Red is the color of Valentines Day

Some folks look forward to red roses or heart-shaped cards for Valentine's Day.

We found a different kind of red for our Valentine's Day get away this year.

We headed down to PPRV #7 but found that the water had been shut off earlier in the week due to the hard freeze. We were already overdue for supper and the thought of eating and driving back home didn't appeal to either of us so we called the owners of Karankawa Village and secured a room at The Lodge.

The fish patterns on the teepee looked cool lit up at night.

We enjoyed the return of Edie & Maree from their month off and our meal at Spoonbills was everything we hoped it would be. Good food and conversation and the anticipation of receiving a gift of some sea beans collected on Fiji...stay tuned.

Despite the frosty morning (30 F) I loaded up the kayak and headed out for a paddle. The water level has been really low ever since the first of the year so I had no expectations of finding any fish on the way out to the lake. Boy was I wrong!

I fished at the first corner near the reefs with nary a bite and passed by the next corner without finding any hungry fish. I did spook one red that was resting in the 40ish degree water but didn't have any bites.

When I continued down to Trout Junction, I saw many big swirls ahead of me and thought they might be some big fat horse mullet. I started casting into the junction and before long I hooked and landed a nice upper slot red. Within one hour I had boated six big reds and lost a couple more - all from the same spot!

I took these three (my limit) back to the trailer and after a quick sandwich, we got Tracy's kayak loaded and headed back to the marsh for round 2.


We didn't mess around but headed straight for Trout Junction. I hooked up first with this red.

It is always nice to have a fishing partner with a camera and the skill to use it!

Here is afternoon red number 2. These were all big heavy fish in great condition. Before long Tracy got into the game and had her first big red on a string.

The sun had been up for a while and the sluggish fish were coming to life.

She fought hard and as I was taking pictures she got ready to put her fish in the net. The only problem was that the fish was too big!

I helped out and was able to get the fisherman and her fish in this picture.

Not long after Tracy hooked up again and this time she was in for a real battle. Note how she was staked out to keep from getting pulled into the hole and this big red was really pulling!

Once again I netted this big red and you can see the joy (relief) in Tracy's face. This was the biggest red either of us has ever caught at 30+ inches long.

I held her fish up for a parting shot before we let him go to fight another day.

This may not have been the romantic Valentine's getaway that everyone would appreciate but if you could have seen the smiles on our faces after boating 10 upper slot redfish and keeping our limit of six, you would have thought we had gone to Vegas or won the lottery instead of paddling around the Matagorda marsh!

We had to clean fish at the Harbor's public cleaning tables and our fish got some nice looks and comments by the locals. Looks like I'll be cooking fish on Monday.