Fishing THE Canal BIRDS for Redfish!

[Dandydon]

Shoffer & I launched sunrise at Ernie's (Christmas Bay) & met KickingBack who had been flounder gigging & casting since midnight. The north 10 wind chopped up the bay, but once in Churchill Bayou we worked both grassy shorelines in hopes of catching flounder before the daily limit drops from 5 to 2 next week!
The water was murky & unproductive so KickingBack beckoned us to join him up in the drains marked 21 & points further east. In there we had about 18" visibility, the baitfish was jumping & then THE BIRDS started working! Buckle up, men.

. Much like our last trip, the gulls & terns were hovering over small schools of frantic feeding reds, often within feet of the shorelines. In such situations I whip out my trusty purple Norton Sand Eel, Jr. tipped w/ a 1/4oz. jighead for long casts under the hovering birds.
I caught two slot reds by flinging long casts into water whirling w/ redfish fins & leaping shrimp, underneath those helpful birds. The action was intense w/ four rat reds released & even a small speckled trout & two potato-chip flounder caught!
Shoffer then hit another drain & found his own hovering birds, resulting in his fine three redfish limit. I think he caught his first one on the white Tobin weedless GrassWalker. KickingBack got tired of watching Shoffer hook up, so he put a cherry on top by landing a beautiful 29" redfish which he kindly gave to me. There's a big Redfish fish fry in my future. Looks like I'll have to carve up several small fillets from every big redfish.
On my way in, down Churchill Bayou, I met a fellow TKFer Steve "Spillway" in his blue Hobie Revolution. He admitted he'd forgotten all his lures except for a couple of top-waters. Your friendly Fishing Attorney grabbed his tackle-box & found five rigged paddletail lures for Steve. I even told him where those slot reds were. Why? Because when I introduced myself as "Dandydon" on TKF, he replied w/ wide eyes : "Wow, you're a LEGEND!" Ha ha. It made my day & warmed the cockles of my heart. Always keep your cockles warm & be careful on the water.
This fall fishing is my favorite time as the temperatures are pleasant & those dang birds find us the fish. It's hard to beat the thrill of sight-casting into a boiling pool of redfish fins, leaping shrimp & flashing baitfish!
Wish I had decent photos, but the one Shoffer took of me & the reds made me look real stupid, old & stoned. I'll only admit to one of those...
Hey people! It's almost Halloween. Go find THE BIRDS & be somebody!
--Dandydon

See below for what we did not catch this trip!

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[Dandydon]

Correction: KickingBack's beautiful redfish was 28". My mistake. Man, was it hard to fillet! Thanks, Charlie.


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[kickingback]

Actually Don it was 26.5"


Here is a flounder I caught on Gulp in tandem along the Churchill Bayou banks. I spotted three flounder while gigging but they were all smaller than 14" so I jut scared them off to get out of my area and go get their moms for me. But of course they didn't...
The water was clear and the tides made for GREAT fishing everywhere in Christmas Bay and Churchill Bayou! Thanks Don and Shoffer for the company! You guys are always on the fish! Had a blast!

[karstopo]

Excellent report, gentlemen! Glaaadddd y’all found them. The sunshine was so spectacular.

[YakRunabout]

Great report, guys -
Potato-chip flounder - nice description!

[Ron Mc]

and excellent tag-teamwork

[Drifting Yak]

Nice Gents!

[shoffer]

It was a good day.

I started by nailing a 21 inch feeding red out of the grass on the Tobin lure (bone diamond). I let him go. About 20 minutes later, I hung a 21 inch trout trolling a Glo down south on a 1/8 oz jighead.

Then I high-tailed it to the marsh where KB and DD had radioed about their luck throwing to multiple redfish schools in a skinny marsh lake. The sight that greeted me as I arrived was this:



I promply flung my trusty Bone Super Spook Jr. into the frothing pile of ravenous redfish, where I picked up a quick limit (21, 24, and 26 inch) in 10 minutes. When I filleted them, their bellies were FULL of white marsh shrimp (and one had some small crab parts). After finishing out the limit, I caught and released another 4 slots and 3 18 inchers over the next 40 minutes.

You'd think nothing could beat catching slot reds on your favorite topwater lure for an hour straight in a skinny marsh lake under sunny skies at 68-degree temperatures with light winds, but you would be wrong. The best part is doing it while two guys in a really nice powerboat about 70 yards behind me sat there and just watched, because they could not get skinny enough.

As I peddled past them after the epic one-hour redfish session, I said to their befuddled mugs: “there are still plenty of reds back there if you guys can get to 'em.”

Capture.JPG (21.17 KiB) Viewed 6350 times

They were not amused.

[kickingback]

That video is what I saw about 8 times while in that marsh. Great video of them tailing!
I was gonna try to record some myself but they were moving so fast along the grass banks just opening their mouths as they swam through quickly, with shrimp jumping out of the water they were moving into. you could see about 30 to 40 small shrimp in the air above them as they moved, kind of like the big whales that eat algae in a single pass. It was unbelievable the amount of shrimp in the marsh yesterday! I had to use my TM the whole time to keep up with them!
It was an EPIC day for sight fishing! Loved it!
The "plastic navy" commanded by the two captains was a success!

[Dandydon]

Now you guys see why the "LEGEND" Dandydon fishes w/ fish- finding & catching dudes like Shoffer & KickingBack...
We slay the fish & have a blast. Shoffer's little brilliant bird action video made the trip more epic by recording what we saw for several hours in those God-given saltwater bayous & drains. My favorite kind of fishing, & I've been lucky enough to fish all over the world.
I'm rested, relaxed & reloaded for the next trip. Let 'em rip!

[mwatson71]

Great report guys! I wish I could have been there. For some reason, I assumed you were going Friday night and I had my Sabine Lake trip planned for Saturday morning. Your report was so inspiring that I am already working on my next trip down to Churchill now.

[kickingback]

With or without your fellow lawyers? Hope you do well no matter if you are alone or not!

[mwatson71]

My fellow lawyers and members of the Plastic Navy are always welcome.

[kickingback]

We missed you in Christmas Bay!

[Dandydon]

Reminds me of the late, great Warren Zevon (a talented old rocker) who wrote the hit 1978 song "(Send) Lawyers, Guns & Money." Those 3 cover most contingencies.


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[karstopo]

Lawyers are awesome. Got me a kiddo, saved the daughter’s life no doubt, from an ex, righteously destroyed a former tenant suing me with a bogus claim, recovered money owed from another, etc. Gosh, when you are right and the law is on your side, nothing is better than an attorney that can articulate your claim or defense. We have rule of law, for now anyway, and when you are on the right side of the law and have some documentation to prove it, then the law and a good attorney makes all the difference.

[mwatson71]

Lawyers are awesome. Got me a kiddo, saved the daughter’s life no doubt, from an ex, righteously destroyed a former tenant suing me with a bogus claim, recovered money owed from another, etc. Gosh, when you are right and the law is on your side, nothing is better than an attorney that can articulate your claim or defense. We have rule of law, for now anyway, and when you are on the right side of the law and have some documentation to prove it, then the law and a good attorney makes all the difference.

Thanks, karstopo. A lot of folks don't like us lawyers, that is, until they need us. There are bad ones to be sure, but there are bad apples in every trade or profession. I like to think that those of us on the board, like most fisherman on this board, are good people.

Now, back to fishing. I think I am going to try to get down there Friday morning with an 8:30ish launch from Ernie's. Looks like the tide will start going out around 9 and keep moving until 11 or so.

[kickingback]

I always laugh when I come back from Galveston after fishing and I always see the billbaord on 45 that was put up buy a law firm and it says in bold letters... "We sue lawyers". For some reason it cracks me up to advertise that you go after crooked lawyers.

Back to fishing, Hope you catch a bunch on Friday!

[wing_nut]

Shoffer & I launched sunrise at Ernie's (Christmas Bay) & met KickingBack who had been flounder gigging & casting since midnight. The north 10 wind chopped up the bay, but once in Churchill Bayou we worked both grassy shorelines in hopes of catching flounder before the daily limit drops from 5 to 2 next week!
The water was murky & unproductive so KickingBack beckoned us to join him up in the drains marked 21 & points further east. In there we had about 18" visibility, the baitfish was jumping & then THE BIRDS started working! Buckle up, men.

. Much like our last trip, the gulls & terns were hovering over small schools of frantic feeding reds, often within feet of the shorelines. In such situations I whip out my trusty purple Norton Sand Eel, Jr. tipped w/ a 1/4oz. jighead for long casts under the hovering birds.
I caught two slot reds by flinging long casts into water whirling w/ redfish fins & leaping shrimp, underneath those helpful birds. The action was intense w/ four rat reds released & even a small speckled trout & two potato-chip flounder caught!
Shoffer then hit another drain & found his own hovering birds, resulting in his fine three redfish limit. I think he caught his first one on the white Tobin weedless GrassWalker. KickingBack got tired of watching Shoffer hook up, so he put a cherry on top by landing a beautiful 29" redfish which he kindly gave to me. There's a big Redfish fish fry in my future. Looks like I'll have to carve up several small fillets from every big redfish.
On my way in, down Churchill Bayou, I met a fellow TKFer Steve "Spillway" in his blue Hobie Revolution. He admitted he'd forgotten all his lures except for a couple of top-waters. Your friendly Fishing Attorney grabbed his tackle-box & found five rigged paddletail lures for Steve. I even told him where those slot reds were. Why? Because when I introduced myself as "Dandydon" on TKF, he replied w/ wide eyes : "Wow, you're a LEGEND!" Ha ha. It made my day & warmed the cockles of my heart. Always keep your cockles warm & be careful on the water.
This fall fishing is my favorite time as the temperatures are pleasant & those dang birds find us the fish. It's hard to beat the thrill of sight-casting into a boiling pool of redfish fins, leaping shrimp & flashing baitfish!
Wish I had decent photos, but the one Shoffer took of me & the reds made me look real stupid, old & stoned. I'll only admit to one of those...
Hey people! It's almost Halloween. Go find THE BIRDS & be somebody!
--Dandydon

See below for what we did not catch this trip!
IMG_7267.jpg


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Great post! For some reason the vid isn't showing up in my browser but I can tell from the responses it was epic!
I have quick question for you Dandydon. When you say "...up in the drains marked 21 & points further east.", are you referring to drains along Churchill Bayou leading up to Cold Pass? I am racking my brain and I can't seem to remember any numbered markers. If the weather is nice (and it is forecasted to be) on Thursday I'm gonna burn some PTO and see if my luck is as good as yours was.
Cheers!

[Cityfisher]

Excelent post.
I was there camping directly across from amigo lane on the beach from Saturday til Tuesday. Saturday afternoon I never made it into Churchill bayou. Started catching reds on the sand flat on the way there so I never left the area. I'll post a report later. It was an awesome trip.
I came home to rest and let this front pass but will be back Friday morning also. I'm in a dark blue old Silverado and have a winter camo feel free Lure. Hope to get to meet ya'll and say hi.

[Dandydon]

Wingnut, those tall Bayou markers are situated sequentially along the north side of Churchill Bayou. I remembered Marker 21 & points east were the drains in which I saw birds working & caught fish.
As usual, it's not the particular numbered drains that count, but the fish-catching pattern we discovered. Any questions?
Call KickingBack! Ha ha.



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[kickingback]

I own up to nothing and deny everything!

There are marker signs on Churchill? I never noticed myself. I think there is a marker sign at the entrance to John Wayne cut from what I saw. The rest I saw I thought were just PVC pipes sticking up to show the deeper area to travel and I think they stopped and the first drain up into Churchill.
Heck, I'm blind when fishing if there are bait jumping and fish tailing. That's all I like to see!
Love Churchill Bayou, Cold Pass and the surrounding marsh!

[wing_nut]

Thanks Dandydon!
I'll keep an eye out for the markers you mentioned and especially the signs you described.
Cheers!