FISH GODS SMILED ON US TODAY

10-30-2011--Had a Mother/daughter/son and fiance today. Spent two to three hours in the flats for a few throwbacks but not a single keeper. Moved to a channel where the fish congregate when the water is low because the water was falling all day. Right away we started catching some smaller keeper black drum mixed in with small reds. All of a sudden the big black drum and redfish started to bite. It was two and three at a time after that. Our only problem was keeping enough baits in the water. We filled the ice chest and used a live well to store the others. Luckily I brought more ice than normal so we had ice to put in the livewell. We ended the day with 20 black drum and 12 redfish for the party of four. They are convinced I do this every time out.

FISHING IS BETTER

10-28-2011--Had a lady and her two brothers today. She was very excited about getting to fish and even more excited when one bit. That made it a great day for the rest of us. Having someone excited is really contagious. We managed 5 redfish, 2 flounder and 3 sheepshead today. One of the flounder measured 21". By the way the lady caught the largest redfish and she was very proud of it.

TOUGH DAY

10-22-2011--Last night my fishermen for today said they wanted to wade fish today. While two of them were getting out of the boat and I was getting my boots on the third fisherman told me he wanted to fish out of the boat. I told them, based on past experience that dividing up the team never works very well. To my regret I relented and told the two to wade fairly fast down to a cut between two reefs while the boat fisherman and I went outside the end of the first reef. When we got there the trout were feeding aggressively. The bite only lasted 45 minutes and then it was over. The waders didn't get close to the cut until the bite was finished and when I picked them up they only had one trout. We moved many, many times the rest of the day to catch two keeper black drum.

BIRTHDAY PARTY

10-21-2011--Had a father son team today. They have joined me for the father's half day birthday trip the last two years. This month he was 81 years young. He managed to catch a grand slam with several extra black drum. The morning started slow. We moved six times before getting keeper fish about 11 A M. We had to leave with the bite going fairly strong although the fish were all on the small side, about 2-3 inches over the minimum size requi8rements except the flounder which was a nice size fish.

I had two calls from customers yesterday asking about the red tide. I told them there was none in any of the places I've been fishing. Later another guide at the cleaning station told me he ran into to two spots of red tide north of Mesquite bay. I called the one customer that I could remember and related to him that there might be some red tide in the general area. Today I noticed the water in mesquite bay was a putrid color but had no red tide smell. I only observed one dying fish that looked like a mullett. Anyone wanting to know more about the red tide status can access TPW's reports at:
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/landwater/water/environconcerns/hab/redtide/status.phtml

NORTH WIND REDFISH

10-20-2011--Three fishermen limited on redfish today and also caught 3 black drum and one flounder. The "Norther" that started Monday was winding down with north wind less than 15 MPH becoming easterly about noon. The day started slow at three of my favorite places for redfish and black drum this time of year. Things picked up on our fourth move. We found lots of redfish in water about 15" deep. They caught around 40-50 redfish to get the nine we needed for a limit. It was two on at a time quite a bit. We had at least six reds that were only short 1/16th of an inch and many others that were 19 and 1/2 inches. The constant bites made it a fun day of fishing even though the keeper fish came slowly one at a time.