TROUT EVERYWHERE

6-25-2011--Fished with the same group the last three days. Each morning if we would have kept all the legal fish we would have had limits by about 8:30. The group only kept enough fish for a couple of meals each day and released the rest. Each day we went looking for redfish after catching a lot of trout but we only caught more trout. For the tournament today they needed trout and redfish. We went looking for reds after the trout again this morning and were rewarded with larger trout, 2 of which were 25 and 1/2 inches. One of the fishermen did catch an upper slot red but they needed either 2 or 3 of them. I don't know yet whether their trout were big enough to win anything or not. We fished with piggy perch in Corpus Christi bay the first day. The second and third days we used croaker and fished in the Upper Laguna Madre. We saw reds each day including a couple of large schools but we couldn't seem to catch them.

WADING FOR TROUT

TROUT, REDFISH AND FLOUNDER

6-21-2011--Fishing was much better today. The last few days with the full moon phase and the high winds fishing had been spotty. Today I took another guide in order to find fish for the rest of the week. I have the same group of waders for Thursday, Friday and Saturday. They are in a tournament on Saturday. Today we fished between Shamrock Island and Deadman's hole on the East side of Corpus Christi bay. My fishing partner released an oversized red and had two of them pull off. We also caught flounder, trout up to 25 1/2 inches and redfish. I'm not sure yet where I'll take my fishermen on Thursday but it's good to know that I have at least one good area.

SOUTH TEXAS CHILDREN'S HOME (STCH)

6-14-2011--Yesterday. members of the Coastal Bend Guides' Association took children from STCH fishing. My two boys caught 8 keeper trout, several small trout, gaftop and hardheads and missed over 30 trout bites.

It took most of the morning for me to figure out a way for them to hook fish. We started out holding the rod high and trying to follow the fish down in order to have time for the bait to be totally swallowed before the hookset. But that didn't work because the boys couldn't resist jerking the minute the bite started. Next I had them hold their finger on the line with the bail open but they just couldn't make themselves turn the finger loose quickly when the bite came. The final solution was to put the rods in the rod holders with the bail open and then I would tell them when to pick up the rod and close the bail. That worked but it still got complicated when they both got bites at once.

The boys seemed to have a great time and expressed great appreciation for the opportunity to go fishing. The total catch of trout from all boats was much better this year that in other recent years. In fact there were not enough nails on the picture taking rack to hang all the fish. A couple of boats caught redfish and one caught 2 sharks, a large black drum and a jack.

MANCATION

6-13-2011--We just finished the fourth annual "mancation". The group of twelve comes from Houston each year for three half days of fishing. They rent a large old historic house and just get away from it all i.e. work and families, for three days. We use three boats, two with waders and one with boat fishermen.

We had the best catching this year compared with previous years. The group caught flounder, redfish and lots of trout. Two of them caught their first redfish and one is having a replica made of his red. The newest member of the group with really no experience paid very close attention to details and caught loads of trout plus prize winning fish. The group has a $100 prize each day for biggest trout, biggest flounder and biggest red.

I think they all had a great time on Mancation number four.

LIFE IS GREAT

6-7-2011--Trout fishing is so good it's a great time to be a guide. Today, I had a delightful couple who really enjoy fishing. We went out through the Port Aransas jetties and fished north up the shoreline. The trout were all nice fish, very heavy and in excellent shape. The bite began a little slow and got better as we moved down the shoreline. Their limits of trout came rather easily. In addition they caught small shark and we cut off one very large sting ray at the boat.

Yesterday, I did volunteer work by taking Chemo kids from Driscoll Children's Hospital fishing as part of the annual Coastal Bend Guides Association (CBGA). The CBGA fielded about 15 boats to take the youngsters fishing. Everyone seemed to have a great time. The group caught more trout than in the previous 2 years which goes along with us having more keeper trout in the bays this year. The two boys on my boat really got a kick out of catching skip jack.

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE WEATHER

6-3-2011--The Chamber of Commerce could not have ordered any better weather than we've had the past couple of days. Low winds and partly overcast. We've even had a little North wind the past two mornings to help keep things cooled off. We fished Corpus Christi bay today with croaker. Started the day at a well but the catfish got the first 2 baits so we moved to the Boat Hole and caught 20 trout fairly quickly while missing more than twice that many. When the bite slowed we moved back to a well on the way to the dock and got 3 more trout for a total of 23 plus an oversized redfish before calling it a day.

TROUT AT THE WELLS

6-2-2011--Fished with croaker at the Aransas Bay wells today. The bite was excellent until about 7:30 when it slowed. A boat came in to the same well we were on to fish. I always just go to another well if someone is already fishing the well I intend to fish but I guess everyone doesn't look at it that way. We let him have our well and moved to another but the bite came to a halt about 8:30. Anyway we kept 28 trout which made a good box of fish for my group.