Sept 8

[crusher]

I haven't been out since late May, so I've skipped summer fishing and was hoping to find some early fall style schooling reds. Shortly after sunup, maybe 740-7:50ish, I got some topwater action. Unfortunately, the fish was little bigger than the topwater I was throwing.

I've finally got walking the dog down to at least a sort of tolerable ability, so I was pumped to get some action. I had 3 more blowups in the same general area, and landed 2 of them. All were undersized. Winds were low, water fairly calm, high water, and a great sunrise. According to the tide charts, it should have been a slight outgoing tide, but it seemed like little water movement. Once the sun was fully up and the reported solunar bite was over, I had no more strikes. I paddled in to a small marsh area Ive never been to before, and it just felt like dead water. I saw a pair of anglers and they reported finding a couple specs a small distance away. Anyway, I left the small marsh area and paddled over to another shallow lake that I've had some luck in before. The water was fairly high as I already said, so the oyster reefs were submerged nearly a foot, which was unusual there. By 11:00ish, I hadn't seen even a trace of feeding birds or any of the usual signs of a redfish near the oyster patches I've found in the past. I threw a gulp under a cork along some grass lines and changed my other rod over to a Manns 1-minus. The wind picked up just a bit to maybe 8-10 mph, and I got a great hit and hookup with a good red. The whole swoosh, flail, drag pulling of a good slot red, if not upper slot. It only took about 15 seconds for the line to go tight but perfectly steady. As it turns out, I think he took the line down and caught on an oyster patch. After a few seconds of this absolute stillness of the tight line,....it went slack. Empty, nada. I reeled up the empty line with about half my 3 feet of 20# leader gone. I've heard people say a fish broke them off on oyster and now I know the feeling. It's a sinking feeling not to mention my only Manns 1-minus lure was gone. Anyway, I stopped along a couple more spots, caught one little spec on a popping cork, and come home empty handed. On the bright side, I think I have the walk the dog style figured out enough to catch a fish now and then, and I paddled some new waters adjacent to one of my usual areas.

[karstopo]

Nice that you got out. Redfish will find those gaps and lanes in shell patches and then you are on the clock to get them out of there or have them break off. It’s hard to muscle out or stop a good redfish once they get into the shell.

I’ve gone back at a later date and found my topwater not far from where the fish broke me off, more than once. The lure will be hanging on the grass at the edge of the water.

Fishing shallow shell has risks, but it’s such a good place to find redfish it’s hard to ignore.

[TxAquatics]

Nice report. I'm itching to get out to the marsh to find schooling reds. My goal this fall is to sight cast my first slot red.