Well, spring break came and went. As mentioned last post, had a cousin come down from Indiana and we grinded it out in E. Matty from Sunday to Wednesday. Conditions were TOUGH! All the rain we had from the previous week had things really fresh in the bay, and the wind was 20+ up until tuesday. This combo had the water pretty dirty and salinity low. You know fishing is slow when you get boats slow down and ask how youre fairing, and then putter about 100yds away and watch if youre on anything. This was pretty normal all week. Between the 4 days of fishing, we managed 2 decent back drum, some rat reds, and plenty of gaftop and hardheads.
We spent Sunday-tuesday paddling through marshes, wading shoreline reefs, and some deep water. We were usually throwing artificial, but the cousin always had some dead shrimp as a plan B. There was no live shrimp all week. We were told as soon as the shrimpers hit the "river", the shrimp died from the water being too fresh.. The marshes allowed us to get out of the wind, they were full of bait but we never did find any reds back there. Each day we fished from about 730 to noon, and then tried to find an evening bite, launching and fishing from about 5 to sundown. It was a grind.
It wasnt until our last day, wednesday, that we decided to heck with it and set up at the gulf cut with live and cut bait, thinking SOMETHING had to come through eventually. The cousin ended up with 2 nice black drum (22-24"), and the mandatory trash fish as well. The wind had really laid down from previous days tuesday and wednesday, but the water was still pretty stained from the chocolate milk coming down the river. I guess thats just spring down on the coast, ya just have to make the best of the conditions. His last trip down here was a few years ago, and we fished LHL in Port Aransas for a day. It was one of those perfect calm, warm January days. We caught our limit of reds and then caught another 15+ each before we decided to call it quits. On the paddle back they all got off the stringer, so we turned around and caught a double limit again. I told him that was just one of those days, and this trip would be a grind. A grind it was.
It was great just to be on the water. I felt like I was on Animal Planet on a few occasions. Paddling down the intercoastal we spotted this log across the ICW that looked a little too much like a giant gator. I paddle over to it reassuring my cousin its just another log like all the others we had seen before, I get about 15' from this "log" and realize its a gator and its a good bit longer than my 12' kayak, id say in the 13 to 14' range. He started turning to look at us, pretty sure we paddled so fast away from it we got the yaks on plain. The last day of fishing, we were fishing the gulf cut on one of the shorelines. Around the corner from the opposite shoreline we see what appears to be a dog swimming towards us. We soon realize its a pretty good size bobcat. The current had put it about 10-15' in front of us as it reached the shoreline and ran off into the brush. Wish I had a video, but I was too busy clenching my pocket knife anticipating the mauling to come. Even with the slow fishing, it was great to be on the water and to have at least 2 of the 4 days cooperate with us weather wise. I have only been in E. matty a couple of other occasions, so it was great to be able to scout the marshes and reefs for future trips, and a day on the water is always a good day. And of course, it was great having my cousin down and catching up. Been too long.
I don't have too many pictures to share, the drum pictures are on my cousins phone, so for now some fishless pictures will have to suffice. Just the way she goes..
We spent Sunday-tuesday paddling through marshes, wading shoreline reefs, and some deep water. We were usually throwing artificial, but the cousin always had some dead shrimp as a plan B. There was no live shrimp all week. We were told as soon as the shrimpers hit the "river", the shrimp died from the water being too fresh.. The marshes allowed us to get out of the wind, they were full of bait but we never did find any reds back there. Each day we fished from about 730 to noon, and then tried to find an evening bite, launching and fishing from about 5 to sundown. It was a grind.
It wasnt until our last day, wednesday, that we decided to heck with it and set up at the gulf cut with live and cut bait, thinking SOMETHING had to come through eventually. The cousin ended up with 2 nice black drum (22-24"), and the mandatory trash fish as well. The wind had really laid down from previous days tuesday and wednesday, but the water was still pretty stained from the chocolate milk coming down the river. I guess thats just spring down on the coast, ya just have to make the best of the conditions. His last trip down here was a few years ago, and we fished LHL in Port Aransas for a day. It was one of those perfect calm, warm January days. We caught our limit of reds and then caught another 15+ each before we decided to call it quits. On the paddle back they all got off the stringer, so we turned around and caught a double limit again. I told him that was just one of those days, and this trip would be a grind. A grind it was.
It was great just to be on the water. I felt like I was on Animal Planet on a few occasions. Paddling down the intercoastal we spotted this log across the ICW that looked a little too much like a giant gator. I paddle over to it reassuring my cousin its just another log like all the others we had seen before, I get about 15' from this "log" and realize its a gator and its a good bit longer than my 12' kayak, id say in the 13 to 14' range. He started turning to look at us, pretty sure we paddled so fast away from it we got the yaks on plain. The last day of fishing, we were fishing the gulf cut on one of the shorelines. Around the corner from the opposite shoreline we see what appears to be a dog swimming towards us. We soon realize its a pretty good size bobcat. The current had put it about 10-15' in front of us as it reached the shoreline and ran off into the brush. Wish I had a video, but I was too busy clenching my pocket knife anticipating the mauling to come. Even with the slow fishing, it was great to be on the water and to have at least 2 of the 4 days cooperate with us weather wise. I have only been in E. matty a couple of other occasions, so it was great to be able to scout the marshes and reefs for future trips, and a day on the water is always a good day. And of course, it was great having my cousin down and catching up. Been too long.
I don't have too many pictures to share, the drum pictures are on my cousins phone, so for now some fishless pictures will have to suffice. Just the way she goes..