April 6, 2006 — Wind-ing Up!
This weekend marks the true start of the lodge season. No more weekends off until the built in break sometime in July. What does that mean? Offshore season flies into my dreams, fish start their late spring and early summer patterns, and birds begin giving away schools of fish. Sight casting with flies becomes the norm rather than the alternative on lucky days and not to mention that deep dark, racooned eyed lower Laguna Madre tan!
Trout are staging in 2 to 3 foot of water later in the morning and seemingly preferring top water baits over soft plastic. Look for the big girls to still be staging early somewhere between the first grassline and the bank. I have been lucky enough to stumble across a few while searching for reds on fly. Dad has been experiencing great success north of the port and somewhere in my breeding every turn out the port takes me south. And still, as the old story goes, seems the trout are north and the reds are south.
Reds are staging in their normal early summer haunts from the grassline to the shoreline. Look for pods along all shorelines and if you see any birds sitting on the water in great numbers, Johnson Gold Spoons should do the trick. We are looking like a phenomenal red fish year this year all along the Texas Gulf Coast with fairly slow trout action according to a majority of guides we speak to up and down the coast and our personal observations this year.
Offshore is really heating up! Look for the tarpon migration to start any day and bonito and jack have been tearing up our flies. Kings are still a few weeks off but can not wait to get the new 28' Panga out there for nearshore assaults of all things pelagic. We caught a number of sharks on fly last year and plan to make that a daily stable this year. If you are interested in catching a King or Shark on Fly, please contact us as soon as possible, I only have a few days left for the entire summer.
With summer winding up, hard to think about White Tail Hunting, but we only have a few left. Our show with Redfern Outdoors really got people excited. We have an additional five in Central Texas 150+. If you want them, call now. Also we have limited spots left for White Wing Cast and Blast with an additional 200 acres of Sunflower and Oats added to our normal 4300 acres.
And finally, the Port Mansfield Fishing Forum Giveaway for the Month of April is a Customized Everlast Wading Belt! To win the belt, you must recruit the most members to the Forum by May 1st, 2006. New members must Private message me and make one post to count for you. Fire up you r address books and get recruiting!
