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After years of dreaming about it, I finally booked a 2-day Baffin trip to find some monster trout... and Capt Les Cobb delivered.
Day 1
We arrived at the ramp in Riviera around 6:30am only to find high winds from an isolated storm that was passing over. I knew a front was supposed to be coming through on Day 2, but the forecast was calling for 10-15 knots and it was at least 25.
Finally, the storm passed and we were off to our first spot where Les had caught some 5-6 lbers on slow sinkers the day before. With the water temp reading 72 deg F, I immediately tied on my custom-painted hot pink Super Spook and my brother grabbed the blue/chrome She Dog as his weapon of choice.
There wasn't a lot of surface bait but there was plenty of mullet in the area which gave me some confidence. Not long into my wade, I got my first blow up in waist deep water.... I don't even know if I should call it a blow up because I had never witnessed anything make that big of a swirl on my topwater in all of the years I've fished Galveston... not even the 27 incher I caught last spring at SLP. Anyway, it was a 'swing and a miss'. I twitched it a couple of times and continued my slow cadence.... she came back for another try and this time connected. As fisherman, we all have a story about the big one that got away.... well, here's mine short and quick. She broke me off... biggest trout of my life... and took my custom-painted Spook with her. My leader broke, not at the knot... well above the knot. I think the fluorocarbon leader must have gotten caught in the front hook of the Spook and that was all she wrote.
So, I walked back to the boat and grabbed my last hot pink Super Spook. On my way back, my brother strung 2 very respectable 20"+ class trout.... solid fish, and very tempting, but not what I was looking for. As I got into about 2 ft of water, I noticed a lot more subsurface bait activity. Seemed as though most of the mullet were hanging out in shallow water. So, after I re-tied, I made the decision to stay shallow instead of going deeper where I missed my sow.
I kept walking the shoreline and all I hear is my brother's She Dog getting abused by solid trout. Should I stick with what I'm doing or should I follow him?
Not long after thinking about moving, I got a monster blow up in shallow water... ok, I made up my mind... I'm staying shallow. Upon hookset, she got completely airborn like a torpedo, perfectly horizontal to the water's surface. Even from that distance, I knew then that this was a big 'un.... 5 minutes seemed like eternity. She stayed down and just ran like a freight train. My drag was peeling and my forearms were starting to burn... I just wanted to see her. Finally, she started to tire and this massive silver slab appeared from the brown tide. I nervously reach for my Boga and snatch her up... 7.5 lbs, 28 inches.... tied my personal best. After a few pics and grins, I released her to fight another day.
Back to fishing....
It's amazing what catching a sow will do to your confidence. I mean every cast, I was expecting another massive blow up. Well, this time it was another 'swing and a miss'. So, I changed up my cadence and sped up my retrieve with periodic pauses. That did the trick... another nice trout. This one went 6 lbs, 26 inches.... a few photos and released.
The action slowed down a bit and we moved further down the shoreline. Now it was my brother's turn...
I didn't see his blow up, but you bet I heard it. Just by the sound of it, I knew it was huge. Again, 5 minutes seemed like eternity as he was trying to wear her out. Finally, she came to the net... well, I'd say half of her fit in the net. I made my way over to him and looked at his catch... this thing was massive and it had a big mullet tail barely hanging out of it's mouth. So, I picked her up with the Boga.... 7.5 lbs, 28 inches..... PERSONAL BEST... a few photos and released.
After going some time without any more bites, we went back to the first spot. This time I waded out deeper and tied on my Rapala X-Rap.... twitch, twitch, pause... THUD. Another awesome trout... 7 lbs, 27"... a few photos and released.
Ok... Day 1 had come to an end and by all means exceeded my expectations.... 4 trout over 6 lbs with 2 of those being personal bests and quite a few fillets for dinner.
I thought to myself, there's no way that Day 2 will be any better than this.
I was wrong...
Day 1
We arrived at the ramp in Riviera around 6:30am only to find high winds from an isolated storm that was passing over. I knew a front was supposed to be coming through on Day 2, but the forecast was calling for 10-15 knots and it was at least 25.
Finally, the storm passed and we were off to our first spot where Les had caught some 5-6 lbers on slow sinkers the day before. With the water temp reading 72 deg F, I immediately tied on my custom-painted hot pink Super Spook and my brother grabbed the blue/chrome She Dog as his weapon of choice.
There wasn't a lot of surface bait but there was plenty of mullet in the area which gave me some confidence. Not long into my wade, I got my first blow up in waist deep water.... I don't even know if I should call it a blow up because I had never witnessed anything make that big of a swirl on my topwater in all of the years I've fished Galveston... not even the 27 incher I caught last spring at SLP. Anyway, it was a 'swing and a miss'. I twitched it a couple of times and continued my slow cadence.... she came back for another try and this time connected. As fisherman, we all have a story about the big one that got away.... well, here's mine short and quick. She broke me off... biggest trout of my life... and took my custom-painted Spook with her. My leader broke, not at the knot... well above the knot. I think the fluorocarbon leader must have gotten caught in the front hook of the Spook and that was all she wrote.
So, I walked back to the boat and grabbed my last hot pink Super Spook. On my way back, my brother strung 2 very respectable 20"+ class trout.... solid fish, and very tempting, but not what I was looking for. As I got into about 2 ft of water, I noticed a lot more subsurface bait activity. Seemed as though most of the mullet were hanging out in shallow water. So, after I re-tied, I made the decision to stay shallow instead of going deeper where I missed my sow.
I kept walking the shoreline and all I hear is my brother's She Dog getting abused by solid trout. Should I stick with what I'm doing or should I follow him?
Not long after thinking about moving, I got a monster blow up in shallow water... ok, I made up my mind... I'm staying shallow. Upon hookset, she got completely airborn like a torpedo, perfectly horizontal to the water's surface. Even from that distance, I knew then that this was a big 'un.... 5 minutes seemed like eternity. She stayed down and just ran like a freight train. My drag was peeling and my forearms were starting to burn... I just wanted to see her. Finally, she started to tire and this massive silver slab appeared from the brown tide. I nervously reach for my Boga and snatch her up... 7.5 lbs, 28 inches.... tied my personal best. After a few pics and grins, I released her to fight another day.
Back to fishing....
It's amazing what catching a sow will do to your confidence. I mean every cast, I was expecting another massive blow up. Well, this time it was another 'swing and a miss'. So, I changed up my cadence and sped up my retrieve with periodic pauses. That did the trick... another nice trout. This one went 6 lbs, 26 inches.... a few photos and released.
The action slowed down a bit and we moved further down the shoreline. Now it was my brother's turn...
I didn't see his blow up, but you bet I heard it. Just by the sound of it, I knew it was huge. Again, 5 minutes seemed like eternity as he was trying to wear her out. Finally, she came to the net... well, I'd say half of her fit in the net. I made my way over to him and looked at his catch... this thing was massive and it had a big mullet tail barely hanging out of it's mouth. So, I picked her up with the Boga.... 7.5 lbs, 28 inches..... PERSONAL BEST... a few photos and released.
After going some time without any more bites, we went back to the first spot. This time I waded out deeper and tied on my Rapala X-Rap.... twitch, twitch, pause... THUD. Another awesome trout... 7 lbs, 27"... a few photos and released.
Ok... Day 1 had come to an end and by all means exceeded my expectations.... 4 trout over 6 lbs with 2 of those being personal bests and quite a few fillets for dinner.
I thought to myself, there's no way that Day 2 will be any better than this.
I was wrong...
on smoking them.
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