6/30/2007 I had the pleasure of fishing with Lee Forsythe and John Burpee today for their 1st salt water fishing trip. They drove in from Dallas Friday so we could get a early start this morning. We left the boat ramp at day light and had our lines in the water before the sun broke the horizon. As we cleared the Bull Rushes we were happy to see a lot of feeding activity on the flat we choose to fish first. While John fished the spinning reel from the middle of the boat Lee took the bow first and had a strike on the 2nd cast.The hook didn't stick ,but a few minuets later he got a solid strike and was hooked up with his 1st Red fish ever.After a good battle the fish was in the boat. It was 24 1/2 inches long and weighed 4 1/2 lb. on the Bog grip scale.After pictures we released it to fight another day. About this time a rain shower passed through but left a beautiful rainbow just west of our location. John put 4 rat reds in the boat on a 1/4oz gold spoon then gave the fly rod a shot. The bite was starting to play out and it took a while for him to draw a strike but when it happened it was thrilling. I had noticed a large fish charging bait near a clump of grass as we worked our way down the grass line. John made a well placed cast and as soon as the fly hit the water the red exploded on it. I think every one on the boat jumped when it happened. The line sped off the deck and the Red made a hard run then turned back left. As suddenly as the fight started it ended as the hook came loose from the fish. The bite had stopped so we moved around with out much success. The weather started deteriorating and a funnel cloud appeared out of the clouds and started moving to the ground! Luckily it never got to close to us and it went back up. We had a shot at two nice 28 inch class Reds after the clouds left when the sun came out. There was a minor difficulty when the fly line balled up on the rod and we missed the shot. About 10 minuets later we had another shot at them but it wasn't meant to be as they spooked and blew out of sight. A bigger thunder storm is closing in so we called it a day around noon. All in all we had a good day on the water, hopefully next time John can even the score with the Red fish and catch one on the fly.

Tight lines, Mike http://rectorsguideservice.com/

6/24/2007

Went out to and scouted Saturday for an upcoming guide trip. We were supposed to fish Monday but the weather men say it's going to rain so we were shooting for Sunday before the weather moved in. I was very happy to see at least 14 reds moving around the flats while I was out. I wasn't fishing so I shot a few pictures of the wild life.

This night heron was looking over an area where several Reds were moving through. I got a shot of several Reds working the shallows, as in the upper left and center photos. There was no doubt what kind of fish this was. The water is fairly clear and sight casting would have been a blast.

The sun never broke through the clouds the whole day and it started sprinkling rain around 11:30am. so I called it quits. I was still on for Sunday but my client called to say it had rained all day in Houston and he was afraid it was going to be a repeat on Sunday so we canceled the trip.

I got up this morning"Sunday" to falling rain so I went back to bed. When I got back up at 8:00am the sun was shining and the rest of the day was beautiful, go figure! Oh well we will try to make it out this coming Friday, weather permitting!

Tight lines, Mike

6/14/2007

I had the pleasure of fly fishing with Bill Madison and Robert Shook today. The conditions were drop dead perfect at first light this morning. The steam escaping from the refineries was going straight up and the tide was rising with it. Bill was after his first Red fish on the fly today. We took care of that situation within the 1st 20 minuets we were fishing!! Bill made a great cast to a nice 25 inch 5 lb. Red that was busting shrimp in about 8 inches of water, it doesn't get much better than that. Congratulations to Bill for a great first catch. By the way Bill had also tied the deer hair fly that he was fishing with and that makes it that much better. After the high fives and pictures Robert Shook took the front of the boat. We poled down the cut out onto a large flat and found a Red working shrimp on the edge of the grass line. Bob made a good cast and hooked the healthy young Red pictured above. It wasn't quite the Red Bill boated but it was a Red on the fly none the less. Bob was fishing a Mylar tubing epoxy fly with a rabbit fur tail. The tide started to slow and so did the bite but we still managed a few more rat Reds over the next few hours. We did find two 26 inch class Reds working together along a grass line pushing shrimp out of he submerged grass roots. Bill made another good cast but missed the hook set and we lost the pair. We moved on up north and boated another rat Red and 3 or 4 under sized Flounder on a conventional spoon and a spoon fly. I didn't photograph them but they were beautifully colored with dark olive colored bodies and white dapples scattered over the them. We were fishing a shell bottom and the flounder were camouflaged with this pattern.

A huge thunder storm is building to the South and I have one more spot to fish before the day's up. We took a vote and decided to give it a shot as long as the lightning wasn't showing. We hit the spot and Bob took the front to try to beat Bill's Red from earlier in the morning. Three cast later and he was hooked up with one that was the same size or maybe a little bit larger. The Red ran off several yards of line and we thought we had another fish but as Bob's luck would have it the epoxy fly came unpinned from the fishes mouth and flew back almost to the boat! Bob had a problem with keeping fish connected today even with a razor sharp hook?

The storm has really kicked into high gear with straight down lightning getting really close. We made it back to the boat ramp just in time to miss the hard rain but we really cut it close. If Bob had boated the fish I don't think we would have made it in time.

We had a great day and caught a good many fish even though they were mostly small.

Looks like Bessie Heights is finally on the road to recovery from hurricane Rita.

Tight lines, Mike