Bird Island Basin - February 21, 2021

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Neumie
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Location: SA, Hallettsville, or Rockport

Bird Island Basin - February 21, 2021

Post by Neumie »

The next morning I made the call to drive down to Bird Island Basin. I always enjoy fishing down there during this time of the year. We left the cabin around 7 am to make the drive south. We were greeted with a dead 26 inch or so trout.

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Wind was already kicking a bit but me the decision to drift north into the spoil islands just past the channel to the boat ramp. Nada on that drift, so I repositioned for another drift. Nada again. I think I made the wrong call for the day. So here are some pictures

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So, that concludes that day's trip. Oh, when were loading up at the boat ramp Sea Tow had stopped and began off loading stunned sea turtles wo a rescue group. I couldn't believe they were still finding turtles, they gad around 20 or so.

We were off the water early enough to make it back to the cabin for some hot showers. We then made a quick trip to Walmart, which had more options than HEB, to grab items for dinner. Ron already posted it, but we did grilled redfish with wild rice and zucchini for dinner.

Meteorological Observations
Time: 8:30 am - 1:00 pm
Air Temp: 60°F - 68°F
Wind: 10 - 18 kn SSE (gusting 25)
Barometric Pressure: 1018 mb (falling)
Sky: Overcast becoming Sunny
Water Clarity: 3 ft
Water Temp: 46°F
Structure: Grass with Sand Holes

Solunar
Sunrise/set: 7:00 am/6:23 pm
Moonrise/set: 1:06 pm/2:32 am
Moon Phase: Waxing Gibbous (64%)

Predicted Tides @ S. Bird Island (MLLW)
No Tides Really

Lures
Baffin Magic Sand Shad on 1/16 oz jighead
Plum Sand Shad Jr. on 1/16 oz jighead
Pink Hologram Grasswalker

Fish
Skunk

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Ron Mc
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Re: Bird Island Basin - February 21, 2021

Post by Ron Mc »

I'm really glad the day before we managed to get Donny onto such a great tide phenomenon stacking reds for him (ok, us, too).
The wind turned out to be brutal the next two days, and we weren't going to last long enough either day to find afternoon sight-fishing with reds up on skinny grass.

Sunday, we made the long drive to PINS, to launch at Bird Island Basin (last time I fished here was 20 years ago with my nephew).
We knew the wind was going to be tough - we didn't know how tough until we got home - it was gusting to 24 kt on the Malaquite Beach gauge.
The structure here on the barrier island is beautiful, and very much like far South Padre and LLM - hard pack sand, and potted sand holes switching to deep grass.
A drift will get you across this flat to the ICW spoil island shallows.
Launching at the windsurf beach.

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The thing is, I don't drift away from home. I paddle upwind first, so I get to fish easy all the way home.
After one drift, a long struggling paddle to get back upwind, I planted on a beautiful hardpack shelf against the island, ate my lunch, lit my cigar, and watched them on my binoculars.
I saw Donny facing me almost the whole time, and wondering if he was ever going to get back across the flat.

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Finally, he and Josh made it - knowing we would have a hot shower waiting for us at the digs - a week without one for most of us - we called it early.

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Rather than paddling the wind, Donny and I walked our boats back to the basin boat launch - Josh blasted ahead to get the truck and meet us.
Besides, we were grilling those redfish tonight.
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