Jan 12, 2008

Galveston Texas

    Went out fishing with Clint looking for some trout, we weren't alone.  Lots of powerboats, duck hunters and waders greeted us at the deeper water.  We caught some quality trout early before daylight, but after several powerboaters plowed through the fish at full throttle the bite shut down.  We met up with Robert Harvey, just after daylight, he continued to stick it out with some great results on trout.  He's hard to get off trout when he's catching them or when he's sure they are around.  Robert ended up catching several trout over 20" and a few small slot redfish under tough conditions and crowds.  Crowded and looking for options we decided to drift the open bay in 1-2' of clear water and bright skies.  Clint stuck to the shorelines as I opted to drift the open bay looking for contour changes or bait activity.  I found a little area that was about 6" deeper than the rest lined with shell on both sides.  With the current and wind the drift setup straight down this small bayou in the open bay.  I noticed that the water was a bit more murky than the surrounding waters and showed some signs of bait activity.  First to hookup I landed a small 18" redfish, not exactly what we were looking for, but i beat being pounded by power boat wakes.  On the very next cast I caught a nice 27" redfish, now that's more like it.  I got Clint's attention just in time to hook another quality upper end slot redfish around 27".   Feeling like we had found a pattern, we continued to drift this area which produced over 20 slot redfish for the next 2 hours.  Most of the redfish were over 25" with a couple in the 29" range.  The redfish were actively feeding in shallow mud flats attacking small 4" paddle tails that were thrown out then run straight back to the kayak.  Aggressive fish hit this lure without hesitation, finally a power boat moved up onto the flats just as we landed a double consisting of two nice 27-28" redfish.  Not the best timing for catching those two nice fish.  The powerboat noise seemed to scatter the fish, so we called it a day.  Not a bad day someone forgot to tell the redfish that it's winter time, as they were feeding with a early fall pattern.