Beautiful Fall

Fishing involves a lot of speculation. A lot of educated guesses. And then just a little bit of luck when you have a day off during a stretch of good weather. I rarely see the latter. But I'm always full of the previous! These two trips involved all three. A stellar day of flounder fishing in November(you can only keep 2 flounder in Texas in November) and another day about three weeks later with my daughter in Moses lake. We have been turning the Late October/early November trips with the kayak into a yearly ritual. When flounder are often plentiful along the shoreline and red fish working shrimp under small pods of seagulls a likely occurrence. I live the gulf coast in the fall. Its no doubt my favorite time of year. Hunters are tending their lease or in the blind, and anything is possible. Big fish are in shallow water all day usually because of the mild temps and plentiful forage. Perfect time for a wade fisherman. Although winter wading comes in a close second and summer night wades right behind, fall is just the most comfortable.  

 Some fish get lucky, the moss covered popping cork surfaced several yards in front of me and I snagged it, releasing this black drum to finally get a well deserved meal and have a fighting chance.

 After catching three flounder in fifteen minutes on gambler flappin shad, I quickly switched to my flyrod to try and land a saddle blanket the hard way. Too bad the fish pretty much stopped biting. I did manage a few smaller fish though! It was a real treat.
Below, the first of three quick flounders caught. 5 and 5 1/2 pound beauty's,  headed for the BBQ.

 Now for the next trip.

 My daughter Lily. She is a fish catching expert. Now to get her to fit into waders! Haha. She loves going in the kayak. I cant wait to be able to afford a small john boat. She will truly be hooked. We ended up with 3 nice reds and a couple small(16-17inch) flounders and one trout about 2 pounds. She reeled them all in. Daddy just hooks them.

Days not forgotten

I haven't forgotten about you. You beautiful little collection of memories. I just lost the cord to connect my camera with the computer. Which has put me back about 5-6 post. Don't worry, there are some good ones in there. They include guns, fishing and other manly shit. Big flounders, pig hunts, kids fishing. BTW, kids will just eat up all your alone time.


Until Santa comes, keep you money in a fense post and your guns loaded.

smarter fishers

 Wildflowers make the best corsages.

 I have tied this fly about 10 times and have yet to fish it. Hope it swims well.

 Fish on at San Luis Pass!

 The word of the morning was top water. The morning bite was a little off. Fish were in the area but from 5AM until about 8 I only had 3 bites. From 8 to 10 I caught probably 8 trout fan casting and wandering back and fourth on a knee to thigh deep flat that the incoming tide pushes onto. The flat is unique. It has a shallow point on one side and dead end bowl that is breaking through to a small drop off. The area that holds fish on normal tides starts in about waist to chest deep water and pushes up into shin deep. The best spot is about 40 yards long and 40 yards wide with the sweetest area as big as a school bus. This is the attention that is what makes finding and dialing in new spots a little easier. Walking the whole area and making a mental picture of the bottom and remembering that picture. In an area like a pass into the gulf the bottom changes all the time. Major changes might take years but subtle and more localized changes in bottom contour might be obvious during weeks or months during the season. Its important to a wade fisherman to pay fucking attention. In the scheme of things its not really a lot to remember. It will help you catch fish.

I love dolphins. Porpoise, whales, water mammals. Not sea lions. Fuck them. But dolphins are awesome. These were two different pods that were one family. They watched us fish a reef point and we watched them fish in the channel. On our way in we ran into them again and slowed down to take a picture. They sensed our curiosity and actually swam alongside the boat as we putted along at idle speed and watched us just as we watched them. It was amazing. I fucking love dolphins.

stayin busy

Ronald McDonald, you creepy dogg.

tying up some size 8 articulated marabou streamers. I'm addicted  to articulation. Trout, bass, maybe even some saltwater or foam perch patterns. Lets see where this goes.

Moons align = "log fishing"

Well it happens about once every couple years. I'm sure it happens multiple times for those without children or those that are blessed with the proper motivation to make a living on the water. But for a normal juicer like me, it seems like rare air. As a fisherman it always seems possible. Always seems attainable. With the turning of the tide or the moons rise or suns set. The magical alignment of planets represented by unknown triggers in a unique environment experienced by few. It  passes as another number on your i-calender. And for those who regard magical planet similes as I do....I'm glad you might not know what the hell I'm talking about. Its not always apparent at the moment why the situation is the way it is. Sometimes it takes time passing to recognize why things change. And sometimes it just needs to rain its ass off and then warm up big time. Rain god moves the fish around. Thank you rain god. You are always welcome around these parts.

We arrived and they were biting. We left with an hour before sunset and I let three big blowups on my topwater tell me to quit while I was ahead. I missed the blowups, but we had so many good fish I was glad to just watch them bite. I think we had close to 10 trout 25" or better released on tops and corkeys. 2 sevens, a six and a half, and the rest 5-6 lbs. longest was almost 28" Fatties. FML.

 That's me! Maybe Ill try a different hold. The fish is all resting on my hand. Looks sick. It was actually super healthy. Rurrlurrsd.

 release the 7

 That's a six

 another 7 still swimming

 dude wrecked me. The new sinker original works great. Small twitches like walking the dog underwater. Small, small twitches.

 A couple nice fish on top in these pictures. There were three of us. I think we each caught over 20 fish, and out of those fish probably 85% were released. We eat meat. Feel free to comment.

trust

When the last 30 minutes of daylight is ticking down to the last 10 minutes of discernible shadows that's the most likely moment of impact. At least that's what I was told about 9 pound trout impacting your lure. Which isn't what happened during the last 10 minutes of my last fishing trip. Although, when you are told that that's the time your most likely to hook that big one and 5 seconds later you and a friend manage a double hookup on topwaters you kind of shit your britches a bit. Turns out it wasn't 2 nine pounders but 2 - 25" trout that together might have been more than 9 pounds. So the saying was sort of true that day. And could be sort of true on any day in the winter if your in the right spot. I think I'm getting closer to that spot, and making some pretty sweet ass memories along the way! I had a pretty good couple of trips, releasing a 5 1/2 and a 5. And landing some fish on lures I love to catch fish on. Corkeys, topwaters, and broken backs. I dont really want to get to far into this one. All I can say is..."Ive seen things".

 First of the day is 26".

 This one was beautiful. The picture does no justice.

next a red

 then 3 casts in a row i got POUNDED. I just noticed but I had a rear treble bent the whole time. I was in such a hurry to get out there and miss the fish again that I totally overlooked that. Oh well, you would think there were enough hooks on that damn thing with just the one bent.

 This fish rocked it hard.

 Next day, had a lot of redfish topwater action. They weren't really eating good. But they were looking a lot. I probably had 7 or 8 fish roll on my topwater. Several I teased 4-5 times in a cast. A little frustrating but great fun!

My half of the 9lbs.