping the weather evens out so I can continue to paddle around and enjoy the fall season.

Till next time
Life is good.
-Tino

Great report.

Solid fish and a solid report. Thanks for sharing.