Time to get back!

Here its almost Christmas and I haven't written in awhile. Seems theres always something else happening. The fishing in September and October was outstanding. We started wade fishing again and have targeted only a couple of spots. These are areas that alot of fishermen pass up on their way to some of the better named areas, but we have been taking lots of good trout and reds within a mile of the fingers. Now I know that covers alot of water, but if I tell you where it would really get me in trouble. Just get out your maps and search for shallow flats adjecent to deep water. Look South!

David and I have been fishing as Prostaff members for Livingston Lures for the past two years, but it seems that has come to an end. The company has new leadership and our services were no longer needed. All I can say is "Good Luck" to Robert and his new people.

My hunting responsibilities and family obligations have taken a toll on my time on the water during November, but with cold weather here the big trout will also be on the mud flats on those sunny afternoons. Get your waders on and grab some big top waters. There won't be many, but its the time to get your wall hanger.

I did manage a week trip to Cabo in search of Marlin and Roosterfish. We were sucessful on both counts. David Leaman and I managed two days of fishing. One strickly for roosters. We both caught fish in the 30lb range, not the 50lbers I was after, but this is not the top time for roosters in Cabo. We managed seven good dorados and an 80lb white marlin on our second trip. Looking forward to Mayor June when the mullet run in the surf there. The 50-60lbers follow.

Gota go Momma is calling!

Popping Cork Time

The trout are everywhere in the bay system right now, but always catching them can be a challenge. Plastics, topwaters, spoons, and swimbaits will continue to take their fair share and if its really big trout you are after, you need to stick to the large topwaters early and late....always depending on the tides.


I was privileged to have had all of my kids and grandkids with us this past week and we fished hard everyday . We caught enough trout to feed all 23 of us, but some days it was tough finding and getting fish to hit.


I have never been much of a live shrimp/popping cork kind of guy, but if you want numbers this is definitly the way to go. Its the sure fire way that the majority of guides use to fill client limits.


The Grand Slam Popper from Livingston Lure Company is a ready made, snap on your line, ready to fish setup. It works great with a live shrimp, mullet, croaker, plastics, or GULP! Its not as easy to cast a popping cork as it would seem. Kids and adults alike have to get use to the added weight and length of "stuff" hanging from the rod tip. Be careful of backcasts...treble hooks are hard to get out of things.

Getting the proper techniques down for working this rig take a little time, but with live bait at the working end, simply letting it sit will produce. Kids love to reel...so let em reel...slow!
If you're working a plastic, different story, it has to be kept moving. Popping the cork allows the jig to rise and fall. Trout will hit it as it falls or as its being retrieved. The popping action of the cork helps to attract fish. Done just right it resembles the slurpping sound of feeding trout.

Every angler needs a few popping cork rigs in their tackle and the Grand Slam fits the bill well.
Take care....see ya on the water!

REDS EVERYWHERE!

David Wood and I with limits of reds and a 28" snook!

If you like catching redfish, tailing or not, South Bay has been our number for the past week. The winds finally stopped and clear water has once again sought our beautiful shores! We've had excellent tides, with mornings being the catching times. Three days in a row, four of us hit this back esturary and caught limits of reds, releasing the majority, but keeping enough to feed hungry folks reds on the half-shell! The majority of our fish were in the 24-28" range, with enough 18-20's to keep you throwing all morning. We also had a good numbers of snook. The largest being a even 28". The majority were undersize, but man do they put on a show!
The early mornings, with the low water brought out the best in redfishing. Sight casting to school after school of tailing fish. At one time, my good friend, Damon Ankenman, and I had no less than four schools within casting distance. The excitement was throwing a Zara soook Jr. close to the fish and watching not just one, but several break away from the pod and head after your bait. Motor boat wakes in 6" of water and then explosions of spray as they converged on the bait and proceeded to devour it. Lots of misses, but it was than easy to pick out another pod and start all over. And me without a movie camera!
The early bite was all topwaters, with the small white ( I was corrected by a guide that it is not white but bone, looks white to me) Spook. The larger Spooks, Livingston Paint Can , and Skitterwalks seem to draw strikes, but not like the small bait. When the water hit its high point, it seems the topwater bite slowed and the gold spoon took over. The snook were all over the gold spoons, along with a few nice trout.
On Friday, three of us hit it early hoping that the two tide day would help us. We struck red gold early on topwaters right on the shorelines. There were schools of mullet working, but the bite seemed to be a little slower than usual. I managed a limit of 25's by 8am and decided to move into deeper water to see if the snook were still there. I was not disappointed. I quickly connected with a couple of 24 inchers. The Johnson Sprite was working its magic. Then something strange happened. I was getting hard pickups that I guessed were big reds, but I could not hook up. This happened about five times in twenty or so casts. I would reel in, shake the grass off, and cast again. At some point I had one of the hardest strikes I have had in a long time. I set the hook hard and immediately had one of those 30"+ snooks clear the water, shake is head and send my spoon flying back in my direction. I reeled in and proceeded to cast again, but in my excitement, backlashed. I retrieved my lure which was now tangled and to my surprise had no hook on my spoon! Apparently somewhere in all those hits the "brand new" sprite had lost its hook. A true malfunction! And a good lesson, check your baits from time to time, leaders and knots also.
It looks like its going to be a great summer for fishing.


Damon Ankenman and I.

Good reds, but not quite tournament material!

Leahman and Ankenman!

Snook!

Early morning in paradise!

FINDING the TIME!!

It would seem that as we hit that point in our lives where retirement becomes the key to our older life styles, we would have the time to enjoy it. Lately, I have started to have my doubts. With family illness, additional job obligations, personal health, family obligations , and just being plain tired, it seems that I had more time to fish when I had a full time job. Reality is probably not, but it sure seems that way.

We were talking to friends last week about the number of days I used to spend on the water. When we were coming down to PI for vacation, I was on the water usually 28 out of 30 days, now I am doing good to put in 3 or 4 during a month!

Well at least my friends are getting out to fish.

David Wood has managed a number of trips lately and has scored well. A 28" out of Port Mansfield and a 26" out of the Arroyo over the last couple weeks.
Don Scogin of San Benito has also been fishing out of the Arroyo and limiting on trout and reds. He told me the majority of fish were taken near the trout bar and north. The main baits have been topwaters and plastics in blue w/chartruse tails.

I did manage a few trips this week and we scored well. Fishing on Monday and Tuesday, we put a three limits of trout in the cooler, two days running. Most of these were in the 16-17, but I did take a nice 24" near Bird Island on Tuesday. We had been catching undersize reds on gold spoons when this nice trout swallowed mine. This was the first good trout I have ever taken on a gold spoon!
There are lots of trout in the waters aroud PI and SPI. Most are schoolies, but by staying after these schools you can manage a limit of keeper eating fish. This kind of fishing is great for the kids. Lots of catching!!

We are presently on a 6 day road trip for Aftco/Guy Harvey. Hopefully when I return I can get back to what counts.......fishing.
A number of tournaments coming up, starting with the Willacy County Young Farmers in Port Mansfield on May 28....
Good fishing...See ya on the water!

APRIL Already? MAY just ahead!

Where has the time gone? As I get older you would think that you would have more time, but it doesn't seem to work that way. When we moved to Port Isabel, I thought I'd be fishing every day....not! Seems that recently I've been spending more time in the car than my boat, more time doing honey dos than fishing dos, and thinking about fishing much more than actually doing it.
I made a pact this morning as I sat at my computer writing this blog that the month of May was going to have a much larger number of fishing hours marked on my calendar than April... We'll see!
The winds are still blowing, but the fish are still biting. Two weeks ago, a college friend of my wife came down and stayed a few days. She really wanted to fish, but for three straight days it blew 25+...does not make for a pleasant boatride. Finally on the day before she was to leave we had a break. She some how convinced my lively bride to accompany us and we were on the water by breaking light...a miracle!
I headed north towards Three Islands and we started the day near Cavallo Island throwing LL Paint Can Topwaters. We worked hard...the girls were casting as much as I was, but two hours later we were still begging for our first fish. Blowups, but no takers!
I decided to head out on the white sands near the drum boats. We found half way decent water and set up a drift. We were now throwing cohoos in red/chartruse. I connected first with a nice trout and the girls followed with respectable trout. My new MinnKota Talon anchoring system went down and we managed to land another half dozen nice trout. We continued our drift hoping to hook a red or two. I tried to get one of the girls to fish the tower, but they were having no part of it...the water was too....shallow...they were afraid if they fell in they'd break something!
I spotted a nice red and tried to get the girls to cast to it, but they couldn't figure out where 10 o'clock was, so I placed the cohoo in the sweet spot and immediately had a nice 26'"red on. My bride netted the fish and asked why I had not let her land the fish....good question. Next one was theirs.. It didn't take long for me to hook up again. I handed the rod to Marla, our friend, and gave her some helping guidelines to land the fish. It was again a nice 26-27" fish. She almost had it to the net, when it made a run under the boat and quickly exited out the back end...right under the prop. Goodbye redfish!
I rerigged and ten minutes later was on to another red. This one was a bruiser! I had spotted him laying in a hole and I guesstamated him at 30+. I handed the rod to my lovely bride and gave her great words of encouragement...." DON'T LOSE MY RIG!" The red was stripping off power pro faster than I could ever put it on. I told her to tighten the drag ..a little. Remember I'm on the tower watching... she knows where the drag is and she tightens it down..and "POW" goes the line...too much tightening! I thought my rig was going overboard as she got POed.
It was time to go home! It had been a very sucessful day. We had fish in the cooler and the girls both have memories of the one that got away.
Its days like this one that keep me wanting to go back day after day ...maybe may will be that month!
See ya on the water...

WIND + Muddy Water = FISH

As we say in South Texas, the wind blows all the time except when theres a hurricane and then it howls! Thus far I think we may have had two or three days that the wind was below 15. Those were the days following Northers! But....we've been catching fish! There are lots of good reds and solid trout in the complex. The trout are starting to show signs of spawn. A lot of the 17-20 inchers are full of eggs and I'm sure some of the 26-28's were also full. I'm still pluggin' for that 30 incher, got a 291/2, and maybe before I get to old to cast, I'll hang that elusive 30! I read in the Saltwater Connection that the guides up in Port Mansfield are catching so many 30 + that they can't find any eating size fish for their clients. Maybe I need to "Pay!"

Two weeks ago I hosted a couple of Middle Coast boys and we had several of the best days I've had in many years. Triple + limits of reds each day and enough 16-20 inch trout to have several good frys. We released a number of big, healthy trout.

We waded some shorelines that are not a secret, but I'd get shot if I divulged the exact location....saving it for the LL ProStaff Shootout! The wind blew and the water was really not pretty. Water temperature was in the high 60's and our fish were coming on Corkys and soft plastics fished slow. The majority of fish were either hitting just as you raised your rod tip or on the fall. A few fish were taken on silver spoons.

Which brings up a question. I've fished gold and silver spoons all my life and for the first time had someone tell me that there was a certain time of the year to fish silver and and another time to fish gold. The individual who filled me in on this is indeed a good fisherman and participates in numerous tournaments. His theory is that if the water temperature is below 74', fish only silver and higher than that, stick with gold. I asked him way, and has comment had something to do with the color of mullet. Whatever works makes me happy! I do know that silver has been the number in the past few months and the water has been cold and dirty!

Just finished Sprig Break week and hosted my gran girls here in PI. We fished each day and caught enough trout to make everyone happy. GULP under a popping cork!!

PROSTAFF SHOOTOUT

MAY 27-29

PORT MANSFIELD, TEXAS