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Short version: Went out in a bay, boat traffic was light, caught a number of fish, had a really great time, exceeded my expectations. Had a couple of gear failures but that did not detract from the good time.
Long version: Got up at 4am, got to a public boatramp under a bridge located somewhere northeast of Seadrift, Texas. The plan was to head in the general direction of the Gulf from there. Leaving the launch area around 5am, a couple guys were coming in from this lighted area near the ramp. Was a boat with one of them platforms, I asked "hey, are you on West End FoRum?" They said "Hell No" I asked if they caught any, they said they had caught a few, that I should go try it under the lights. I let the lust for fish override my plan, I was supposed to be doing recon in the other direction, wanted to get there before sunrise.
So I head over under the lights.
Now, since I am just getting back to fishing, all my reels are old and lacking in TLC. Thursday evening, I had stopped at FtU to buy a new reel. I stood at the reel counter for quite awhile, with not even an offer of help. Finally some guy comes to put line on this humongous offshore reel, he gets started, then says "you need anything?" I said I wanted to talk to someone about reels. He says "okay" and goes back to filling the reel. Well holy crap, that big ol' reel holds a lot of friggin line. I stood there, stood there, dang, he didn't even get somebody else to come help. I stood there several more minutes, then walked out of the store and went to BPS instead, which is on the way home. Got a brand spankin' new Shimano Curado. Woohoo! Took the purty little thang home, spooled it with 12 lb, and made a few practice casts in the front yard, dialing it in. Smooooooth....
So back to the fishing under the lights: With the Gulp on, made a few casts with the new Shimano... Forth cast, the left hand sideplate jumps open, of course, the cast aborts itself. WTF? Put the side back on, the thing keeps poppin' off almost every cast. Crap. Luckily have 3 rods with me, so I use the others. After 10 minutes of screwing with the reel, and another 10 minutes of no bites, I take off for my original destination in the general direction of the Gulf.
Get to my destinatitioon as fast as possible, both trolling motors humming full RPMs. Head over to this little side ditch on the shoreline, it may have been east of the channel, but possibly west of the channel. There was lots of bait activity, and appearred that some big fishes was tearing them up in the grass line, but since I don't know what it looks like when a redfish is tearing up the bait fish, I can't be sure. Threw a topwater up in there, but never even got a bite. Switched to Gukp, and BAM got something on, pulling hard but staying right on the bottom. Was kind of a weird fight for me, the fish just hugged the bottom and never came up. Got him close to the boat, dang it, got off. Flounder? I don't know.
Then I moved out from the shoreline, where I figured there was some reefs. This was around 7am by now. The wind was just barely blowing, just a touch of chop. There was this long long slick line, and several other roundish slicks, don't think they were trout slicks, I think it was the shallowness of the reefs. Light wind was from the south, so I slowly drift up to the reef, casting GULP/spinner combo. Notice some movement in the water to my right, some bait, but also some other odd water movement. Cast over there, BOOM fish on! Fraking awesome! Good hard fight, get her near the boat, reach for the net, and the Gulp goes flying past my head. Crap. Oh well, that was very cool stuff whether landed or not. I ease the anchor out. A few more casts, wham! Another fun battle and a 17" speck is in the boat. Sure, it wasn't a 27 inch trout, but I tell you, it just as well may have been.
No more bites for several minutes, so I pull anchor and drift again. In a couple minutes, POW, got another one on and landed, near 17". Considering that I hadn't expected to catch a single fish, you can see that my day is already made, and it is only 7:30am or so.
Get to the end of the reef, swing around and begin another drift.
Pow. One more, as it is coming in, the fish looks very dark, almost black, color did not look like a trout. Land it, it is indeed a trout, but the scales are really dark instead of silvery. Was 14.5", so I gently released it.
No more bites on the reef, so I get ready to move back toward the launch, stern trolling motor shears a pin. Crap. I didn't hit the reef! What happened? Reduced to half speed, plus the Shimano issue too. Slowly make my way in the direction of the boatramp, fish other areas on the way, no bites, it's past noon by now.
Decide to call it a day and head in. Need to go get a replacement for the reel, and extra sheer pins. I realize that 2 keeper trout is only a so-so day for most of you, but I tell you what, it was a spectacular day for me. Being out on the water, learning the bay, and hooking up with a few fish is darned hard to beat.
Oh... must report that I did not see any birds working.
If I can clear my honey-do list tomorrow, will be out there in the afternoon. Otherwise, Sunday.
Appreciate y'all taking the time to read all this. Oh... all you GrUmPs who are going to complain about some dumb___ newbie making a long winded post about a few fish, well, who's the dumb___ for having read this far?
Long version: Got up at 4am, got to a public boatramp under a bridge located somewhere northeast of Seadrift, Texas. The plan was to head in the general direction of the Gulf from there. Leaving the launch area around 5am, a couple guys were coming in from this lighted area near the ramp. Was a boat with one of them platforms, I asked "hey, are you on West End FoRum?" They said "Hell No" I asked if they caught any, they said they had caught a few, that I should go try it under the lights. I let the lust for fish override my plan, I was supposed to be doing recon in the other direction, wanted to get there before sunrise.
So I head over under the lights.
Now, since I am just getting back to fishing, all my reels are old and lacking in TLC. Thursday evening, I had stopped at FtU to buy a new reel. I stood at the reel counter for quite awhile, with not even an offer of help. Finally some guy comes to put line on this humongous offshore reel, he gets started, then says "you need anything?" I said I wanted to talk to someone about reels. He says "okay" and goes back to filling the reel. Well holy crap, that big ol' reel holds a lot of friggin line. I stood there, stood there, dang, he didn't even get somebody else to come help. I stood there several more minutes, then walked out of the store and went to BPS instead, which is on the way home. Got a brand spankin' new Shimano Curado. Woohoo! Took the purty little thang home, spooled it with 12 lb, and made a few practice casts in the front yard, dialing it in. Smooooooth....
So back to the fishing under the lights: With the Gulp on, made a few casts with the new Shimano... Forth cast, the left hand sideplate jumps open, of course, the cast aborts itself. WTF? Put the side back on, the thing keeps poppin' off almost every cast. Crap. Luckily have 3 rods with me, so I use the others. After 10 minutes of screwing with the reel, and another 10 minutes of no bites, I take off for my original destination in the general direction of the Gulf.
Get to my destinatitioon as fast as possible, both trolling motors humming full RPMs. Head over to this little side ditch on the shoreline, it may have been east of the channel, but possibly west of the channel. There was lots of bait activity, and appearred that some big fishes was tearing them up in the grass line, but since I don't know what it looks like when a redfish is tearing up the bait fish, I can't be sure. Threw a topwater up in there, but never even got a bite. Switched to Gukp, and BAM got something on, pulling hard but staying right on the bottom. Was kind of a weird fight for me, the fish just hugged the bottom and never came up. Got him close to the boat, dang it, got off. Flounder? I don't know.
Then I moved out from the shoreline, where I figured there was some reefs. This was around 7am by now. The wind was just barely blowing, just a touch of chop. There was this long long slick line, and several other roundish slicks, don't think they were trout slicks, I think it was the shallowness of the reefs. Light wind was from the south, so I slowly drift up to the reef, casting GULP/spinner combo. Notice some movement in the water to my right, some bait, but also some other odd water movement. Cast over there, BOOM fish on! Fraking awesome! Good hard fight, get her near the boat, reach for the net, and the Gulp goes flying past my head. Crap. Oh well, that was very cool stuff whether landed or not. I ease the anchor out. A few more casts, wham! Another fun battle and a 17" speck is in the boat. Sure, it wasn't a 27 inch trout, but I tell you, it just as well may have been.
No more bites for several minutes, so I pull anchor and drift again. In a couple minutes, POW, got another one on and landed, near 17". Considering that I hadn't expected to catch a single fish, you can see that my day is already made, and it is only 7:30am or so.
Get to the end of the reef, swing around and begin another drift.
Pow. One more, as it is coming in, the fish looks very dark, almost black, color did not look like a trout. Land it, it is indeed a trout, but the scales are really dark instead of silvery. Was 14.5", so I gently released it.
No more bites on the reef, so I get ready to move back toward the launch, stern trolling motor shears a pin. Crap. I didn't hit the reef! What happened? Reduced to half speed, plus the Shimano issue too. Slowly make my way in the direction of the boatramp, fish other areas on the way, no bites, it's past noon by now.
Decide to call it a day and head in. Need to go get a replacement for the reel, and extra sheer pins. I realize that 2 keeper trout is only a so-so day for most of you, but I tell you what, it was a spectacular day for me. Being out on the water, learning the bay, and hooking up with a few fish is darned hard to beat.
Oh... must report that I did not see any birds working.
If I can clear my honey-do list tomorrow, will be out there in the afternoon. Otherwise, Sunday.
Appreciate y'all taking the time to read all this. Oh... all you GrUmPs who are going to complain about some dumb___ newbie making a long winded post about a few fish, well, who's the dumb___ for having read this far?
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