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Last day of the trip and Don informed us we he had to start heading back to Colorado. Although my day to fish was a bust I was glad Ron was able to put him on fish Saturday for him to take back and cook for his wife. After Don left Ron and I made our way to Island Moorings Marina to fish around Pelone Islands.



Tides were low, but not the lowest I ever seen there. I did see one dead trout stuck in the exposed oyster. And a couple more floating throughout the day.



Again, the day started slow, but there were signs of fish. We made our way into the wind as far as we could on the flat and made a drift. The skinnier water wasn't holding muh, but as we got intot he "deeper" portions we saw many mud boils and spooked redfish. We grinded for the morning feeling a bit frustrated as the reds were there. I finally managed to snag one on a gold spoon.



Shortly there after we decide to call it as we both had trips to make back to San Antonio after cleaning the cabin and putting my kayak back in storage.

Oh, we also saw some dead Mangrove Snapper in the canals of Island Moorings.



Anyways, I want to thank Ron and Don for making the trip after spending a week in the frozen tundra. We still had a few water issues going on, and the amount of dead trout was hard to swallow, but it was a fun trip. Looking forward to the next one.

Meteorological Observations
Time: 8:30 am - 12:00 pm
Air Temp: 56°F - 60°F
Wind: 8 -15 kn NNE (gusting 23)
Barometric Pressure: 1024 mb (Rising)
Sky: Mostly Sunny
Water Clarity: 2-3 ft
Water Temp: 60°F
Structure: Grass, Sand, Oysters

Solunar
Sunrise/set: 6:59 am/6:24 pm
Moonrise/set: 1:56 pm/3:27 am
Moon Phase: Waxing Gibbous (73%)

Predicted Tides @ Port Aransas (MLLW)
Low @ 5:23 am (-0.03 ft)
High @ 4:45 pm (1.10 ft)

Lures
Plum Sand Shad Jr. on 1/16 oz jighead
Bone Diamond Grasswalker
1/4 oz weedless spoon

Fish
Reds: 1 Rat

Donny was saying how starting at the top at Little Cut on Saturday may ruin him for next time - will it ever be that good again?
We picked the worst wind for Bird Island Basin on Sunday, and the worst wind for East Flats on Monday.

He missed our Monday, because his sweet wife called him home for the only vaccination slot that would be available.
He took home his 6 of those big half-shell fillets to try his own hand at grilling and roasting redfish. I'm guessing that's enough to make him a junkie, and get him back here for the spring.

What he really missed on Monday was seeing the range of structure on East Flat - it's bracketed by Pelone island and oyster reefs, and the flat has 3 depths, like terraces. Again, the MLW was way down, and the big wind was probably coming from the only direction that didn't give us shelter here.
A couple of drifts, one undersize red, and Josh and I were happy to return his family's digs, clean up, and pack our gear toward home.

The sun was good here taking off from the marina boat launch



Don't think I've ever been through this reef without having to get out and walk - except today, because it was so easy to see the pass.


A great trip, and many thanks to Josh for being such a fine and thoughtful host.


And btw, came home to a house free of any winter storm damage, and had sunny 75-degrees for washing boat and gear yesterday.

I'm going to add one more thing here at the end of our trip.
Having so many lifetime dues-paid-up-natural-phenomenon days under my belt (Josh has these, too), there's no such thing as a "skunked day" or wasted time on the water.
A skunked day is sitting in the office.
All three days of this trip were a hoot.
Paying dues is how you get on natural phenomena that concentrate bait and gamefish.
Paying dues is how you learn to plan around harmonics and structure, learn the water, even how to pick and use what bait.
One absolutely phenomenal day with two beat-our-butts days - I'll take those odds and always call this trip a success.

Nice photos and details. I agree the birdlife and all the rest of it is worth it, fish or no fish. These trip reports make me want to get out there.

I was thinking of Estes Flats in all this. I took my first trip there this fall and thoroughly enjoyed it. Hope the fishery will bounce back soon. Thank you for the detailed report


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I and then Josh each posted reports on Estes, Sat Feb 20

Thanks for all the grand descriptions and photos from your Estes Flats excursion. The conditions were unfavorable, but you obviously had some fun and got outdoors after the trauma of our Big Freeze.

Let's hope most our gamefish survived.

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