Guiding in Port Aransas

Had the opportunity to guide Cliff and Jerry Mistretta in Port Aransas last week. I was able to scout and fish a couple of days before their arrival. Had a terrible start. 35 mph south wind made crossing the Corpus Christi channel a little dicey. Attempted to run into lighthouse lakes and immediately grounded my boat into the black mud. When I revved the motor to get out the prop sprayed up a 15 foot rooster-tail of black, stinking mud behind me and directly upwind. In 1 second me and my entire boat were completely coated in an inch of the stinking mud. And yes, there were spectators enjoying the show. Thank god that I was coated in mud that nobody recognized me. The wind had the water so muddy that I never spotted a fish. The following day was beautiful. I caught plenty of reds and a couple of nice trout. Once I found the fish I didn't pressure them too much. I was hoping that they would still be there for Cliff and his dad. Cliffs dad, Jerry is a guide in Montana. He fished with me last year and had a few opportunities, but couldn't capitalize. Jerry gets a bad case of the "shakes" or "fish fever" when he sees redfish. Being a trout guide he has the tendency to lift the rod tip to set the hook which doesn't work too well with redfish. The first day was a total blowout. 25 mph winds. To Cliff's credit he kept trying. The fish were there but we were on top of them before we could see them. Too windy, too cloudy. At about 10:30 on the second day the weather cleared and we found the fish. Jerry has a single tailer take his fly on his first shot. Trout set and the fish was gone. We then found 3 schools of tailers with most fish ranging from 21 to 27 inches. Jerry's nerves got the best of him. He spooked one school with his feet hitting the boat too hard and then lined the other two. Cliff stepped up and got the job done. Jerry was staying to fish the rest of the week on his own. I hope he was successful.