The Trout Pond

A Saturday rendevous was planned with Captain Paul & his first mate Paul Jr.from the New Caney fleet. Tracy and I arrived at the launch after the early birds headed back to the main lake.

We fished the corners with very little to show - I caught one rat red and Tracy caught a pretty trout but it turned out to be a half-inch shy of legal.


The red fell for a shallow running crankbait.



Tracy's trout was caught on the Gulp Shad fished as a double rig weedless and weightless as shown on the rod in the first picture.

We fished along and finally met up with P&P at the junction of Little Lake and the main channel.

Captain Paul had a sad story about the one(hatch-cover-sized flounder) that got away. He was sporting his new 12' Tarpon and had been battling the 15 mph wind long enough on the open lake.

Jr. was the only one with a fish on the stringer after 3+ hours of fishing, He too had a fish story about decent trout that experienced an early C&R at the boat.

We finally headed for the launch with thoughts of lunch and a break. P&P headed for home and Tracy and I took a drive to the beach after a chicken sandwich compliments of Edie and company. We saw plenty of yakers along the beach road and stopped at Rawlings to talk to a group of paddlers that were returning from a morning of fishing without much catching.

We ended up at the 3-mile area and tried some bank fishing with no success. The area sure looks different since the storm but the water levels are returning to normal so we were able to drive on the dirt tracks again.

We drove down the beach a ways and stopped for some shelling and beachcombing. I have a new appreciation for sea beans aka drift seeds and started a collection when Matt & Carly came down earlier in the summer. The recent storm pushed water through the dunes and I had an idea that the light, floating, seeds might find their way beyond the reach of the casual beach walker. Check out my new blog, Beach Beans where I'll be posting about the seeds I discover and collect while beachcombing on the Texas beaches.

As the afternoon was quickly transforming into evening, we decided to return to McNab and try our luck fishing the corners. We struck out at our usual spots and when we ended up at Trout Junction where I had tagged my big fish last week, I suggested that we follow the fork as far as we could.

This spot had been identified as a potential new place to explore the next time the water was up.

I connected with another undersized red on a flounder pounder in the channel.

We continued our exploration until we arrived at a small lake complete with grassy islands and some real fishy shorelines. We split up and got in position as the sun was sliding rapidly towards the horizon.

Just before sundown, Tracy struck silver.

Tracy's 18" speck caught in our new spot - "The Trout Pond".

It was a fitting end to a beautiful day. Just a few more casts later and we were headed out of the marsh and back to the launch.

This fish made the day. Sometimes fighting the wind in a kayak can be frustrating and can take the fun out of fishing. This trip ended on a high note and when we arrived at the Harbor's fish cleaning table, a Galveston guide offered us his one trout of the day to go with Tracy's keeper.

Looks like I'll be cooking supper Monday night!