One more Friday afternoon report

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karstopo
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One more Friday afternoon report

Post by karstopo »

Launched at 13:00, Freeport area marsh, same marsh as my last report. Minimal SE wind, water was kind of muddy with a hint of green and pretty low, but coming up fast, about 60 degrees, with about a foot of visibility at best, more like 8” in most spots. Water overall wasn’t quite as nice as last time out and had a good amount of dislodged algae clumps floating in it.

Saw the game warden roll up at the launch, but I was already out in the kayak 100 yards away. He stayed there a while, possibly running license plates, before moving on. It’s a rare day when I see a game warden out around the water.

The scene on the water was a little more subdued this trip. I didn’t have any pelicans startle me by dive bombing bait close by like last time out. However, the shorelines were lined with snowy egrets and tricolored herons and there were little mullet flipping occasionally. It wasn’t Times Square, but it wasn’t quite a one flashing yellow light kind of place either.

I started with a chartreuse gartside streamer like what worked last time so well. Wasn’t the exact same one since the fish had torn off 95 percent of the marabou, but one just like it. Right off the bat, I stuck an oyster hard ruining the hook point and since I forgot my hook point fixing hook hone at home, I switched to another rod that had a light pink gartside streamer already tied on.

Caught three little 16-18” type redfish on the pink one. These flies aren’t tied with much flash and the light color sort of disappeared in the not very clear water, so I went over to a purple and black one. That got zero interest so then it was on to the tried a true olive redfish crack.

The crack I had on had a lot of gold and bronzy eyelash yarn and not a lot of olive EP fiber covering the flashy yarn. It really stood out better in the murk. I leave the tails without much of any additional flash so there’s just the shiny spot mid fly. I tied this one with a mini lead dumbbell on a small size 2 gamakatsu Sc-15 hook. All of it adds up a 2” pattern that sinks, but not real fast. I needed a little more sink as the current and wind had picked up to a degree that it was hard getting a good presentation with the gartside streamer.

I was trying to find things to cast to. Seeing fish wasn’t going to happen with the water conditions, but here and there I could tell something was going after bait so I focused my efforts on that. I missed a fish, then a cast or two later get a solid thud. Dang, another oyster, but then the oyster moves and morphs into a crazy, thrashing large fish.

The light is somewhat in my eyes and I think I see bronze and white, but was it brown and white like in the world’s largest flounder, or was it silver and white and here’s my 30” trout at last, found in the most unlikely of places. All the fast insane head and all over body thrashing is confusing me, but that quickly changes into a mind blowing run so there goes the 28” flounder and a 30” trout is out. The run doesn’t slow until all the fly line is out along with 30 yards of backing. Holy cow, how big is the redfish?

The fish has stayed over the shell for the entire run with about 15” of water covering the scattered reef. I’m trying to remember the condition of the 15# tippet, were there any nicks or abrasions in the fluorocarbon?

The fish wallow arounds out there roughly 200 feet away. I’m cringing with every move it makes and just know at any moment something is going to break, what will it be, the backing to fly line connection, the fly line to leader butt loop to loop, any one of three blood knots in the leader, or the tippet itself? How about the hook, these SC-15 hooks are super light wire hooks. Fighting this fish isn’t any fun at all with all the worry it’s causing me!

There’s plenty more drama getting the redfish to the net, but I’ve gone on too long as it is. Turns out to be a just over 26” redfish that gulped down a stash of steroids or speed or something. Never has a red that size put up a fight like this fish did. It did almost hit the 8# mark on my boga, definitely a solid 7.5# plus redfish.

Weird thing too was that I could not revive this fish. I kept it in the water on my boga grip for a long time, but I think it just destroyed itself with the fight it put up. I ended up keeping it.

I caught one more redfish after the big one, a 23” one. This red fought like a 6 week old kitten as compared to the bigger one. I never had it on the reel and it never was more than 45 feet from the kayak.

Bait sign and shore birds mostly disappeared. I was back at launch by 16:00. Another good day in paradise. Image
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Ron Mc
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Re: One more Friday afternoon report

Post by Ron Mc »

great weather to get out
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YakRunabout
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Re: One more Friday afternoon report

Post by YakRunabout »

Fighting this fish isn’t any fun at all with all the worry it’s causing me!
I must confess to being skeptical of this statement! Too much of your excitement is coming through the write-up!
Congrats on a nice encounter. Enjoyed the tale.
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Re: One more Friday afternoon report

Post by flydoc »

Another great read.. Really enjoy your posts as we both share the same passion on the fly.
Thanks for sharing..
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karstopo
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Re: One more Friday afternoon report

Post by karstopo »

Image

Here’s a couple of the patterns I used up against a saltwater assassin just to get a feel for the scale of the flies.

Ron Mc, yes, I love these clear 60 something degree January afternoons. Most of the rest of the USA does not get this type of weather mid winter.

Yakrunabout, it was a lot of fun. All those little things about knots, hooks and tippet failing bounce around in my noggin when fighting better fish. Fish come off, but I wanted a good look at this fish before it did.

Flydoc, I love to fish, maybe not in every way for every fish, I’ve never been a big fan of spinning tackle, but, yea, no doubt I’m passionate about fishing with fly gear. Fishing something I’ve enjoyed since I was about 8 years old and hope to enjoy for however long I’ve got remaining. There is for me a whole lot of meat left on that fly fishing bone.
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Re: One more Friday afternoon report

Post by Drifting Yak »

What a great story!
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karstopo
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Re: One more Friday afternoon reports

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That redfish really ran 250 feet because it was on one side of the kayak when it ate the fly, then did its run by the kayak and 180 degrees in the other direction. It was almost like a Jack Crevalle the way it ran with the speed and duration. I’m estimating the 30 yards of backing, but I could hardly see the backing to fly line transition even when I lifted the rod high just to see.
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Dandydon
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Re: One more Friday afternoon report

Post by Dandydon »

Too bad you had to keep the big 26" Red.
I've learned to release all of them over 23" due to increasing worm-count, filleting difficulty and conservation reasons.
But that brutal fishfight is always a thrill.


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karstopo
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Re: One more Friday afternoon report

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Strange Super-charged fish, for sure. I had it in the water on the boga after a very quick face shot ( I have my phone at the ready before the fish leaves the water). Fish kept turning upside down, I’d try to keep it right side up, but it kept flipping back over.

I believe it was the hardest fighting redfish, pound for pound, I’ve ever come across. I’ve gone on the near shore/pass type of fishing for 40” plus redfish, but that’s different with heavier tackle, deeper water, it’s hard to compare that type of fishing with shallow marsh and bay redfish. In my experience, when the water is shallow, the fish tend to run for more distance. This fish ran the most distance of any redfish I’ve ever fought on any tackle. The biggest marsh redfish I’ve ever caught was 13 pounds and it ran not even half as far.
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karstopo
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Re: One more Friday afternoon report

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Went back out yesterday afternoon to the same place I’ve went the last two times back in January. Hey, what’s this, there in the distance was another kayaker right in my place! So, not wanting to crowd the kayaker, I went along and looked at another nearby launch that I didn’t like what I saw, super muddy and sketchy folks, so circled back around to the original spot. It was 13:00 by now, maybe he was about to come in. Sure enough, he paddles on in and is waving at me.

Turns out my spot is also his spot. Actually, he was super nice and was waving me over to let me know about his catch, he had three nice reds on ice, and the overall pattern of the day. I was on the fence about launching there, it was definitely more muddy than I was hoping for, but he tipped the scales with his very open sharing. We compared notes, it turns out we fish a lot of the same Freeport area places. Since he was so nice and forthcoming, I gave him some recon on what I had experienced at another close by area he hadn’t been to yet, but was hoping to try someday. He was using I think it was DOA under corks, or something similar. I showed him my fly patterns.

So I paddled over to where he had been fishing and where I had been fishing the previous couple of outings. When we were at the launch talking about patterns, we both agreed redfish like to come up a little shallow on sunny winter days once the sun warms up the mud and shell some. No need to get out at the crack of dawn. Use the morning to do honey-dos like I did, then go fishing.

The redfish didn’t disappoint. I got three straight blackjack reds, then a couple near slots, followed by a better fish that went fast in between my stake out stick and the kayak, bow to stern, bending the fiberglass CGR double, then with the amped up fish wrapping itself around a clump of shell. By the time I got my stake out stick out all I had was a bent open hook wedged in the shell. It was a pretty, multi-spot fish, too.

I got one or two more fish after that, a better slot, and there was a speck in there too, which was sort of a surprise. I thought I had a rat red. I went off the area to explore some and see if I could find any fish on some different structures, but I didn’t. Came on back the same way I went in and fished some more, but the fish has moved on. Everything for me happened from about 1:30 until 2:45 or so. I left the launch at 5:00.
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karstopo
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Re: One more Friday afternoon report

Post by karstopo »

Image

The only photo I took. This was of the last better redfish, not sure how long, mid-slot type.

Other details. Tide slow, slow rise or nothing. Wind westerly more or less and pretty light. Water muddy, not opaque, 8-10” visibility. Structure, mud/shell mix, fish on 12-15” of water. Water low, not super low, low to middle. Olive crack fly caught the fish. Used the one from last outing, then one just like it went the first one got bent open.
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