Made the run across coffee ground cove this morning and fished the game reserve. It had been 2 years since the last time I checked out the flats in that sector of the reserve. The moss that was super thick before Rita is coming back but still has a long way to go. There are still large areas that are flat mud bottoms. There was a lot of bait fish washing onto the flats this morning as the high tide was only getting higher. Finding Reds with their backs out of the water was going to be difficult at best. Preston saw this nicely colored rat Red working a shallow grass line and made a great cast to place the horny toad he was using right in the path of the cruising fish. We would have had the bait in the picture but it got lost in the battle. Shortly a big storm cloud rolled across the horizon in our direction. To our surprise a funnel cloud appeared out of it. Thankfully it went back up and we only got a little rain out of the event.

I had been blind casting a small spinner bait most of the morning and finally hooked up with our only keeper fish of the day. The Red was 26 inches long and weighed 5-3/4 lb.

After noon the activity seemed to slow as the temperature rose. Preston boated another beautifully colored rat Red on the Toad as did I on the spinner bait also.We almost had a disaster as we started to leave. I had taken off my shirt about an hour earlier and laid it on the poling platform at my feet. I got down to do some thing and decided to move to another spot. I forgot to get the shirt down! About an Hour later we decided to call it a day. I got to looking for my shirt and it hit me! I had my DL. credit card, health ins. card money clip and cell phone in the pocket of the shirt. The water was shallow and a bit murky but I had to go look any way. I told Preston I hoped there was some air trapped in the sleeves and maybe we could see it. I back tracked about a 1/4 mile thru the flats and low and behold Preston spotted some thing floating on the surface. Whew! it's my shirt with every thing in it. Of course the cell phone is a goner but that's easily replaced, it was the drivers lic. and cards I was concerned with. One other thing I hated to loose was the money clip. I had bought it about 12 years ago in Cozumel Mexico during a dive trip with friends, it had sentimental value. Oh well, it was a good time on the water with my son and we got to enjoy the great out doors together. I forgot to mention we got to see five Otters fooling around in a small pocket of the marsh for a short time.It's not every day you get to see Otters in the wild.

Hopefully I can get out on Sunday and do some more scouting.

Tight lines, Mike