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I fished 5 days in a row. 9/29-12/3. Near AP

Posted: Wed Dec 06, 2017 9:00 am
by GoDoe
Got bored at home in Oklahoma. The weather had gotten too warm for bow hunting and the Orange Army of gun season was having there dates in the woods. So, stalking reds came into my mind and with a few phone calls I had booked 2 weeks at the RV park in AP and had a buddy lined up to come down and fish with me.
I arrived on the 28th and he showed up early on the 29 for our first day on the water. The tides have been funky. Too high to be low and too low to be high. Not the best water conditions for clarity either. Oh well, we made a plan and made the 3 mile run in the Solo Skiffs and onto the flat. The depth was good but the clarity was not. There were some fish there but they were hard to see until they were spooked. I got 1 before we decided to pole off and make another run to try another spot.
The depth was great here, 1' or so but again the clarity was not so good. We poled and drifted about a mile and saw very few fish. Time to move to the third spot. Here the water was a little too deep, like almost touching my knee, and off color too. Around 3 pm we finally happened into some cleaner water and started seeing enough fish to get out and wade. I got 5 reds in about and hour to finish out this first day. Sight fishing hours are short this time of the year. From about 10 to 3:30 is the only time the sun angle is good enough to see fish.
To shorten the story on days 2-5 we searched for the elusive shallow clear water. On day 2 we found the place to fish. 6" to 1' deep and clean. Lots of reds scattered about and more than willing to eat a presented fly. They were a little spooky in this shallow water so leading them 10' was the trick and only stripping the fly as they approached. I got 12 on day 2, 12 on day 3 and 17 on day 4 all in the same square mile of water.
On day 5 my buddy had to go home so I set off to find "new to me" fish. Poling a long shoreline I began to bump fish. When I had seen enough to peak my interest I anchored the Solo and began wading. I had 1 fish, a 25 incher, from a quick stop along the route but in the next hour and a half I added 12 more to end the last day with 13.
Most fish on the trip were just under the slot but I would have managed a limit of keepers every day had I been keeping fish. It turned out to be just dang near easy when we found the right conditions. I presume there were fish in most of the spots but we just couldn't see them in the dirtier water.
I only used 3 flies. My go to was a very ugly dark brown crab tied on #4 with a black craft fur tail and no weight. Second was a gold spoon fly which I used in the more stained water that had some floating grass around and third was a clouser with a white craft fur tail and a small bunch of spun deer hair in front of that. It was tied on a #6. I used it for the shallowest of fish. It basically floats.
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Until January, John

Re: I fished 5 days in a row. 9/29-12-3. Near AP

Posted: Wed Dec 06, 2017 9:04 pm
by flydoc
Tightwork as always GoDoe.. Sounds like the reds were happy happy to play. WTG

Re: I fished 5 days in a row. 9/29-12-3. Near AP

Posted: Thu Dec 07, 2017 6:54 am
by Tombo
Nice, I can only see fish in my mind. Hope you left before this cold front came in.

Re: I fished 5 days in a row. 9/29-12-3. Near AP

Posted: Thu Dec 07, 2017 8:56 am
by kickingback
Great fly report! Than you for sharing! Well done.

Re: I fished 5 days in a row. 9/29-12-3. Near AP

Posted: Thu Dec 07, 2017 7:09 pm
by Drmsfish
Nice report!

Re: I fished 5 days in a row. 9/29-12-3. Near AP

Posted: Sun Dec 10, 2017 5:46 pm
by brooks
Hey John, that’s a good hunting report. I’ll be down soon. We’ll have to get out together.
I have put together a little hog island skiff so will be able to venture further afield.

Let me know when you come back

Colin

Re: I fished 5 days in a row. 9/29-12-3. Near AP

Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2017 11:04 am
by karstopo
I always look forward to reading John's reports. Seems like there's always something good in them to learn from.

Re: I fished 5 days in a row. 9/29-12-3. Near AP

Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2017 10:10 am
by El Guapo77
17 redfish on the flies must be a new Texas record! Great report.