May 15, 2005 — Those Fish Pull, Eh?
The beauty of this job is the number of very interesting and colorful people we get to meet. The week has been extremely busy and yet rewarding. Sunday evening we had 42 Canadians join us from Calgary Alberta. To say these boys worked to get to the fish would be an understatement. In route from Calgary their flight was diverted from Houston to San Antonio and I believe strongly there was talk of an impromptu trip to Baton Rogue! After ironing out the details, they ended up in Houston simply to have their flight entirely cancelled. At 11:45, we decided to take the charter bus we rented to get them from the airport to the lodge to Houston and get them in the water by noon. So, a 12 hour round trip later, we had our load of Canadians on their respective boats and on the water. A huge kudos to Valley Transit Company for pulling off the feat on a Mothers Day's Sunday Night.
Once we get these folks in the water, man oh man, the education and maturity of these anglers is a wonder to see. Although hosting a fish fry for them on their last day, a number of the anglers did not want to keep. They understand first hand the fragility and responsibility we as anglers must exhibit to the quarry we hunt. Very refreshing to watch a man catch, much less see, his first red fish. The expressions and comments were world class! Rob Canada, sorry forgot last name, hooked into a nice 24″ and with huge eyes and a childlike grin turned to me and actually said, ” These fish really pull, eh?” With flash backs to the Mackenzie Brothers and the Great White North, I had to laugh at the pure unadulterated joy exhibited by Rob!
Now for the fishing this week. We had a great and a horrible week all wrapped up in one. Captains BJ and Frank have been the men of the hour hooking on tons of reds a day and finding various honey holes of trout. Speaking of trout, the trout bite seems, emphasize seems, to be firing up. Saturday saw one of the best trout bites in a while and the fish are starting to show up in the areas they should be. Bones and Avocado are proving to be the plastic of choice and we still, as of yet, have fired up a consistent top water bite.
Reds are still pushing along shallow water in the morning and evenings and are starting their summer pattern of moving to deeper water over the afternoon as the flats warm up. However, when found, you can catch as many as you want. Reds are not as finicky as trout and have shown a pretty consistent nature to take a top water.
Offshore, snapper are still hot and a number of kings have been hooked fairly close to shore. Look for our lower Laguna Madre kingfish to really turn on in the early parts of June.
