Labor Day weekend was a wash due to Tropical Storm Lee. Lee brought extreme north winds to the Upper Texas Coast. The weather following Lee’s departure was a welcomed change. Low tides and cool weather produced fall-like conditions. I was chomping at the bit to get on the water because the extreme tide fluctuations and pleasant temperatures.
Last weekend Mark needed to get some work done on his boat and test out a few new props to get better performance. He wanted to make a trip out since it was a long drive so I agree to head south with him. I’ve had my eye on a few marshes down in the area so I figured it would be a good weekend to explore new areas. I also talked Jason into making the trip south with us.
Jason and I got an early start. I was on the road by 2:30am and we left Houston around 3:30 Saturday morning. We pulled up to a gas station along the way to grab some breakfast, and oddly enough it was packed full of guys at four in the morning. We overlooked the fact that it was opening weekend of Teal season. After seeing all the hunters we were worried that the marsh was going to be a little crowded.
When we showed up to boat ramp before first light it was packed with trailers. Not a good sign but we decided to press on. As we made the long trek we found some reds busting up on bait on main bay shorelines. We caught a bunch of lower slot reds on topwaters. I was throwing a TTF Dummy and Jason was throwing a Mirrolure Top Dog. We also found some reds, schools and singles, feasting on small shrimp in the grass.
We left those fish to make our way in the marsh hoping we would find some bigger fish. The warning shots fired as we got near the first marsh entrance let us know the area was occupied. We made the decision to bypass everything near the front and paddle all the way to the back of the marsh. After an almost five mile paddle from the launch we finally made it to our destination. We found some laid up fish but they weren’t feeding. Jason managed to catch one upper slot.
It was mid-morning by now and we hadn’t heard any gunshots in a while so we decided to head to the area we initially intended to fish. As we made our way into the area we hear a boat making its way out of the marsh. I was ahead of Jason so I took another entrance and start looking for fish. I heard some shouts from the guys in the boat in the direction of Jason. I thought nothing of it and kept fishing. About 10 minutes later I still haven’t seen Jason so I decided to head back to check on him. I paddled up and saw him pulled up next to a mud boat drinking a beer and chatting with guys on board. Come to find out Jason was friends with the guys on the boat. What a coincidence. We were a couple hundred miles from home and in the middle of nowhere and Jason ran into his buddies that were scouting for a duck hunt the next morning.
They confirmed our observations. There weren’t very many reds in the marsh for some reason. The low tides the week before must have pushed them out of the marsh and into open water. We starting paddling back to meet up with Mark after he got his new prop. Jason picked up a flounder along the way.
After getting lost several times Mark found us in the bayou leading into the marsh and he picked us up and we ferried to a marsh further away. There were lots of big mullet all over the marsh, but not very many reds. Jason caught another upper slot fish but that was it. I covered a ton of water but didn’t see any fish until I was in open water paddling down wind-blown shorelines. I hooked into one and lost it before I met back up with Jason and Mark.
By now the wind was pumping 20+mph out of the SE. We decided to make a few drifts out of the boat throwing topwaters. We land a few upper slots reds near wind-blown shorelines. We called it a day a little later because Jason had to make the drive back to Houston for the Texans game in the morning.
When we made it back to the ramp Mark spotted a big black tailing near the ramp. He wanted to wipe the skunk off so he grabbed a rod from the truck and started sight casting to this big fish. He casted for 30+ minutes before I got it to eat. The fish was a pig, literally. Damn that thing was ugly. We didn’t measure or weigh it but it was over 3’ and probably about 30lbs.
Mark and I decided to spend the night and fish somewhere else new in the morning. We tried another marsh that closer to deeper water. As soon as we pulled in we started seeing fish and big fish too. We caught several fish each on topwaters early.
Mark stayed put and I kept moving. Due to the low water we were seeing backing reds everywhere. I caught a few more on topwaters and then pulled out the fly rod. I was throwing a white shrimp pattern but could convince any fish so I change to a brown shrimp pattern. That worked well and I landed a few fish on it until a fish broke me off on some shell. I tied on a tan crab caught some more until I another fish broke me off. I made my way near the back of the marsh catching fish all the way to the back.
When I got to the back it was very skinny, but there were reds backing as far as I could see. It was hard deciding which ones to target. I caught and released fish and fish for the next few hours. At one point I was catching multiple fish at a time (see video). I also broke the hook on one of my flies and didn’t realize until I had two consecutive fish eat with no hookup. The action was incredible. I got a new Orvis Helios 8wt fly rod last week and it was put through the paces. I landed over well over 20 redfish that morning most of which were caught on my new fly rod. I broke my paddle in half right before I was heading in so I had to oar the 1.5 miles back to the boat. Mark had a banner day himself land over a dozen fish, his best numbers day yet. He landed a few fish on topwaters and the rest on plastics.
