Jan 31 to Feb 2, Arroyo docks

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Ron Mc
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Jan 31 to Feb 2, Arroyo docks

Post by Ron Mc »

Made the long drive down Friday with Lou and Susie, and after epic burgers and Huts-clone onion rings at Chili Willie's, were fishing from the dock by sunset. Friday night, Chili Willie's was packed with fishermen, and during the days, many boats were running the arroyo out to LLM.
Though we drove south with a tailwind, we had cold air into the mid-40s and dead calm for both Friday and Saturday nights. We drove back north today with a tailwind, too.

Friday night, I got a limit, Lou was short by one fish, and Susie caught 3. Susie had the best fish Friday at 17-1/2".
The score for 3 nights, I got 3 limits minus 1 fish, Lou got 3 limits minus 2, and Susie got one limit plus 3.
ImageI had all these filleted by 11pm.
The normal drill here is fish sunset to about 9pm, take a nap, get back up at 2 or 3am to fish a couple more hours, another cat nap, then espresso and cook a big breakfast. Siesta and big meal late in the day, and hit it again at night. Of course we stuck to our calendar-day limits - e.g., if I got up at 3am and caught two more, would limit myself to 3 fish that night.

About half the fish were caught on 2" swim shad tandem rigs, glow in front and blue in back - every fish ate the blue.
The fish were a blast on 7-1/2' XUL rockfish rods, 4-6-lb test. I caught one fish on 3" blue SS3 swim shad, but the dock light was thick with minuscule minnows, and the the trout were sipping light, arcing upward from deeper water.
Both sitting down on the dock to wait for fish sign, and change up were important - I caught several on the fly rod. Only slow retrieves without counting down would catch fish.

Jerry's right across Marshall Huts Rd. from us had his shrimp flag out all weekend, with great tiny 1"-2" shrimp - you get a bunch in a pint - and the most productive tackle for the weekend was a 3" cigar cork, 4' 8-lb fluoro leader and size 1/0 croaker hook, fished on our XUL rockfish rods. The long XUL rods are the only way to cast this weightless rig to the edge of the light.
ImageEarly morning on the Arroyo.
Imageone of our early-am stringers in the fillet queue
Image
Susie cooked feasts for us - fried fresh spec fillets one night, fried chicken another (she wanted to show it off). Saturday she made a perfect lemon-meringue pie from scratch using Meyer lemons brought from their tree at home.
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While Susie was doing her great cooking, Lou and I would throw out head-peeled dead shrimp from the bait bucket or rib pieces from our fillets on the bottom - hoping for something better, we caught the inevitable hard-heads, though we had a good system for handling them using a hook grabber on their spines, and a pair of pliers on the hook.
I also caught a respectably large sting ray, and Lou and I looked fairly pro handling the thing with his barbs flared using the net and a long hook extractor to recover my titanium leader.
It was very pleasant being a dock lizard in the sun.
Image
Our same dock heron fished with us day and night.
Image
Like I said, it was cold in the wee hours Sat and Sun. Lou didn't get up at all Saturday morning - he did join me for a few fish Sunday morning, but said the warm bed was too inviting.
I caught two 17" specs as soon as he left, the first one on the fly rod, and wasn't far behind hitting the rack.
Image
From the weather forecast, I knew Sunday night was going to be the best, with lows in the 60s. There was a beating wind all day, but it was calm again and we lost our stealth cover for Sunday night.
It didn't matter, we had our best night there - Lou and I both finished our Sunday limits, and Susie caught 5 fish.
Here's the stringer.
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Lou and Susie holding the stringer
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and my trip-fish, 19 inches - a Real Hoot on the XUL rockfish rod.
It filled my Sunday limit, and was a great way to end the trip, other than talking Susie through filling her limit.
Imagedidn't really need the shell layer Sunday night, but it was my filleting bib for the whole weekend - and yes, it needs washing.
Last edited by Ron Mc on Thu Feb 06, 2020 7:04 am, edited 4 times in total.
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karstopo
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Re: Jan 31 to Feb 2, Arroyo docks

Post by karstopo »

Pretty fish. Smiling faces tell the story. Thanks for the report.
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Re: Jan 31 to Feb 2, Arroyo docks

Post by Neumie »

Nice mess of fish, and great report with pictures. That lemon meringue looks mighty tasty.

What brand lures do you like throwing under the lights? (Edit, never mind, missed it in your original post) Going to get beck into night fishing once our pier is up and running again this summer.
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Re: Jan 31 to Feb 2, Arroyo docks

Post by Ron Mc »

Thanks -
Lou and I were discussing that we can't imagine any other place where so many fish come to you, so consistently.
We're all stocked-up on fish tacos.

Josh, I bought a cache of Tsunami SS2 when they were closing out, but Berkley power shad and Storm wildeye shad worked equally well. The trick is the correct combo - glow up front and blue in the back. And with the exception of one fish on SS3, small was also the key, and also cast best on the XUL rods.

ps - Jerry's, actually Abuelita's, tamales are also epic, delivered hot with hot garden salsa, and fed us one great lunch.

pss - if anybody wants to find an XUL rockfish rod, the Major Craft sold on ebay and shipped from Japan for $100 is an excellent choice. Fish it with 4-lb to 6-lb test (or tippet) on a 1000-size or diminutive 500-size reel.
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Re: Jan 31 to Feb 2, Arroyo docks

Post by Drifting Yak »

Congrats on smacking the fish Mr. Ron! And thanks for posting!
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Re: Jan 31 to Feb 2, Arroyo docks

Post by wandering wader »

What a great report! thanks for all the info.
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Re: Jan 31 to Feb 2, Arroyo docks

Post by Ron Mc »

Drifting Yak wrote:Congrats on smacking the fish Mr. Ron! And thanks for posting!
my kinda fun - it's fish in a barrel there - the trick is figuring how to coax them out of the barrel, and every trip is just a little different, which goes with the season, weather and natural bait.
The sub-tropical sun makes it a nice winter destination.
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Re: Jan 31 to Feb 2, Arroyo docks

Post by mwatson71 »

Well done. I was just suggesting to our group that a night time kayak fishing trip was in order.
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Re: Jan 31 to Feb 2, Arroyo docks

Post by Ron Mc »

mwatson71 wrote:Well done. I was just suggesting to our group that a night time kayak fishing trip was in order.
thanks - if you guys are interested in traveling this far, you might look into accommodations at Dos Rios Rod & Gun Club.
That's them on the left bank where the natural arroyo diverges from the dredged barge channel - you could have a hoot there fishing both the arroyo lights at night, and the daytime structure of the divide.
Those shelves on the left are a preferred fishing spot both for power boats and pelicans.
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Re: Jan 31 to Feb 2, Arroyo docks

Post by Dandydon »

Great informative report, Ron. Enjoyed the detail and photos. And thank God you didn't get the unholy TKF "TIME OUT" which apparently deleted Watson's fishing report!

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Ron Mc
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Re: Jan 31 to Feb 2, Arroyo docks

Post by Ron Mc »

thanks Don - I was still bleary eyed when I wrote it, but it was all fresh.
Pretty sure saved a draft along the way so that I could take breaks and edit.
I had to get it right because Lou and Susie read this...

ps - we talked about this stubby fishing partner on corpusfishing - a biologist there correctly identified it as a black-crowned night heron (on the right)
Note that even though he has short legs and no apparent neck, his body mass is as big as the great blue heron that lived on our dock
ImageWe had great birds, a pair of owls every night, hawks and chachalacas all day, sandhill crane, terns and shearwaters.
A flock of turkeys hiked through the yard in the middle of the day.

When Susie took a break on the dock during the day, said she wished we had binoculars to look at the birds.
Duh, I took great glasses out of my fishing gear sailcloth bag when I was packing.
Next time, will remember those along with the Peterson's guide.
Image
Last edited by Ron Mc on Fri Feb 07, 2020 6:11 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: Jan 31 to Feb 2, Arroyo docks

Post by Dandydon »

Ron, I love birds and appreciate your references to them. Since I have a wooded backyard on a Bayou, I'm lucky to get cardinals, red-headed woodpeckers, wrens & sparrows hitting my bird feeder.

But what really blows my mind is seeing a mangy coyote and an ostrich-sized wild peafowl hen sauntering up to my yard for food! Then I occasionally see a big red-tailed hawk swoop down and impale a fat Mourning Dove on its talons. That's good tv.

I love the outdoors and will try to find my photos of the coyote and peafowl.

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Ron Mc
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Re: Jan 31 to Feb 2, Arroyo docks

Post by Ron Mc »

the coyotes went crazy there as soon as the sun set.
Behind our backs is Laguna Atascosa NWR, with 35 ocelots.
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Re: Jan 31 to Feb 2, Arroyo docks

Post by shoffer »

Great Report. I LOVE Hut's. Was dismayed to see that the 6th Street Location has closed, and the only place to get it now is at the Austin Airport.
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