BIRDS OVER FISH

2-16-2010--Today the birds showed us the fish. Had 2 guests from my home state of Oklahoma today. We had frost last night so the air and water temperature were both cold but the sun came out bright and early. We left the dock at St Charles bay about 8 AM. I intended to head for a slough where the fish typically come when the water is falling and cold. My plan was to fish for black drum and red fish with dead shrimp so all the rods were rigged for that. On the way we saw a large group of white pelicans actively feeding. There were just as many brown pelicans diving in the same area. Although we couldn't see any fish or bait I just couldn't pass the active birds up. We rigged the rods for artificial gulp and drifted in. We immediately hooked up a red fish. The fish were following fast moving bait down the shoreline so we had to pull up and move farther down several times. Generally we were rewarded with 2 to 3 bites each time we got in front of the feeding birds. Before the half day charter was over we caught and released several reds since they did not want to keep any fish.

I had planned to fish for trout on Wednesday due to the expected warming conditions but just before we were planning to quit at noon my motor lost it's propeller. It's scheduled to be in the shop until the middle of next week.


Yesterday (Monday) I had another guest from Oklahoma but we waded with artifical baits in the mouth of a slough. We caught his limit in about 30 to 40 minutes and proceeded to release several more reds before going in.

MORE REDFISH

2-12-2010--Redfilsh are still plentiful. Had two guests today. Easy limits of redfish on Gulp, 3" shrimp in pearl white. Pattern was same as Wednesday. Again the reds were full of tiger minnows.

2007 HAYNIE BIGFOOT 23' - $27,000

Haynie, Big Foot, 23' with 225 Mercury Optimax. Boat is white with off-white inside and red webbing. It's loaded with features, including 2 livewells, rod locker, 2 cushioned ice chests, fold down compartment in front of console, fire extinguisher inset in side of console, wash down system, water intake pump for livewells, separate circulation pumps for each livewell, installed lines for oxygen system, air bubbles system, depth finder, Garmin GPS 498c, red canvas folding top, 14 rod holders, pliers and knife holder, 2 accessory trays, 6 storage compartments, Motorguide 24 volt trolling motor, Powerpole with 2 remotes, 7 cleats, glovebox built into console, 10 foot double walled pushpole, Coastline Aluminum trailer with aluminum wheels. Boat has always been garaged and has almost 2 years warranty left on the motor. Call 361-790-9541.

Redfish on Gulp

2-10-2010--Still cold and windy but the redfish don't seem to mind. Took one local fisherman today. We left the dock at Goose Island after lunch and had fantastic catching of redfish. The water was cold at 45 degrees on the surface but the fish didn't seem to mind. We caught and released 19 keeper redfish. There were actually more small reds than keeper size. We estimated that we released about 100 undersized reds. Nearly all the bites came when the bait was stopped. You had to let the bait settle to the bottom. If nothing picked it up then we'd move it a few inches. Once I figured out how to get them to bite I went for over an hour with a bite on every cast. I missed a couple of them but other than that it was a fish every cast. The ticket to catching was white, 3 inch gulp in shrimp pattern. The reds were regurgiating very small stripped minnows about 3/4 inch long when you brought them to hand. It looked like the pelicans were feeding on the same tiny baits. In fact it was the pelicans that showed us where to fish on the shoreline. We didn't try for black drum today because you really need shrimp or crab for that. We knew trout fishing would not be good due to the extremely cold water. The temperature starts to become lethal for trout at 45 degrees. They survive by going much deeper where the water stays warmer. We did catch some trout on Monday but it was a lot warmer then and they were barely keepers. Forecast is for rain all day tomorrow and wintry weather for several more days.