Almost a Blow Out

Today began with a lot of promise. I got up early and drove to my favorite saltwater bay fishing pier (Palacios) with high hopes of catching some specks between the thunderstorms.

The bay waters looked like Yoohoo and the wind was blowing out of the SE at about 10mph. The only fish being caught were hardheads and an occasional gaftop by a group of recent immigrants.

I caught one small sand trout and decided to change locations. I had Spot with me so I headed to McNab and arrived at about 5:30am. The area was flooded from the recent rains and there was an incoming tide. The wind was still blowing and I tried a few casts around the reefs and rocks. The road in to the pier was flooded so I was confined to the blacktop. I wasn't sure about paddling in due to the changing weather but finally decided to go in about 7:30. The clouds had thinned out and the sun was out when I left and I thought I could get in a couple hours before heading for home.

I fished a bone Zara Spook and didn't got any blow ups so I switched to the gold spoon. When I arrived at the lake the wind was picking up and the lake was choppy. I paddled the south shoreline and got a bath from a nice fish that I spooked out of the shallows. I spent about 30 minutes in the small cove where caught my fish earlier without seeing another big fish.

When I was leaving the area I finally got a hit and hookup for about 10 seconds before the fish spit out the spoon. I was disappointed to say the least and was almost out of time so I came out and paddled to the back (East) shoreline. I found another opening into the marsh and was just heading in when I spotted a huge fin & tail. At first I thought it must be a big black drum then I saw the spot...

Just as I was setting down the paddle and sliding the stake in to hold my position, the fish noticed my boat and spooked. I was about 50 yards away but there was no mistake that the fish cleared the area. I cast throughout the whole area until it was time to go with no takers.

The paddle out was pretty much a workout against the tide and the wind. It was still a great trip and despite my disappointment in losing the only fish I had on it was a thrill to see another big redfish up close.

I saw one small gator near the bridge and it looks like the 5-footer met his end as he was floating between the bridge and the ICW. Some bubba must have been nervous...

I got the boat loaded and was on the way home when the rain started. It was stormy on and off all day and I finally got the front lawn mowed in the evening. After looking at Paul's Pinkston pics I was thinking about LMB so I decided to head over to Evans Lake for the last hour of daylight.

I brought the fly rod but decided to go with the BGW after seeing that the wind was still up when I arrived. There were still vestiges of the stormy weather around and I fished Cypress Flats first with no takers. When I got to the new brush pile along the shoreline I pretty much knew there should be at least one fish holding nearby.

I was right!

Stormy Day


Fish on!


Nice Fish
(Photo by Ryan Evans)

Mark joined me later and we fished until after dark. We both had fish on but like the responsible fishermen we are we both practiced LDC&R.

All's well that ends well.