Don McMurry and Bill Heugel wanted to fish the flats today. We were on the flats at 7:45am hoping to catch an early morning bite but this wasn't the case today. The bite didn't kick off until around 11:30am when the tide had really started falling along with increasing water temperatures. We had a real thrill when we saw a large shape moving across a shallow flat right for us. At first I thought it was a huge Sheep's head but as it got within casting distance we realized it was a bull Red fish in the 35 inch class. Bill was on the casting deck and made 3 cast to the fish but things happened so fast the fly never really got in the fishes face. As it eased by the boat it had to swerve to miss the push pole and that's when it spooked. All of our hearts were beating 100 mph when it was over. I really was disappointed the fish didn't eat along with Bill and Don. We moved to a back water area of Bessie heights and found several Reds working the grass lines blowing up on shrimp, I guess the cold weather hasn't moved all the shrimp out of the marsh yet. We stalked the fish that Don has in the photo above for 10 minutes and finally got a shot at it and what a shot it was. We were looking at 10:00 off the bow when out of no where the Red shows right beside the boat! Don made a great roll /flip over the boat cast and placed the spoon fly right in the strike zone with out spooking the fish, amazing! The fight was on and the fish immediately ran under the stern of the boat and fouled the fly line in the muffler bracket of the motor. I managed to get it free before the fish had time to break the leader and the battle was still on. Finally the fish came to the net and high 5's were in order. The fish was 24-3/4 inches long and weighed 5-1/2 lb., just the right size for the 8wt. Orvis zero "G" rod Don was using. After pictures and reviving the fish we watched it swim off into the estuary. Bill took the bow and boated a nice rat Red shortly and had two refusals. Later Bill had several more fish spook before he could get a good shot off. Finally Bill got the fly in a Reds face and it ate but Bill was snake bit today. As the line came tight on the hook set it parted with sound of a bat striking a baseball and the fish was gone. We saw at least 15 fish today but it was much later in the day when the activity started, like we saw on Sabine lake yesterday. We boated four or five fish today and had a good time being out in the marsh, witnessing a beautiful sun rise and seeing the diversity of bird and Wilde life in the area not to mention we never saw another boat all day. Thanks to Bill and Don for making my job much easier the past two days. Tight lines, Mike http://rectorsguideservice.com