On from Lead Shot to Steel — November 10, 2009
End of lead shot start of steel!!!!!!!
11/2/09
With dove season ending today and duck season just getting started, I’m checking my shells to assure no lead in bags. Ducks have just started to arrive, somewhat a late start. We will be hunting this weekend on and should have a complete duck report next week.
Now about the fishing. Yes, we did get a pretty good outbreak of red tide down here. Looks like we missed the worst of the Red Tide. (Port Mansfield) Most of the dead fish we have seen have been around the East Cut. I have been on the water everyday for the past few weeks and fishing is still very good. Some of our best days have been south from Bennies on! I purposely fished in and around the cut two days ago to see if there were any effects, could see reds and a few trout but they would not eat. Fished north the next day and found cooperating fish there as well. I think if I was going to fish here I would still give the East Cut a pass for a few more days and either fish north or south. It seems the guys around Brownsville and Padre and the beach front got the worst of it. Unless we get a BIG INCOMING TIDE I think we should be all right. Speaking with TPWD the kill was far worst on the southern end but that area should rebound quickly. Just Mother Nature doing her thing!
Top water has been just outstanding. On frontal windy days we are throwing plastic but they will still hit the top waters in 1 foot chop. Standard colors, light on bright days and dark on dark muddy days.
We have been fishing both north and south. You can sure tell hunting season has started; our boat traffic is down by 75%, great to fish all day and only see 5 boats. Also those on the water seem to be much more observant and not run over you.
Our water is getting into the lower 70’s and high 60’s, looks like the big girls should really heat up any day. We have caught 6 or so above 25” in the last few days. No 30”ers yet but just watch our picture section.
If you’re after that mark, now thru March is the time to spend on the water.
I’ll post some more complete information later this week, I just have 3 weeks of chores I need to catch up on. Fishing every morning and hunting every afternoon did not leave much time for them.
A summary of our dove season: Ranked an “A” by most of our guests. We did miss a few days due to it being too muddy to get into the fields, Jimmy and I road around two weeks ago and we’ll going to add some additional sunflower fields closer to the paved roads so this doesn’t happen next year. All I can say he and his father took very good care of us and our guests.
Remember with Big Trout time coming please turn the big girls loose and get a replica. They are too precious to only be caught once. It is going to only get better, as I have been saying the last two years. All of us guides are walking the floor in anticipation of lower 60 degree water. BIG GIRLS!
