MAY TROUT

5-6-2011--Trout are everywhere. Some areas only hold small trout but many places are holding 2-4 pound trout. My last report showed a great day on trout for Monday. Tuesday I didn't have a charter but took a relative back to the same places we fished Monday but we started late and quit at noon which was exactly between the minor and and major feeding times. The bait, birds and dolphin were all gone and so were the fish. I found out later that other people caught redfish that morning but we only tried for trout with very little success. Wednesday, with three fishermen I moved to a different area and found lots of trout. We kept three limits and released several while wading with Norton sand ells. Thursday with four fishermen doing all catch and release the fishing was fantastic. At 7:50 AM I caught my 10th trout and all the others were doing about as well. One of our fishermen used top water lures and caught trout that averaged even larger in size. Another in our party tired of trout, moved back to the more shallow water and quickly caught three redfish. Today (Friday) I had a couple for half a day. We fished the same areas with shrimp and a popping cork but the trout weren't as plentiful and the average size was smaller. We caught lots of skip jacks and undersize trout and several keeper trout. I didn't count them but probably had about 10 keepers at the end of the half day charter. This whole week when we kept and cleaned fish I noticed that most stomachs were empty. Some had small bait fish such as perch, minnows and croaker but none had shrimp in them. Three of the local bait stands got their first croaker today. Hopefully, I will be able to get croaker for my next charter on Sunday. If not I may spend most of the day fishing for reds with menhaden.

TROUT TIME AGAIN

5-2-2011--North wind this morning. So cool that we had to go back to using waders. It still felt cool even with a good jacket and chest waders. Used only artificial lures (Norton sand ells and bass assassins) for 30 trout - three fisherman's limits. Trout were heavy fish and averaged much larger than we normally encounter. Looks like we are in for a great spring and summer of trout fishing. The wind had been so strong out of the south and east the last several days that I hadn't even tried to fish for trout. This morning's north wind was only about half the velocity of the recent south winds so that enabled us to fish for trout and luckily I had fishermen who were willing to wade the shorelines.

WINDY DAYS

5-1-2011--Had four good fishermen today. We didn't lose a single redfish due to error. The only fish lost was, I believe, a shark that cut the line. The winds were cranking so strong that I had to use my regular anchor plus the push pole along with the power pole to hold the boat in place. Even with all that the anchor slipped three times. It took dedicated fishermen to want to be out on the water today. Fishing was slow but we persevered and managed to get 9 redfish and one nice trout. We tried perch and mullet but the fish only wanted menhaden. We might have done better if our menhaden had been more fresh. I've been unable to catch menhaden the past two days so the bait is now 3 days old.

REDFISH ON MENHADEN

4-18-2011--Had four great people today. Even though the wind was strong we enjoyed a great outing. Fishing was not easy or fast but we persevered where I knew the fish were and it payed off. The reds were good fish ranging between 24 and 27 inches but we had to wait about 30 minutes between each fish. The four fishermen ended the day with 10 reds and 1 trout. Caught one red on perch and the rest on menhaden. The last three days the reds seem to prefer menhaden over anything else we offer them. There have been large schools of menhaden coming in from the gulf the past few days and the predator fish seem to have zeroed in on them.

REDFISH DAYS

4-16-2011--Wind was gusting well over 30 this morning. The reds didn't want live mullet or mud minnows. They have zeroed in on menhaden. Luckily I caught menhaden yesterday when the wind was down. In the past I had been able to keep small quantities alive over night but for some reason last night was an exception. Anyway the reds didn't seem to care whether the bait was dead or alive as long as it was menhaden. My two fishermen easily caught their limits of redfish and got back to Port Aransas well before noon. High winds are forecast for the next three days so looks like I'll be fishing for redfish Sunday and Monday. I'll look for trout again on Wednesday if the winds calm as expected.

ANKLE DEEP FISH

4-12-2011--A friend and I fished with artificial lures today. Picture is of my personal stringer from one wade. We had made three wades to no avail when we moved to the edge of a flat. Water was just starting to come back up on the flat after being low due to the strong North winds yesterday and last night. Caught the redfish on gold spoons in ankle deep water. You could see their tails sticking out of the water and in most cases you could make out the entire fish in the clear water. Caught the trout on red shiner bass assassins in pot holes on the edge of the flat.

ARTIFICAL LURES PAY OFF

4-1-2011--Been too busy fishing to write, but will include pictures. Tomorrow I have a group of 4 or 5 waders. Today, I took a friend wade fishing in order to locate fish for tomorrow. Fish were scattered but we still managed a couple of nice stringers of better than average size fish. Best baits for us were sand eels both Norton Juniors in pumpkin seed and Bass Assassins in red shiner.