PERSONAL BEST REDFISH

2-23-2011--Had my favorite couple fishing for a half day. The lady caught a 27 inch redfish which was her best to date. We ended the 4 hour fishing trip with six reds and eight black drum. I generally consider it a good trip when we limit on one species in a full day of fishing. By the same token when fishing a half day I like to at least get half a limit of one species. By that measure we had an excellent day. I know they both enjoyed it. The black drum bit on fresh shrimp while most of the reds came on cut crab. They seemed to favor the crab over shrimp especially when I sprayed it with shrimp and crab scent. I'll be wade fishing for trout the next two days. We'll be using artifical lures, mostly soft plastics.

MORE BLACK DRUM

2-21-2011--The bite was slower today but my four fishermen still managed 20 black drum, 2 large sheepshead and one redfish. We found the bite to be much better in the afternoon. Picture is of the four fishermen with only part of the fish would fit on the picture board.

FIFTEEN BLACK DRUM

2-18-2011--Had three people for a half day charter. Larger black drum were prevalent today. Caught three over 28 inches with a total of 15. Also, caught a very large sheepshead. Unlike yesterday all the redfish were small. It's amazing what a difference a day can make. The last few days fresh shrimp have been much more effective than frozen.

RED AND BLACK DRUM

Two fishermen caught 7 redfish including 1 oversized that they tagged, and 8 black drum. They caught another 8-10 redfish while trying to finish their black drum limit. All the places I normally go for drum were full of reds today.

TWENTY TROUT

2-14-2-11--Started the day in Copano but only caught one keeper trout after 3 hours of fishing. Moved to Aransas Bay and caught 19 more for two fishermen on Norton Sand Eels in less than 2 hours. This is good trout fishing. I hope it continues.

LOW TIDE REDFISH

2-11-2011--Good box of fish on a cold day. Water temperature was in the mid 40's and the air temperature wasn't much more. We started about 11 AM in order to give the water time to warm up some and for the tide to start rising. The water was too low for any redfish to be in the flats so we anchored in the "sail boat channel" and never moved. My four fishermen took 12 reds and 6 black drum in less than 3 hours of fishing with dead shrimp and mullet.

After that the water had risen some and warmed a little so we tried drifting for trout in the flats. After 4 short drifts we gave that up without getting a single bite.

Yesterday, the north wind was blowing about 25 MPH and it was really cold. Much too cold to take customers so I took a friend and went so I could maybe locate some fish for today. Drove by Cove Harbor and there were no boat trialers in the parking lot and at Conn Brown Harbor where I launched there was only one boat trailer. We both agreed that it was the most miserable day we had ever fished due to the cold. We caught one keeper black drum, 3 undersized reds and had one large black drum on right up to the boat before it tore loose. We tried several places but the only bites we got were at the same location where we limited on redfish today. So I guess it was worthwhile to locate fish for today.

FISH SURVIVE WINTER FREEZE

2-6-2011--Couldn't wait to get out of the house and on the water after days of being cooped up with the winter weather. I scouted parts of Saint Charles, northern Aransas, Carlos, and Mesquite bays.

The good news is, I didn't see a single dead redfish or trout. The only dead fish I saw were one mullet, one perch and one sheepshead. There could be some dead fish on the bottom of the deeper water that I couldn't see but right now I believe we have escaped another potential fish kill. I did see quite a bit of bait fish and some black drum in very shallow water.

We have another freeze coming later this week but it is expected to be of such short duration that it should not harm the fish.

I guess I don't need to tell you I didn't catch the picture fish today. It's the ling I caught last April off Traylor Island on a bass assassin.