We finally turned the corner from spring and got a break from the winds last week. But the break comes at a price in the form of the heat. Summer here on the Texas coast has arrived. This is the most consistent time of year for an early morning bite when water temperatures are at their coolest. Night trips will also become an increasingly alluring option as a way to beat the heat.
I got out a couple of times over the weekend with very limited success. My buddy, Mickey Collins, fresh off his IFA tourney win came in town Friday afternoon to fish around the Upper Coast he heard so much about. I had been trying to convince for almost a year now to leave the clear water of the Coastal Bend and come fish some dirty water in my neck of the woods. We finally got our schedules to align and he made the trek to Galveston.
Friday:
Mark, Mickey, and myself planned on ferrying the kayaks to explore completely new marsh. None of us had been to the area before and the abundance of oyster reefs scattered throughout the area was going to make navigating tough. After studying satellite maps the day before we had a fairly good idea where the reefs were and we devised a plan to get into marsh. We took it easy on the way in and other than a few light brushes with reefs the ride into the marsh was rather uneventful.
As soon as we arrived we split up and covered water. Mark and I went one way and Mickey went another. As soon as Mark and I made it into our first pond I spotted a small school of reds tailing and crashing bait. I called Mark over before I made a cast so he could see his first school. Meanwhile, I prepped the fly rod and got ready to make a shot. I made one cast into the area short of the fish and caught some grass that was matted to the surface of the lake. As soon as I tried to pull my fly out of the grass the school spooked and a cloud of mud surround my kayak as they bolted from the area. Mark and continued working the small lake and we both missed a few opportunities but we were able to land a few fish.
After fishing that first pond we decided to meet back up with Mickey who spotted some big fish and ran into a big school early in the morning. He landed one mid slot out of the school but the school broke up and never regrouped. We all met back up and started exploring other areas in the marsh. We found plenty of fish but could never find anything feeding or get any shots. We wouldn’t spot the fish until we were on top of them or saw them pushing a wake out of the area. We managed to catch a few more fish around mid-day.
We kept exploring and ending up working our way to the back of the marsh by 3:00 in the afternoon. We were a little over three miles away from the boat and we were out of drinking water by the time we made it to the back. Not a good scenario in the heat we’ve had as of late. We all made the paddle back to the boat safely where there was plenty of fluids. The experience was a reminder to stay hydrated and bring more than you anticipate drinking in case you find yourself in a similar predicament.
We caught our fish on a variety of lures including Rapala skitterwalk in pink and redfish, TTF flats minnow in backwater surprise , TTF Big Mino’ in morning glory, a Bass Assassin in plum, super spook jr, and a gurgler. Tide was high and there’s was almost no movement all day long.
Sunday:
Sunday Mickey and I had plans to fish out Rob Schumske’s Lake and Bay. Rob just started fly fishing so wanted to do a little fly fishing and shoot some video. I have never been on a boat with so much speed. Flying down the ICW at 70mph was a cool and unnerving experience. I’ve grown accustomed to going less than 5mph in my little plastic boat so it was definitely a different experience.
When we arrived to the marsh the tide was way out, but rushing in. We had a difficult time navigating the marsh and getting into some of the places we wanted to fish. We saw a few fish but we decided to move to deeper water until the tide got a little higher. We never really put anything together. Despite the strong tidal movement we didn’t see many signs of feeding fish. We threw topwaters all morning long with only one blowup. Mickey also lost a decent trout at the boat that ate a flats minnow but that was it. We went back to spot 1 after the water rose but more of the same lack of results.
We made one more move and we finally got something to cast at. We found some huge 20lb+ black drum tailing near deeper bayous. We got a few shots but either we blew them or lost sight of the fish when they moved deep. We cover a bunch more marsh trying to find a big ugly willing to eat a fly but we never made it happen. I will be back to this marsh at a later date to try to get one of these giant to eat some feathers and hair. If anybody has any successful black drum patterns let me know. I’m going to tie up some flies to specifically target these beasts.
