High Pressure

I think I'm beginning to understand a few things about this Fishing Guide thing.

First thing is that there are some days when the weather is nice for the fishermen but that may not make for a good fishing (catching) day. Those days are tough on the guide as well as on the customer. There is a lot of pressure to get on the fish.

I would like to blame our slow day of fishing on the barometric pressure being too high, but as some have written, that may not be the only factor in our lack of success. Sometimes you paddle and cast, paddle and cast, but don't ever seem to find the magic combination.

We showed up at the launch at precisly the right time of day. The sun was just peeking up over the horizon as I unloaded the boats. Tracy was a good sport but she is far from convinced that the fish bite any better earlier than at any other time of day. She has proven this to herself (and me) on the last few outings.

The morning started out beautifully cool and calm. There was a slight north breeze blowing and the water level was well over the tops of the reefs.

We saw several birds just off the launch in the early morning sunlight. I got this Great Egret and Tracy got up close and personal with a Spoonbill. The video below will give you some sense of the early part of the day.

We paddled and fished through The Corners, to Triple Junction, and on to McNab Lake. There were two other fishermen in the lake fishing together and one turned out to be the guy who first told me about McNab.

We fished the mouth and let the wind push us to the left. As we drifted down the shoreline, I cast some Gulp Jerk Shad into the spot where I had caught a nice flounder. I got a hit, but rushed my hookset and ended up missing my chance at a repeat. I just know that was another flounder! I parked and fished that spot for 30 minutes as Tracy worked the mouth of the flat and went inside to fish the flat but we both came up empty.

On the way out we took the right fork near little lake and followed it to the back entrance to The Trout Pond. We couldn't seem to scare up a fish and though Tracy had a few fish (and crabs) messing with her bait, nothing took it such that she could get a hook in their mouth.

I found a few small reds including this pretty "rubbermouth".

I caught this two-spot red on a shallow running crankbait.

The signature single spot and blue tail and look nice in the sunlight.

This guy was caught at The Corners on the way out.

There were a lot of dragonflies in the marsh and on one cast I unintentionally knocked one into the water near the kayak. The colors are stunning and the details of the wings really show up if you click on the picture and look at it full-sized.


Last week, I lost a crankbait to a fish on an oyster reef near the the launch. I kept looking for the fish responsible and finally found this one. He looks guilty - no? He was a couple of inches short but notice the size of his tail. This was a powerful fish for his size and will one day provide some kayak fisherman a real Texas Sleighride.



After lunch, we picked up some shrimp and headed to Three Mile Lake. We started fishing off the bank and Tracy caught this pretty baby black drum. She didn't get skunked after all! We put the boats in and paddled for a couple more hours but couldn't find the fish to save our lives.

We ended the day doing a little beachcombing. The water was pretty churned up when we arrived but was beginning to clear by the time we headed home. You can get an update by visiting Beach Beans - my new blog.

While the high barometric pressure may have made for a slow day of fishing, and as the guide, I felt the pressure of not being able to produce a high catch rate, it was still a great day to spend together enjoying God's creation under a beautiful blue sky.