Thursday, May 28, 2015
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.
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.
Saturday, May 23, 2015
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!
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!
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!
Monday, May 11, 2015
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
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 FridaySunday, May 10, 2015
CCA Update
 | |
| |
| CCA Texas STAR 6919 Portwest, Suite 100 | Houston, Texas 77024 |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)