Friday 3-17 AP, No day for locals

Post Reply
User avatar
GoDoe
TKF 1000 Club
TKF 1000 Club
Posts: 1275
Joined: Fri Feb 15, 2008 4:45 pm
Location: Norman, OK & 50 days a yr in AP

Friday 3-17 AP, No day for locals

Post by GoDoe »

Friday was to be my last fishing day of this trip to AP. A local buddy was set to go with me Solo Skiffing. We checked in at 8am on the phone and he bowed out. Too windy and had been for two days in a row for a local to go out. So I found an out of stater that was in town to fish; so fish we did.

I spend a lot of time in AP every year, about 60 days in long stretches, so I had some ideas of where we might be able to hide from the wind and maybe get some decent clean water after two days of serious blowing out there. I formulated my plan over the last of my Frosted Flakes.

We set out to the launch about 9:15 with sunny skies and mostly dirty water. The first spot we could see from the highway was blown out. So then to launch for the second spot we went. We had to make a little run of about a mile to get to the up wind entrance to the area. When there it took some poling to reach the actual fishing area.

The water was slowly coming in and as I made my way along I saw 3 reds holding head first into the current. That was a good sign. Entering the lake we were to fish the water was pretty dirty because of current and mullet activity. I saw a red quickly upon entering this lake and I could see farther out in the lake that the water was cleaner.

I poled the Solo along, perpendicular to the sun, looking west for my quarry. It didn't take long to find what I was after. With the cleaner shallow water, like 1' deep, and the bright sun I could see those glowing red fish from 30 yds away. Of course off the skiff and wading now. There seemed to be fish everywhere. I was seeing singles and small groups of reds every 100' or so and they were in the mood to play. I got two in the first 5 minutes.

Over the next hour I was on fish non-stop. Wading long paths looking down sun and down wind I was clearing this lake of its red infestation. I got 8 fish and broke another one off and had several others chase and miss the fly before the excitement ended. I had waded 4 trips across the pond and had muddied up the water myself. The bottom was soft and I was leaving a trial of mud plume as I walked. About every 20 yds I would step into a soft spot and sink nearly to my knee in mud. The wading was tough but the prize was worth it.

Most of these fish were 20-22" with my biggest going 24". By noon it was over and we sat and had our lunch thinking about that saying "you can't catch them from the couch". Getting to spend lots of time on the water in AP in long stretches has given me the chance to figure out the answer to some of the common problems. Wind, sun, tide, water clarity and water depth are the factors that must be considered when sight fishing then hope like hell there are fish in the spot that you have decided on!

I fished 10 days out of 13 in AP ending on March 17. The weather, wind, water clarity and water depth were not ideal so I had some days that all I could do was go work on putting more information into my data bank for future use. You can't always go catch fish, sometimes you just have to go anyway but for the last two fishing hours of this trip the Gods smiled down on me and I had my best day.
User avatar
karstopo
TKF 5000 Club
TKF 5000 Club
Posts: 5612
Joined: Tue Feb 10, 2009 10:30 am
Location: 77566

Re: Friday 3-17 AP, No day for locals

Post by karstopo »

Nice insights. I don't know of many people (that aren't retired) on the coast around here that get in 60 days a year. I try to get out as much as possible, but my logs reflect I'm at a pretty consistent 40 +/- outings a year. I don't pass on very many chances either.
Post Reply