Limit of Redfish South Bay

[TroutSupport.com]

First a fishing report: fished LLM with a buddy of mine last weekend under pretty tough conditions. NE wind to 20 as front was rolling in. Rained hard with scattered showers still lingering. Pressure rising as we continued with a super high tide that usually scatters reds way way back into areas you can't reach them most of the year. Man you gotta learn to use the wind to your advantage. No we were not going go do anything unsafe and we weren't getting beat up,.. but we used the wind to our advantage. Wind moves water and causes a lot of conditions that cause fish to feed. Honestly I've caught more fish in zones that were not calm but also not blown out than any wind protect area. Fished a couple of shorelines in south bay which is historically good this time of year because of where it is and yep.. glass minnows. Find the bait and you find the fish.. well, it's gotta be the bait that the fish want and sometimes mullet will be mixed in there as well but if the forage isn't there you're not going to find the fish your after. So don't always just park it on the calm shoreline.. investigate areas that are a little windy.. fish will feed better. We didnt here of anyone else really killing it that morning and while not 'stud redfish' it was still a limit. We did have one token 27" fish as well but most were in the 20-24" range.

What did I catch them on? TroutSupport GrassWalker. I was fishing shallow seagrass. Grass wasn't floating up just yet, but I didn't want to have to work a plastic faster just to keep it up out of the grass.. the GW hovers when you stop it and stays weedless even if you let it sink into the grass. The floating grass will be here soon enough. I was using the Trokar TK 140 in 5/0... the Trokar TK 160 in 3/0 also has great results and it's already shaped perfectly right out of the package (Dicks.com and Dicks carries these hooks fairly regularly). Weightless... honestly I fish it weightless 99% of the time. Only time to fish it with a weight is fishing 3' + and casting into the wind all day like a surf with a light SE wind. They are also very good in the surf.

A year ago I asked a lot of people if they wanted the GrassWalker in Red / White. The resounding answer was !!!**** Yeah!!! Red with a white tail can be a great color in the summer time. It really shines in sandy, tannic, or algae stained water conditions. Well they wanted it just fine on that trip. Caught a limit of reds; not big fish but a limit.

So if you love red and white I've put together a new spin on the old coloration.

More information on the General Board at Major TroutSupport.com Announcement!!!

For those that wanted them... or love Strawberry Red / White...

Also... for those of you struggling catching fish around the glass minnows.. you should consider throwing the GrassWalker in Bone, or Birthday Suit. It's out produced topwaters and other suspending lures for me two springs in a row. But i'm sure it must ALL be HYPE, huh?

https://troutsupport.com/product/trout-support-lure/

[Ron Mc]

They look great Tobin

They won't be able to keep these in stock in store displays.
Still my favorite color for sunrise and sunset even in clear water.

Thanks for the report.

[kickingback]

Awesome limit Tobin! Glad you found a window to get out and wet your lines! It's been tough for sure but with your reports it will help MANY as well!

[MontleyYak]

Thanks Tobin, I’m always learning from your reports. I’m heading out there soon.

[Ghostrider9920]

Just curious...if this is "fishing reports only" why are blatant ads and sales pitches like this allowed.
Plus....not even fishing from a Kayak.

Maybe put the product sales pitches and advertisement in a different section.

[Ron Mc]

oh I don't know, I'd say it's a subtle sales pitch along with a really good fishing report, photos included.
They turned lemon wind into frothy lemonade.
If they had been in kayaks, they'd have washed up at Port Mansfield.
Tobin has a good point that TSL grasswalker imitates a glass minnow just as well as any other bait out there.
If you ever get the chance to fish this lure in shallow water, I'd say it's a paradigm eye-opener.
Fish attack this lure again and again if you pull it out of their mouth. With it, you can make a creeping presentation in shallow water.
It's as good as fishing a slime line on a fly rod, but you can cast it farther and you can't dog-walk a fly rod.
Fishing this lure is kinda cheating.

[SWFinatic]

Just curious...if this is "fishing reports only" why are blatant ads and sales pitches like this allowed.
Plus....not even fishing from a Kayak.

Maybe put the product sales pitches and advertisement in a different section.

Tobin is a wealth of knowledge and provides a lot of us lots of helpful & beneficial information. No problem here with any of his posts.

[Tombo]

What hook do you prefer to use with the Grasswalker?

[Ron Mc]

hey Tom, I like fishing 4/0 trokar tk140 on grasswalkers
https://www.tackledirect.com/eagle-claw ... 029-1.html
and you still have to take pliers and bend the hooks so the point is aiming at the eye (kind of turns it into a kahle)

I already have really good tools around here for bending wire - use them to make phosphor bronze springs for antique reel repairs

[Neumie]

Just curious...if this is "fishing reports only" why are blatant ads and sales pitches like this allowed.
Plus....not even fishing from a Kayak.

Maybe put the product sales pitches and advertisement in a different section.

IMO, if you're an active member who gives meaningful responses and posts then a little leeway is OK to shill a product. If you're just on the forums spamming products (cough capt rex cough) then there's no place for that. I've posted occasional boat reports as well as long as it's an easily access location for a kayak, which South Bay falls under.

What hook do you prefer to use with the Grasswalker?

I use the Owner hook he recommends, mainly because I already had some.

BTW, Tobin, picked up some Red/White at Matthew's reel repair the other day. Good looking color in person.

[Ron Mc]

true that

[shoffer]

Just curious...if this is "fishing reports only" why are blatant ads and sales pitches like this allowed.
Plus....not even fishing from a Kayak.

Maybe put the product sales pitches and advertisement in a different section.

Edward, thanks for your input. I have three points in response.

First, the whole point of this board is to make us better fishermen and women. Tobin's input does that in spades, whether from a kayak or boat or land, and he has been doing it for years -- long before his lure was made. That Tobin threw in a plug for his lure in the midst of a helpful, detailed fishing report, should be of little concern to anyone who fishes inshore most of the time.

Second, Tobin's decision to outline how well his lure performs in certain conditions in a fishing report is something many of us have done when posting a good report in which we discuss the lure used that day, how we employed it in the scenario presented and how we believed it helped us catch fish. The only difference here is that Tobin designed and sells the lure that he used to catch the fish. I don't see how that should make it objectionable, especially in comparison to the input you have offered to the form membership in the three years you have been a forum member:

A whopping 15 posts in three years. Of those, only ONE has been a fishing report, and even that "report" only consisted of you basically reporting that you fished North Padre Island (behind the blue church) and caught two reds and a speck:

No mention of lure choice, weather, topography, structure, and the like. Other than giving us a peek at your handsome mug and two dead fish, I'd say the one report you have bothered to post back in 2016 was far less useful than the Tobin report that motivated your unproductive, cantankerous post. [Perhaps one could argue that you have posted three fishing reports, since in the body of two of the 15 posts you bothered to write you did mention that you caught snot sharks off Bob Hall using finger mullet; I will let you and the others decide if those constitute a fishing "report"].

Finally, given the infrequency with which you appear to contribute to this board, it is difficult to understand how you should be heard to complain about the way this board is set up or moderated. To that point, if you were really so offended that Tobin's post motivated you to make your 15th post in three years, perhaps you should find another board, buy this forum from whoever owns it now and fix what you deem to be its shortcomings, or create your own forum, so you can design it however you deem best. After all, you are an IT Project Manager, and presumably, are well trained in that field. Instead of doing that, maybe you should leave the snot sharks alone, and try fishing Tobin's lure, especially since you like to fish the Corpus area so much. I can personally send you some if you'd like, and I will even pre-rig it for you on the hooks that work best for it. Once a 25+ inch trout inhales it while you are working it over a grass flat/potholes in the LLM, I think you might soften up a bit.

[Tombo]

The owner of TKF is well aware of Tobin's product and is probably a sponsor. I am not part of the business end of TKF.
Anytime I see someone plug a product, I refer to the owner of this site.
Please, if anyone suspects spam on TKF, mark it so and it will show up as a flag on my end.

[Ron Mc]

I add my photos to product reviews at Tackle Direct and segue Trout Support Lure any place I can fairly sneak it in.
https://www.tackledirect.com/pro-cure-b ... -2-oz.html
I hope people read them and google Trout Support.
btw, product reviews there add up to store credit.

Any time anyone links to a product on the board, or even mentions a product by trade name, they're promoting the product. It's offering useful information, and very often results in someone else buying some to try.

and fwiw, Edward on this thread did more to promote Trout Support than Tobin did.

[TroutSupport.com]

Yep, i've been a sponsor on the board for about 9-10 years.. . not all my post offer a product either.. most answer someone else's questions with just about as much information as I can publicly share. enough that I'm getting plagiarized from some guys 'distilling' fishing information for their site.

thank you to all for informing sir Edward that I really try to give and help the community.. that red has been good. it's best in green, sandy green, and dirty water. Super clear I'd probably fish something else... but there's times when presentation trumps color...

I may have forgotten to mention, the area in the PB report was certainly accessible by kayak. I try to let the community know if that is the case.

enjoy
t