Aransas Pass 7/13-7/20

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broke
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Aransas Pass 7/13-7/20

Post by broke »

Disclaimer: I have never been good at summarizing and this post covers an entire week of fishing. As a result, its super long. There's also not many pictures because I forgot about my old-school camera until midway through the trip.

After a hiatus of several years, I was finally able to make it back down to the coast for my first real trip since 2012. I went last year for a long weekend but ran into mechanical problem and was only able to squeeze in one quick trip in the kayak. I managed one dink trout and lost one of my rods after knocking it out of the rod holder (Shimano Saros 3000 on a 7.5 ft TTF Red Killer rod). On the plus side, I did get to ride from Sinton to Rockport and Rockport to San Antonio with a tow truck driver.

Thursday 7/13
I got down there during the late afternoon and was able to launch at the East Shore by 6:00 or so. I couldn't find any fish to cast to but was able to pick up 1 22" fish blind casting a gold spoon. I spooked another one on the way back in but was able to land a Killer Flats Minnow right on his nose as he was slowing down and he slammed it. I ended up losing him due to my frankenreel malfunctioning (pieced together from 2 Shimano Citicas and 1 Curado). Not a bad start overall.

5 Year Slumpbuster
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Friday 7/14
I checked the tides later on that night and was dissapointed to see that I'd be fishing the tail end of a rising tide/slack tide the next several mornings. This is probaly my least favorite tidal pattern to fish due to lack of current and high water making it harder to see fish. I decided to sleep in and start fishing the early afternoon during the falling tide. I launched at B&R around 12:00 and was off the water by 2:00 due to the heat. I saw 2 or 3 tails but they didn't stay up long enough for me to get close enough to cast.

Saturday 7/15
I decided to head back to B&R the next day and was on the water by 6:30. I paddled the whole southern shoreline a ways past where it turns to sand and was only able to spot one fish the entire time. He swallowed my Buggs Curl-Tail Jig past the crushers and was hooked in the belly. He was just shy of 20" on one side and just over on the other side. I'd normally just cut the line and let him go (especially on a border-line fish), but I decided to string him since I really didn't feel like parting with a $7 lure.

I started heading back in about 11:00 but decided to look around the front part of B&R. I don't know how many times I've found fish tailing away there mid-day after the tide starts moving. I spotted the first tail of the day not long after I got up there and hooked up immediately on the Buggs. I stuck around for another two hours trying to get one more and saw a handful more tails but it just wasn't to be.
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Sunday 7/16
I decided to fish the afternoon and launched around 3:00. I paddled around looking for tails but there were none to be found. During this time, I spooked a few singles and spent some time trying to relocate them after they settled back down. It really amazes me how they can just disappear in such shallow water. I was able to successfully get back on one of these after several minutes of looking. I put my Buggs right in his path and I short while later I released a nice 24" fish.

As it got later in the evening (6:30-7:00) and the tide started coming back in, I decided to check out a nearby shoreline that has held tons of fish in the past. I saw tails everywhere when I got over there. The only problem was they were gray. I've always found tailing black drum extremely frustrating and tend to ignore them unless they are schooled up. This time was no different.

After making who knows how many casts at individual fish, I was finally able to hook up on one on a gulp shrimp. This one was facing me approximately 10 yards away and I landed my bait a few feet off to his side. I was able to drag my bait right past his eye and in front of his nose at a 45 degree angle. I thought maybe I was onto something and started passing on fish as I tried to replicate the scenario. I had a few more identical shots and was able to put one more slot drum on the stringer.

I only spotted one redfish mixed in with the drum but he was pretty much impossible to get to since I couldn't move more than a 5-10 yards without spooking several drum. I started heading back in after sunset and spotted a few individual reds tailing/swimming near a deeper gut that connected the flat to a deeper channel but was unable to connect on any of them.

Monday 7/17
My freezer has been without fresh fish for several years so I decided to focus on the drum for a few days. I figured the most efficient way to catch these drum would be soaking dead shrimp in the area they were tailing and just waiting for them to find it. I hate fishing with bait in general and cannot stand just sitting around waiting for a bite, but this was teh best plan I could come up with.

I got out there about the same time as the day before. I immediately headed to the area where I had found the drum the day before and didn't see or spook a single fish. The tide was still falling so I headed to a slightly deeper area of the flat looking for them. They weren't there either so I headed to the only other place I could think of they would be: the gut connecting the channel/flat. I posted up right where the gut fed into the channel and started fishing.

Each shrimp would last 30-60 seconds tops before the bait stealers would get to them. After going through 5 or 6 in the first few minutes, I started thinking this would be a waste of time but soon hooked up on the first slot drum of the day. I added another drum to my stringer a few minutes later and started thinking I'd have a pretty easy limit.

I went probably 30 minutes without any further action before hooking up with what was obviously a redfish. While fighting that fish, I heard line start peeling off the rod I had in my rod holder behind me (baited with a piece of a large pin perch I had caught) and saw that it was doubled over as well. It was impossible to keep the lines separated and I ended up only landing one of the reds. I sat there till dark and caught probably close to 20 more slot reds on pretty much whatever I threw (dead shrimp, cut perch, gulp shrimp, gold spoon, Manns Baby Waker). The only interesting thing to note about bait choice was that I didn't catch any soaking gulp on the bottom. I also saw a good sized flounder jump nearby (second time I've ever seen this).
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Tuesday 7/18
I really wanted to target the drum but didn't want to have to fish with dead shrimp so I decided to buy a few packs of Fishbites and a pack of circle hooks(Orange Crab and Pink Shrimp). I headed back to the same spot that afternoon with the hopes of finding more drum. I sat around for about 45 minutes and hadn't landed a single fish and was starting to wonder what was up.

I decided to move about 50 yards away to a gut between two patches of shell that led from the flat to the deeper water. It was a lot windier than the day before and there was some islands behind the cut that really funneled the SE wind and current through this particular gut. I wasn't sold on the Fishbites yet so I threw a piece of cut perch out there and was hooked up before I could even get the rod in the rodholder. First fish of the day was a solid 26" red. I re-baited with Fishbites, threw back to the same spot and hooked up again within a few seconds of putting my rod in the rod holder with another 26" red. I cast back to the same spot again and was hooked up with my third fish of the day (23") within 60 seconds.

The Spot
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The spot I was casting to was about a 6 ft by 6 ft area parallel to the gut near its end where the ripples on the surface were different than the surrounding area. I assume this is where the gut flattened out into the deeper water. If you put your bait in this area, you were hooked up in 60 seconds or less. If not, would take several minutes or more.

After catching a bunch more on Fishbites, I switched up to a gulp shrimp on a 1/4 ounce jig head. On the second cast, I felt a solid thump and then dead weight. My thoughts immediately flashed back to the flounder I saw jump the day before. I waited several seconds before I set the hook and could tell it was a flounder by the way it was fighting. When I got it close to the kayak I was surprised by how big it was. It measured 19" on my Check-It-Stick.

I managed to catch a bunch more reds on the gulp shrimp as well as a dink trout to finish out my kinda-slam. With the exception of 3 or 4, all of the reds I caught were within the slot.

First Fish
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Second Fish
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Flounder
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Kinda-Slam
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Fattie
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Another Fattie
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7 Spots
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After getting my fill of redfish, I decided to move back over to the spot I was at the night before to try and find the drum. I stayed for about 30 minutes and caught two more slot reds but no drum. By this time the sun was starting to set and the tide was starting to come back in. I headed back out onto the flat to see if the drum had already moved out but didn't see a single one.

I started heading back in but decided to stop at the spot one last time just to see. I landed a slot drum a few minutes later. I was able to catch 4 more slots to finish out my limit and was off the water by 8:45.
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A lapful
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This was one of my all-time best days on the water. I honestly don't know how many redfish I caught, but in sheer numbers of fish it has to rank near the top. This was also the heaviest stringer I've every had and was the first time I've ever limited out on more than one species of fish in a day. I don't catch many flounder, but if this one isn't my biggest it has to be close.

Wednesday 7/19
I decided to head back to the same spot during the same time. Fishing deeper water is definitely not my preferred way to fish but I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth.

I posted up on the same spot where I slaughtered the reds the day before (cut between two patches of shell) about the same time and under the same conditions as the day before and immediately started hammering the fish. The only difference was that I catching hardheads and the occasional rat red. I stuck around for about an hour before paddling over to the drum/red spot. Exact same results over there as well.

Not really knowing what was up, I headed out onto the flat in search of fish. I found a handful of fish but managed to blow every shot I had. As the sun was starting to go down, I came to grips with the fact that I was probably going to get skunked and started heading back in. At this point the tide was starting to come back in and curiosity got the better of me so I decided to head back to the drum/red spot to see if anything was there. As I approached the spot, I spotted a redfish with its back out of the water in the super shallow stuff bordering the gut/deeper water. I was coming in way to hot to react and ended up spooking him but took this as a good sign.

I cast out my rod rigged with Fishbites and immediately hooked up with a lower slot red. The following two casts were repeats of the first and I had my limit within 10 minutes or so. I stuck around for a bit longer and caught several more slot reds before heading in.

The Release
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Hooked Up
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Thursday 7/20
This was my last full day there and meant to get up early to try and find some fish shallow but ended up oversleeping. I really wanted to get back to my sight-casting roots but didn't want to be tempted by the spot so I decided to fish just out of paddling distance: Southbay. This also happens to be about the drummiest place I've found so I picked up another bag of Fishbites along the way.

I put in at the East Shore launch about 4:00 and paddled under the bridge so that I had the option of fishing the East Shore if South Bay didn't pan out. I paddled SE until I was parallel with Crab Man and then followed that shoreline up and around. I spooked one big fish near one of the entrances to the LHL, but that was it. I decided to drift back all the way to the South Bay gut to see if I ran into anything.

The area around the blue duck blind has always been good for me so I started blind casting a gold spoon tipped with fishbites as I approached. The Fishbites really change the way the spoon ran and I wasn't really sure if I liked it. My worries were put to rest a few casts later when I landed a lower slot red. I had decided I was only going to keep drum since I already had a bunch of redfish in the freezer so he was released unharmed. I caught three more lower slot reds in the same general area. I decided to keep one that was hooked deep and was already bleeding by the time I got him in.

Without much going on, I decided to hit up the East Shore and started heading that way. As I passed under the bridge, I noticed several other people already out there and a few more launching. The tide had really dropped out and I was confident that I'd be able to find some fish to cast to but I was also super tired. I started heading out there but turned back before I got to the drop. I was just too worn out and sunburned from the previous week.

Laid down a nice base for my summer tan
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Conclusions:

Both of the spots where I caught all those fish are places that I have passed by countless times in the past. Always in a hurry to get skinny, I've never given them more than one or two casts. The only time I've ever spent any time at all fishing them or similar nearby areas is when a cold front is blowing through and drains all the water from the bay.

Fish move onto a flat with the rising tide and fall back into deeper guts as it falls. I've never really been a believer in this due to how many fish I've caught in super shallow water during falling tides in both flats and back-lakes. Now I'm starting to think while there are fish that remain shallow during low tides, this is just a small percentage of the population that inhabit a particular flat/back-lake. It just seems like there's more than there really are since they are so visible.

Why were the fish not in the same spot on Wednesday as they were on Tuesday during the exact same conditions?
  • I'm confident that I have the drum/red spot figured out. I'm certain that the tide was slack/rising when the fish were there, which meant they were staging there prior to moving onto the flat with the rising tide. It's the other cut between the two patches of shell that I'm confused about.

    I know for a fact that the tide was falling on the day I caught nothing but rat reds and hardheads and assumed that it was falling the day before when I hammered them. The only thing that makes sense to me is that maybe I was there later during the previous day than I originally thought. This would mean that the tide was slack and that the wind driven current between the two patches of shell was the only moving water in the general area. As a result the reds were all concentrated in that spot.

    Questions like these are one of the reasons I love this so much and I'm certain that I will be thinking about this for at least the next several years.
The following things are awesome:
  • Fishbites
    • Always going to have pack with me from here on out
    • They probably work better than gulp when just fishing on the bottom.
    Circle hooks
    • I only had one gut hooked fish the entire time I used them and he had it more than a minute before I realized my line had moved about 20 yards.
    TroutSupport Shallow Water Redfish videos
    • Really liked the explanation of wind generated currents as well as the importance of mud
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kickingback
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Re: Aransas Pass 7/13-7/20

Post by kickingback »

Wow! You win with the best report for the year!!! Well done and great pictures with detailed info. I love it. Glad you got down to fish for a few days finally and really got on top of them while you were here! Thanks for sharing!
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Zackthefisherman
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Re: Aransas Pass 7/13-7/20

Post by Zackthefisherman »

Great report thanks for sharing! A couple of weeks ago I picked up a nice Red in that cut between the oyster reefs. Being primarily a river fisherman, I always take the opportunity to fish spots that funnel current like that in the salt.
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GoDoe
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Re: Aransas Pass 7/13-7/20

Post by GoDoe »

Well, I won't be fishing either side of 361 for a while. I think you gave every fish out there a sore mouth.

Way to go in putting the pieces of the puzzle together and getting on the fish.

The water looks pretty dirty in your pictures. Was it dirty up on the flats too.

John
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Re: Aransas Pass 7/13-7/20

Post by bigbuzzard »

Great report. Thanks for sharing.

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broke
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Re: Aransas Pass 7/13-7/20

Post by broke »

GoDoe wrote: The water looks pretty dirty in your pictures. Was it dirty up on the flats too.
The deeper stuff that borders the flat and the main entrance to the flat itself are pretty exposed to any wind from an easterly direction. I've never really paid too much attention to the color of the deeper stuff but the front part of the flat is always a bit dirty for a couple hundred yards if the wind is up.

Thinking back on it some more I believe the orientation of the main entrance to the flat (drum/red spot) with the wind is the reason why the fish were stacked up there during slack/start of the rising tide. The wind and tide were both going in the same direction.

I'm also pretty certain that a gulp/popping cork would have been ideal in this situation.
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Re: Aransas Pass 7/13-7/20

Post by jnd1959 »

Nice detailed report. Thanks for sharing.

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WoodsWaterSky
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Re: Aransas Pass 7/13-7/20

Post by WoodsWaterSky »

Very nice report! I'd chalk that up as a great week... Thanks for sharing!

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