Maiden voyage - redfish on the fly

[ellisk17]

Good afternoon TKF,

I've been following the TKF site for about a year with the hopes of one day being able to leverage all this incredible knowledge, information and experience to venture down from Dallas and take a shot at a redfish on the fly, DIY. Last weekend, the opportunity finally presented itself.

I consulted with Neumie for advice during my planning stages -- much appreciated for the very helpful input -- and decided to head for Charlie's Bait Camp. After a 3:45 a.m. departure from Dallas, I pulled into Charlie's around 9:45 a.m. on Saturday morning. I rigged up my Jackson Kayak Superfishal--a hybrid paddleboard/kayak that is quite stable but paddles like I imagine a raft made of logs might paddle--and ventured into Shoalwater Bay.

The tower boats and fan boats were flying up and down the shoreline, and the water was fairly stained, but I managed to see several reds and even cast at a few. I had several opportunities that I thought would result in strikes, but I think the abundant floating grass always found the fly before the fish did, so I had a half dozen refusals or so. But, hey, I saw and casted at redfish.

I saw most of these on the northern shore of Shoalwater, west of the cut. I spent most of the afternoon on the eastern side but the water was dirtier and I didn't have any shots.

I spent the night in Seadrift and then decided to head to Six Mile on Lavaca Bay for my Sunday morning session, getting myself a little closer to Dallas and also further away from the fan boats. I paddled up into Placedo Creek but the clouds were thick, and the water was very dirty and very high. I lucked out with an hour of intermittent sunshine and started seeing reds here and there in the small drains heading into the main channel. With about 30 minutes of fishing time remaining, the planets aligned and I saw a few redfish exiting a dead-end cove. One of the bigger challenges had been converting "seen" redfish into "casted at" redfish, so I decided to go ahead and drift into the cove with my fly rod at the ready. Sure enough, another red was in there and willingly took the fly on a not-quite-bull's-eye cast.

A success!

Yes, one sight-casted, fly caught (and released) red was worth 12 hours of driving and 12 miles of paddling -- although the paddle into the stiff breeze back to the truck had me wondering that at times.

Thanks to all of TKF, especially Neumie, for all the great information that gave me the confidence to try this out and even "succeed" (by my measure, anyway).

Kyle

P.S. On the "Preview," the pictures appear rotated incorrectly, but they look ok when I click on them. I don't know how to fix that so my apologies if they end up posting askew.

[JW FunGuy]

Nice Job! And way to persevere!

[Ron Mc]

thanks for the report, and great choice on Shoalwater Bay.
Josh is a good one to ask.

[Neumie]

Glad you were able to find fish and were able to land one. Took me about a year before I managed to land my first red on the fly.

I should have known about the duck hunters & air boat traffic, kind of dropped the ball with that. I lived in DFW for 7 years. Can't say I miss leaving work at 6pm and arriving in Rockport around 1 am .

[karstopo]

Really enjoyed your report. Congratulations on getting the redfish. That grass you experienced sounds challenging. I’ve done some redfish stalks in grass, but it wasn’t the horrible kind. The oyster shell I stalk redfish in presents it’s own set of challenges, but the challenge is part of the fun, right?

I still remember my first slot redfish to hand on the fly and pretty much every detail of the encounter. The experience made me want more of those encounters.

Glad you posted, keep them coming.

[kickingback]

Well done and great report! Love to see picture in report also! Thanks for sharing!

[bones72]

That's pretty awesome; cant wait to take a shot at it myself.