Darren Catching Reds Despite the Wind

The wind has blown from 15 - 35 knots everyday for about 3 weeks and I am sick of it. I had to cancel 3 charters last week. Darren Carlton, a new client from Denver was already in Port O' Connor and only had one day to fish chose to battle the wind on Saturday and go fly-fishing. On Friday I had done a lot of scouting and located 3 flats that were holding good numbers of reds. With the wind gusting to 22 I start the day where I had found a nice pod of tailers the day before. The fish were there but not tailing. Still too early for good visibility and a 20 knot wind at my back we were drifting over the fish and spooking them before we could cast to them. Sunny all morning, the clouds moved in about 10:00 and we lost our vis completely. Our only chance was to find tailing fish. After a 30 minute 12 mile boat-ride we found them. With the tide was just moving in over a flat that would have been too shallow to pole an hour earlier we find redfish tailing in every direction. Darren had 6 reds take the fly, a couple of trout sets, a couple of LDR's, and a couple of nice fish to the boat. These were Darrens first saltwater fish on the fly. He had tried twice before with no luck. His attitude was great and his perseverance paid off. It is now Monday and the wind has no intention of letting up. My trips for Wed. and Thurs. have canceled already. I am really sick of it.

Cole Jumps Poon in the Keys

My friend, Cole Clarkson, also a guest on a couple of episodes of KT Diaries jumped this tarpon a couple of weeks ago in the Keys. Cole can fish. He is also possessed with tarpon, almost as much as I am. He says this was the best, most visible eat he had ever seen. The tarpon was laid up in an aqua depression on the flat. He saw the gills flare as the fish inhaled the fly. He then got 6 jumps before he came unbuttoned. I think Cole is fishing Appalachicola this month with the Robinson brothers. I hope he gives us a report. The only time I fished with Chris Robinson, Rick McNulty and myself jumped 16 tarpon in one afternoon.
I spent my day trying to find fishable water with a super low tide and a 20 knot wind. Muddy water everywhere except for a few flats that barely have enough water to fish on. I got lucky and waded myself into 5 reds on the coast guard flat. The last one I hooked was a nice 27 incher that took me well into my backing. I felt very fortunate to have found these fish. If conditions don't improve I may have to cancel my trips on Friday and Saturday. Headed out now for more scouting. We'll see. Oh yeah, one more thing. Cole conveniently left out any info on the fly pattern he was using. I think Cole needs to let us know. Come on Cole, post it.

Back in Port O' Connor

Took Sarah and Walter out on Sunday afternoon after the weather cleared. Beautiful day with some good folks. These people know how to enjoy a fishing day. They also know what color shirt to wear on a bluebird day. I wish all of my clients would learn from them. They each caught a nice keeper red, a first for Sarah.

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.

Back on the Texas Coast

I've been back to the coast for a couple of weeks. I was able to scout the water for a couple of days before I started my guide trips. I got totally lucky and found the fish immediately. I stayed in a school of over 3oo redfish for a couple of hours and caught 15 or so on my little olive shrimp/crab imitation. This fly is deadly. I'll post a photo of the next ones I tie. I found the Jacks after the reds and hooked a couple and landed one on the spinrod. Made a little redfish ceviche and grilled one on the halfshell. I do love the coast.