Drum Bay, Not Quite There.

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karstopo
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Drum Bay, Not Quite There.

Post by karstopo »

Went out Friday afternoon in the Commander. Clear green cool to cold water in many places, not much bait around. Incoming tide, water pretty high, wind NE, moderate. Scouted around, paddled over to the far side, but then the fog started rolling in. Came on back and messed around some mid bay reefs. Got a couple of Louisiana keeper redfish on back to back casts and then a ~13” flounder. Missed another fish or two. Fog got thicker and I went on in. Tried two flies, a shrimp pattern that got a silver trout or a silver perch, and a redfish crack in white and chartreuse that got the other fish.

Just seemed a little void of life out there. Saw one other boat. There might have been the mother lode out to be found, but I wasn’t the one to find it.
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kickingback
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Re: Drum Bay, Not Quite There.

Post by kickingback »

Thanks for a report. Hard to find a window to get out in this weather being over an hour away.
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karstopo
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Re: Drum Bay, Not Quite There.

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Yea, I’ve barely fished the salt since before Christmas. I’m getting a bit more cautious about getting out in the kayak in cold and wet weather or maybe don’t want it that bad. We’ve had lots of fog and drippy weather this year. Some of our favorite spots have been fresh. Excuses, excuses. If you want it bad enough, there’s almost always opportunities. Living on a freshwater lake helps scratch the fishing itch, but I still crave saltwater fishing.

Drum Bay can be completely sterile at times. I got to the launch and looked around and didn’t see anything other than a few pelicans cruise by. Then after about a minute, I see a single mid sized mullet flip. That was enough for me to launch. I could have gone to a number of other nearby places. Sometimes, it’s nice to see what’s going on in a place you haven’t been to in a while. I’ve been out there in the winter and not seen any sign of life anywhere. But there have been times it’s been really on there in the colder months. I enjoyed looking for sign and might have found more, just ran out of time. Bringing four little fish to hand isn’t much, but on a day with limited sign and other challenges, I’ll take it. The fog closing in limited my explorations. Don’t want to be in open water in a kayak in low visibility conditions.
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Dandydon
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Re: Drum Bay, Not Quite There.

Post by Dandydon »

Maybe I'm dreaming, but this cold, rainy Winter has been one of our WORST ever for saltwater fishing. I've never experienced or seen more Skunk fishing trips...
The baywaters salty enough for speckled trout have fallen to mere portions of West & East Bays. Trinity Bay is currently a fresh-water lake!
Hate to be pessimistic, but I'm praying for better weather & salty baywaters. Until then I'll read the few fishing reports available.


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karstopo
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Re: Drum Bay, Not Quite There.

Post by karstopo »

10 years ago, I’d go out in less comfortable conditions. Still, this winter has had very little of those post front sunny and mild 65 degrees days. I love soaking up winter sunshine, but there just hasn’t been much of that. One drippy and gloomy day follows the next. Last winter, at least a few of our regular winter places weren’t too fresh to fish. This season, most have remained muddy and blown out all winter.

Most of the time lately, I’m cogitating about some spot planning the trip, but then I never load up and go. I always find the excuse, usually weather related, not to go. I tell myself “the fish aren’t going anywhere”. Getting soft is what it is, for myself anyhow, I think.

Reports stoke the fire some. I saw one yesterday where someone caught a bunch of big whiting and a nice pompano locally. So that puts me on planning that kind of trip trajectory. But even the reports this winter are few and far between and many are grinds and the ones that aren’t those folks are fishing in places I don’t want to travel to. I will take a peek at my old fishing logs to see what I was doing in February or March in previous years hoping to get the fire blazing.

I catch myself fantasizing about wading the warm summer surf. I’m even thinking next year I need to plan something to some place tropical. For me, the winter was a big disappointment for fishing. Never did I build any positive inertia.
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