After Nathan agreed to go fishing with me to Port Aransas, he went to Academy to get a few choice lures that I told him about and then we had a plan. Nathan met me at my place around 2:00 am. After we loaded his kayak on my trailer and his stuff in my vehicle; Nathan parked his truck, jumped in my SUV, and it was off to Aransas Pass. First, we stopped off at Buc-ee's in Wharton (gotta stop at Buc-ee's, lol). Next, we kept on driving until we made it to our destination to meet Ron. Nathan and I were behind schedule just a little due to some unexpected construction in Houston. I had to take a different way to get to Hwy 59 than the usual way I always take because of the construction.
After jumping back on the road, we continued until we got to Rockport. I was driving and going the speed limit (I know I was going the speed limit as my cruise control was on) when out of no where some flashing red lights come on. WOW, I'm getting pulled over. Nathan asked me what I thought I did wrong. I couldn't think of anything to save my life. I was doing the speed limit so that couldn't be it. I pulled over, turned on my interior lights, rolled the windows down, and then placed my hands on the steering wheel. The officer approached and introduced himself. After the introduction, he then told me the reason why I was pulled over. My front right headlamp was out. I asked the officer if I could step out to take a look (I had no clue it was out). Once I looked to see what he was referring to, there was nothing I could do until I made it back to Houston. The officer was nice and gave me a verbal warning. He saw the yaks on the trailer so he knew that we were not up to anything bad. I thanked the officer for letting me know and told him I would get it taken care of when I made it back to Houston (I did get the light changed out the very next day). I got back into my SUV and continued to meet Ron. I called Ron to tell him that I was further delayed due to being pulled over. Ron was cool with things.
Finally, Nathan and I arrived to the town of Aransas Pass where we met up with Ron. From there, we followed Ron for awhile until we made it to the launch spot. Once we arrived to our destination, we all began to unload. The mosquitoes were not as bad as I thought that they would be so that was good. There were a few out so we put some spray on just in case. All three of us unloaded the yaks into the water and away we went. Ron is in a Hobie PA 14, Nathan is in a Pelican Icon 100x Angler, and I was in my Hobie Outback.
Ron mentioned that we needed to get to a certain location before the sun gets too far up so we could get on the fish fast. Once we made it there, it was time to fish. Apparently, the fish in this area are fancy to a certain Hogie's Swimbait, which Ron told us about, so we were rigged and ready to go. Nathan and Ron both fished the bottom with soft plastics and I went with the top water. Ron had the best hook up ratio throughout the day. He had to filter through some smaller trout but he definitely found the bigger ones. My main thing was hoping Nathan would get onto fish as this was his first experience inshore saltwater fishing out of a kayak. I was using a bone white spook jr. which landed some nice keeper trout. As I was working the top water, Nathan had a massive tug. I thought he surely had to have a big trout. To my surprise, and after a great fight, Nathan landed a 19.25" red fish. I was so excited for him!
After snapping a few pics of the red fish Nathan caught, I went back to fishing. After the sun made its appearance, the top water bite died off. I went to fishing the bottom with soft plastics and also I tried using a popping cork at times. The popping cork wasn't really doing the trick at the time. I kept moving around trying to figure out what the pattern might be for these fish.
The area we were fishing was primarily trout territory but every now and then you can find a red fish. My only two fish caught for the first part of the morning, which were keepers, were off of top waters. After thoroughly fishing the area we were in, Ron felt it was time to head to another area to see if we could locate where some red fish might be. There was some land that we went to that was very shallow as we approached it. Upon doing so, I noticed there was a small canal which I went to check out. I wasn't sure where this canal took me but I wanted to find out what was inside. I pulled my drive and rudder and went back to paddle mode. I went in, in stealth mode hunting for red fish (hopefully). I put on a watermelon colored DSL (DSL = Down South Lures for the new fishermen). I put this on a 1/8 oz weighted hook that has the spin attached to the eyelet of the hook with the weight on the shank of the hook. There was a lot of oyster beds on the bottom so I was going weedless. After about 40 minutes of stealthy paddling, I made this one cast that ended up with a nice tug about a few feet from the kayak. Immediately my line starts stripping. I knew that feeling, a red fish! After a really fun fight, I landed the red fish. Unfortunately for me, the red fish was at 19.50" with a pinched tail. This red fish was safely released to live and fight another day.
Shortly after, I made it out of the canal and back into the shallow water I arrived in but further down. I saw Nathan fishing and told him what I had caught. He wanted to try the canal to see if he could get into some fish. I anchored up in the shallow water and tried a few top waters to see what I could get. When Nathan made it out, he didn't find any fish so we worked our way back the way we came. After leaving the shallow water and back into the deeper stuff, I was throwing a popping cork. I managed a hit and fought the fish in. I pulled in a 14" - 15" trout. This trout was too small so it was thrown back in. I threw back in again and caught another trout in the same range. Usually when this happens, there is a bigger fish in the pack but you have to work through them to find the bigger trout. Nathan saw what was going on because he was next to me. I told him to grab his popping cork and get to work. After about 15 minutes, the popping cork stopped working. Nathan and I put those rods away and headed on over to where Ron was. Ron was still catching fish but the catching was very slim at the moment. I decided to head on over to some land that I have not been to yet and try my luck there. I took the popping cork out and threw it in around 4 - 6 ft of water. I was trying to find trout of size so that I could work on finishing my limit. I only had two trout, Ron had almost a limit, and Nathan was still working to catch his first trout. By now it's around 1:00 pm when my popping cork decided to turn on. I managed a nice 18.5" trout. Immediately after that catch I pulled in another trout about the same size. Now I am at 4 trout. Since there was consistency in catching trout so fast, I radioed to Nathan and mentioned to him to come over and try his popping cork. When I called him on the radio, Nathan was already hooked up. Just to let you guys know, Nathan had caught a few trout earlier but the trout were too small to keep. He was working at catching his first keeper trout. Finally, the trout he was fighting was the first trout he landed that was a keeper. Awesome job, Nathan!! He caught his first nearly keeper red and a nice keeper trout. Now all three of us are on the board. After landing the trout, Nathan came over to where I was to try his luck there.
Through all of this Ron is on a limit now and soon after, I was as well. The popping cork was the magic for me while the Hogies was the magic for Ron. No matter as we were on limits. Our goal now was to help get Nathan hooked up with some more fish to take home. I caught a few more but they were too small. Ron, however, managed two more keepers for Nathan (for a total of three).
Now the time is around 3:00 pm. The heat must of turned off the bite as it was extremely hot and the humidity was thick. We decided to pack it in and head back to the launch.
Once back at the launch, Ron had a nice setup for cleaning fish. Ron has this HUGE cutting board (I liked the size of that cutting board) for filleting fish and some extra water in a gallon sized jug. He commenced to cleaning his fish on the back of his tailgate. I am in a SUV and can't do that but I could lay the cutting board on the back of my trailer. As soon as I figure out where I can buy a cutting board that big, I will try that out. The bite wasn't as fast and furious as we wold have liked it to be but we managed limits and almost a limit for Nathan. Reds were tough to find. Ron caught one or two but they were small. I think the bite was tough due to the full moon. Considering that one huge factor (the full moon), I would say we all did well.
I know it was a far trip to make from Houston but Nathan and I knew what we were getting into and we wanted to try a new spot. Ron definitely knew where the fish were. I am sure that if we would have fished somewhere else the bite would of been tougher. I know I had a great time and I'm sure Nathan did as well. Thanks Ron for allowing us to hang out with you and fish. I would be happy to do it again sometime.
