Hangin’ with the Fishes—2018 flog

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Cuervo Jones
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Re: Hangin’ with the Fishes—2018 flog

Post by Cuervo Jones »

karstopo wrote:Roseate Spoonbills are a favorite of mine. I like almost all birds. I like fish, too. I haven’t seen a redfish in over two moons. Someone needs to build a kayak with an early detection system for redfish paired with an automatic brake. It looked pretty impossible to hunt reds today with the wind and light.

Keep the reports coming, Cuervo.
The spoonbills and redfish we can agree on. My analysis of next week’s weather indicates similarly poor sight casting conditions so it will probably be Bass-harassing time for me. There’s a bunch of chubby, beautiful Jessica Drake bass out there and I’m gonna do some modern day presidential fishing for them. Hopefully I’ll land a few and none will turn around and sue me.


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Re: Hangin’ with the Fishes—2018 flog

Post by Dandydon »

Cuervo, if you get your ass sued (again!), call Shoffer. He discounts TKF members ten percent on his high legal fees. And all communications are protected by the "attorney-client" privilege. I hear everything, of course, because I'm his cranky senior partner.
Good luck out there, & hope you'll come back soon to the salty brine we love.
Rumor is a fab NIGHTTIME TOURNEY️ is coming in May. Hooray!


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Re: Hangin’ with the Fishes—2018 flog

Post by Cuervo Jones »

Does anybody read these things anymore? I don’t know. But I do know that I went fishing today and instead of chasing bass like I originally planned, I headed to the marsh again. Not a great choice. Wind, clouds, and high, muddy water made sight fishing a no-go.
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As usual launched, another fellow was loading up. He said he’d caught a few fish, but no trout. That’s fine by me. I was after redfish after all. So of course, that means the first fish of the day was this:
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Nobody had any interest in my topwater and I realized that all these salty fish ever really want is a Cocahoe on a 1/8 ounce jig head. Who am I to argue?
I paddled with the wind, against the wind, sideways to the wind, and every other way I could looking for my redfish friends. Finally I found this guy:
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I pressured him like Crockett and Tubbs used to squeeze Colombian drug mules, but he wasn’t talking. His buddies remain at large. Be on the lookout. Maybe Gina and Trudy will have better luck.



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Re: Hangin’ with the Fishes—2018 flog

Post by Drifting Yak »

Can't believe you use that color Cocahoe. I hear it never works. :lol:
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Re: Hangin’ with the Fishes—2018 flog

Post by karstopo »

Reading, enjoying the flog. Contemplating a salty trip of my own.
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Re: Hangin’ with the Fishes—2018 flog

Post by Cuervo Jones »

Drifting Yak wrote:Can't believe you use that color Cocahoe. I hear it never works. :lol:
Whoever told you that is trying to keep all the fish-catching powers of this, the best ever color of cocahoes, all to themselves. Unconscionable. But sadly, there’s plenty of unscrupulous people out there in the world. Many of them get into politics and working at Lowe’s. Abandon your friends and live free and easy like I do.
And thanks for reading, both you and Karst. This particular marsh had TONS of green, hairy and slimy algae all over the bottom. Makes it tough to fish. I’ve got better places in mind for next salty trip. But the bass, they are a-calling.


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Re: Hangin’ with the Fishes—2018 flog

Post by imaoldmanyoungsalt »

Cuervo Jones wrote:
Drifting Yak wrote:Can't believe you use that color Cocahoe. I hear it never works. :lol:
Whoever told you that is trying to keep all the fish-catching powers of this, the best ever color of cocahoes, all to themselves. Unconscionable. But sadly, there’s plenty of unscrupulous people out there in the world. Many of them get into politics and working at Lowe’s. Abandon your friends and live free and easy like I do.
And thanks for reading, both you and Karst. This particular marsh had TONS of green, hairy and slimy algae all over the bottom. Makes it tough to fish. I’ve got better places in mind for next salty trip. But the bass, they are a-calling.


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Amazing the information a person can gather from reading a random post. I'm glad you mentioned the hairy slime Cuervo. My one and only salty trip to the bay (east Matty) earlier this month I encountered quite a bit of it and I just thought it was a normal thing for the bay. It was actually pretty much everywhere and had to make sure you never let the lure get close to bottom or it was fouled. Is this NOT the norm? I sure hope so because like you, I was not enjoying it very much.
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Re: Hangin’ with the Fishes—2018 flog

Post by Cuervo Jones »

I’m glad we can learn from each other! TKF is great for that. I’ve experienced this hairy horror before, usually in winter through early spring, when water has been clear and cool, but in areas where tidal currents are minimal. East Matagorda is a prime candidate for these conditions. By later spring and early summer, the heat and turbidity of the water should kill off most of the nastiness. If not, there’s better places to try with less gunk. Topwaters and weedless soft plastics can work...if the fish are interested. If those fail, best to locate an area with a better tidal pump.


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Re: RE: Re: Hangin’ with the Fishes—2018 flog

Post by imaoldmanyoungsalt »

Cuervo Jones wrote:I’m glad we can learn from each other! TKF is great for that. I’ve experienced this hairy horror before, usually in winter through early spring, when water has been clear and cool, but in areas where tidal currents are minimal. East Matagorda is a prime candidate for these conditions. By later spring and early summer, the heat and turbidity of the water should kill off most of the nastiness. If not, there’s better places to try with less gunk. Topwaters and weedless soft plastics can work...if the fish are interested. If those fail, best to locate an area with a better tidal pump.


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Good info Mr Jones. Learning all the time from you guys and as always, much appreciated!

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Re: Hangin’ with the Fishes—2018 flog

Post by Chubs »

I tried to find those salt and pepper cocohoes but couldn't find them at bass pro when I went there.
Got something similar but top color was more transparent.

I've noticed a few things with these soft plastics. I tested some baits out in my little fish pond with my son's Lighting McQueen rod and reel!

The cocohoe minnows have a short and stubby tail connecting the body to the paddle, and so require a faster speed to wiggle their tail properly, but it's a bigger paddle so I'd assume it makes a bigger thump that the fish can detect in windy or murky days.
Maybe though, when it's cooler the speed required is too fast for most fish to come after. If you troll with plastic, this is probably the one to use too.

Other lures with a longer and narrow tail connecting body to paddle, such as the down south lures, they have a smaller paddle too, they vibrate at much slower speeds. I'd think their advantage is less windy days, cooler days too because you can work it slower and still get the vibration. Maybe murky water fish might have a harder time detecting it with their lateral line. I think you might be able to jerk the dsl a bit like a finesse bait and somewhat look natural (like a dying glass minnow). That could give a good thump to a lateral line every so often.

Maybe I'll eventually run some tests and put together a little comparison chart for mine and everyone's benefit :)
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Hangin’ with the Fishes—2018 flog

Post by Cuervo Jones »

After some Easter celebration in commemoration of the ancient Pagan spring festival to honor the Saxon goddess Eastra, mrs. Cuervo and I swung by the Colorado river in Columbus to see if Beason’s park launch was open.
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That’s a negative. So if you’re planning on paddling the Columbus loop, youre just plain outta luck. I didn’t get a chance to throw any hooks and lines at fish this weekend, but I’ll be in Del Rio for the next few days, so I’ll be taking a crack at Amistad with my fly rod. I’ll report on the good, the bad, and the ugly after I do.
Hope you enjoyed the weather today like I did!


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Last edited by Cuervo Jones on Sun Apr 01, 2018 5:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Hangin’ with the Fishes—2018 flog

Post by karstopo »

What happened to the launch? Flood damage?
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Re: Hangin’ with the Fishes—2018 flog

Post by Cuervo Jones »

That’s courtesy of Harvey. Not sure if there’s plans to rebuild it or not.


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Re: Hangin’ with the Fishes—2018 flog

Post by Cuervo Jones »

Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls, anglers of all ages, Cuervo Jones here, reporting to you LIVE and in person from Lake Amistad in beautiful, west Texas.
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Dateline Del Rio. Work brought me here and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to bring along some fly gear to mess with the fish. The countryside: splendid isolation.
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The mission: avoid the skunk.
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I fortified my nerves and downed gallons of liquid personality enhancer from my traveling refreshment assortment.
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Fully prepared, I went to check out the reservoir since I only had a couple of hours and I’ve never been fishing here before. First stop was beautiful, but not quite what I was looking for.
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It looked spooky and evil and I was t sure if there were water witches or bandits waiting to do me harm and steal my gear. This shady looking nogoodnik gave me pause.
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Onward I continued. Until I got here.
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There were even bass jumping! I strung up my rod, donned my vest, and made my way to the water. First cast:
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A thousand curses spewed from my frothing lips. First cast fish are ALWAYS and I mean ALWAYS, buster, BAD NEWS. True to form, I’ve now spent the last hour and a half catching nothing, busting off flies on rocks, and realizing I still have a 5 hour drive ahead of me. So I best get going instead of standing here, continuing to type this report that nobody will read anyway. Ok. Fine. I’m done. We now return you to your regularly scheduled program, already in progress....



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Re: Hangin’ with the Fishes—2018 flog

Post by Cityfisher »

I always read your reports. Thanks for checking in. I wish I could get out and do more traveling like that. It gets a little boring around here sometimes.
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Re: Hangin’ with the Fishes—2018 flog

Post by Chubs »

I think you scared the fish off with your cache of "traveling refreshment assortment" clunking around!

Thanks for the report, looks like a pretty place
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Hangin’ with the Fishes—2018 flog

Post by Cuervo Jones »

Welcome to another action-packed, edge of the seat episode of Hangin’ with the Fishes 2018. I’m Cuervo Jones, your host. It’s been a busy spring, with my court-ordered weekly fishing sessions being interrupted by this whole Russia probe thing. NO COLLUSION! Having been found insolent of all charges, I am free to fish as much as I can stand it once again. Torn between the salt marshes and chasing bass fish, I opted for the latter.
I like the scenery at Fayette Lake.
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My drive was interrupted by hordes of bicycles in colorful apparel doing the MS 150. I only hit about 4 or 5 on my way to the lake, so I think that’s pretty good. (Note for all the sore heads and sanctimonious types that like to point out egregious behavior and posts...I didn’t actually run over anybody, so save your PM’s and condescending retorts, m’kay?)
It took a while to find the first bass in 23 feet of water.
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He chomped a Shad colored crankbait that I prettied up with some sparkly fingernail polish.
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Then....a whole lot of nothing.
There were boats, jet fleas, water skiers, and kayakers galore. The pretty girl at the entrance booth told me there’s a kayak tourney that got rerouted from Deckers on account of boat races there. Lots of fishing, not a lot of catching. It was DEAD, man.
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Dead like this bloated, stinky shad that I couldn’t help but poke with my finger and lick a little bit.
I threw my trusty jig for a while and got some nibbles from gar (probably) but no bass. Then I threw a Carolina rig lizard, to no avail. What’s the deal?! As a last resort, I threaded a senko on my Carolina rig and began to daydream of porn stars and playboy bunnies. Dreamus interruptus!!!
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The savage fish inhaled the senko in 14 feet and I had to clip my line to leave the hook in his gullet, sans plastic.
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My pride restored, I kept with the C-rig, but no more fish ate it. Since none of my tried and true spots was putting out, I decided to explore a bit. Good thing I did too. The bass started gobbling up the Shad colored crank, while ignoring the crawfish colored one that worked so well all fall and winter.
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Finding the fish wasn’t hard. Getting them to play nice was.
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They were mostly clones of the same 18” fish.
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Tired, hungry, and hankering for some sofa time, I headed home. But here are the lures that worked for me and will no doubt work for you too.
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Incidentally, if you’re thinking of floating the Colorado river in Columbus, think again, buster.
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Both access points are closed for repairs.
Check back often for more pro tips and cutting edge updates!
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Re: Hangin’ with the Fishes—2018 flog

Post by Cityfisher »

Good report Cuervo. Your perseverance paid off to catch a few at least.
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Hangin’ with the Fishes—2018 flog

Post by Cuervo Jones »

There was also gajillions of these hatching:
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Big, #8-10 chironomids. The terns and gulls were snarfing them up and even a couple of gizzard shad seemed to rise to them. No sunfish or bass though. Stoopid fish.


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Re: Hangin’ with the Fishes—2018 flog

Post by Chubs »

Thanks for the report. I've gotten the In Concepts series of Bass books, only on the 1st one so far but I want to learn how to pattern and catch these guys.

An off topic comment on the FLOG format, though of course you do what you want - I have a hard time reading your most recent updates if I visit the form from my phone's web browser.

For whatever reason my internet browser puts the option to scroll to page 2 all the way at the bottom of the page; so I end up having to scroll very far on my tiny phone screen to get to the "next" button. Then I have to scroll more because you have nice long detailed reports.

I don't like the tap-a-talk app (hate how it doesn't load everything at once and it orders everything LIFO) - though I'm sure it would work well with this format you've chosen.

Regular PC internet explorer works just fine but these days we all do our internet on our phones while spending quality time with our wives 8) .
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Re: Hangin’ with the Fishes—2018 flog

Post by Chubs »

Hey just thought I'd mention, I figured out how to get to the last post instantly on my phone web browser. Click the little plus sign on a topic and it will expand the topic to give details, and it also gives a link to the most recent post with a little box with an arrow icon. Click the icon and you go right to the end.

Hope you've gotten out to fish recently. We all enjoy your reports!
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Hangin’ with the Fishes—2018 flog

Post by Cuervo Jones »

I’m on a secret mission to the west to harass fish and breathe less oxygen (the air is thinner at these elevations, ya know). My drive out the other day looked like this.
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It took me past some really ugly places.
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And I got to a place that sells these.
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Luckily, I tied plenty beforehand so I’m good to go. The fish get big here. These two are 39.5” long and weighed about 29 lbs.
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So I got a good night sleep and hit the river right after breakfast. It was lovely.
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The locals are friendly here too.
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And sure enough, there were some of these.
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And a few of these followed by long distance releases. Hey. That’s ok. On a day like this, it’s impossible to be bummed out.
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A big brown bent out the hook on my nymph at one point.
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It was mostly nymph work, but I did get a couple of BIG browns to rise up and inspect a Chernobyl. Both refused at the last minute. Maybe the color isn’t right.
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I’ll try tan tomorrow.
So much to see everywhere I looked, it was almost sensory overload. I may have short-circuited my brain.
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Time to review and plan for the morning.
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See you here next time, TKF. Same Cuervo time, same Cuervo station!



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Re: Hangin’ with the Fishes—2018 flog

Post by Cityfisher »

Absolutely gorgeous!
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Hangin’ with the Fishes—2018 flog

Post by Cuervo Jones »

My harassment of fish continued unabated yesterday. Breakfast found me gulping oatmeal and chugging coffee whilst chatting with the waitress about what it’s like living in this part of the world (hint: winters suck).
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A couple of other tables had some sports at them discussing their various experiences with guides the previous day. None were too thrilling catching-wise, but all agreed the guides were good. So back to the river I bolted. Since nymphing had worked the day before, hey...why not start there today?!
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The fish agreed.
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The rainbows are unbelievably colorful when they reach about 16”.
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Then, about 11:00, the trout started making slow, deliberate rises at the surface in some slower water. In fast water, they were rushing up to grab hapless organisms before slowly descending again. Hot-damn! Time to fish dries.
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There’s not many of these things around yet, but the next few weeks should be awesome.
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The fish were picky though. One ate a cicada look-alike, but others only checked it out before rudely refusing, same as yesterday. Time to test out my various imitations. Cricket? Nope. Hopper? Nope. Beetle? Nope. Ant? YES PLEASE!
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The fly is chocolate brown and a variant of a Mambo Ant (as I discovered when looking through the bins at the shop). When I tied these, I didn’t know what they were called. Just that they looked delectable.
Like a snickers bar. So I ate one to celebrate.
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Ok. Two.
But if the fish were being gluttons, so could I. On the way back downstream, I stopped to toss nymphs and if I saw feeding fish, the dry. Got one here, one there, and left them biting.
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Now I’m on my way home to hide for the holiday and tie up replacement flies and more mad experiments for the next trip to these parts. As always, I’ll post a report come hell or high water. It’s what I do.



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Last edited by Cuervo Jones on Sat May 26, 2018 6:47 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Hangin’ with the Fishes—2018 flog

Post by imaoldmanyoungsalt »

Cuervo, man I know you like to fish alone, but I would love to be your shadow on just one of your adventures. You go to some amazingly beautiful places and always catch some great fish! Awesome post sir!!!
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