My story starts like this...... My step-father, who taught me all my fishing and hunting growing up, was on vacation here in Texas. I haven't seen him in over 25 years, my step-father and my mother divorced when I was a teenager. We reconnected via Facebook. My step-dad, John, now resides in Alaska came down to Texas a few years back and I went to see him while he was camping at Choke Canyon State Park. John said he would be coming back to Texas in a few years but he would be bringing his boat with him. This time, two years later, he drove to Texas and he did bring his boat. When he first came to Texas, the Coronavirus wasn't causing all the issues it is current doing right now. Now my step-father has to hang here longer in Texas because the border to go into Canada is closed, therefore, he can't get back to Alaska. My step-father is born and raised in Texas so he has plenty of relatives to hang with if needed. He also knows he is always welcome to stay at my place. John and his wife, John remarried, have been camping at many different parks in Texas while here on vacation. They both love to fish so camping and fishing is their way to go for vacation.

I've already spent some time with John since he has been here. We have been talking about doing a night fishing trip on the kayaks and taking his wife, Shaun, as well. The goal was to put Shaun on her first keeper red ever. Shaun is more of a fly fisherwoman but she does know how to use conventional reels. Thanks to a few friends I know, I was able to borrow a PA 14 and an Outback for both John and Shaun for this night fishing trip. It turns out there would be somewhat of a break in the winds this past Thursday and the tidal movement was decent. That looked like the break we were looking for. I called John to see if they would be up for a trip and they told me it was a "go."

I arrived very early to Tiki Island to set up everything for them as John and Shaun have never been on a kayak before. The reason for choosing Tiki is that things looked okay for that night for fishing. Other kayak night fishing spots looked slightly better but to get them both to the other location(s), John would have to drive an extra 45 - 60 minutes extra onto Galveston island to get there. John and Shaun were coming from Choke Canyon so that was a 3.5 hour drive. No need to put the extra diving on them when they go back.

Before I arrived to the launch spot, I stopped at Buc-ee's. The gas prices kept getting better each time I made a trip to Galveston.



By the time John and Shaun arrived at the Tiki launch, I was pretty much done setting up all three kayaks. A big thanks goes out to Charlie and JC for letting me borrow their kayaks. John and Shaun got their selves ready and then I gave them a crash course on how to use the kayaks before getting on the water.











While I was trying to park my SUV and trailer, John and Shaun rode around in the water trying to get a feel of the kayaks and everything I told them in regards to operating them. After parking my vehicle, away I went on my kayak. After a little more getting used to the kayaks, away we went. By the time we arrived to our first spot to fish, it was around 10:00 pm. This is about the time I wanted to get to fishing. No boats and no other kayakers were out there so we had total control of the water, SWEET!! The last thing you want is for someone to be in a canal you have no clue that they are in and all you are doing is fishing the spent lights they already fished. You are usually guaranteed nothing good to come out of those lights except dink trout and/or reds. We did not have to worry about that though. We spent a good hour or more trying to find some lights that would hold fish. We fished all the lights with or without fish. Many people make the mistake of fishing only the lights with fish. The lights that you don't see fish at doesn't mean there are no fish there. Sometimes those fish can be lurking in the dark and looking to ambush anything that comes across its path. Finally after fishing light after light after light, there was a few fish in one of the lights we came up to. John decided he wanted to wait up at the mouth of the canal to work on this light he saw a fish at while Shaun and I went into the canal, which is where we saw the fish at.

I could tell the fish were reds. Shaun has never seen or caught a red fish so this was going to be a new experience for her. The fish this time of year are very sensitive. The slightest sound can spook them so the right cast is very critical. Shaun and I talked for a second and she was cool with me making the cast. After the cast was made, she reeled the bait into the light slowly. At this point a red came out of nowhere, took her bait, then headed to one of the docks. I was holding her kayak and had reverse drive. I put the drive in reverse and pulled her back away from the dock while Shaun kept on reeling in the fish. Once she was in the middle and away from everything, I let go of her kayak to let her continue to get the red fish in. I had the net ready for when she got the fish up to the top, I helped net it for her. Congrats to Shaun on catching her first red fish and a keeper at that (25.5" red fish)!!





Mission accomplished! Shaun caught her first keeper sized red fish. What a great and wonderful thing for her. Later in the night, she also caught her first keeper spec trout, 16.5". Something Shaun and I noticed when she caught her red fish was that once I took out the hook out of the mouth of the red fish, there was another line sticking out of the mouth as well. I looked inside and saw that there was another hook lodged in there. Once I got that hook out, the way the setup was on this rig was exactly the way I do mine when fishing a certain way. This was the fish that broke me off at the front of the canal a week before. The red fish never left the opening of the canal but merely went inside of the canal and stayed there an entire week. How interesting was that!! I'm glad though that Shaun was able to catch this fish!

While we would go into the canals, John kept fishing lights in the opening of the canals. Later in the night when we were coming out of one of the canals, John ended up getting hooked up to his own red. It was awesome!!





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As the night progressed, we kept on moving from light to light and catching fish.









By the time we were 3/4 around the island, John and Shaun were starting to get tired. The time was close to 5:00 am. This was a good time to stop fishing and head back to the launch. By the time we arrived, it was close to 6:00 am and there was a bunch of boats at the launch. We had to wait awhile because there wasn't a way to get back to shore and the docks had boats all up against them. The first moment that came where the boats moved from the dock, we managed a spot there. I tied my yak up to the dock and went to get my vehicle. I brought the trailer in the water and proceeded to bring the yak around and up on the trailer. Next, I moved my SUV back to where I parked it only to drop off my yak and bring it back down to the water. From this point, I loaded the other two yaks up on the trailer and then moved my way over to where my yak was sitting. Finally, we were off of the water but we lost a lot of time in waiting for the opportunity to get off. It is now day time and I needed to get everything packed. Before packing though, we managed a few pics of the catches we had for the night.....









After John helped me stack one Outback on top of the other, I mentioned to him to go on over to this bait shop down the way that had a cleaning station and start cleaning fish. I would follow soon and help him finish up. John and Shaun headed on over to the cleaning station at Louis Bait Shop. Shortly, I arrived to help clean fish.







After the fish were cleaned, we said our good-bye's. John and Shaun were going to get some sleep then John was going to show Shaun around Galveston. She has never been to Galveston before. I headed over to Buc-ee's for some coffee and to wash my hands to get the fish smell off of them. After that, I headed home. I didn't get home until around 10:30 am. I decided to take very short naps and stay awake throughout the day so that I would be able to fall asleep that night to get a good night's sleep. It looks like I was able to put John and Shaun onto keeper fish for some great night action on the water. John had a few nice break-offs but made up for it by catching a few keepers along the way. Great job to John and Shaun for a job well done!!

You are having one heck of a spring! Thanks for posting.

I bet they will remember that trip for the rest of their lives.

The fish have been good to me. I'm not complaining.




I'm hoping so.

Awesome post! Thanks for sharing.

Cool!

My pleasure!




Thanks for reading.