Corpusfishing.com

[Prof. Salt]

Saturday my son got back into town from an elk hunt with his grandpa. They both got elk so there were heavy ice chests to unload and a lot of work to get done. I'm not a fan of taking game to a processor, I'd rather do all the work myself and ensure that the quality is there every step of the way and when it's time to eat I know it will be good. The downside is that it takes time and quite a bit of effort to get the job completed. I finally got to the water late in the afternoon and paddled 9.5 miles looking for the reds I knew had to be there looking for dinner somewhere. The far reaches of the marsh usually hold less pressured fish, but Saturday evening the fish were nowhere to be found, so I headed back to areas much closer to the truck ...and fish were there. The first fish was swimming towards me in a main channel as I worked back towards the closer hunting grounds. I wouldn't have even noticed the barely perceptible wake if it wasn't for a single tern hanging above the fish and hoping for a free meal. Once I could see the wake it took a single cast, well ahead of the wake and I planned to wait a few seconds before moving the lure but the fish was closer to my lure than I realized. As soon as the lure landed the fish had it, even before I got the slack out of the line. This fish went exactly 28" and suddenly I was only two fish short of a limit. Back at my secondary hunting area I found a few roving schools, and picked up a 22" chunky guy and eventually a 27.25" fish to round out a limit. I left the area as soon as I had three fish so there would be time to clean fish in daylight. The afternoon winds are a pain to deal with. I can locate redfish working a shoreline and half the time my cast is off target, requiring a retrieve and quick recast. Some of the schools spook just from that activity. The wind also keeps the fly rod stowed inside the hull of the kayak most of the time, but sometimes it's the only chance I get to paddle and beggars can't be choosers. There has been plenty of success and I'm not complaining, but I can see why more people don't choose to fish the afternoons in the wind.

I have discovered lately that the Z-Man Diezel minnows are a really effective and durable bait. When I first tried the stretchy Z-man baits I tried regular hooks and got frustrated at how difficult it was to keep them in place on the hook. I got smarter and bought the Z-man Texas eye jig hooks and now it's a system that will catch 30 redfish before the bait needs to be changed. I haven't seen any other plastics that can survive that way.



This bait has already caught 24 fish and is looking good, ready for the next one.

[TexGator]

Zia is the trout master but you sir are the redfish guru.