I went to Boggy Bayou yesterday evening (many thanks to Neumie and Tombo!).
First off, what a great area to go wading in. It's real easy to walk into the water, very gradual incline in the bayou itself. I think the tide was a little low but I never got past my hips in the water. Ground is soft mud yet firm enough to walk around it, I only sank to the tops of my feet in the softer areas (on of the cuts I did sink to my knees but that was a small patch I got out of as fast as I could).
Bottom is mostly mud with scattered shell. There are patches of heavy shell in some areas. The southern area has a ton of grass that was full of shrimp.
So, I hit the outgoing tide and planned to fish 6 - 8. Did my wading from about the middle east side, made my way to the south where the bayou drained into the lake. There was bait everywhere. Too much bait - nothing would bite my lures. Threw 1st a pink cocoho 3" minnow and spooked fish with it. Next tried a yellow gulp swimming mullet till it got cut off on oyster.
Made my way to the grass and the drain on the south side. No bites but I was seeing some blowups on the south shoreline grass. I thought they were reds but not so sure.
Wading sure takes a long time to get anywhere...
By the time I got there the major blowups weren't happening too much but I was seeing some every now and then and TAILING!! I threw the gulp and got snagged by an oyster so swapped to my gold spoon with no trailer this time.
Nothing wanted the spoon.
I examined the tails and they weren't very big. I'm thinking now they might have been gaftop or something?? There weren't big wakes going on and the explosions weren't very big. Is that a sign it's gaftop and not reds??
So anyway, nothing wanted my spoon so I swapped to a DOA shrimp freelined. I was seeing small shrimp fleeing to escape the fish so I figured they would want it. I did get a few nibbles but no takers. The shrimp kept coming back covered in grass, so finally time to try out the TSL. Swapped to the TSL green with white belly and yellow tail color. since there was grass all over the place I thought this is it's chance to shine! Unfortunately the fish did not want it
I eventually gave up on the grass area waded to the gut and tried the TSL some more. I was working it like a jerkbait and I got a decent bite eventually, but I didn't set the hook right. tossed it some more and got my line snagged and cut by an oyster bar
Tied another gulp swimming mullet and tossed it around the gut thinking I'd catch that fish that got off the hook. Unfortunatly I just snagged my 3rd or 4th oyster for the night and got cut off again. Arg! It was nearing 8PM now so I wanted to make my way back to the truck. I tied on a Manns -1 wakebait to get above the stupid oyster. Of course I toss it out a few times and guess what I snagged……..
I said screw this, I'm not losing this pricey lure - so walked over to save my lure and almost sink chest deep into mud! Tried a different path and made it to my lure to save it from the oyster.
Started working the north shoreline and I made my way back to the truck, it's about 8:00 at this point. There was another wader on the water with me more in the middle of the lake. I see him doubled over with a fish!!
I worked my way towards him with my wake bait but I was working the shoreline cause I was seeing good blowups. Nothing wanted the wake bait though. Still not sure if the blowups were gaftops or reds. Still seeing oyster so I descided not to re-rig again an lose another jighead. Anyway I had just about given up and was walking back when the other wader called over to me to see how I was doing. I told him I've caught nothing and he tells me to come on over to him and share his shrimp cause he's already hit his limit!!!
I thought about it for a moment - the sun was going down now, I had on my prescription sunglasses, forgot my regular glasses back at the truck, and also forgot my headlamp back at the truck… So of course I went over to him!!!
I tried a gulp shrimp at 1st on a khale hook with a egg weight but I neglected to put a swivel above it so it was not a Carolina rig and probably didn't look right to the fish. Nothing wanted that so he hooked me up with a Carolina rig and shrimp, told me around where he was tossing his bait so I tossed to the area too. Wait a few minutes and got nailed by a 5lb 26" red! Landed him and so the skunk turned into a success thanks to another anglers great generosity which I was super thankful for.
I've vowed to myself to always help people out that aren't having luck if I can and I hope everyone else does too
And this angler was a prime example of why we should all be friendly to one another.We fished a little longer. He landed another red and I landed a gaftop -at which point he said it's time to call it when the gaffys start biting.
I got back to my truck around 9:20ish haha. I had to follow my new wading buddy out because I could not see with my dark sunglasses on, and my vision is too bad without glasses I'd have never found my truck. Thankfully he also obliged me to lead me back to the truck, what a nice guy.
Anywho, that's my fish story for yesterday, my fellow wading buddy caught maybe 5-6 reds (1-2 rats I think he said) and I caught the 1. He had been working it all evening too but the fish had just all a sudden turned on right as the sun dropped below the horizon. Pretty interesting.
Also, how the heck do you catch reds that are feeding from shrimp on a carolina rig in thigh deep water that you can't see? I was wondering what type of artificial would work in that scenario.
