November 29, 2005 —
Like most adventures, it starts with an innocent phone call. I had decided to spend a little down time with the new wife while the parents were away getting a grandbaby fix and enjoy a quiet uneventful Thanksgiving weekend. However, after a great day offshore with Ashley and catching and landing her first jack, well she hooked it at least, I think I ended up doing most of the fighting reeling and landing we returned home and had 4 new voice mails to see if I had an opening on Saturday. Knowing I was fishing anyway, I called and said sure come on down should be fun.
Rule number one, since I never do day charters, ALWAYS check the radar and weather conditions before agreeing to a spur of the moment trip. Second, make sure, and I did, your clients have rain gear and a portable lightening rod other than the one in their hands used to catch fish! Awaking to a torrential downpour around 2 am, I rolled over wishing it would blow over. After some cereal, a radar check, and the prerequisite discussion on the whole, “Well we won't melt, right!” we shoved off and took off on what we hoped would not be a three hour tour.
Well, our choice was right and wrong. Pulling up on a spot know for trout, in about an 1/2 an hour we landed about 10 trout and I lost a really good red to the grass, the rain gates decided to deluge us with buckets. And then the lightening started. A very quick ride home and hot showers we waited for the front to blow through then go back after the skies returned to an amicable cloudy blue. As the day went on, the front passed, barometer rose, and the sky went to that beautiful late fall bluebird. Needless to say as the winds went from east to south to west to Northeast, the fish went somewhere we could not find them. All likelihood, they just stopped feeding because we got a few soft bumps and landed a few more trout but had to end the day grinding on a drift in 30 mile an hour winds.
Fish are there and patterns are now back to a semi-normal state. Caught trout on the standard Laguna Madre red & white, salt and pepper, and topwaters. Topwater bite was a little slower than plastics and the plastics were dredged over the bottom in search of bedded fish. Most strikes were directly on the bottom in 6 inches of grass. Reds were shallower than where we were but were pushing hard along the shore lines and tailing like the little infuriating devils they are but no wading for me on that day.
Deer hunting has been very good and we have two more bucks to take. If you are interested in an economical trip, or just want to see a few good deer give us a call.