I spent a few days in the Coastal Bend with my old roommate, Austin, last week. The weather was hot but so was the fishing. We caught good numbers and quality fish at a few different locations. The first day in the area we got a late start and fished out of Austin’s boat until dark. We caught a bunch of small trout and some upper slot reds on Flats Minnows (Geaux Gleaux and Bone Catcher). We caught most of our fish near wind-blown shorelines.
The next day we decided to abandon the clear water in search of some muddier locales. I know what you’re thinking. Why would I make the long trek south to fish dirty water? I could have stayed home and fished all the dirty water I pleased. I have a hard time leaving dirty water when I know there’s big fish willing to eat flies. As soon as Austin made our way into the marsh we started spotting moving schools. One after another.
I caught several redfish on a KFM in Bone Catcher, but Austin and I were having a hard time keeping fish glued. I kept moving and Austin stayed put hoping to get more fish to eat. He caught a couple of reds on plastics. I kept covering water and managed to catch another red on a KFM. I found a few more schools and a ton of crawlers everywhere I went. Most of the backing fish were oversized.
The fish were very spooky, but I made perfect presentations in front of countless fish. I couldn’t get any of them to eat though. It was late in the day and Austin already made it back to the truck, so I gave up and made my way in. I must have lost track of how far back into the marsh I went because the paddle in took over an hour. On the way in I encountered many more spooky, uninterested fish. I did manage to find one crawler that was hungry. A 30″ slob of a redfish that weighed 10.5lbs.
The next morning Austin decided he was going to sleep and clean up before he headed home. I decided to go fishing. As many fish as I saw the day before I figured I would head back to the same area and look for some fish willing to eat flies. As I made my way into the marsh that morning I noticed my kayak felt sluggish. I pulled over on the bank and looked into my kayak to find it was more than half full with water.
I was already over a mile away from the launch. I searched the hull of my boat and found a large crack on the keel. This wasn’t the first time my kayak has filled up with water, but I had nothing to patch a hole with me. I didn’t want to paddle back to the launch and get reinforcements (duct tape). I tried some makeshift fixes to slow the leak, but none of them proved successful.
I decided to not venture any further and fish the area I was in and drain the kayak every time it filled up. I found several schools feeding on small shrimp on the edges of the spartina grass. I caught one fish on a KFM and the rest were caught with a brown shrimp fly. Most of the fish were between 7-9lbs. I had to drain my kayak seven times (two times just to make it to back the lanuch) in less than four hours on the water.
It may be time to retire my yak. It’s seen more water than most, if not all, fishing kayaks in the state. In the last five years it’s been on the water close to 500 days; the wear and tear and the melted foreign plastic on the hull are proof.
