MERRY CHRISTMAS

A very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of my friends. Hope the new year brings good will and good fishing to each of you in 2013. I am looking forward to another great year in the LLM. Hopefully I will continue to reap the grace of God and will continue to recieve his blessings. Peace and good will to all are my wishes for the new year!

Take care...and fish hard!!

HUNT or FISH.....HUNT FISH FALL STYLE

Its that time of the year..do you go to the lease after whitetails or hit the flats after sow trout and big reds? I really try to do both. Timing this time of the year is all important. Down here in Port Isabel we seem to get a front a week. They seem to always hit on Sunday or Monday. Then usually by the end of the week we get a couple days break. Winds calm down and water clears. Neat thing about our area and the shallow, weed cover flats is that it usually only takes a tide change to clear the water. 

The water has cooled off and the fish are everywhere. They are presently in that "get ready for winter state of mind". They are slamming big topwaters with all out maddness. They are stuffing themselves for the coming of cold weather. We are finding lots of big reds and good 25-27" trout on some of our really close flats. Most of these areas are adjacent to deep water and in our area that means the ICW. 

I talked to one of our top guides on the Island yesterday and he related that there were lots of reds on the east flats. He said that one way he was fishing for them was simply drifting and waiting for the schools to approach him. He said it was not only working but saving him alot of fuel.

As I mentioned, big topwaters, Skitterwalks, Renegades, Spooks, and One Knockers have been our top producers, usually in bone, white, or black. Silver weedless spoons,1/4-3/8oz. seem to get more strikes that gold this time of the year. Plastics will always produce, but the bigger fish want bigger baits!

As far as hunting goes, I'll still get enough of that in as the weather gets really nasty. Cotulla is only four hours away! 

FISHING VIDEO "UNO MAS"

Trailer for my DVD "Uno Mas" now on sale in Port Isabel (Quick Stop) and Harlingen (Johnnys True Value).

We have sold more than 2000 copies since 2008. There are only a few remaining and no reproduction will be made. Buy yours now!

TEXASBOWHUNTER FISHING / ALASKA

Catching King Salmon/ Alaskan Style

LLM Back on Track!

Its been nearly two months since I last posted on my blog. Since then we've traveled to Europe and had a fantastic tour. I never thought I would want to go to Europe, but it was well worth the money. Turkey was our favorite. The people, food, and sights were great.
Now fishing. The key is bait! If you can find the bait you can find fish. The patterns have been totally different from years past. In the past if you found fish in a particular area one day, they were usually there for a period of time. Our experience so far in June has been that if the bait is there, then the fish are near. But one morning there may be tons of bait on a bar and then the next morning...nada!
I've been finding that the topwater bite has been early and then the fish are going deep. The temperatures down here have been extreme for June. Fishing plastics slow with dropping action seems to work best. I've been wading deep flats...chest deep and finding good fish in the deeper drop offs.
We've had exceptionally high tides in June and a number of our usual wading areas are much deeper. If I go with the short boys they have trouble getting into some of the areas I fish.
I am usually not a live bait person, but one of the local guides, we'll call him TC, fishes a lot of croaker and does real well on big trout. I've started securing pinfish and have found them to work fairly well in the deep holes around the causeway. I need to start fishing the potholes in the flats with the pinfish, but something always draws me back to my topwater when I'm in shallow water!
Tomorrow is the 4th of July and I hope it finds you at your favorite fishing spot for a little while before the fireworks. Remember to go and worship on Sunday.

Take care!

HOT!HOT!HOT!

The weather that is. The fishing according to all the local guides is "on fire" right now. The truth is there are "dinks" everywhere. Its no big deal to go out and catch 40-50 trout...all in the 13-14 inch range. Finding good trout is harder. A number of times in July I fished pinfish in the deep holes under both causeways and came away wondering if the Democrats had given all the trout away. Even finding good keeper trout on shrimp is hard. If you fish the dropoffs along the ICW you can usually bang out a limit or two. My experience lately has been if we bring in a single limit we are doing good.
The redfish are to be found, but it seems the same story...they're either 19 or 39inches, finding good keeper reds is hard. Most of ours are coming on gold spoons.
Now one exciting point is that we are taking some good snook in South Bay. Most are early on topwaters back in some parts of the bay that I am told that certain guides have "real estate deeds" to and would like to put up "POSTED/NO TRESPASSING" signs in. I've been checking out how one purchases this water!!
We have been catching a few really good trout by wading. The Long Bar flats have produced several 27inchers in July and the Brownsville Channel flats have given up a number of 24-26's.
Normally I don't fish in the late afternoons, but yesterday I got an itch and decided to wade a couple of hours on an outgoing tide. It was a good decision. In less than an hour I had a limit of 20-24's, all taken on Nortons. Maybe I'll be back there this afternoon!

Take care....see ya at the Doctors Tournament !

MONSTERS in the LLM!

Monster trout that is! Yesterday as I was hard at work at my computer, I got a text from my good friend, David Wood. He sent me a picture of a 32" 11 pounder. I immediately went into hyper shock!

I tried calling him, then called his wife. Her reaction was "he's not supposed to be fishing and I saw that same fish, he probably didn't catch it...just holding it."
Who cares who caught it....I do!
David and one of his new best friends, a PI/SPI guide, name withheld, were prefishing for the AMI Kids Tournament to be held on Saturday. They were fishing potholes on the south side using croakers. Not only did they secure a monster trout, but landed a 22' flounder. The 32 was released with hopes of recapture on Saturday. The flounder on the other hand was eaten!
There have been some BIG trout taken up and down the coast this Spring. I don't think it matters if you are throwing hardware or dipping croakers, you gotta be at the right spot at the right time. I've always thought I was in the right spot, but over the past 50 years I must always be there at the wrong time.
Croakers are definitely the way to go for monster trout if you can secure them and have the patience ti fish them. Croakers are hard to come by on the lower coast. You've got to have connections with the shrimpers in the Brownsville channel in order to get croakers or travel up to Port Mansfield. They get theirs shipped in from the middle coast. If you can't find croakers, try pinfish or piggy perch. They work well. We've caught lots of good solid trout and mangroves on them in the heat of the summer in deep water.
I also received a picture of a 37" trout supposedly caught at Port Mansfield, that also is a monster. The only problem is its not a real picture. Someone did some work with photoshop! Its not always good to get too excited about MONSTER TROUT....bad for the heart!

By the way, David and his new best friends took 1st place in the AMI Tournament despite the 40 mph winds that blew. They didn't get the 32 again, but did find a 28"!

Congratulations on the win.
Take care!

Tournament Pictures

Over the past several years Team Uno Mas has participated in a number of tournaments in the LLM. Our team has won a few, but more then that its just been fun to compete with other anglers.

We continue to improve our skills and one day maybe bring home a really BIG PRIZE!

PICTURES / ALWAYS INTERESTING

Just wanted to share a few pictures...... The first series is from a trip I took in 2010....ALASKA!!

Topwater Action...It's Started!

Here it is April already. We had all of the kids and grandkids down for Spring Break several weeks back. I always enjoy taking that crew fishing. We fished for three straight days,but had very little to show for it. Lots of boat riding ,lots of casting, but very little returns on our investment. The wind was not cooperative by any means.
The calm weather and clear waters have arrived. My fishing partner, David Wood, AKA "The Spook" and I have been boxing some excellent trout over the last several days. Nearly all are being taken early in the day on topwaters. We are not running far from our home base. We've been drifting the potholes and flats associated with Long Bar. We keep talking about wade fishing these areas, but as of today its just talk. Long Bar is the remains of spoil taken from building the ICW many years ago. Most of it is good firm bottom, but has some really muddy areas also. Watch out for the drop offs, some of the holes are chest deep on me and I'm a big man. We've been using Heddon Spooks almost exclusively, but an occasional tossed gold spoon has paid dividends with some good reds. Long Bar is not necessarily a top redfish area, but it will at times hold good numbers. That's a good heavy 26"red in the picture that was released. On the same morning we released a number of good trout in the 24-26" range.

There has been a problem finding bait, but once you locate the bait, the fish will be there...count on it!

Hope that all of you have a glorious Easter and always remember " He gave his life so you could live!"

WIND,WIND, and more WIND!!

It seems that the usual sequence of weather phenomenons that hit the Texas Coast each Winter and Spring are not following the rules. The sequence is usually a cold front, with wind, maybe rain, and down here a little drop in temperature. Then two days later its all quite and warm, the waters turn aqua blue over night and we find fish. Not so this year. The winds have been howling at 25+ with gusts up as high as 40. Not a good time to cross open water, but we have ventured out.
We've had some exceptionally low tides in the mornings and then good flood tides in the late afternoons. I'm not usually an afternoon fishing person, but it beats not fishing at all. Our usual spots, the old Causeway Flats, South Bay, Long Bar, Bird Island, and Holly Beach all seemed to slow down this last week. We picked up scattered fish, but no numbers or size. Most on plastics.
Last Sunday afternoon, we ventured out with the plan to fish Longbar, but I got a wild hair to run to an area on the East Side that is covered with sand holes. The water was clear, but I could see a slight color change ahead of our drift. I could see bait working. We hit the mother lobe!
In a short period, two hours, we limited out on good keeper trout in the 18-22 in. We caught our bigger trout on topwaters. David used his white spook and I opted for a smaller H2O version. it seems that everything we chunked was jumped on. Gulp, plastics, and topwaters did a number on the fish. We made at least 5 drifts through the same area and each drift paid off with an average of 12 fish per drift. Good fishing! The bite usually started as we entered the off colored water.
Gin clear water is really inviting and makes for some fantastic sight fishing, but never pass up those color changes. The changes are usually a sign of current and current means bait.
March winds are here, but if you can brave getting wet and bouncing you can find fish. Its just gonna get better.
Stay tuned..we're just getting started.

Happy New Year

2012 should be a great year or thats what we always say and wish for. As I get older, turn 65 on January 13th, I find that there are more and more things to take up my time, but really less that are really rewarding. I have found it is really much easier to fish an afternoon high tide than getting up before sunrise and hoping for decent water. Don't get me wrong, the early mornings definitely have their place, but it does get harder to break out of bed these days....more hurts. The winter brings a definite change to our waters in the LLM. The reds are schooling like college kids on Spring Break and the trout, good ones are harder to locate. We have been fishing the Airport Cove area and taking 22-28 inch reds without much todo. Topwaters and spoons are the go to lures. No brainers!

Yesterday we headed into South bay around 2:30 and on 3 drifts we had picked up 6 good reds. Left there to fish Mosquito Flats for trout, but zeroed out. We were due back in by 5 and as we started back the birds were working ribbonfish something fierce near the old causeway. There were lots and lots of trout also feeding, but to catch a keeper was magic! As we headed for home the birds once again stopped us at Marker 5...same game, we were in by 5:30. Short day but productive!

I see where my Blog friends are catching snook at the Brownsville channel. Haven't been there lately due to the fact it is too much trouble to pull my boat out and a long run from PI. But, as the state's record holder for snook ,( I need to toot my own horn as I have NEVER seen an article written where my 41" snook has been mentioned) I need to venture that way soon.

Hope all of you have a great season and if you see UnoMas on the water say hi!