OCTOBER is HOT!

October is indeed one of the best fishing months of the year on the LLM. Prior to that the temp of both the water and air are somewhat uncomfortable. But as the nights start to cool down, water temp start to drop and the fish start getting ready for winter. Our wade fishing this month has been out of site. I've been hitting a particuliar bar up North. Its on the edge of some fairly deep water and is a favorite place for the local guides to bring their clients and fish croakers.
One particuliar morning I had three other guys with me and we hit the bar before daylight. We were limited out by 8:30 and had three guides trying hard to move in. We left so they could fish.
Top waters have been working well, along with various plastics. The trout seem to want the darker colors with bright tails.
One morning I picked up an old Redfin swim bait and decided to give it a try. I had five good fish before any of the other guys caught a trout.
It was the number for that day.
We are finding that the fish seem to move around this bar all day long, but seem to hit better on a falling tide. They are tending to hold in the deeper water, 4-5 ft.
Lately the tides  here have been extremely high and wading can be tricky for short guys.
As the water cools and waders become a neccessity its going to be hard to wade my area, especially if the wind is blowing and there is wave action. Water down the front of waders is no fun.

How do you like my new ride? Started to get a new paint job that was going to run around 3 grand and then started kicking around the idea of a wrap. Contacted IWizard Signs in Harlingen and they designed and installed this wrap for under $900.
They tell me it will last as long as a paint job and looks alot cooler!

Offshore Revisited!

It's been sometime since I ventured offshore in search of blue water battlers. Before I moved to Port Isabel, I owned a great offshore boat and spent lots and lots of hours fishing the upper and middle coast. My normal departure port was Freeport, but often I would trailer to Sabine, Galveston, or Port O'Connor. Lots of stories and memories of some great times and not so great times in the blue beyond the sight of shore. We had lots of rigs back then and it was usually not a hard run to find good snapper fishing.
I think I've just about taken almost all of the blue water spices, with the exception of a marlin. My first experience with a sail came while fishing for kings back in 1985. A friend and I were tied up to a close rig out of Port O'Connor. We were drifting ribbonfish, when one of my reels began to sing and quickly empty of line. We untied and gave chase. We soon realized that I had hooked a good sized sail. After a number of jumps and some good video, I landed a 6'11" sail. The story of what I did with that sail is another blog.

The red snapper season officially open several days ago and will only be open for a short period. My good neighbor, Oscar Garcia invited me to join him on a run to the Texas Clipper reef. I'm glad he invited and glad I took him on his offer. We departed the jetties at around 8 and made the 18 mile run in good time. Oscar runs a 24' Panga.
I had secured several dozen pinfish and planned to live bait the snapper. We managed our limit of 6 in short order. All good size fish with the two largest taken on live pins.

As we headed back to SPI and Port Isabel we stopped off at an anchored tanker in search of a ling. Oscar was rewarded by a hard fighting undersized, 35", that also hit a live pin perch. We are headed back out on Thursday. The winds are light and the blue water close.

 

BAD DAY FOR REDFISH....a video

Little Bays....Big Fish

Mexiquito has always produced some very good quality fish for me and my fishing friends. It is a very shallow bay with lots of potholes. These potholes seem to attract the big trout. A number of guides fish croakers in this area and work from pothole to pothole.Ive seen pictures of two 32" trout that were taken from the area. My largest trout ever, a 29.7" came from this little bay on a topwater.
Yeasterday the winds were again howling, but this spot of water seems to remain fairly clear until the boats start running across the shallows.
We hit it at daybreak and almost immediately I landed a nice 25" trout. I handed my camera to my friend David with insturctions to capture a pic before I released it. He said he snapped several, but later I found they were not there.
We managed to pick up three good reds before I needed to be back in for a trip to Brownsville. I think anytime you can fish for a couple of hours, catch a 25" trout and several slot reds, its been a good morning.
We were using topwaters, silver spoons, and 5" white and brown splittail Gulpon 1/16 ounce heads. We were fishing the Gulp by using a slow retrieve and dropping action.

Marker 58....CROWDED!!

For the last couple of days I have been hitting Marker 58 and easily limiting out on good eating size trout. The water is clear and the guides are plentiful. This morning I fished the deep end of the bar with my good buddy, Judge Oscar Garcia, and we started pounding the trout. All of the fish were in the 16-18" range and its didn't take long to fill our limits.

We continued fishing and began to cull and release. As I picked up a good trout I heard a motor coming up behind me and as I turned around a guide and his party of four had eased in behind me. I could have easily cast into their boat. They were fishing bait and almost immediately started boating small trout. I didn't say anything but surely thought it. They were really loud and annoying.
Shortly there after another guide eased into position close to the first. I started to invite them for a beer and party!
I have nothing against people trying to earn a living. In fact in the state of our United States, I highly encourage it, but even in the guide profession there are rules of etiquette. I guarantee if it had been me pulling up that close to the guide(s), someone would have given me a piece of mind.
Reminds me of a guide I ran into a number of years back. My brother in law and I had gone into South Bay early one morning. I spotted a boat anchored and five people wading the west shoreline. We proceeded to move down and beyond them by about a quarter mile. As we were getting ready I saw one of the guys headed in our direction. I proceeded to launch my kayak and my brother in law continued to get ready. He was wading....by himself. As I paddled away I noticed the individual had reached my boat and was talking to my brother in law all the while throwing his hands in the air. Almost as quickly as he appeared he waded back with his group. I took the kayak and headed for the North shoreline which was another half mile away. Later when I returned I was told that it had been a local guide who was raising hell about us invading his private fishing place.
I blew it off, but later received a call from the guide's wife. She cussed me out for taking money from her husband and food off their table. A picture of my boat ended up on the website Too Cool Fishing. I was blackballed by several guides in Port Mansfield, but it really helped my DVD sales.
I sent the guide a personal apology, but never heard from him again. His wife stated that the area we had gone into was his spot. I asked her old he was and she replied not as old as you... old fart. I replied back to her that I had started wading that spot back in the early 70s and that she and her husband had probably been in diapers. She hung up!
Never ceases to amaze that we all have to share the waters and yes courtesy is very important. Seems that some of the younger generation failed that subject.
Now back to our fishing. the majority of our trout came on topwaters and white split tail Gulp. Plastics in brown anf grape with chartruse tails also worked.
Oscar was able to secure a Triple Hitter by catching a 14" flounder and a 23" red, along with his trout. Hard to do down here!

Lots of boats and people on the water this weekend. Several tournaments going on.
Just a note when talking about guides, I have been facebook friends with an individual who fishes from POC to Baffin Bay area. He recently posted that his parties took 240+ trout the last couple of days. Then another guide posted he had taken upwards of 500+ last week. Not sure if this is hype or truth, but it's numbers like those that give guides bad names among the general public.All of those numbers where taken on croakers.
Using their figures it would appear that between the two they serviced 147 clients last week. I am sure that they will say they released a good number, but we all know that fish caught on croakers suffer a high mortality rate. I just ask that you guys stay on the middle coast and stay away from the LLM with your croakers!!
See ya on the water!

First Annual Port Isabel Classic

Despite winds up to 40 mph, Team Uno Mas fared fairly well. We were on the leader board for a while. We weighted in one 25.7" red and an 18" trout. We were booted out by some bait soaking guides who cleaned the board.
This was the first tournament for this group and there were lots of things they could have done to make it better.We made a number of suggestions.
They needed more clarification for the Calcutta division ahead of time. It was an individual tournament with entry fees at $125 and Calcutta fees at $200 (all divisions), It was fairly expensive.
We recommended a team format and giving prizes to first -third places.
Keeping the entry fee at $125 and reducing the Calcutta to $200 per team (up to 4 team members).
Putting in a 25" trout limit.
Making a special guides division. As we saw the guides walk off with all the cash it makes you not want to fish these types of events,
A special artificial bait only division....Gulp allowed!
Oh well probably wont happen, but we do have a number of local tournaments that are formatted as above and they are a lot of fun.

As far as the fishing, we prefished on Friday and managed a 27" trout from Mexiquito flats and then went into South Bay and picked up three limits of reds. The biggest there was 28" on the dot. We figured we had it figured out, but mother nature upset our plans. Its tough fishing with those kinds of winds hitting you in the back. We fished hard! Ended the day with the two fish above and two more keeper reds.
Its hard fishing chocolate milk colored water with lures, even Gulp.

But better days are not far off! See ya on the LLM, Wave when you see Uno Mas!


David's limit on Friday

David's trout on Friday

CCA Update

Dear Glenn, Plans are finalizing for this year’s STAR Tournament. Sign up now…before the RUSH begins! Plus, if you register early, you become eligible for incredible early-bird prizes. Last year, we offered more than $1,000,000 in prizes during the tournament, and in the coming year we hope to add even more!! Sign up today and you’re set for the best STAR Tournament yet. Couldn’t be easier - CLICK HERE to register.  Sincerely, Bill Kinney Tournament Director P.S.      We’ve added a special STAR Platinum Package that includes your tournament entry, your membership renewal and a signed and numbered, limited-edition print by acclaimed artist David Drinkard.  The package price is only $125.00.  Further details are available by clicking here.

CCA Texas STAR 6919 Portwest, Suite 100 | Houston, Texas 77024

CCA Update on RedDrum

Feds Set Sights on Red Drum Exempted Fishing Permit targeting breeder red drum sets stage for fish grab The federal government's management of Gulf fisheries has created some of the most chaotic, dysfunctional and unsatisfactory fisheries in the country, and now it seems that the agency is set on bringing that same experience to our red drum fishery in the Gulf of Mexico. NOAA Fisheries is currently seeking comment on a two-year plan to allow harvest of breeding-size red drum in federal waters for the first time in decades. Through the use of an Exempted Fishing Permit (EFP), a tool that has been intentionally misused repeatedly to circumvent regular management procedures and skirt public opinion, Mississippi for-hire vessels would be allowed to target 30,000 pounds of over-sized red drum to collect "scientific data" on the stock. Representing this EFP as a science tool is grossly misleading and inaccurate. Very clear scientific goals were established at the Red Drum Data Needs workshop in July 2014 - none of which are addressed by this proposal.  That workshop, requested by the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council, determined that "Fishery Dependent" data (such as those collected by fishermen and those that would be collected by this EFP) were already more than adequately represented for each state. That same workshop determined that what is needed are "Fishery Independent Data" collected by scientists.  Large purse seine studies sampling 10-20 fish from different schools are ongoing from Florida to Louisiana by universities and marine institutes. Those studies will provide vastly more useful information for a much more geographically broad and comprehensive assessment. This red drum EFP will add nothing to further knowledge of the red drum stock, as shown by the Gulf Council's own red drum data workshop.  At best, it would be duplicative and unnecessary. There is simply no scientific justification for this EFP, and it should be rejected. The entire Exempted Fishing Permit concept should be overhauled to require genuine scientific oversight to prevent willful misuse. Anyone who has watched the manipulation of the red snapper fishery the past few years should be extremely alarmed at the implications of this federal overreach into one of the great state-based marine conservation victories. The EFP is limited to Mississippi's for-hire industry today, but it is certain to spread rapidly to other statesif it is approved. It is critical for recreational anglers and conservationists to get engaged and prevent the red drum fishery from sliding into greed-driven chaos. Comments on this EFP are being accepted until April 23 - click below to send in your comments opposing red drum harvest in federal waters.

Spring Can be a Little Slow!

We hit the Arroyo early and had a couple of nice fish by 9. Both came on spoons. Mine on silver and Don Scogin's on gold. Both fish were caught on the same flat. Water temp is starting to come up, but water quality is still way off. The east side is really off colored. Rattlesnake was somewhat clear but was void of fish.

29"

27"

CCA News

Buy Your CCA Texas License Plates Now: Click Here to purchase your CCA Texas license plate, or follow the instructions attached and below.

WHERE DOES THE TIME GO?

The last time I wrote in my blog was in June. That was over 4 months ago and I've done a lot of things in that time, including alot of fishing.


     

CCA News

CCA Texas Aransas Bay Chapter 16th Annual Babes on the Bay Tournament Rockport, Texas Calling all Ladies!  Registration is now open for the 16th Annual Babes on the Bay fishing tournament to be held May 15th and 16th .  Come out and be a part of the largest women's fishing tournament that there is.  Registration must be done and online and can be done so at www.babesonthebay.com. Registration deadline is April 29th at 11:00 PM  so be sure to sign up now!

Uno Mas Tournament Pics

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!

LLM PICS