My wife was going to take the kids to play with some friends on Friday morning and I somehow managed to weasel my way out of it and go fishing. Told her I'd be back by 1:30PM so we could go to church and have a date later so we had a deal.
I was going to go to Palacios, wanted to try turtle bay but the wind was going to be from the east and blowing between 10 - 15 knots, so turtle bay didn't sound like a good idea after all. I picked pelican slough because the wind seemed like it would be favorable there due to the orientation. Also after my last trip to Essex I wanted revenge on bayous.
Tide predicted to be falling from 7am to about 11 am.
My plan was to launch at Palacios at 5AM while it was dark, fish some lights or play around in the water till the sun rose around 7, then make my way to pelican slough and to as far back as I cared to go and return to the launch by 11AM so I could pack up and make it home in time.
I was listening to some old Lafishblog podcasts on my way down. Heard some good advice from one of the interviews - always keep a positive attitude. This rang true to me as last trip I let myself get frustrated and ended up not enjoying the day as much as I should have - and it was a nice day. And the frustration made me desperate and not keep a level head which is what you really need the most when you aren't finding the fish I've decided, rather than falling into the trap of your own mind.
I got to the launch about 45 min late, got to the east side boat ramp, felt the 10-15 knot wind in my face and saw 1 ft waves and decided this was not the best plan for my 1st fishing trip in the dark. Also, Palacios is still recovering from Harvey I think and I saw basically no lights on the water anywhere.
So, I made a 30 min drive and relocated to college port (east shore protected from the wind) and unloaded and launched right before the sun rose. Water was just almost chocolate milk thanks to the heavy rain the day before and the strong north/ east wind.
Slowly made my way to the marsh. Trolled a green hornet matrix shad on 1/8 oz jig head on my way. I hooked something huge on my way, but I'm not sure it was a fish or an oyster bed I hooked
it never pulled like I expected, and I was drifting in the wind as I tried to reel in so that could have been disorienting me. I would have paddled to go retrieve my lure but I swear my drag peeled a few times, so I thought I need to fight it. I had illusions of a 40 lb black drum, but most likely I just had an epic battle with an oyster bed but I'll never know because my lure came free as I got close 
I burned more time than planned on my way in, but at least I kept moving instead of eating a full hour catching rocks like last time.
Got into the bayou and thankfully the wind and tide were doing exactly what I hoped, pushing all the water out of the marsh. I was on a mission to get to the back and try sight fishing, but the drains up front were calling me and I was seeing fish activity so I stopped for a few casts - I startled something huge too on the way in so though it was a good sign for some casts.
Pulled out this guy on the same matrix shad I trolled with:
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Made my way past a major drain. The orientation was wrong with the wind I thought but I tried a few casts but had nothing to show for it. I'll mention here that the water was pretty stinky of fresh mud. Still very murky, maybe 3-6" visibility. Due to water clarity I was dowsing my shad in some scent stuff I have about every 3-5 casts (forget the brand). Kept going and rounded a bend. Saw some shrimp jumping as I got close (at least that’s what I'll call them) and also had a lot of fish get startled as I went so stopped for a bit and casted around. I assumed they might be trout but not sure. Tried the matrix shad, gulp under a cork, and gulp on an egg sinker. Nothing wanted my baits, so instead of trying to force feed fish - which as my experience taught me last time is not the best use of time - I pressed on with about 2 hours left on my trip now. So pressed on to the next major pond drain.
I looked over and saw shrimp jumping in a line to get out of the way of something - and the jumping was following a path. Tossed my lure in front of it aaaannnnnddd WHAMMO!
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That was the 1st time I've see this textbook example of bait scattering in a line. He was making some blowups too. So cool to finally see it in person. And man that made my fishing trip - but I still had an hour left till I needed to start heading back.
I stuck around the drain and observed. More bait was getting antsy. Made a cast into the drain and let the current drift my lure out… wham # 2! Pulled in another beef cake - this guy was 25" and about 4 lbs per my bogas.
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That or I need to find some better gloves I can grip the line with. I just hate having to worry about extra gear, and a net seems to be something I shouldn't need. Idk.
So back to the fishing report. I was anchored up now in the area outside of the cut. I would every now and then see shrimps scattering outside the cut similar to the 1st guy I caught. I managed to hook another fish and land him in a similar manner. He was about 20+ in. don't seem to have gotten a picture of him.
I tried a little longer at the cut and hooked something else at that put up a bit of a different fight. I lost him at the side of the boat unfortunately. I think it was a flounder but I didn't get a good look (dirty water remember?).
As of yet I had not gone into the cut and I knew fish were in the process of eating and/ or funneling out of there, and I remembered Trailchaser's awesome video of him catching them in a shallow drain. I was running out of time so I had to get in there. So in I went.
If I didn't spook a few fishing getting there, but I saw it in the distance. Bait scattering, blowups, and it was coming my way. Super shallow water probably 6" or less. Cast in the general direction of the fish, almost perfect cast - and:
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She put up a heck of a good fight. Lots of drag peeling and dodging my kayak each time I got her close. Note all fish were caught on my shakespier POS combo with 10 lb braid lol. All with the same 1/8oz matrix shad.
I called it a day after that and left them biting.
Gear used was 4 rods and reels this time - of which I only caught fish on my POS combo.
I took the gift from the marsh witches too - the cleaned up "holy moly rod of Red Slaying" it grants +1 encumbrance but gives you +2 to red catching when carried…
Was an awesome day.
No Goats were harmed in the making of this report, but 3 fish gave the ultimate sacrifice. So their death is not in vain I'll provide an analysis of their stomach contents. All of the reds had tiny little 1" shrimp in them. A few had 1" crab claws too which I assume used to be attached to crabs. One of them had a mostly dissolved fish of some sort, maybe it was 2" when alive.
Anyway. I ended up making it back in time, wife was happy, and I was happy. What more can you ask for
