I planned to the fish the second stop of the XRT kayak trail this past Saturday but that intention was axed when news arrived late Friday night that the tournament was postponed due to the conditions. Unfavorable wind forecasts forced tournament organizers to reschedule the tournament for late August. I was looking forward to the event so I was little disappointed with the decision. I know it was a hard choice to make, but ultimately it was the right decision based on the safety of all the participants.
I wasn’t made aware of the decision until I was on my way to the captain’s meeting Friday night. As kind gesture the tournament director purchased food and left an open bar tab for those who made the trek the captain’s meeting; a nice symbol of appreciation for the anglers that made the commute to the captain’s meeting. While at the captain’s meeting I caught up with some friends I hadn’t seen in a while. I was determine to fish anyways so I made plans that night to fish with two buddies, Jason Blackwell and Jason Bryant, the next morning.
We met up well before sunrise at an area I figured would be good considering the tidal pattern. We were on the backside of a full moon and the tide swings were some of the strongest of the month. The tides at the particular area we planned to fish would be at its lowest point about the time when we arrived and would coming in strong all morning. I figured we would be able to find some schools early and then as the tide moved in we could push further back into the marsh and look for singles in the back of the marsh.
When we arrived the wind was blowing at a fairly good lick. My predictions were fairly accurate. We found a few small schools early but the strong winds had the water churned up and the water clarity was zero. The fish had a tough time finding our lures but Blackwell managed to catch one mid slot fish on a gulp shrimp.
After that the schooling action died off, so we decided to move to the back of the marsh. The tide was still low but we pushed our way through the sludge looking for fish. We spotted some active birds off in the distance and it was the sign we needed. We found some reds in the area but we had a tough time connecting. We kept moving and we found more fish near deeper pockets between ponds. We were able to land a couple more fish. Jason caught his fish on a gulp shrimp and I caught mine on a TTF Flats Minnow in blackened chicken.
The bite died after that but the entertaining was just beginning. We moved further back into the marsh and found a pond that was loaded with fish. Almost every fish in the pond had its back exposed. We made numerous futile attempts at trying to get them to eat. The fish were in survival mode and were more interested in finding a way out of the pond versus feeding. We were sitting on the only way out, so the fish had to swim past us to leave. Many times they swam right through us bumping into our kayaks or legs on the way out. It was absolutely mayhem for about 30 minutes as the fish made their way for the exit. The turmoil made for a great photo-op.
Here’s a short clip of the chaos…
If you thought fishing was all about catching fish you would have never known Saturday morning as we sat there in the far reaches of an estuary covered in mud and surrounded redfish that wouldn’t eat. Saturday was one of my most enjoyable days on the water this year. I only made about a dozen casts and caught one fish. The wind howling through spartina, the sloshing of the mud, and dissonance of the gulls were all muted by the sound of excitement and laughter.
