WADING SHELL REEFS

1-21-2012--Picture shows my guest for today with a limit of nice trout and 2 flounder. The fish were caught on bass assassins in plum/chartreuse and bone diamond on the edge of oyster reefs.

DRIFTING FOR TROUT

1-17-2012--Another beautiful winter day with warm temperatures, rising tides,low winds and great fishing to boot. Fished a short half day of about 3 hours with two guests. The trout were very aggressive. If you missed one and dropped the lure back the fish would strike again. We used gulp jerk shad, bass assassins and Norton sand eels. They all worked and it seemed any color worked.

The fish were on top of reefs in one to two feet of water. We ended up with 17 trout up to 22 inches and 2 slot redfish. No doubt we could have limited if we didn't need to get back to the dock early.

With a strong North wind coming tonight, tomorrow will be entirely different. Forecast is for the Norther to blow though on Wednesday and result in another beautiful day for Thursday. I wish I had a customer for Thursday.

FISHING RODS

1-6-2011--Last summer I fielded several questions about rod choices. I decided to document my thoughts on the subject as soon as I had some some slack time.

My experience is that, when fishing from a bay boat, most people do better with a 6 1/2 or 7 foot rod. Over time my idea of the ideal length has decreased. Years ago I favored 8 foot rods with the idea I could cast farther. I now believe that accuracy is more important and one can generally just move a little closer if need be. At this time I actually prefer a 6 foot 9 inch rod but they are hard to come by unless you have them custom made.

A medium action rod seems about right for working both live and artificial baits for speckled trout. I prefer a medium heavy rod for redfish and black drum.

Over the years I've used just about every brand of fishing rod, be it fly, spinning or casting, in pursuit of both fresh and saltwater fish. A few years ago while fly fishing in the Taupo area of New Zealand, I was introduced to Temple Fork Outfitter fly rods. The Kiwis said TFO were the best rods they had found for their use. I was impressed because they used the very best of equipment, i. e. Simms boots, waders and jackets along with high quality reels. After using the outfitters TFO rods (mine were stolen on the way there,but that's another story) for several days I couldn't wait to get home and check out availability.

It turned out that TFO has a complete line of fly rods for all situations. Not only that but they also have first class spinning and bait casting rods. The legendary rod builder Gary Loomis is now providing design and engineering expertise for TFO rods. I still have some other brands, but all new rods I'm purchasing are TFO except for an ocasional custom made rod from Todd's Rods in San Antonio, Texas. Todd Bessette uses the very best components including titanium guides for the rods he builds. He can be contacted at 210-490-5874 or tbessette@satx.rr.com.

Now a few words about using fishing rods. The rod handle is designed to hold in your hands but the middle of the rod is not. It seems I tell someone this almost every trip. Rods seldom break no matter how big the fish unless a hand gets placed above the handle. If a rod does break while being held by the handle it will generally be the result of previous damage such as being stepped on, banged with a weight etc. The rod can be damaged and still look OK until that big fish is hooked and the rod is stressed. BOTTOM LINE - buy a quality rod, take care not to damage it and hold it by the handle and it will likely outlast the fisherman.

TFO spinning and bait casting rods cost just under $100 and are available in most tackle stores. The TFO web site is www.tforods.com

REDFISH DAY

1-4-2012--No customer today but I finished the "honey do's" early so I went fishing alone at 10 AM. Water was still cold but warming and the tide was rising. First stop I found reds trying to get back on the flats from the deeper water. Stood in ankle deep water and threw gulp jerk shad into a little gut and caught a red almost every cast. Caught and released 4 keepers in addition to the three I kept for grilling. After an hour I decided to look for trout in some deep guts across the bay. Right away the redfish started to bite but they were all small. Also, caught several small trout before giving up about 12:30 PM.

IT JUST GETS BETTER EACH DAY

12-30-2011--What a great day to be on the water--beautiful weather, light wind and fish biting. We started the day with very dense fog and it came and went more than once during the day. The increased cloud cover probably helped our bite in the clear water.

We spent most of the morning moving from place to place before finding fish. They were in deep guts. We stood on ridges and threw Gulp - both jerk shad and 3" shrimp, into the deeper guts. This was the first time I, or my guest for that matter, had experienced fishing in a school of drum for trout. There were at least 2 schools of about 100 each black drum that stayed in the same little area and just circled around for hours. They really did not want to feed, but the good news was the active trout that were with them. I believe the trout were feeding on what the drum stirred up. Anyway we pulled trout after trout out of the drum pod. My guest ended the day with his limit of 10 nice trout, 4 black drum and 3 flounder.

I know this post is late but I had trouble getting the picture to go with it.