THREE GENERATIONS AND UNCLE

 
Redfish, Drum, Trout and Sheepshead

SHEEPSHEAD ARRIVE EARLY

Two guests today.

REDFISH EVERYWHERE

10-31-2015--Only had one fisherman today since his partner was ill. I think this first trip to saltwater and red fishing may have spoiled him.  By mid-morning he had released 11 keeper redfish and kept 3.  One time he had three fish on and more than once he had two fish on.  I would just leave the rods in the holders and when he got through with one I'd unhook it while he brought in the next one.  We left the reds to look for trout and black drum but after several moves we had found neither.  After lunch he hooked up a a large fish that pulled a lot of line off even with a tight drag setting.  After a long struggle and a couple of trips around the boat he landed a 33" red weighing 13 pounds

which won him the money pot for largest redfish in his group.

FIRST PASS

On the first pass today, we got a limit of trout and two flounder.

ANOTHER GOOD DAY

BLACK DRUM

TROUT FOLLOWING WHITE SHRIMP MIGRATION

10-08-2015--Two guests today limited on trout and also had one seven pound sheepshead by 8:45 AM.  After lunch we finally found some redfish but only managed to boat two before the storm drove us off the water.  

LUCKY DAY

10-03-2015--Fished out of Cove Harbor South with a man and three youngsters today.  During a half day trip they managed 7 redfish keepers and released 2-3 times that many undersized reds.  Yesterday, I had only one guest and we fished out of St. Charles boat ramp at an area I thought would be a cinch to limit early on trout and then catch some larger reds.  The trout didn't show,

probably because the wind got up several more MPH than it had been in previous days when the trout were biting good.  The day ended with a disappointing box of only two keeper fish .  I was about ready to turn in my guide license but today's catch renewed my faith in being able to find fish.  

EARLY REDFISH FEEDING

9-19-15--Met three clients at 6:30 am and boated to a spot I had selected due to the very high tide conditions.  They had limited out by 7:30 am on redfish.  Spent several hours seeking trout but only got 3 keepers and caught more reds that were released.

MIXED BAG

9-18-15--Today we fished the same area where we had been limiting on redfish but most of the fish seemed to have gone elsewhere.  The three fishermen ended the day with one over-sized red, 2 slot reds, 3 trout and 1 flounder.

FALL IS FOR REDFISH

9-17-15--Today's couple limited on reds.  They also caught one over-sized red and one flounder.

 

REDFISH BONANZA

 

9-14-2015--Had same couple fishing the past two days.  They were very competitive with each just wanting to get one more fish than the other or a fish just a bit larger than the other one. Sunday was tough with only two keeper reds and a few small ones landed.  Today was a different story.  They caught 4 trout and limited on reds plus one oversize red.  They caught and released about 10 redfish in the 24 to 27 1/2 inch range while trying to catch just one more over-sized red. Best day of red fishing I've had in some time.  Once the bite started at least one of them had a fish hooked up all the time except when we were taking pictures.

HAYNIE BOAT OWNERS TOURNAMENT

.9-12-2012--Two friends and I competed in the annual  Haynie Owners Tournament today.  Since two of us were full time guides we competed in the separate guides division.  The fish started feeding much better right after lunch and in the excitement of catching we lost track of the time.  We were over two hours by boat and truck to the weigh in location when we noticed it was 2 PM and the weigh in was at 4 PM,  We ended up pulling up to the weigh in area at 4:02 PM and it would have taken us about 5 minutes to get the fish out and to the weigh in line so we were actually about 7 minutes late. We weighed the fish anyway just to how we did and came up with 17.25 pounds for a stringer of 3 trout and one red.  The winning stringer was 18+ pounds and it looks like we would have been in third place if we had met the time schedule.  The 24 and 3/4 inch trout yours truly caught weighed just a little over 5 pounds meaning it would have placed first or second in the biggest trout pot.  That would have also been academic because the evening before we failed to pay the entry fee for the biggest trout pot.  Two lessons learned!

By the way, the Haynie Owners Tournament was a huge success.  Chris Coulter and his team really know how to do it right.  Lot's of fun, good food and entertainment.  The opportunity to be in this tournament is another good reason to own a Haynie boat powered by Mercury.

SUMMER VACATION.

Fly Fishing in Creede, CO. Took a busman's holiday and spent 6 weeks in the cool mountains fly fishing almost every day in the many creeks around Creede and in the Rio Grande River.  The temperature never got above 75 degrees while we were there.

ANOTHER GREAT TROUT DAY

8-1-2015--Had four guests fishing in the Oink Tournament today.  Twenty good trout came easy but hours of looking for reds proved unproductive.

MY FAMILY FISHING

  7-31-2015--Took my Grandson and his fiance fishing this morning.  Weather conditions were perfect for summer time trout fishing with very low winds.  Anchored one time, fished 35 minutes with mostly double hookups and caught our three limits of trout.  It doesn't get much better than this.

FAMILY FISHING

 

7-29-15 -- Fished with a family of five including two 6-year old twins today.  Earlier, I encouraged the mother to do a half-day but she assured me the youngsters were tough and would hold up, even with the heat, for a full day.  She was totally correct.  They were still having fun feeding the pelicans at the cleaning station at the end of an 8+ hour day with no whining or fussing.  The 6-year olds wanted to bait hooks and help any way we permitted.  We started the day outside Ransom Island with a few misses and one nice trout.  Moved to outside Traylor Island and got no keepers.  Next we moved to a mid-bay oil platform and, even with several misses, picked up 14 more trout on croakers and piggies.  Spent the rest of the day with shrimp for perch and black drum and then cut bait for redfish.  No redfish showed, but they did get 2 black drum and a lot of large perch.

10 YEAR OLD CATCHES 10 POUND BLACK DRUM

Father and son had a good day today catching black drum and speckled trout.

 

REDS ARE BACK

7-25-2015--Had three brothers today.  We were somewhat handicapped on trout due to the fact that the bait stand gave me very large croaker this morning.  They didn't have any piggies so I had to take large croaker.  Right now the trout seem to prefer smaller baits probably because that's what is available naturally.  We only managed 3 trout and 3 black drum but the 5 redfish at the end of the day made things much better.  One of the reds was over 30 inches in length.  We tried several baits but all the reds caught came on cut perch.

 

TROUT STILL GOOD, REDS SCARCE

7-23-2015--Today's couple limited on trout and caught one flounder during a half day trip.  Most of the trout were taken on piggy perch with the others on croaker.  The flounder came on cut bait while fishing for redfish.

TROUT ON BUCKET LIST

7-2-2015--Today's group consisted of a father and three daughters.  They booked the trip because the middle daughter wanted to catch a trout.  She caught several including a couple she didn't even know were there until reeling in.   The group ended up with 19 good sized trout.

 

TROUT AND FLOUNDER

6-26-2015--Today's guests limited on trout and released about a dozen.  They also caught three nice flounder which are now ready for stuffing with crab meat. All the fish were taken on live croaker.

TROUT

 6-24-2015--Today's guests limited early on trout while dodging rains storms.  We then looked for black drum without success due to the cloud cover.

CROAKER WIN

6-22-2015--My one guest today likes to fish top water lures and is very good at it.  Last year his Skitterwalk proved to be even better than croaker.  He caught two trout over 28 inches on one wade with it.  But today was different.  First cast he hooked a trout but failed to land it.  He had a few more bites but didn't land any fish.  During that first wade I managed 3 keeper trout but they were not over 17 inches.  Since we were looking for bigger fish we moved several miles to the drop off from a shallow, grassy  flat.  First cast I hooked a 20 inch trout.  That caused my guest to abandon the Skitterwalk and change to croaker.  The bite was on.  We caught and released somewhere between 30 and 40 good sized trout and kept 4 for dinner.

FAMILY FISHING

6-20-2015--Had a family of three today.  They limited with good sized trout with the young lady being most successful.  She will likely be hooked fishing from now on.  

BANNER TROUT DAY

 6-18-2015--Had a family group of five today.  They limited on trout and caught one flounder.  All the fish were taken on croaker.

TROPHY REDFISH

6-12-2015--The only redfish the clients caught today was heavy and just short of 28 inches.

TROUT DAY

6-13-2015--Had a family of four today.  They managed to boat 18 keeper trout up to 24 inches.

TROUT GOOD, REDFISH NOT

6-10-2015--Had a father and son-in-law team today.  The wind shifted about 6:30 AM to the southwest and made fishing tough.  They caught three trout outside a shoreline early and when the bite stopped we went for black drum.  The wind direction had also affected the drum bite so we gave that up with no drum and went back to trout. They caught 6 more trout before using up 8 dozen croaker.  The croaker were very large today so it was difficult get the fish to swallow the bait.  Also, the trout were very finicky as they have been for 2-3 days.  We then spent three hours looking for redfish with only one keeper boated.

TWELVE YEAR OLDS' LIMIT ON TROUT

6-11-2015--Had two twelve year olds for a half day.  Their mother came along to take pictures and video but she didn't fish.  First stop and first cast they had a double.  After catching a couple of more nice size trout the bite slowed so we moved.  The next stop only produced one trout but the stop after that we hit the mother lode.  Again they had doubles and soon the limits were reached.  Luckily, the croaker were much smaller today, making catching easier.  We then spent two hours looking for redfish with no success.

LESSONS LEARNED

This fishing story is embarrassing enough I probably wouldn’t tell it except for the fact that maybe others can learn from my mistakes and not get into the same situation.  I need to preface this with the fact that the older I get the more prone I am to not make the best judgements when I am really tired.   Yesterday was my third long day of fishing while helping my Grandson move in the evenings.  I woke up before the alarm, hooked up the boat, got ice and bait and arrived at the dock an hour early for a scheduled 6 AM departure.  

The guests were four experienced fishermen participating in a tournament.  The first wade only produced 2 or 3 trout around 15 inches so we cut it short and moved.  At the second location there was lots of bait and after a few steps we started getting trout.  The catching was good enough that we went back and waded the same area a second time.  To weigh in a full stringer for the tournament we had to have five trout and two redfish.  We kept 18 trout because some of the men lived out of town and wanted fish to eat. The rest of the trout were released. Since we still needed two redfish we moved to a shoreline where I have found good redfish in years past.  The fish were tight against the shore so only one or two people could fish in an area. After the first wade yielded 4 redfish I left two waders behind and spread the others out farther down the shore.  Then I used the troll motor to move the boat to the end of the shoreline. We had agreed they would all fish 30 minutes more then I would pick them up. That would leave 15 minutes to get to the dock, 30 minutes to sort out the seven biggest fish, put them on a stringer and 15 more minutes to get to the weigh in. 

Since the others were taking up the redfish shoreline I decided I would jump out of the boat, fish the deeper point and just maybe catch a trout big enough to upgrade the stringer. Here’s where I my old-timer’s disease kicked in.  All day I had carried the power pole and trolling motor remotes around my neck.  Knowing the water here would be close to chest deep I removed the remotes and placed them and my phone on the dash.  Normally, when wading I either keep the remotes with me if fishing shallow or put the anchor out along with the power pole.  This time I did neither. I just put the power pole down and got out.   About 20 yards from the boat I saw some bait about 30 yards farther.  After moving up and making a couple of casts I looked back to see my boat floating free in 3-4 foot water.

 Second bad decision was not going to shore and removing my wading gear, boots, net, fish basket,  bait bucket and clothes.  I went for the boat thinking it would be easy to catch.  At this time the wind was picking up and the current getting stronger.  After a few minutes, I got within a few yards of the boat but as the water got deeper I wasn’t gaining any distance.  I cast my croaker to the boat and on the second cast hooked the seat.  I tightened the drag on 30 pound braid and hoped to pull the boat to me.  After a while I realized the boat was pulling me farther out but I still thought I could wind the reel and pump the rod to get to the boat.  About this time I lost all contact with the bottom due to deeper water.  I used all the strength I could muster to try to loop the line around the front cleat so the boat would turn into the wind and reduce the wind and current influence.  After two tries I gave up on that because I just couldn’t get far enough in front to get the line over the cleat.

Meantime, one of the guests shucked his gear and swam out toward me but when he got about 40 -50 yards away he started cramping up and had to turn back.  I could hear him hollering for me to get rid of my clothes and gear.  I thought I might need the floating basket and bait bucket to hang onto if I failed to reach the boat and had to be in the water for a long time.  Also, since my wading boots were the most expensive that Simms sells I didn’t want to lose them or my fishing rod unless the situation got real serious.

After a while I concluded I just wasn’t going to reach the boat due to the strengthening wind so I tightened the drag to what I thought to be the breaking point.   All this time I’m holding the rod up with it bowed over almost double.  Finally, a bigger wave broke the line.  Now I am over my head with no chance of catching the boat but still hoping another boat would come to the rescue in time for my guests to make the weigh in.  Another, boat anchored farther out did pull anchor and head for the dock.  It passed about 150 yards from my boat but never noticed the fact it was floating empty and I was waving and hollering on the other side of it.  

I started back to shore but found I wasn’t gaining against the strengthening current and wind.  At this time I debated with myself about whether to dump the gear or just hang onto it and float until someone found me.  One of the guests on the shore spotted a boat in a cove quite a distance away.  He ran across the point up a gravel road, through a marsh and found wade fishermen that were also in the same tournament.  Their guide loaded up and came to the rescue.  They didn’t see me when they passed so they went to get the boat and then came back looking for me and the other guest who by now had made it to where he could touch the bottom.  After about 45 plus minutes in the water I was glad to be back in a boat.  I told the guide I hoped I didn’t mess up his getting to the weigh in.   He graciously said it didn’t matter. 

I checked the time on my phone and realized we still had a chance to weigh in.  At this point I’m back in control of the situation.  I ran to the shore to pick up the others, pressed them to load quickly and ran full throttle to the dock.  I had them take the fish box and go on while I kept everything else and loaded the boat.

 After putting up the boat in my garage and loading all their gear in my truck I joined them at the weigh in. There I found out we had placed seventh in the tournament with 22 pounds while the winner had 28 pounds.  The guest who tried to swim to me and I hugged.  Someone said we had bonded. In trying to make light of the situation I told them that, while the two of us were having a swim, if they had kept fishing and caught  bigger redfish we might have won.  One of them said “f*%# you”.    Another told me he had got on his knees and prayed that I and the other guest who tried to rescue me would be OK.  That’s when I realized the extreme stress I had caused them.  That was the worst part of the whole ordeal. I remembered that earlier in the day when one of the guests had asked my age, he was surprised when I told him 73.  Looking back I’m sure that made them even more concerned when they couldn’t see me swimming.  In spite of all this they gave me a very generous tip and asked for my business card so they could book future trips.   

Limits of trout

2-14-2015--My two guests limited early on trout and then we looked for redfish.  Tried several places but only found one taker.

BABES ON THE BAY TOURNAMENT

5-16-2015--Had the same group that have fished with me for several years.  Each year they get better at catching.  If I had improved as much in finding fish as they have in catching they would have probably won at least some part of the contest.  Anyway they ended up with all the fish needed for weigh-in but I don't think the fish were big enough to get any honors.  As usual we did have a lot of fun.