Rattlesnake Point - May 27th, 2019

[Neumie]

Since I was going to head back to Rockport to fish Memorial Day from Hallettsville I swapped out my Ride 135 for my true coast kayak, a Search 15. After the picnic I rolled back south. Woke up around 5:15 am and made my way to the Aransas Pathways launch at Rattlesnake Point.

I launched around 6:30 and started to paddle the protected waters towards the lodge (which looks to have been abandoned since Harvey). I got about 2/3rds the way down and decided to start chunking my topwater. I was still mentally debating whether or not to continue all the way tot eh point or stay on the sand flat. The water looked good and I was in pretty protected waters. My first drift kicked out a keeper trout. Re set for another drift and landed a dink, Reset for another drift and strung up my second trout. Repeated this until two boats of waders started to pinch me on the shoreline.



Strung one more trout on topwater, before the bite started to die. Switched to soft plastics and landed a dink on a Tequila Bull Minnow. I was watching the group of waders to my left and they appeared to be free lining croaker. They waded a little more than an hour and appeared to have all caught their limits of trout. Today it looked liked live bait was the way to go.



Ended the day with three trout. One was skinny, another was full of eggs, and the third had a croaker in its stomach.



Time: 6:30 am - 10:00 am
Air Temp: 80-81°F
Wind: SSE @ 10 kn - 15 kn
Barometric Pressure: 1014 mb (peaked @ 10:00 am)
Sky: Mostly Sunny/Mostly Cloudy
Water Clarity: 18" - 24" foot, sandy
Water Temp: 81°F
Structure: 3' - 4', Hard sand with patches of grass

Predicted Tides @ Rockport:
Low @ 7:11 am (0.24 ft)
High @ 2:55 pm (0.34 ft)
Low @ 7:19 pm (0.33 ft)

Solunar:
Sunrise/set: 6:33 am/8:18 pm
Moonrise/set: 2:36 am/2:13 pm
Moon Phase: Waning Crescent (41%)

Lures:
Silver Mullet Spook Jr.
Red/White TS Grasswalker
Tequila Bull Minnow on 1/16 oz jighead
Strawberry Silver Glitter Bull Minnow on 1/16 oz jighead

Fish:
Trout: 3 keepers, 2 dinks

[kickingback]

Those are some nice fat specs! Great report. I love pictures!

[Dandydon]

You hit all the hard facts we love to hear, Neumie. Too bad about that intruding powerboat. It is hard to deflect big boats with motors & fishermen, especially the dang croaker soakers. Good fishing report.


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[Ron Mc]

Josh, you got all over the coast this weekend.

And yes, your Perception Search is a great boat.

[Drifting Yak]

Glad you found 'em and thanks for the great report!

[Tombo]

Next time wave as you pass my home.

[JW FunGuy]

Great report. Thanks! Considering it was a holiday weekend the traffic didn’t sound too bad.

[SWFinatic]

Thanks for this report! Never fished this area.

How do you get the red tracking lines on the Google Earth pic?

[Neumie]

How do you get the red tracking lines on the Google Earth pic?

I use a Garmin GPSMAP 76 (it's about 13 yeas now, current version is the 78) when I'm out recording my tracks. It's useful for resetting drifts and what not. I then import the tracks into Garmin Basecamp, which allows me to export a kml file for Google Earth. Google Earth is probably sophisticated enough now that I could just hook up my GPS to the computer and import directly to GE and skip Basecamp.

I do this for every trip, so it's interesting to see my coverage of one area over the years. I run my fishing journal through GE so all the data is inclusive to one digital file.

[SWFinatic]

That's really good info to have for years to come. Thanks for sharing.

[Neumie]

That's really good info to have for years to come. Thanks for sharing.

Yeah, I'm kicking myself for not keeping logs when I was fishing 100+ days while "attending" Texas A&M - Corpus Christi years ago.

[karstopo]

I’ve always enjoyed drift fishing from the kayak. Something very relaxing about it. Thanks for the report.

[FingerMullet]

Great report! Thank you for all the details! I haven’t fished Rattle Snake since pre-Harvey. Need to head out there again soon!
Peace,
Adam


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[Neumie]

Great report! Thank you for all the details! I haven’t fished Rattle Snake since pre-Harvey. Need to head out there again soon!
Peace,
Adam

This was my first time to this spot since the hurricane.

[Tombo]

I went yesterday around noon trying to find Trout for a contest but no takers. Little late in the day having been all over Swan Lake (never seen any swans in there?). Threw a topwater and popping cork.
BTW, if anyone wants to wrestle with some Alligator Gar, go to Swan Lake in Rockport. I am an ok fisherman when it comes to Redfish, but not so good with Trout.

[Ron Mc]

Tom, you didn't read my Estes prediction for yesterday
http://www.texaskayakfisherman.com/foru ... 5#p2286735

[TexasJim]

Ron: I read your prognostication for Saturday, but went Friday, also supposed to good. I try not to fish on weekends. Bought some live shrimp, went to Turtle Bayou early. Lots of tailing Reds in the Lagoon, but they weren't looking for shrimp. Boated three, 18 & under. Headed for Little Cut. Water was so high that Sandy Point wasn't! Anchored on the middle ground, current was humming thru the Cut. Fed a lot of bait-stealers. Their mouths were prolly smaller than my hooks! Motored down to Big Cut. Big current! I was rigging out for a drift to the ICW, and got a barely slot Speck, but it spit the hook at my skiff. Drifted with three rods, caught a short Red and two hardheads. On the otherhand, it was a very nice day, got some more time learning my boat as a Low-Tech Polack Skiff. I got a 9.8 Merc for it, and can't wait to make yak holders, so I can Mothership my Pescador 12 to some distant waters! Stay in touch! TexasJim