Late Report: Aransas Pass 7/07-7/16

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broke
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Late Report: Aransas Pass 7/07-7/16

Post by broke »

Disclaimer: This post is long and doesn't contain very many pics because I lost the charger for my old school waterproof Olympus camera.

I headed down to the coast on Saturday 07/08 and did not get there till after dark. I was super pumped because this was the first time I've had a chance to fish down here since last July. I set my alarm for 5:00 A.M. and headed off to bed.

Sunday 07/08
I woke up at the crack of 10:30 A.M. and decided I'd head out about 3:00 to fish the afternoon/evening. I launched off the side of 361 between AP and Port A at approximately 4:15. I decided to head to a small gut between some shell that's adjacent to a shallow flat. I absolutely hammered the redfish at that exact spot in nearly identical conditions the previous year (Falling tide w/extremely low water levels in the evening).

I arrived about 20 minutes later and threw out two rods with pink shrimp flavored fishbites and settled in. During the next hour or so I only landed a few undersized redfish and one nice 17" drum so I decided to move about 50 yards down to another gut that that feeds into the flat. I was able to catch a bunch of slot drum as well as redfish at this spot last year. I posted up there for about an hour and landed a few more rat reds before deciding to head off into the flat to see if I could find any up shallow.

The flat was covered with what I've long considered the most frustrating sight-fishing target of all: black drum. They're pretty catchable if they're schooled up, but I only average about 1 out of every 10-15 fish that I have really good shots at. Unfortunately these were all singles. I was able to get maybe 7-8 good shots and got two to bite, but they both ended up getting off.

By this time the sun was nearly down and the water was extremely low, so I decided to head back out and fish the gut I had been at previously. For the next 30-45 minutes I must of caught at least 20 undersized black drum and one redfish that was barely over 20". I headed back in around 8:45.

Monday 7/09

I woke up at 5:00 A.M and was back on the water in the same area by 6:15-6:30. The tides were pretty high in the morning and I was unable to find any fish tailing. I inadvertently paddled over the top of a pretty good sized school of redfish and ended up catching one that was 19.5" as they spooked off. They all headed off in the same direction in a pretty tight group, so I decided to head after them after releasing the undersized fish.

I posted up a ways back from where I had last spotted them and, a few minutes later, I was pretty sure I had relocated them. Since I couldn't really see any individual fish, I threw a weedless gold spoon around the edges of where I thought the school was and hooked up pretty quickly. The school spooked off in a pretty tight group again, so I headed off after them after stringing the 21". I was able to repeat this whole process two more times with the same results before they finally decided to scatter. The last two fish I caught were both 19.5".

By this time it was super hot and I was hungry, so I decided to start heading in. I fished those two guts on the way back in for about an hour and only managed a few tiny rat reds. I decided to release the one fish I had on my stringer before heading to the truck because I really did not feel like cleaning any fish.

Tuesday 7/10
I had been taking on several gallons of water by the end of each trip, so I spent the morning trying to find the leak. This was no surprise since I'm currently paddling a >15 year-old 14 ft. Heritage Marquesa that's had many leaks over the last few years. It's really starting to show it's age and I definitely need to start planning for an upgrade.

I was able to find the leak pretty quickly after filling it up with a few gallons of water. It was a spot that I had repaired by ACK last summer. It appeared that some shell had dinged up the area they plastic welded pretty good.

I SUCK at plastic welding so I've been using West Systems G-Flex to make repairs for the last 5-6 years. I've found it to be pretty good stuff.

I was not able to launch until a little after 6:30 due to G-Flex's 7 cure time. I was feeling pretty lazy and the water was super low and still falling out, so I just fished guts leading from the channel to the flats.

I was able to string two lower slot reds and a bunch of undersized ones in the 15"-19" range before heading back in close to dark. One of the fish was on a 3" gulp shrimp rigged Texas style and the other was on a shrimp flavored Fishbites.

Image

Wednesday 7/11

I decided to sleep in and fish the evening mainly due to the high tides in the mornings. I launched in the same general area around 5:00 with a plan to focus solely on finding redfish up shallow.

I paddled up shallow until the sun was nearly down and spooked a few redfish but was unable to find any to sight cast too. Once again there were black drum tailing pretty much everywhere the water was shallow enough for their tales to be exposed. None of the drum I saw were schooled up, they were all singles. Once again I was unable to land a single one.

On the paddle back in I could hear fish feeding all along the edges of the deeper water adjacent to the flats so I decided to post up in this one shallow area with a few guts leading into the channel. I lost two solid 17"-18" trout right at the kayak within the first 10 minutes.

Over the next 45 minutes or so I was able catch one 16" trout and lower slot red. I also gut hooked a trout that looked pretty close to 15". I could not verify it's size because it was dark and many of the lines on my check-it-stick are so faded you can barely see them. It was bleeding all over and I knew there was absolutely no chance that it was going to make it so I decided to string it.

I know many may not agree with this, but I personally believe that releasing a fish you know is going to die is a pretty shitty thing to do. I can live with paying the fine for keeping an undersized fish a lot easier than I could if I just tossed it back for the crabs to eat.

As it started getting later, I started getting creeped out about being on the water after dark by myself. At approximately 10:00, I'm 95% certain I spotted one of those monsters from "A Quiet Place" creeping along the waters edge and I decided to head back in... quietly. As I got up to speed, the monster made a squawking noise that sounded remarkably like a blue heron and then flew off into the night.

When I was in my early-mid 20's I used to think nothing of staying out until way past dark by myself. I also used to routinely launch in extremely remote places and make paddles several miles long to reach spots. I'm 31 now and honestly don't know how I used to do things like that.

When I got back to my truck and had a good flashlight, I remeasured that one trout and it was a hair over 15". All the fish were caught on a Texas rigged gulp shrimp.

Image

Thursday 7/12
Once again I decided to fish the afternoon. I launched around 4:00 about a mile down from where I had been previously launching in order to fish a slightly different area. I also made the decision to stay shallow to try and find some fish to sight-cast to.

Around 6:00, I was poking around some small islands at the back of the flat and I found an area between two islands that had a lot of wind driven current moving through it. I approached the area and was surprised to find a fairly deep gut (approx half the length of a paddle) about 5 yards wide running along one of the edges. I still hadn't found much of anything, so I decided to post up there for a bit.

I pushed up to one side and threw out two rods baited with fishbites. I was hooked up within a minute of setting out my first rod. It ended up being a 19.5" redfish. I caught probably around 6-7 between 19" and 19.5" over the next 30-45 minutes before finally landing one that was 21". A few minutes later I landed one that was 23". At this point I noticed that my kayak was FULL of water and I probably would have flipped had I not been in water that was 10" deep. There was probably a little over an hour of light left and I really wanted to finish out my limit but I definitely didn't want to be crossing any channels with a kayak full of water after dark, so I decided to start heading in.

Since I didn't know where or how bad this leak was, I decided the smartest thing to do would be to drain my kayak at one of the several cement duck blinds scattered about. I'm no stranger to leaks and have had to use a duck blind to drain my kayak many times over the last several years. It's a huge pain in the ass if your by yourself and I was not looking forward to it.

I don't know how much water was in it, but this was easily the fullest it's ever been. I ended up ripping out one of the side handles off the kayak while I was trying to wrestle it up on the blind. Unfortunately, the rivet it was attached with also ripped out. This left a nice 1/4" hole along with a few cracks that radiated outward on the side of my kayak.

Nice new hole:
Image

After a lot of cussing, I was finally able to get her drained and get on my way.

I spotted a ton of drum on the way in but ignored them for the most part. I spooked one nice red that was up close to some shell near the channel. I was able to place my gulp shrimp right on his nose as he slowed down and he slammed it. I had it on for a few seconds before it pulled off.

Image

Friday 7/13
I woke up early so I could fix the hole in the keel of my spare kayak (an OK Drifter I got at Academy in 2007) and the West Systems G-Flex would have time to cure before heading out in the evening.

I was also able to find the leak in my Marquesa. I repaired a crack on the deck outside one of the scuppers in front of my seat with G-Flex back in 2013. I guess the added strain from the deck flexing from all the weight I put on since last summer caused the G-Flex I used to make the repair to crack. I was able to get it resealed good enough to last me the rest of the trip but there was not enough time for the epoxy to cure before I headed out in the afternoon.

PRO TIP: The foam under the seating area inside the hull of your kayak is not there for "added flotation. It's to prevent the deck from flexing too much while your sitting in it. Under no circumstances should you poke it out of the way while trying to jam something really long inside the front hatch of your kayak. If you do, it's very likely that you'll end up cracking your deck in or around the seating area.


I launched about 4:45 and headed directly for the gut I had found the day before. I made it over there around 5:30 and had my limit by 6:00. Over the next hour I caught 7 more slot redfish and several more that were 19-19.5".

Image

I had two rods out the majority of the time baited with fishbites on a circle hook. While fighting one of the slot fish, the other rod I had out doubled over and line started peeling off my reel. I lucked out and managed to land both of them.

Double slot fish:
Image

Around 7:00 I decided to head out shallow to target the millions of drum I had been seeing. My plan was to find a high concentration of singles and then just throw out some lines with fishbites and let them soak. I had tried this a few times during the weak and was unable to make it past 10 minutes before going back to site fishing. I had one run that was most likely a drum and that was it.

I wasn't able to find the high concentrations of drum I had been seeing all week, but I was able to find several lower slot reds tailing away. I was able to catch 3 more slot fish using a 3" gulp shrimp and weedless gold spoon before heading in right before dark.

Saturday 7/14
One of my buddies came down the night before and we had planned on hitting up some marshy back lakes in the morning.
Unfortunately we ended up staying up late and ended up sleeping in.

This was his first time back to the coast since we fished the kayak division of the XRT Redfish Series back in 2010. I really wanted him to catch some fish, so I decided it'd be best if we headed back to the same spot I was at the day before instead of trying somewhere new. We launched about 4:00 and were at the spot by 4:30.

The previous day I had found the fish were concentrated along the inside of this bend in the gut. There wasn't enough room for us both to setup there, so I let him have it. The fishing was quite a bit slower than it had been the day before, but he still ended up with two lower slot reds and a 19" drum and I had one 21" red.

We headed off to search up shallow with around 20-30 minutes of light left. I immediately spooked a fish a few feet out in front of my kayak that stopped a short distance away. I made a good cast with a 3" gulp shrimp and hooked up. He turned out to be a hair over 20" so I strung him up.

A short while later I spotted a pretty good sized school of fish tailing away. I made a cast just off to the side of the school and hooked up with a skip jack that ran right through the middle of them. I spotted another school while dealing with the skip jack about 40 yards away and headed over there after he was released.

I got the attention of my buddy who was about about 50-60 yards away with the hopes that we could each pull one out of the school. While he was on the way over, I drifted over a clump of shell ended that made a bunch of noise and ended up scattering them.

By that time it was pretty much dark. There wasn't really any moon so we couldn't really see any tails unless we were right up on them. It was also too windy to hear them splashing about unless they we were super close. We tried for a bit longer up shallow before heading off to where I had found the fish feeding after dark a few days prior.

On the way there, we ended up finding fish feeding in a gut between two clumps of shell adjacent to a flat that I had fished earlier in the week during the day. I caught bunch of undersized trout that were 13"-14" and ton of undersized reds. I ended up stringing one more keeper trout and losing another good one at the kayak. I also hooked up with what I assume was a stud redfish that ended up cutting me off on a clump of shell. Almost all of the trout were caught on a 3" DOA Shrimp and almost all of the redfish were caught on a 3" Gulp Shrimp Texas style with a 1/16 oz tungsten bullet weight.

About 11:00 we were both pretty tired so we headed in.

Both of our stringers:
Image

Sunday 7/15
We decided to sleep in. My buddy headed back to San Antonio around 4:30.

I was able to make it to the launch by around 5:15 in the afternoon and decided to head back to the same area where I had found those schools the night before.

I didn't spot the first school till around 7:00. It was super windy and I didn't set up on them at a good angle. I made what seemed to be good cast, but the wind blew big bow that I assume cast a shadow over the school and ended up spooking them.

I spotted another school really close by and ended up hooking up with a dink trout right on the edge of them. It thrashed around at the surface immediately after I hooked up and ended up scattering the school.

I didn't see any more in my immediate area, so I busted out my binoculars. After several minutes of glassing, I spotted another school approximately 75-100 yards away and headed over there. I ended up making a horrible cast right over the top of them. Amazingly, none of them ran into my line and I hooked up while bringing my gold spoon directly over the school. The fish ended up measuring 22".

At this point, I was pretty sure I'd be able to finish out my limit without any problem. But it didn't quite turn out like that...

I ended up hooking up with 5 more fish and managed to lose every single one of them. 3 of them pulled off and another one broke me off on a clump of shell. The last one I actually had on the stringer, but it slid off after I dropped the stringer in the water and picked it up the wrong end.

Monday 7/16
I had planned on fishing Monday morning, but decided against it since checkout was at 11:00 A.M.

Overall, it was a really enjoyable trip and I was sad to see it come to an end.
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Re: Late Report: Aransas Pass 7/07-7/16

Post by Castblastkick »

Sounds like a great trip! Some friends and i are headed down to aransas pass the day after tomorrow. I hope we have similar luck!


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shoffer
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Re: Late Report: Aransas Pass 7/07-7/16

Post by shoffer »

Thanks for taking the time to give us this good report.
jnd1959
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Re: Late Report: Aransas Pass 7/07-7/16

Post by jnd1959 »

Thanks for the report. We fished LHL on Monday evening and couldn't get our anchors to hold in the wind. We spent most of the time looking and, while I say plenty of birds and bait, we didn't get any takers. Glad you were able to find them.
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broke
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Re: Late Report: Aransas Pass 7/07-7/16

Post by broke »

jnd1959 wrote:Thanks for the report. We fished LHL on Monday evening and couldn't get our anchors to hold in the wind. We spent most of the time looking and, while I say plenty of birds and bait, we didn't get any takers. Glad you were able to find them.
That's pretty much been my experience every time I've fished the LHL. I've been there several times over the years and have never really been able to find much other than the occasional fish. It's seems like it's always more crowded there too. It's a really pretty place to paddle, but I care way more about catching fish than enjoying the scenery.

Directly across 361 at B&R and the East Shore flats is where it's at. Less crowded and WAY more fish.

South Bay (right before LHL) can also be pretty awesome if the water level is low enough to see them easily.
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Ron Mc
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Re: Late Report: Aransas Pass 7/07-7/16

Post by Ron Mc »

good week and great report

where LHL fishes really well is all a long paddle - around all the other passes to the Lydia Ann channel and the passes farther down Aransas channel - away from the marker 60 entrance. You see many more reds and black drum in the trails around these passes, and we've caught flyrod jacks on Lydia Ann beach.
However, the marker 60 entrance fishes really well on a falling tide.

Yes, B&R can fish really well - right at the entrance to the channel fishes well, all the close sloughs, and all along Harbor Is.
Also a long paddle to get to Harbor I. shore, but the prevailing wind will let you drift fish back.
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Chubs
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Re: Late Report: Aransas Pass 7/07-7/16

Post by Chubs »

This was a great report thanks.

Thanks for the ideas on the fish bites. I wouldn't have thought to just throw them solo like that. Did you have them rigged Carolina style (with egg sinker)?

Also interesting way to rig your gulps.

Sounds like you need a new yak :)
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broke
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Re: Late Report: Aransas Pass 7/07-7/16

Post by broke »

Chubs wrote:This was a great report thanks.

Thanks for the ideas on the fish bites. I wouldn't have thought to just throw them solo like that. Did you have them rigged Carolina style (with egg sinker)?

Also interesting way to rig your gulps.

Sounds like you need a new yak :)
I fish them Carolina style with a leader of approximately 18" attached to a barrel swivel with the egg-weight above the swivel on my main line. I've been using the 4/0 Mustad Demon Wide Gap Circle Hooks to increase my hookup percentage when I have a rod just setting in a rod-holder and also to minimize the number of fish that get hooked in the gut. I had quite a few swallow it this last trip, so I might go up to 5/0 to see if that helps.

A chunk of FishBites is pretty much like having a dead shrimp on your hook that lasts anywhere from 10-30 minutes depending on how bad the pin perch are. I firmly believe that FishBites will out catch Gulp by a pretty wide margin if your just casting it out and letting it sit.

There are a few reasons I like the Texas rigged gulp for sight-casting.

The biggest benefit of this is that it's makes your bait a lot more weedless. Floating grass slides down your line and gets hung up on the either the knot attached to your hook, the eye the hook or the square face of your bait. The bullet wait covers all three areas and the grass usually ends up just sliding off instead of getting hung up.

Another big reason is that the weight it makes it easy to make accurate casts while minimizing splash due to how streamlined your bait is. I also prefer tungsten to lead because I believe they make less splash due to the fact they are smaller in overall size than a lead bullet weight of equivalent weight.

A bullet weight gets your bait down to the bottom faster and keeps it there better than a weighted hook or bare hook with no weight. This is important because tailing fish are oriented with their heads facing down.

I definitely need a new kayak. I really want something that's super easy to stand in and I think I've got it narrowed down to either the WS A.T.A.K 14 or the WS Radar 135. I really like the Radar since I can upgrade to the peddle drive in the future, but don't know if it's significantly harder to stand in than the A.T.A.K. I'm going to have to rent both to get it figured out.
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Re: Late Report: Aransas Pass 7/07-7/16

Post by TxAquatics »

Awesome report! I'm gonna try the Texas rigged gulp shrimp next time I'm salty. I already use Texas rigged zoom worms for largemouth bass.
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kickingback
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Re: Late Report: Aransas Pass 7/07-7/16

Post by kickingback »

Awesome trip and detailed reports! Thanks for sharing!
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Re: Late Report: Aransas Pass 7/07-7/16

Post by karstopo »

Nice report with great information. I like your explanations on the rigging. Makes a lot of sense.

I love tungsten weights and use them on my flies. They sink over twice as fast as an equivalent weight of lead. Being able to sink at a faster rate lets them hug bottom contours better than lead and I believe catches fish that would otherwise be missed.

https://www.manictackleproject.com/flyf ... sinrivers/

Stand up kayaks are great. Look for how low or close to the waterline your feet will be. That makes a huge difference on the stability while standing. My Commander has the feet resting below the waterline and that really makes it stable.
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Chubs
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Re: Late Report: Aransas Pass 7/07-7/16

Post by Chubs »

Supposedly you can stand in most kayaks with good balance. Of course I've tried in my Heritage Redfish and am awfully wobbly. I only stand if there is no wind.

But I met another angler with my exact same kayak and he stands up all the time. I asked him what his secret was and he pointed out I needed to stand much further up from where I normally do. I've not tried out his tips yet but eventually I'll give it a go.
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broke
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Re: Late Report: Aransas Pass 7/07-7/16

Post by broke »

Chubs wrote:Supposedly you can stand in most kayaks with good balance. Of course I've tried in my Heritage Redfish and am awfully wobbly. I only stand if there is no wind.
My OK Drifter is super easy to stand in but extremely uncomfortable due to the molded in foot wells. It’s also slow as hell,super wet, and hard to store stuff in bc the tankwell is too small for a crate.

It’s doable in my Heritage Marquesa (the exact same boat as the Heritage Redfish), but I find it slightly shaky like you said and is definitely not something that I do all the time. The only time I’ve ever flipped in a yak was when I was sitting back down in the Marquesa after standing for a while.

I love the 14 foot foot Marquesa/Redfish but just wish it was a bit more stable/standable and had one of those kick ass hi/lo seats like most newer kayaks have.
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