Anybody been in skinny water recently????

[GoDoe]

I am trying to work on my fishing education without having to go fishing. Has anybody been on the flats anywhere in less than 1' or water lately. That is assuming you can find skinny water with the tides continuing to run so high.

Usually I go to AP mid Jan for 2 weeks and fish the extremely low tides. I am always surprised how shallow the reds will go in the winter. If the sun has warmed the flats for two or three days I am generally chasing groups of reds in 8" of water.

Anybody got any news like that?

Thanks, John

[texnomad]

I am in the RKPT/AP area and the waters have been skinny but not real skinny. The cleaning tables all around have been showing redfish being cleaned regularly as well as trout and eating size black drum. Where the fish are being caught I do not know except trout near the RKPT harbor/beach.

[skinnywaterfishin]

Not in a kayak but yes.

I am trying to work on my fishing education without having to go fishing. Has anybody been on the flats anywhere in less than 1' or water lately. That is assuming you can find skinny water with the tides continuing to run so high.

Usually I go to AP mid Jan for 2 weeks and fish the extremely low tides. I am always surprised how shallow the reds will go in the winter. If the sun has warmed the flats for two or three days I am generally chasing groups of reds in 8" of water.

Anybody got any news like that?

Thanks, John

[GoDoe]

Hey Skinny,

That red looks like a La. native? I think he would have to walk to get in 1' of water. What a beast.

[skinnywaterfishin]

Yep, LA marsh. It was crazy. We caught 40+ big boys like this over 3 days...20-30 lbs. Good times.

I know this is a kayak site but thought I'd toss out some redfish on the fly porn.

Hey Skinny,

That red looks like a La. native? I think he would have to walk to get in 1' of water. What a beast.

[kickingback]

Yep, LA marsh. It was crazy. We caught 40+ big boys like this over 3 days...20-30 lbs. Good times.

I know this is a kayak site but thought I'd toss out some redfish on the fly porn.

Hey Skinny,

That red looks like a La. native? I think he would have to walk to get in 1' of water. What a beast.

Got my attention!

[texasag07]

I spent a couple days south of AP. There are some fish up skinny but didn't see huge numbers. Now I will say the flat I poled was farther away from deep water than I would have preferred for a winter trip, but we had shots a reds, trout , and sheepies.

[GoDoe]

Thanks 07 that is the kind of skinny water report I was looking for. Wish the tides would come down to normal Winter levels.

John

[karstopo]

I can't speak for AP, but I was out a little yesterday afternoon in the Freeport area. Water here was still running about 3/4 of a foot above predicted. I noticed a couple of shrimp, too, but not in any numbers like a few weeks before. I was pretty close to a major pass with a lot of tide movement and even with the above predicted levels, the water was mostly in the drain and only a few inches on the flat. I arrived a dead low tide which would have, if at predicted levels, left all of the area high and dry except the deepest drains.

I started off in some structure areas of the drains and picked up a few reds to about 18" on a shrimp pattern. I lost that fly and put on an almost identical one. The water rose close to a foot in the 4 hours I was out and the west wind dropped quite a bit. I moved out of the drain and onto the surrounding shallow stuff. I casted at mud boils and fleeing bait and got 2 hook ups with 2 really good fish that took out a lot of line, but both came undone with my barb being bent down (discovered this after the fact). The setting sun chased me in. Water was 62-63 degrees.

[Copperspoonfly]

I bet this cold front will knock the water levels down. Hopefully, I can get out to AP next week to give a report.

[GoDoe]

I have been watching the tide stations. Looks like the water fell to right at normal for about half of a day then right back up to about 3/4 of a foot over the predictions. Maybe that is the new normal.

I have had good luck in the past at finding reds holed up on a flat in slightly deeper water even when almost all the water has drained off that flat. Even when the night time temps fell into the low 40's those fish were staying put. Finding any really shallow water will be tough with these persistently high tides.

Still wouldn't mind being there to go look for them but stuck here in the cold for now.

Thanks for the info,

John

[karstopo]

I went out for a little bit yesterday afternoon. I knew from the NOAA gauges the water had rebounded to that new normal 3/4 of a foot above predicted and the actual levels corresponded to the gauges. I paddled along a flat that should have had 6-10" but it was more like a 14-18". We had 2 days of sub-freezing overnight temperatures and the water was still very cold even with the sun. I didn't see any fish, although, some osprey managed to snag a few mullet and here and there I saw a mullet jump. The ENE wind made seeing into the water a little tough, but the water was pretty clear. I blind casted some structure here and there, but never got even sniff. No targets to cast to other than a mullet jump and I tried that with no success. It was still nice to be out of the house. I wore shorts and a jacket and don't think that hot shower didn't feel good after those 3 hours out on the water.

[karstopo]

One thing I've noticed this year with these persistently high water levels is that some areas of cord grass are getting killed off. Some of the marsh and secondary bay areas I hit have lost a good amount of grass islands and margins and are becoming more open, lake or bay cove type of places. Cord grass can take a lot of water and flooding, but it can't take being submerged all of the time. You can see this on some of this Google Earth imagery over time and I really want to see the latest images ( have they been posted yet?) to see how much the cord grass retreat is accelerating.