Corpusfishing.com

[bulldog1935]

We just got back from 4 days on Arroyo Colorado, we stayed in the Spencer Bell house (where we also stayed last year).
The cooler weather and big wind over Friday and Saturday was a big boon to the dock fishing under the lights, making it easy for everyone who tried to catch a limit.

I'll give you the tallies up front - I caught 4 limits, Lou caught 3 , Susie caught 1 and Dad caught 1.
We strictly stuck to our bag limits for calendar days, and everyone laid off in the evening if they had a limit from the early morning.
We kept a few injured 15-16" trout, but we were shooting for 17" minimum, and everybody's limit stringer included a 20-22" (male) schoolie spec.


The most productive lure was Tsunami SS3 in blue back, with black back a close second. Got a few fish on Hogy's epoxy jigs, both 3/8 oz and 7/8 ox (which will literally cast halfway across the Arroyo). My dad grazed through everything in his tackle box, and probably got one fish on everything he tried, old-fashioned spec rigs, cocahoe, some curly-tail thing.
The bait shop across the street got one charge of shrimp while we were there, Susie caught her limit on shrimp, and Lou caught about one-quarter of his fish on shrimp.

When the going got tough, dead calm and spooky fish, next to live shrimp, the most productive lure was a spec rig (tandem) tied on 2-inch swim shad, with glow up front, and blue back in back.
Had to vary retrieves to find what make the fish strike, and also fish different depths to find where they were willing to strike.


We brought home 104 vacuum-sealed fillets, split between 3 households - every single fish I filleted was a male.

The most productive way to fish was sunset to about 9pm, take a nap, and get back up about 2 or 3 am to hit it again. Often arriving to fish the wee hours, would find schoolies so thick under the light, would catch 4 to 5 fish in consecutive casts.

Oddly, we had a very-well secured stringer with five 18"-22" fish stolen from the dock Sunday night, between 9pm and 2am - can't imagine anyone committing a class B misdemeanor over a few fish - I'm pretty sure I know who did it, and that part is even stranger, and included a 2nd class B misdemeanor - another story for another time.
Also brought home 276 MB in photos, so won't give you the whole play by play for the week, but a few choice photos.

This is my stringer, arriving Thursday night and getting up Friday morning (17-21").


and since you don't see too many photos of me


Lou arrived Friday afternoon, and called my dad and me in from our only power boat foray to Green Island, where we caught 1 trout between us.
Saturday morning photo with mine and Lou's overnight limits.


I filleted every fish, mostly after a good breakfast and before a morning nap.


Susie flew into Harlingen Saturday - Lou and I weren't fishing Saturday night, and this is Susie's limit

She caught all these on live shrimp, using the XUL rockfish rod, 4-lb test, and had so much fun, Lou went to the computer and bought her a matching rockfish rod on ebay.
Susie's stringer included this 20" schoolie (the hook grabber is exactly 15")


My Dad turned 90 this year, and this is his stringer from early Sunday morning.

Dad looks a little younger than usual in this photo.

one more gratuitous pile of fish photo


and one more gratuitous sunset

[TroutChaser]

Looks like a great trip. Congrats. Great memories

[Tyler]

What a wonderful trip. I ought to take up fishing sometime and go down there!
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[bulldog1935]

thanks Tyler - and TroutChaser.
It's a beautiful place - Lou and Susie liked it so much they're going to rent again in the winter and invite me down with their kids.



I also landed a double on the 4-lb XUL rockfish rod, 2" tandem swim shad, which was a hoot - both keepers, one 19"
I netted the first one and lifted the 2nd on the heavy fluoro leader - both were hooked in the lip membrane and came off as soon as they touched the dock.

[bulldog1935]

Adding a fillet knife review here. - first try on the Titan titanium metal matrix composite fillet - 9" curved blade.
This is a spendy knife, but still about 2/3 the cost of my Knives of Alaska Coho.

On our Arroyo trip, between us caught 9 spec limits, odds and ends, had a meal, and brought home 104 vacuum-sealed fillets.
I filleted every fish, including 17 from one go.
Success is when the last fillet looks like the first.

Discovered on the very first fish, this knife is poor for skinning trout fillets - cut through the first - no worries, I can correct that by back skinning from the ribs (other knife).

So I used the Titan for spine cuts, where it Really Shines, and my KOA for skin cuts. The knife glides from the start and turn, beyond effortless through the ribs, and self-correcting finishing the spine cut across the fins to the peduncle. When you found yourself on the wrong side of the fin, the knife self-corrected with a slower cut. It also never ever needed sharpening, while the KOA needed sharpening every 5 or 6 fish.
The Titan would be a jewel all by itself on redfish.

The really grippy handle gets messy, but grips like crazy and easy enough to clean.

[Bloodhound]

Great report! I've always thought that water would be polluted so I've not wanted to fish there. What have you heard, Bulldog?

[bulldog1935]

[Bloodhound]

Wow, thanks for the info Bulldog. That link has some good reading.

[bulldog1935]

way cool - glad you caught up.

btw, Spencer Bell's house is really big (and $220/night in the off season), and with a pair of boat lifts, which you need for the barge traffic wakes.
There are 2 master bedrooms downstairs, a loft bedroom overlooking the Arroyo with 3 beds, two more upstairs bedrooms with 5 beds between them.
We had so much room, brought the cat and she took over her own room.
She sat on this window sill watching the water and birds, and defended the stairs when anyone tried to climb into her loft.

I also gave her all the fin strips for kitty sushi.