7/22/2007 Tuff day,but we did catch!

We were fishing at first light today.The tide was almost slack and there wasn't much activity going on. The marsh has a certain sound and feel when the bite is going on and the feel wasn't there. We had a few blow ups from small Speckled trout but the baits we were using were just to big for the smaller fish to eat. To make things worse I clipped a submerged board and popped the trolling motor mounting screws out of the front deck. It sounded bad but I should be able to fix it with out much trouble. Most of the Red fish activity we saw today didn't start until around 10:30am . My good friend Dale Beaty boated this 26 inch 6lb. Red at about 11:45am. The tide was very low and the Red was pushing a good wake as it moved across the flat. This fish would have been a good target with the fly rod but Dale only does conventional tackle. Dale was fishing a soft plastic called a Horny Toad he swam on the surface about a foot in front of the Red. The strike was unmistakable!

I fished the fly rod early on when we had the trolling motor with no strikes. I switched over to the spinning rod after that because I can fish and pole the boat to. I had one Red on but I didn't get a good hook set and the fight was short lived. the Red ate a D.O.A. shrimp that I swam in front of it as it was moving across a shallow flat. Dale did have one other Red chase his Horny Toad but it wasn't hole heartily after the bait and backed off after a short chase. We ran down South and found the water very muddy compared to the North end of the marsh and called it a day about 1:30pm.

Hopefully the tide will be moving next time I get out in the marsh. By the way the other picture in this post is the marsh restoration project going on South of Hwy 87 West of Bridge City. There is a lot of work going on down there and the area is closed to the public so fishing there is out for the next year at least. The North side of the hwy. is still open to fishing until Teal season opens.

Tight lines, Mike