TexasKayakFisherman.com

Good morning all. I hope you have all been enjoying the beautiful weather and water after hurricane Nicholas. We spent 5 days fishing west Galveston bay and one thing has still puzzled me. We take our Hobie’s into the marsh and see tons of activity but almost never catch fish. My wife almost always uses live shrimp under a popping cork and I start with a bone super spook jr, if no takers then I will usually go to a a man spinner with a dirty tequila down south, if none then a gold spoon and finally a jig head with various soft plastics. Any advise or suggestions are appreciated.

On another note the Z Man spinner with Down South dirty tequila was the bomb everywhere else. We caught well over 100 fish in those 5 days although only 20 or so keepers. Fishing the marshes on each side of Jamaica Beach.

Hard to say but sounds like the "activity" you were seeing may not have been the activity to look for. If you're seeing big mullet (north of 4" to 5") jumping around and making small wakes that's not the activity you want to hone in on. The biggest sign you're in fish is keep moving until you see large mud boils (at least a foot in diameter) or a clear redfish wake. You can also look for small bait fish (being shad, shrimp and mullet under 4") coming out of the water at an angle. Larger mullet will do this but that is just their nature. Small mullet and small baitfish typically won't come out of the water at an angle unless something is chasing them.

It's not a bad idea to blind cast into a pocket, edges, a point or an area where current (either tidal or wind driven) is pushing through but generally you want to move until you see the signs I mentioned then hit the brakes and fish it.

Could have been this was the activity you were seeing and the fish just weren't feeding. High or low pressure can certainly have an impact on fish feeding (at least fish with a swim bladder). Last week after the storm there was really low pressure for several days which can make fishing the marsh for reds pretty tuff.

Hobiefishing: I went out Sunday morning and caught a red early on a topwater. Then, nothing, so I switched to frozen shrimp and caught small reds and drum, then nothing but small drum and hardheads. Water was a little over a foot deep.
I watched a kayak guide's Youtube video and he was fishing in almost the exact spot, and had the same luck. But, after the water warmed up, he moved to deeper water, maybe three feet, and continued to catch keeper reds and drum.
Where I was fishing, the water got too warm for the bigger fish and they went to deeper water. I didn't think to go deeper, but I will in the future. We had the cool front blow through last night and the water will be cooler for a while, but it will warm up again, and I'll keep a better awareness of the water temperature as the day progresses.
There will be days when the reds swim over and inspect your lure and swim away. It's frustrating to throw all kinds of bait and get no hits. That's fishing.
Starting now and into late November is when the white shrimp leave the back marsh lakes and venture into the bays, so the marsh drains are a good place for us to lay in wait for the predators. Anything that looks like a shrimp should get some hits.
Good luck, TexasJim

Thanks for the info guys. We ignore bigger mullet but did see lots of boils in the water and occasionally saw some tailing reds near the grass. Several huge blow ups but I guess they were just finicky. There’s always next time but it was still a fun 4 days on the water and beautiful.

You had a pretty good report and a great tally.

The very best way to fish sloughs and back-lake shorelines is to begin soon after low tide, so you're fishing the rising tide, and the redfish are moving in to you, following the bait, and looking to feed -
- rather than you trying to sneak up on them, maybe after they've had their high-tide fill.

Try using a smaller bait on a Ned rig for spooky fish. Z-man 1/5 oz finesse shroomz jig head regular or weedless. Z-man TRD craws in greasy prawn with a dab of procure. Finesse fish slow with lots of pauses. Spooky fish seem to bite smaller baits fished Ned rig slow. Especially on sandy spots and brings them up out of grass. I noticed that you get more follow up strikes with a dab of procure. Best of luck!