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One Trout Made This Trip

Posted: Sun Oct 20, 2019 4:42 pm
by Dandydon
I don't recommend fishing Christmas Bay on weekends because the parking lots fill up and there are loads of boats on the water. But this morning we went at sunrise, fought the crowds, and the action was slow.
The baywater was glass and we saw plenty of bait swirls while the morning tide kept moving out.
I quickly caught a 17" Flounder on a white Down South paddletail, then for three hours it was only sand-trout and throwback specks. Shoffer caught two legal specks and I think Watson landed a 20" trout.
On my way in I trolled a chartreuse curly/tail Gulp.which suddenly stopped on a snag. But that snag started pulling hard and took drag. Felt like a big Redfish, so I played it easy until I saw the silver flash of trout scales!
She made another run which I turned back toward me while grabbing for my net. That 25" speck filled my net and made this trip!
Hope to see you on the water.
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Re: One Trout Made This Trip

Posted: Sun Oct 20, 2019 6:51 pm
by Ron Mc
nice cheesecake photo - thanks for the report.
I thought I had a redfish one day at Green Island until I saw the black tail splash, and adrenaline quadrupled to get that big girl in gently without tearing her mouth.

Re: One Trout Made This Trip

Posted: Mon Oct 21, 2019 12:47 am
by kickingback
Cool report Captain Turtle! Damn sure wish I could've been there. I'd fight the crowds now to fish as it has been too long for me! Great pic of a nice trout! :clap:

Re: One Trout Made This Trip

Posted: Mon Oct 21, 2019 5:57 am
by shoffer
I thought we would limit out for sure. The wind was lower than forecast, it was prefrontal conditions, with a major feed from first light to 8:30 am, coinciding with sunrise. The conditions were beautiful in the morning and the water was at least 18 inches of visibility. We had a moderate outgoing tide all morning also.
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Not surprisingly, I had most of my action during the solunar period. I brought four keeper specks to hand, but two were just at 15 inches, so I tossed them back and kept a 16 and 17. One was caught on a Super Spook Jr. working a shoreline just at sunrise. Another was caught on a Down South Glo by a marsh drain when I saw a small slick pop up. I lost one flounder at the boat (maybe 14 inches) and foul hooked another little guy in the back - both in shrimp imitation lures in a tandem rig.
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I worked a good-sized marsh for an hour looking for redfish. I saw no head wakes, mud boils, tails, backs, or terns working a school - nothing. That really surprised me. "Goodnight," I said to my self. Those "rascals" were nowhere to be found. Maybe "it's too early."

"But anyway," DandyDon did catch a Dandy of a trout.
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Re: One Trout Made This Trip

Posted: Mon Oct 21, 2019 6:56 am
by Dandydon
Shoffer's fancy depthfinder yesterday showed the baywater at a shocking 76 degrees! That's warm for late October. It must be a little "too early" for our normal, productive Fall fishing patterns.

When it hits the magic 70-degree mark, Katy bar the door! I predict more favorable fishing reports on this website and (hopefully) those "working birds" we so love...
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Re: One Trout Made This Trip

Posted: Mon Oct 21, 2019 7:46 am
by Ron Mc
keep those good photos coming - Shoffer thanks for adding your perspective and great sun-ray photo.

Re: One Trout Made This Trip

Posted: Mon Oct 21, 2019 8:09 am
by mwatson71
I brought along my 12 yr old son and his best friend as they spent the entire summer begging me to take them on a kayak outing. As the majority of our summer excursions were night trips, this was the first safe opportunity to give them their maiden voyage.

Dandydon and Shoffer beat us to the launch area but we were there right before first light. Like Shoffer, I thought it was going to be a banner day. We launched at first light and the boys wanted to throw topwaters. I paddled a bit behind them and watched them cast up to the grassline. My son's first cast was an "Am I working this right?" cast and just as I started to tell him to make sure he pauses every so often, he had a blow up that just missed his Yo-zuri. He looks over at me with the look I am sure we all had the first time we experienced our first topwater strike. He misses a few more and then switches over to a TTF swim shad tandem and lands a small flounder. His friend quickly caught a rat red on his She-pup. This continued for about 20 minutes until we headed into the bayou.

Once in the bayou, the boys split off ahead of me and I made my first cast into the grass and landed a flounder just shy of legal. Next cast went right into a little pocket and found a 16" flounder. I thought I would pick up my flounder limit quickly but no such luck. Over the next hour or so, it was a bunch of small flounder and a couple of dink specks. I am working one side of the bayou and the boys are on the other. I spend my morning answering "Will she keep?" and my response remains "Gotta' be 14" followed by the sound of a released fish. Mid-morning they paddle over and pull the stringer up with an excited "She'll keep" and an 18" flounder on the end.

Shortly thereafter I catch a thick 20" speck and put it on the stringer. Interestingly, the lower jaw on the fish was ripped in half, split right down the middle. Thus began my hunt for the red to finish my slam. The rest of the morning was more small flounder and a few more undersized specks.

All fish caught by me were on a gray Vudu shad. The lure had great action and withstood several fish so I was pleasantly surprised. My one criticism of it is the tail end kept getting caught up in the hook.

We paddled back in around noon, hit the Whataburger on the way back, and then they were out like a light.

Re: One Trout Made This Trip

Posted: Mon Oct 21, 2019 9:48 pm
by YakRunabout
Nice fish! Congrats!

Re: One Trout Made This Trip

Posted: Tue Oct 22, 2019 5:03 am
by kickingback
One report with three perspectives! Love it! That's why I wish I had been there. Great looking fish and pics! Did you bring the tandem for the boys Watson or did they each have their own kayaks? Good work gentlemen!

Re: One Trout Made This Trip

Posted: Tue Oct 22, 2019 7:23 am
by Dandydon
Charlie, Watson's son Ellis & his buddy were in a tandem kayak. Watson was paddling his Wilderness fast yak.

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Re: One Trout Made This Trip

Posted: Tue Oct 22, 2019 2:45 pm
by mwatson71
kickingback wrote:One report with three perspectives! Love it! That's why I wish I had been there. Great looking fish and pics! Did you bring the tandem for the boys Watson or did they each have their own kayaks? Good work gentlemen!
My neighbor let them borrow his tandem. It is a tank but they managed it well. They were able to paddle all the way up into Cold Pass from Ernie's and had to paddle back against the current. They had an absolute blast. As you know, Ellis has been out a bunch but it was his friend's first trip with me so I kept them on a bit of a leash, at least always in sight. They took a tandem because I have no way of hauling three kayaks. I am on the fence about taking them out on the next trip though as they weren't very helpful in the loading up/cleaning up process. My wife said I needed to give them more specific instruction on what they should have been doing to help, but I am fairly certain they knew that wade fishing while I was loading was not the help I was looking for. I may let it slide this once because they are typically pretty good when we do pier or wade surf trips.

Re: One Trout Made This Trip

Posted: Wed Oct 23, 2019 1:09 pm
by kickingback
Cool. Kids excitement will make them not focus on the tasks at hand at times. Know it all too well. You're a great Dad! :clap:

Re: One Trout Made This Trip

Posted: Wed Oct 23, 2019 7:45 pm
by Dandydon
Thanks, Kickingback, but I forgot to have kids! Still looking for Ms. Right but gotta confess I've enjoyed a few Ms. Wrongs. Yes, Watson is a super daddy.

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Re: One Trout Made This Trip

Posted: Wed Oct 23, 2019 8:14 pm
by impulse
I wish they'd ease up on the size limits for kids and let them keep a smaller fish or 3 or 5. Maybe up to age 16, like license requirements.

I think they'd hook more kids on fishing...

Re: One Trout Made This Trip

Posted: Thu Oct 24, 2019 10:37 am
by mwatson71
Thanks for the compliments, DD and KB. I think we all try to do the best we can at parenting. Anything I can do to keep a couple of boys off the electronics and unplugged for a while and out in nature seems like a step in the right direction.

Impulse - not sure what I think about a smaller size limit for youth fishing. They can still catch all the undersized fish they want (which is the fun part) under the current regulations. I kind of think holding them to the same standard as adults gives them something of a challenge and gives me teaching moments about breeding size, conservation, etc.