BNWR - Salt Lake/Nick's Lake/ICW - 05/25/13

[engineer]

This is a little late, but I'll share it anyway.

Day: 05/25/13

Location: Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge, Salt Lake, Nick's Lake and ICW
Launch: @ Salt Lake kayak ramp
Time: 7:00AM to 3:30PM
Wind: 5-10 knots early morning, 10-15 knots late afternoon (from south), medium difficulty paddle going out, cake walk going in
Partly cloudy entire day
Water color, minor off color to green

Launched at 7:00AM and started right for the channel between Salt Lake and Nick's Lake. Got there around 7:30AM and started fishing around the 90 degree bend on the south side casting north. Coming around the corner, I noticed a very strong current. There is a small oyster bed near that bend that often holds redfish in the winter. I decided to try my luck this time in May. I wasn't disappointed and ended up landing a very fat 25 inch redfish with a monster tail within the first 45 minutes. I fought the fish for about 5-6 minutes before reeling him in. I decided before I left to leave the cooler at home and planned on catch and releasing all fish. Unfortunately, no pictures as I didn't have my camera or phone on me. Be careful when casting here as it is easy to get snagged. Best way is to up your retrieval speed, use a lighter jig or use a weedless lure.

Bait used: Johnson Weedless Gold Spoon 1/4 oz with a medium retrieval speed.
Bait also used: Gulp minnow in pearl white, no takers, but several bumps and a Johnson Weedless Silver Spoon 1/4 oz (no takers, no bumps, but did not use the spoon much)


Shortly after, my friend caught a small 14 inch flounder on a pearl white Gulp minnow and a 1/4 oz jig head. My other friend then caught a 20 inch flounder on the same setup within close proximity.

After the current died down, it seemed the bite shut off. I decided to go down to the channel between Nick's Lake and the ICW and try my luck there with two of my friends while one stayed behind. When we got there, I used my gold spoon and once again, had a red nail it on the second cast. This was right after a barge came by, creating an artificial tide. This time the red was just short of slot, around 18.5 inches. After throwing him back, my friend who caught the 20" flounder caught another 20" flounder over one of the oyster beds in the channel. There wasn't much action so we headed back towards the mouth of the channel between Salt and Nick's Lake. The guy who stayed behind caught 2 croaker, 1 sand trout and a nice 20" speck. We stayed there for a little while and my dad ended up pulling in a 15" red on a green gulp minnow with a 1/4 oz jig.

All in all, gulp minnows were effective as were gold spoons. Unfortunately, I couldn’t land a fish on my Gulp minnows that day, but I was getting several bumps from smaller bait fish.

[Coachsmills]

Nice detailed report. Congrats on those 2 nice flounder, trout, and red.