APRIL FISHING

4-26-2010--Weather is pleasant and fishing is great but catching is still not consistent one day to the next. Croaker are now available at some bait stands although they are still very small. Larger croaker during the next week or two should produce better catches of trout. Meanwhile we'll keep pursuing mixed catches of redfish, drum and some trout.

TRAYLOR ISLAND LING

4-19-2010--Well, the new boat finally caught fish. We had a north wind this morning. Three of us waded with soft plastics until 12 Am before we got the first bite. We fished four places before moving to East Shore where we found trout. The trout were mostly small males and you had to catch about 4 to get a keeper. We released about a half dozen 15 to 17 inch trout and many smaller ones before deciding to look for larger fish. We moved to the outside of Traylor Island and right away I hooked up with what I thought was a shark. It took most of my line on the first run. I spent about 10-15 minutes getting it close enough for the sportswriter with us to get a picture of it splashing in the water. Then I announced I was going to break it off. The other fisherman with us immediately said it's a Cobia (ling), so I loosened the drag and continued to play the fish until it got close enough for me to see that it really was a Cobia. When I put the boga grip in it's mouth the fish went crazy. I hung onto the boga while the other fisherman grabbed the tail. We finally got the upper hand. The Cobia measured 41 inches but my scales wouldn't read high enough to get the weight. We went on to catch keeper trout in the area where the Cobia was. It may have been feeding on trout. Anyway this is the first Cobia I have ever caught in the bay systems. We do catch them in the Gulf around structure such as oil well platforms.

Will Leschper wrote a good article on this fishing experience in the San Angelo paper. You can see it at http://www.gosanangelo.com/news/2010/apr/rare-catches-are-what-make-fishingworthwhile/

NEW HAYNIE 24' CAT

4-17-2010--Picked up the new Haynie 24" Cat Thursday evening. Riding in it is great and the fishing weather was good but the catching has left a lot to be desired. On Friday we started at 10 AM and quit at 3 PM. Later reports were that fish were caught before 9 AM and again after 4 PM so we missed the window of opportunity. Saturday we started early,caught a 22 inch trout right off and then it went dead for us. We've had very high tides that brought in tons of bait so hopefully tomorrow will be a better day of fishing. We'll be wading grassy shorelines with broken bottoms for trout.

TROUT ARE HERE

4-11-2010--I'm still wating for my new 24' Haynie cat. It made it from the factory to the dealer on Friday and is now being rigged with all the goodies. It's an awesome boat as close to the perfect boat as I could get. I'll include pictures in one of the next updates.

I've been wade fishing with friends the last few days. We're consistently catching good numbers of trout using soft plastics. We're also getting redfish. Bait fishermen are still getting consistent catches of reds and black drum.

Large quantities of bait are coming in from the gulf with each strong incoming tide. Menhadden have been a good indicatior of where to fish. Today we didn't see menhadden so we depended on mullet to show us where to fish. I think the tides yesterday and last night were not strong enough to bring in more menhadden and the ones that were already in must have scattered or moved on toward the back bays. On days when we see them, menhadden are a better indicator of trout than mullet at this time of year.