Cuervo was so encouraging with his report and the fact he enjoyed a day out on the water in significantly worse conditions, I decided not to be a baby and get out and have some fun. You don't even have to know anything about Cuervo, but know his enthusiasm is infectious and if the weather on a 40 something degree day was good enough for him, I can handle a day 5-10 degrees warmer.






Time was of the essence. With dark coming shortly after 5 and I'm leaving the house at ten til 1, well, you can do the math
First stop was a expanse of water without any sign of a vertebrate. Stared at the water for long enough to know. I'm not into plankton fishing. When I'm not feeling it, I don't launch.

Stop 2 was it, like it or not. Here was life. Pelicans, white and brown. The white ones lounged on an island while the brown birds worked hard diving for fish. Nothing is fair. Common Goldeneye, oh so uncommonly handsome, dived like penguins for fish. Yes fish, that's what I wanted, too.

And I found fish. Did I find the ones I was looking for? Yes, but sometimes I like them to come in bigger packages. The wind was up and the light was low, this is not a recipe for sight fishing. Thank goodness for secret element 74, wolfram, tungsten Swedish for heavy stone.

Tungsten sinks about 2.5 times faster than lead per equal weight. That matters because it's the only chance I have to fish moving water 2-5 feet deep with flies and floating line. So that's what I did. 3/16" tungsten beads on a size 4, 60 degree jig hook and some EP, Steve Farrar, rubber legs, a 3mm Pyrex rattle, and voila, it's a shrimp! Or that is what perhaps the fish think.

Sling, catch, sling, catch, 12" , 14" move , more of the same. I finally get a really big redfish, naturally, that's the one I lose. A couple fish bumped 20" but I'll never know since I forgot my check it stick.

Fun it was, no one there but the fishes, birds and me.

Some (perhaps most) of my best days on the coast have been just ahead of a major weather event. Today (Saturday) and tomorrow (Sunday until the Artic blast hits) are absolutely prime times for finding fish in feeding frenzies.

These opportunities are special, coming only rarely.

Beutiful fish! Love those blue bands on the back of the tail. Water looks clear and pretty. Looks like your bravery paid off. I've been trying to convince myself into going out in my boat and try to jig up some sand bass up hear in North Texas but i talk myself out of it pretty quickly. Just not man enough for this weather.

The water really does clean up with the cold weather. I don�t like it to be so clear that it seems sterile. But a nice clear green usually is pretty good.

I went out on a friend�s boat yesterday about lunchtime. Completely different place, but it was similar with shell fringing deeper moving water. Similar results to my previous trip with lots of mostly little redfish and a few mostly small trout, but this time it was on soft plastics on 1/16 ounce jig heads. Same sort of presentation that I was doing with the fly. Main thing is to find the right pace, depth and fall over the shell.

Nice Pics, well done!!

Solid post and cool pictures. Good job.

It's gotten deadly. This was sent to me today from www.lightandfly.com. Tarpon and snook where he lives.

There were a lot of snook and juvenile Tarpon caught around Brazoria and Matagorda County last year. I doubt it will be the same this year. It�s definitely been too cold for those fish up here.

A lot of the reporting stations on the coast had near surface water temperatures around 40 or below for a long period. I don�t know what that means for the speckled trout and redfish. I guess there�s a lot of if�s. This weekend with people getting out we should know more just how good or bad things got for the fish.