East Flats - Nov 2, 2019

[Neumie]

We had a decision to make for Saturday. With the northerly winds again we tossed around the idea of launching at Palm Harbor and leaving a vehicle down on 361 and fishing south with the wind through Estes Flats, California Hole, and Hog Island Hole.

Ultimately we decided on heading back to East Flats for the third consecutive day, for me at least. As we were crossing the ferry that morning I noticed the ferry came straight into the dock head on as if there was no or very little tide moving. I thought that was strange. When we launched at Island Moorings I noticed the tides were higher than I had seen the past two days. It felt weird, it wasn't supposed to be like that. According to the tide gauge the waters were almost 6" higher than the day before. Crazy considering there was nothing but north winds the past 2+ days.

This morning we had mostly sunny skies and I made a drift down the backside of Pelone Island while William and my sister fished the same flat as the other day, and Whit paddled up a channel looking for fish. I landed a couple undersized reds, but had two slotters follow my topwater all the way in to the kayak before shooting off. I paddled back to the first flat to see how everyone was doing.



I drifted the first flat throwing a bone and chrome She Pup and strung up a trout. My sister was still tossing the hunchback and was catching undersized reds and trout. My sister and I made one more drift around noon and I strung up 2 more trout on a Grasswalker.



Whit at that point had a couple of trout on his stringer and William had one himself. My sister and I were off the water around 1, but Whit and William ground it out a couple hours longer. Whit was rewarded with a limit of trout, a keeper flounder and a puppy black drum.



Here's a video of me catching a keeper trout and rat red on a Grasswalker:


Meteorological Observations
Time: 8:30 am - 3:00 pm
Air Temp: 60 - 65°F
Wind: NNE 10-15 mph (Gusting 15+)
Barometric Pressure: 1027 - 1029 mb (peaked @ 11:00 am)
Sky: Mostly sunny
Water Clarity: 2 feet
Water Temp: 64°F
Structure: Sand, grass, and oyster

Solunar
Sunrise/set: 7:41 am/6:46 pm
Moonrise/set: 12:05 pm/10:46 pm
Moon Phase: Waxing Crescent (36%)

Predicted Tides @ Port Aransas(MLLW)
Low @ 1:52 pm (-0.07 ft)

Lures
Spectrum Spook Jr.
Silver Mullet Spook Jr.
Bone & Chrome She Pup
Birthday Suit Grasswalker
Strawberry/White Sand Shad Jr.
Strawberry/White Psycho Chicken Shad
Pumpkin Pepper 3" Cocahoe
Vintage Sputterbuzz

Fish
Red: Several undersized
Trout: 9 Keeper, several undersized
Flounder: 1 keeper
Black Drum: 1 keeper

[Ron Mc]

excellent conditions - your sister was fishing hard, and congrats to Whit.

[TexasJim]

Nice report, Josh. And congrats on getting the cabin back after two years. Having been under seven hurricanes, it takes a long while to get back to the pre-storm conditions. Sometimes, it's better after a storm rebuild, as you are forced the do things you should have been doing before. A realtor described that as "deferred maintenance". Or laziness, in my case.
Fantastic weather here(for now). TexasJim

[SWFinatic]

[quote="Neumie"]Crazy considering there was nothing but north winds the past 2+ days./quote]

Nice work on a tough fishing day! The tides didn't drop due to the winds being primarily out of the northeast. A NE wind usually won't push water out at least around the Aransas area Had the winds been out of the north/northwest there would have been a dump. Tuesdays cold front looks to have more northerly winds then turning NNE. If this holds true my guess is the water levels will drop but not like a strong NNW wind will.

[spiny norman]

It was one of those days they wanted a slowwww plastic or nothing. Thus the flounder. Had some good blowups from slot reds and trout on topwater but no commits. had a nice trophy trout turn about 2 feet from the rod tip. head had to be 6 inches across! That was all on the windward side of the channel.

Best part of the trip was I caught 9 of 10 total fish on the rod I inherited from my good friend James Cobb. We never were able to get schedules worked out where we could go to the coast together so this was like having him there.

[Ron Mc]

It was one of those days they wanted a slowwww plastic or nothing. Thus the flounder. Had some good blowups from slot reds and trout on topwater but no commits. had a nice trophy trout turn about 2 feet from the rod tip. head had to be 6 inches across! That was all on the windward side of the channel.

Best part of the trip was I caught 9 of 10 total fish on the rod I inherited from my good friend James Cobb. We never were able to get schedules worked out where we could go to the coast together so this was like having him there.

Author! Author!

Good to see you post, bro.
I would love it if y'all could work me in next fall - wouldn't have to stay in the cabin, could stay in a nearby fishing shack.
And would especially like to join you for feasts, et.al.

Of course slooow plastic = Trout Support Lure

[spiny norman]

Yes sir!

[spiny norman]

Just noticed those sunglasses. Should be somewhere at the bottom of B&R flats.

[Neumie]

Nice work on a tough fishing day! The tides didn't drop due to the winds being primarily out of the northeast. A NE wind usually won't push water out at least around the Aransas area Had the winds been out of the north/northwest there would have been a dump. Tuesdays cold front looks to have more northerly winds then turning NNE. If this holds true my guess is the water levels will drop but not like a strong NNW wind will.

The Wednesday evening before the trip a strong cold front blew through and there were NW which pushed all the water out, about 1 foot. We had N to NE winds on Friday and Saturday. The high tide on Saturday was 6" higher than on Friday and two inches higher than the next day; Sunday. I know the tides would rebound after a strong front, just not as much as it ended up doing that Saturday. It was such an anomaly that even my cousin commented about the water level back at our cabin on Copano. It was just weird.

[SWFinatic]

Gotcha yeah I was down there that weekend and noticed the same thing over in Port Bay area. Didn't fish Sunday but Friday afternoon it was low and Saturday was up bout 6" or so. Only thing I can think of I did notice the surf was still running pretty high and that brought some water back in.