East Flats - October 6th, 2023

[Neumie]

We've not reached the windy portion of our trip. We went to East Flats as it does offer some protection from northerly winds and it generally treats us right as far as fishing. We paid our parking fees and launched a little after 7.





On the paddle out I caught a crane attacking an Osprey, pretty neat.



Due to the high tides I paddled over to Little Flats since there would be plenty of water to paddle and fish, Jim and Tony joined me. Ron, Lou, and my sister all paddled to the first flat. Andy and Whit went towards East Flats. I hooked into an undersized red fairly early.



I rest for a new drift and landed a slot red on the topwater. Next drift I hooked into another slot red, but as it was running around the stern of my kayak I tried to stop it, but it had too big of shoulders and pulled the topwater out of its mouth.

After loosing that fish I paddled up to the north side of Little Flats and tried my hand at fishing the falling tide in the drain. I caught some small trout in the gut, but I saw a red tailing on a point. I hopped back in my kayak to position myself at a shot. By the time I got into position the tail had disappeared and never popped back up. Another quick drift on the flat with no luck I paddled back towards the first flat to meet up with everyone.





We decided to call it a day as it was close 1 pm and everyone had been beat down by the wind.

My Red.



Andy and Tony had to head home, but they were replaced by Ron's friend Steve for the next two days. Dinner that night was Moondogs, where I get my usual Soft Shell Crab BLT and tall Blue Moon.



After dinner we finished the day on the bluff with cigars, liquor, and fire.



Meteorological Observations
Time: 7:00 am - 1:00 pm
Air Temp: 74°F - 78°F
Wind: 7-18 kn NW (gusting to 20+ kn)
Barometric Pressure: 1015 mb (rising)
Sky: Partly Cloudy
Water Clarity: 3-4 ft
Water Temp: 84°F
Structure: Grass and Sand Potholes

Solunar
Sunrise/set: 7:24 am/7:09 pm
Moonrise/set: 12:03 am/2:42 pm
Moon Phase: Last Quarter (50%)

Predicted Tides @ Port Aransas (MLLW)
High @ 2:26 am (1.68 ft)
Low @ 3:18 pm (0.52 ft)

Lures
Spectrum Spook Jr
Dirty Tequila Down South Burner Shad
Birthday Suit TSL Grasswalker

Fish
Reds: 2 Keepers, a few undersized
Trout: Several dinks

GPS Track

[Ron Mc]

Friday, the rain laid off for us in the morning (returned in the afternoon), but the NE wind was 18 knots and gusting. The best thing about it, it was a tailwind going home.
We picked our favorite East Flats on Mustang Island for some wind shelter, which we didn't find. We covered a lot of water. All the bait we found was tight against the island shore, and no wakes, tails or fish sign going after them.

Only Josh brought home a fish, though Tony caught an 18" red and 12" trout on Z-man. For zig-zag drifts all the way up Pelone Is., I caught a dink trout first cast, at the draining pass from the flat into the boat channel, a pinfish and another dink trout after some hard paddling.
Didn't use the camera much, got this photo of Whit.



Everyone gathered at the pass for our retreat back through the $M neighborhood canals.



Our buddy TexasJim joined us this day, and for the 2nd time this year, we've put him on East Flats without the banner results we normally expect.



Great dinner at Moondog's (soft-shell crab BLT, shrimp poor-boy, and blackened tuna, calamari and crabmeat-queso appetizers) - Steve treated the group.