Sargent late reports 6/5, 6/27, 6/28

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Chubs
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Sargent late reports 6/5, 6/27, 6/28

Post by Chubs »

I've been lazy but finally getting around to writing up some fishing reports.
I'm also feeling lazy on splitting these out so yall get a 3 for 1 report - Jose Cuervo FLOG style.

I've a got another report from this weekend but you are going to have to wait cause it's not been written yet lol.

Well here goes, maybe this info is handy next time we have ultra high water due to freshwater runoff because that was the theme.
I'll add in some pictures later once I find them.

6-5-20 – Sargent Canals – full moon
Fished from about 10PM to 3AM. Full moon.
Not many lights to speak of.
Was a decent cluster heading up dolphin way near the entrances to check out.
I was using a tandem rig which I didn't have much confidence in (testing out a new idea of drop shot bottom jig + palomar knot top hook, not the traditional way to tie a double I know but the idea was to hook a cork to the top like Yakety Yak's slab stacker rig), DOA shrimp which got no bites, and a white TRD with too heavy of a jighead. Some other things were used too but not much luck with them and changed them out.
I caught 2 croakers and a 22" redfish using a white TRD.
Dad caught nothing.
TRD Jig head was too heavy, need to downsize.
Water was supposed to be outgoing but seemed to be incoming. The outgoing tide didn't seem to happen either. Water level was in the process of rising it seems.
The canals are very shallow, seem like 3' or so. Water movement didn't seem too good either.
Bait was all very small, probably 1" or so.
Red's belly was full of crabs.

Keys to catching fish – had to work lure slowly outside of the light. Short hop and wait, or slow swim. Red was caught on a dim overhead near a dock.

Next time try – Use a lighter jig head on TRD (1/16 or less). Try Caney Creek fishing. Potentially more lights would be on Saturday instead. Try to take a chicken boy whipping chicken also on 1/8 jig.

6-27-20
6AM – 2PM
Water level was high but since this was my 2nd trip to the lake and it was the same height, I figured this was normal. Water was over the base of the shore grass, I need to remember that that generally means extra high water.
Brought along about 6-10 live bait that we caught at the dock the night before on cast net. Combination of pogys and mullet. This time based on some feedback from my last trip, I felt better using the live bait.
Ran all over the place on the east side of the horseshoe bend trying to find fish with a variety of lures and live bait under a popping cork.
Stopped at a number of good looking structure from Google Earth reconnaissance but no bites.
Eventually made my way to a good confluence of oyster bars and narrowing of the shoreline.
Casted out the live bait to sit while I worked my jig. Eventually the live bait bobber went under and I thought I'd lost it so began to reel in and felt a tug back! Got my 1st keeper redfish of the trip, a nice 24" big boy.
Since this spot seemed to be working well I went ahead and cast the rest of my live bait to the same area. Ended up snagged on the oyster a few times and losing the hook. Had a decent bite at another time but I reeled in an empty hook. Another time the bobber went under again and I got excited. I started reeling and felt some good resistance and a bit of fighting so got more excited. Eventually I reeled in... a huge Crab!? The crab had actually swallowed my hook so I spent the next few minutes trying to figure out how to get my hook back without losing a finger. Eventually got the crab free and thought about keeping him, but had no idea how to store a crab or if it was even advisable on an inflatable kayak :D
Ran out of live bait and decided to head in but not before checking out a different shoreline on the way back. I was working my bait near a point and had a nice fish chase my lure and almost jump out of the water to get it, but it turned around at the last second. The fish gave himself away but didn't bite unfortunately. I tried to make it happen again but no dice, lost another lure to the ghost of Jose Cuervo's forum presence, so I eventually headed in with my lone redfish. At least the skunk was turned in to a somewhat productive day.

Keys to catching fish: Don't give up but don't get stuck at unproductive spots either. Focus efforts on places likely to hold fish. Oyster bars that have grown to form a natural choke point seem like a good bet. Higher water level seems to enable a shorter leader popping cork to work well at these choke points.

6-28-20
Dad and I tried to fish the creek out to the cut at night. Launched from Charlie's Bait camp. It's a $5 parking fee and he's told us we can pay him when we see him or drop the money in a box he's got up by the bait shack.
Fished from about 4 AM to 10 AM
Was supposed to be incoming tide all night, but in reality there was current flowing hard out of the creek. Turns out this was from a lot of fresh water runoff. Was difficult to keep in position with the paddle yaks.
A number of overhead lights were on but no fish at any.
There was one bend in the creek where the incoming tide and the strong wind were meeting the outflow of the creek and you were pretty much stood still there. There was definite fish activity going on there but no lights and off at the edge of a bend. I ended up losing a few lures, and since I couldn't see what I was doing I moved on.
We were going to make our way to the cut to fish the sunrise bite, but got lost in the dark and ended up following the left fork over to the canals instead. I went up into the canals to try my luck at the green lights from last time, but there was no luck to be had. Missed the sunrise bite at the cut but we made our way over.
Did I mention it was windy? We got to the cut and the wind was beating us up. Turns out the measurements were sustained 15-18 mph with 20 mph gusts.
We weren't catching anything, and the wind was brutal so we eventually gave up and headed in.

Keys to catching fish: Once we got back to the landing, we paid the owner of Charlie's Bait Camp the $5 launch fee and he asked us how we did and we let him know of the skunk. He said he wasn't surprised, mentioned that all the fresh water runoff always kills the fishing. That was a bit of a lightbulb moment, I hadn't realized I was fighting the outgoing creek flow the entire night when it was supposed to be incoming tide. It all made sense now.
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Chubs
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Re: Sargent late reports 6/5, 6/27, 6/28

Post by Chubs »

Seems I didn't get many pics of these trips. Here is the red fish from the 27th.

And the subsequent redfish on the half shell dinner!
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kickingback
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Re: Sargent late reports 6/5, 6/27, 6/28

Post by kickingback »

Wow! Big detailed report. Thank you for sharing the good info and pics! :clap:
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shoffer
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Re: Sargent late reports 6/5, 6/27, 6/28

Post by shoffer »

Thanks, Chubs, for the nice reports. I always wondered about the night fishing that-a-way.
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Chubs
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Re: Sargent late reports 6/5, 6/27, 6/28

Post by Chubs »

shoffer wrote:Thanks, Chubs, for the nice reports. I always wondered about the night fishing that-a-way.
So far I can't recommend it, but maybe I've just been unlucky. I have yet to give the Creek a try though when there is not fresh water runoff. Hopefully I get to before I haul the camper out.
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