I hoped to save some effort this morning by skipping the first few places I usually check on the way into the local marsh, and just going all the way up to a shallow lake that I knew would hold some fish. It saved a couple of miles paddling but did not speed up the first catch. After an hour and a half of chasing fish with mullet spooking them before I could get to them, I changed the approach. I slowed down and crept along in a drain and spied a big red that I thought might be sleeping. His back was exposed and I got within 8 feet before dragging the lure slowly across his nose. That brought an explosive reaction and resulted in a 30 inch fish being released after a nice fight. After that I went around checking every shallow nook and cranny for crawlers. Man did I find them! Over thirty exposed crawlers were stalked, and I got within easy casting range on all but a couple. Most spooked or missed the lure or just knew something was not quite right, but six of them fell for the lure completely. As I approached one small drain I could see over a dozen crawlers in the lake inside, but three more were cruising the drain itself, so of course I stopped there first. The first fish spooked when the bait moved Too fast for its taste, and the second fish parked itself 20 feet away facing me. I gently put the bait beside the fish and slowly crept it forward. When it got beside the face of the fish the water exploded. As it ran into the little channel it spooked the other big red, and that one shot ten feet right up onto the mud bank. For a second I thought I might have to rescue it, but that fish just kept swimming and plowed back to the water. I laughed quite a bit while landing my fish.
By 10:30 I was ready to make my way back, and by noon I was back at the launch having covered 14 miles in the wind and heat. No headache today meant that I felt good and paddling was easy, and it was one of the nicer solo redfish trips I have enjoyed in a long time. Not a lot of photos, but I took the time to just enjoy each experience as I worked in close to each fish. When it did not work out I could turn and head for the next which was not far away. It was a pretty great morning.
