I Promise to get in the Gym — August 3, 2009

It’s not often one can take a hardcore, seasoned fisherman and whip them on fish, but, I saw it happen last week.  The Lodge held its annual media event sponsored by Bomber and Pure Fishing last week, and we hosted 16 of the top sportswriters in the nation and three very good TV shows.  Although the winds, as always, decided not to cooperate, and the fish spurned a couple of boats, a few boats caught some great fish in the mid twenties range and herds of redfish.   Dad asked me to write the report this week, which isn’t fair, because Monday, I honestly put my guys on the best day of fishing I’ve seen in years.
One of my best friends, Terry Gibson of Outdoor Life, and good friend Joe Cermele of Field & Stream decided we would take one of title sponsors from Pradco, Trevor, wading in some soft mud in an out of the way, unnamed spot, which often produces my big girls.  The spot did not disappoint this time.  I caught a few slot reds on Bomber’s yet to be released Badonk-A-Donk topwater, think Skitterwalk with balls, and Terry and Trevor managed a few keeper trout in the 18-22 inch ranges.  Joe carried us in the morning with an excellent 25 and 27 inch trout–not a bad way to start the morning.  With the bite slowing down and the wind rising proportionately, we ran to my next out-of-the-way spot.  I had a hunch the fish would be there due to the fall feel of the days light.  Boy did my hunch pay off.
After a nail-biting run through water Terry described as “being able to see a wading heron’s toenails, we landed in my favorite fall wading spot.  We piled out and on the first cast, Terry and I each hooked into solid 2o inch trout.  We looked at each other and started moving.  Terry, Joe, Trevor, and I stayed about 10 yards apart and at some point we all had fish on.  As we worked across the flat, the reds got thicker and we witness an increase in the average trout from the high teens- low twenties to some solid 22 to 26 inch fish–about 15 by my count.  When we started playing with different baits and color combinations Terry and I came to an innocuous looking sand pocket.  Terry threw in a soft plastic and pulled out an upper slot red.  I threw in and pulled out a cookie cutter.  After about 5 reds a piece, Terry hooked into a solid picture trout and I caught another red.  The next cast Terry hooked a feisty red that had him turning circles.  As Terry spun, I hooked into a heavy fish I unfortunately thought was a red.  After a few good runs staying on the bottom, the fish decided to swim past Terry.  I had to raise my rod to get the line over Terry and as the fish rose, she was honestly the biggest trout I’ve ever had on…her head was monstrous.  Sadly, I use barbless hooks and as I let the line back down after going over Terry, she got off and swam to fight another day.  Too bad for me, but great for our fishery–the reg changes are returning our fishery back to what it was a few years ago.  We ended the day there with two 30 inch trout, a 29, and a 27 and more reds than any of us cared to count.  Terry promised, “I’m getting back to the gym as soon as I get home.”
The rest of the boats throughout the week produce solid mid twenties trout and good reds.  Offshore, as per usual with us, was incredible with daily limits of snapper and grouper.  Look for the articles to start appearing in essentially every magazine in the next few months.
The writers left and the lodge got covered with kids.  We hosted the James Ricks group that supported the Captain Wayne Stark Cancer raffle.  We had a blast with a number of great fish caught and I'm sure created some young new fisherman.  Dad is charging full steam ahead with kids events and look forward to the First Annual Getaway Adventures Lodge/Texasflats.net Kids tournament.
Until then…Take a Kid fishing and always practice Catch and Release.

Video Shot by Field and Stream during this event: ENJOY!!!!!

http://www.fieldandstream.com/videos/fieldandstream/fishing/bass-fishing/where-fish-bass/2009/08/fs-hook-shots-episode-4-texas-coa