Posted: Mon Jul 17, 2017 1:44 pm Post subject: I'm BACK! PINS 7/13 - 7/16 And a 50 inch King!
It's sad but for whatever reason, cold water upwellings, red tide, etc. it had been at least two years since I caught a trout in July. This year things are different. The surf trout are back with a vengeance and I am able to do what I love to do the most and that is catch surf trout on topwaters. I dislike tossing other lures at them but I dislike not catching trout a bit more.
Things started off with Captain Billy Sandifer and I limiting out on a Friends of Padre trip. It was great seeing those surf trout going "Orca" on the topwaters coming out with their whole bodies and knocking the chrome off of our She-Dog topwaters. Here is one of our limits to 22" and around 3.5lbs.
Friday, RoadKill Willie and I headed down for a morning of topwater action and wound up with four more keepers.
We ran into Spankit61 who me met near the 20. We told him about all the trout fishermen down there in the morning. One group seagulled us. Willie parked his jeep near the closeout of the hole and this group pulled in 50 yards behind us in the exact spot we wanted to fish. Willie parked closer to the end to allow folks to drive by in the hard sand instead of the soft stuff. Then to add insult to injury the aforementioned guy hooked up on his first cast. I felt like doing cannonballs in the wade gut in front of him but just chalked it up to inexperience. This is the equivalent of having your drift cut off by some yahoo who pulls up a few yards ahead of you.
The next day Jay took the drivers seat and took us deeper down south. The topwater bite was slower but we still ended up with two of us limiting out on trout and also getting two slot redfish. Not bad for two guys over 50 and one mid 40's.
On the way back Saturday we ran into Tony Cortez in Little Shell. We stopped and saw Tony with a big fish in the sand and ran out to see what it was. Tony says "Hi Tyler glad to finally meet you!" Lol -(people know me I guess) How about this 50 inch King Mackerel. Moscow Mule and a 6 inch mullet credited with catching the fish!
Sunday, with only 9hrs sleep in two days we were back at it. In spite of cooler, calm conditions with rain showers nearby we had a tough time catching trout. I managed one close to 18 inches and then it all shut down. SO we talked to our friends James and Dani who told us about this cool green turtle that snuck up behind their camp Saturday night and did a false nest up in the dunes.
These tracks were quite wide and Donna Shaver told me this morning the green turtles get in excess of 350 lbs. What a cool thing to see.
On the way out the holes were all too shallow and the first gut unimpressive. I managed one more 19 inch trout that somehow slipped off the hook and back into the water as I told Willie those words you never utter until after you have the fish in hand "Go get the camera we don't have any live fish shots from this weekend". But right before that we popped over the back road to have a look and took this shot coming back out at the start of the High Banks.
It was way more than getting fillets but we do have some surf trout for the first time in a long time.
Finally a short video from Saturday ala CBS's Sunday Morning Style
Joined: 30 Oct 2007 Posts: 790 Location: North Padre Island
Posted: Mon Jul 17, 2017 2:41 pm Post subject:
I went down Thursday evening to see what I could find as well. I planned on spending the night and coming back the next morning. I ended up staying two nights and surviving on hot beer and fish I caught. It was an amazing couple of days. Plenty of trout and kings right on the shore chasing bait. At the Mansfield jetties water was much cooler than at the 30 but fish didn't seem to care. They were everyewhere up and down the beach. On my way back Saturday I saw a bunch of trout landed from the 15 to the 30 around noon time. I will be SBH throwing topwaters this evening as well. Let's hope this pattern sticks around for a while.
Tyler, my buddy Red and I fished south of Bob Hall this morning with topwaters. The water was absolutely perfect, with small waves and almost gin clear. Unfortunately, forage fish were scarce in the first two guts, and we got skunked. I noticed the birds were working out beyond the third gut, so that is probably where the fish were as well. I left when a thundershower approached, but Red moved over by the Holiday Inn and picked up a couple of trout there. I tried over at the bridge between A&M and the base, and had no luck there either. Overall though the trout fishing has been good in the surf the past week or two for sure, with the result a nice fish fry last night with visiting family down.
Joined: 08 Dec 2015 Posts: 73 Location: El Desierto De Los Muertos
Posted: Mon Jul 17, 2017 6:38 pm Post subject:
Nice report. On my way Thursday if everything falls into place. Bought an old spinning rod and reel for the surf to add to my collection at an estate sale in New Braunfels for $15. I rinsed and oiled it up and put on some new line since the old one looked like it had been on since 78. Nice and smooth now. Cant wait to try it out. _________________ To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it. - G.K. Chesterton
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