Me and my buddy, who has never kayak fished/saltwater fished, had planned for a 2 day trip to the coast about 2 months ago. Summer is coming to a close for us, school is inching closer and closer and soon it will be back to the hectic role of college student and work for the both of us.
We headed out on 7/31 to the port lavaca area, launching at 6:30 to some wind and slack tide.
We headed out on 7/31 to the port lavaca area, launching at 6:30 to some wind and slack tide.
With it being my buddies first outing I figured some croaker would be most productive, so we stocked up on 2 dozen and headed out. The water was low and slack so we focused on fishing deeper guts as the grass flats were for the most part too shallow to paddle. Within about the first 30 minutes Brett hooks up to the first fish of the day, a 22" red. Mission accomplished, Kansas boy got his salt cherry popped. Shortly after he snagged a feisty rat red.
For the next couple hours we bounced from fishing oyster reefs to sloping grass flats and sand with not much luck. The water was still low and slack. There was bait activity but not much chasing them. We decided it was a good time to anchor up and rehydrate with some lines out.
By about 11:00 the light breeze turned into what seemed to be 20+ winds. We stuck it out for another couple hours without any bumps, so we packed up and headed to our cabin to check in and re-group.
Our plan was to get a little rest and head back out in port A for the evening bite and into the night, but we ended up doing more paddling and lounging than any real fishing.
Regretting having our fish time cut short the day before, we decided to hit it hard friday and launched in port A to fish both sides of 361. We launched at 6:00 with several dozen energetic croaker with high hopes and no wind, a welcomed change from the day before. The water again looked really low and slack, and turned out to be that way the entire day. There were quite a few kayakers and boaters out as is typical in the area. Right at first light we spotted a lot of action up in the grass lines. We paddled over and set up some croaker on corks really shallow. As we sat there some reds crashed right in front of us several times chasing mullet. Frustrated, I tied on my trusted gold spoon and Brett threw a cork with gulp. Brett missed a good set on one, and I got a hard bump on the spoon. We decided to move on.
We moved on and explored some, noticing a lot of structure that is usually not visible was out of the water. Reefs were completely exposed and the flats were too shallow to fish. We fished a pocket of deeper water near some reefs with the croaker. Took some time but we ended up catching two trout barely at 15", CPL.
We finished the day soaking some cut bait/croaker. We both missed a hookup that felt pretty good back to back. then we got a hard hit that we thought was at least a mid slot red.
It turned out to be the biggest hardhead I've ever seen. Was about 18" and thick! We turned around and got psyched out yet again a few minutes later with the same ordeal. It was still fun catching something even though the drum seemed to have lock jaw! Finished up the day enjoying a growler of a great IPA from Freetail (great beer, check them out in San Antonio) as we waded. We had to head back to San Antonio by 2 so we paddled back in and loaded up. Talking to several kayakers friday and someone that had gone on a guided trip to mud island thursday, no keepers were caught. The water was just stagnant and low both days. We usually had at least 6-8 kayakers within sight friday wherever we paddled and we didn't see any fish landed. We felt alright with how we did and just enjoyed being on the water, we at least got brett on his first red and that was my priority. The action may not have been fast and furious but it was a great couple of days with great company. Looking forward to the next opportunity to do it again.