Posted By Kris/ In Castaway Lodge Fishing / Monday, August 8, 2011

Trout to 28", Redfish Busting The Slot

Castaway Lodge Fishing Report
By Capt. Kris Kelley

"Redfish Reflections"

Remembering that first Redfish; I had a couple of anglers on the boat this week that had yet to catch a Redfish. One of them was an eager 10 year old fishing with his twin brother and dad and the other was in his 20's. That got me to thinking back on it, can you remember your first Redfish? For some it will jog the fog of many years ago as a child. For others, the experience may be more recent. Well, early August will emblazen the memories of the two anglers that tangled with their first Redfish with me last week. For the 10 year old, it was a solid 25" fish coming out of a foot of water over mud/grass with his brother and dad watching. For Marcus, in his 20's, it would be a bruising fish in the upper middle slot coming out of similar shallows.

I was surprised that it was an easy recollection for me, the year was 1989, October 16th to be exact. I was new to the Gulf Coast of Texas having spent my youth prowling the freshwater lakes from Texas to New England. My passion for fishing came as a kid fishing with my mom and grandparents on small farm tanks around the Waxahachie and Ennis, Texas area. At a young age, we relocated to Cedar Cove living on Lake Tawokoni in East Texas. At the time, it was a hydrilla choked lake that yielded some great fishing around every corner and in every pocket of those grass beds. I can remember stick steering Skeeter boats and shotgun starts with flares and fireworks as the new breed of Bass Anglers raced from tournament starts. Those are some fond memories as I recall barefooting it all over every creek and cove in that area. Bull frogs, Cane poles and Crappie, Black Bass, Bluegills, and Catfish off the docks were great entertainment for me and my friends.

On that day in October, I made my first run at some wade fishing on Galveston Island. I had gathered as much information as I could, picked a location, and set off around mid-day. It was heavy overcast and there was some rain bouncing around. I pulled up to the area and started getting my gear together, I had a new Shimano Bantam level wind and a Shimano Rod to match. Gold spoons with the trademark hot pink teaser were the bait I'd heard about the most; that and some strawberry/white shrimp tails. I eased into the water shortly after lunch. The overcast was building and I could see rain squalls bouncing around. A little rain wasn't going to stop me. I worked the tail end of this cove on the South shoreline fan casting as I eased around. I was not too sure about retrieve speed or much else but as luck would have it, on one of the cast the retrieve came to a stop and I rared back and set the hook! I can remember being impressed with the fight of the fish; that feeling that at times both rod and line were maxed out. I remember working the fish down and flag poling the rod as we both worked to see who was going to win the battle of the moment. As the mid-slot fish came to hand, I was absolutely in awe of the size and beauty of it. I knew that I had just tackled a magnificent fish. I placed him on the stringer and began dialing in on what I'd just learned. By now, the rain was getting worse. As luck would have it, I managed to tangle with several more of the bruisers stringing a limit. As a bonus, I managed to pick up a handful of Flounder as well pushing 22". What a great day. It was getting close to dinner time as I exited the water, the weather was continuing to deteriorate. Returning to my truck, I squared away my gear and flipped on the radio. That's about the time I learned that Hurricane Jerry was approaching landfall on Galveston Island! I saddled up and skeedaddled the Big Island and made it back home shortly after it made landfall around 7:00pm.

While this wasn't my first time saltwater fishing, it would be the basis for a new found love of saltwater fishing. Where was I? On that day, my Hot Spot map had taken me to Jumbile Cove next to Jamaica Beach. I fished it alot as I cut my teeth on foot in saltwater. Little did I know where the experience would lead me.

Fishing Report

Trout to 28" and Redfish in the slot and above dominate this weeks report. Capt. Jake put a solid thumping on a mixed bag including a solid 28" beauty that he released while wade fishing live bait with guests mid-week over sand/grass in W. Matty. In SAB, Trout seem to have made a move slightly with depths from 4-6' paying off while Redfish continue to invade depths of as little as 10-12" en masse over mud/grass; sand/scattered shell.

We hope you have a great week and that your fishing is "catching". Come see us!

Capt. Kris Kelley
Castaway Lodge
1-888-618-4868
www.seadriftbayfishing.com

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