During the summer months I usually get out and off the water early, but the tides weren’t quite lining up for an early morning bite around the Upper Coast this past weekend. The tides at every spot I contemplated were identical no matter how north or south I looked on the upper end of our coastline. Slack all morning with a strong outgoing in the afternoon.
I decided late Friday I wanted to do some exploring. I called Mark and let him know my plans and he agreed to check out the area. Two buddies were in town, Brian and Brian, who agreed to join us. We ferried the kayaks about 6 miles to our destination. We spread out and covered water and spooked a few reds in the process. There was shrimp all over the place but no signs of feeding fish. Brian managed to catch a slot red on a topwater early.
We kept moving and found a shallow pond that we had to scrap our way in over some shell. As soon as we made it in the pond we found a bunch of reds blowing up on shad and other bait fish. I found several backing on a nearby shoreline and managed to get a mid-slot on a TTF Flats Minnow in Blackened Chicken. Both Brian’s were able to landed several fish on topwaters in the same pond before the activity slowed down.
We moved back to open water and started drifting over scattered shell pads. I hooked up almost immediately on a skitterwalk but after a short fight the big red cut me off on a reef. That was it for the remainder of the morning. No more bites or activity anywhere we went. We headed back to the boat before 11am.
I couldn’t decide what to do Sunday morning after the lackluster trip the day before. I ended up sleeping in and waiting for the evening outgoing tide to start pushing out to see if I would have any better luck. As soon as I got on water about 6pm. As soon I made it to my destination I noticed some birds working in the distance.
I chased around a few schools of birds and picked up a few undersized reds. I also caught several keeper trout under the birds in less than 2’ of water in the marsh, which was unusual. I pushed back into the marsh right before dark a found a couple of backing fish and several schools some of which I never caught up to. I managed to catch a few more reds before nightfall on the same Blackened Chicken Flats Minnow.
