TexasKayakFisherman.com

I’m sure everyone has their personal favorites. Here are some recent ties. Perennial favorites of mine, maybe not a comprehensive assortment, but enough to get me fishing.

Went out yesterday afternoon to try out a few of the recent ties. Caught a half dozen redfish to 19 7/8 inches, one 17”+ fat flounder, a potato chip flounder, several specs to 14.5” and two sand trout. Kept the sand trout and fat flounder. Fish came on pink/white and tan Borski sliders. Water was pretty low and sandy in most spots with patches of greener water here and there. Fish mostly found in little guts of slightly deeper water surrounded by very skinny water flats or off the edges of the flats. 12-18” type of water. Tide was barely going out then barely coming in. Low movement. Trout came out of a deeper hole next to a bar.

Great report!

I love the reports with enough information to duplicate what was successful, even if we're not fishing the same patch of water.

Very nice, do you tie the Borski Sliders on the SL11-3H too?

I do the Borski sliders on Gamakatsu size 4 SL-45 hooks. They have a black finish.

impulse wrote:Great report!

I love the reports with enough information to duplicate what was successful, even if we're not fishing the same patch of water.

I thought I had a chance to have had a lights out type of outing. Water had really been blown out in the two previous days. The spot I fished was one of those marshes that have lakes or flats with drains and deeper channels nearby. Sometimes, the fish will be super concentrated in the drains and along the edges after a big water dump. I couldn’t get out there Friday and it was probably still too windy to fish anyway.

So I either missed finding the concentration, the timing was off and the fish weren’t really feeding, or the fish weren’t there in great numbers. There really wasn’t enough water in the flats to hide much fish. It was shallow enough to spot them.

I didn’t see fish sign like I thought I might. Maybe the tide was just too slack. It was a weak movement type of tide, turn of the tide. The the tide was just starting to pick up a bit towards the time I needed be in. Seemed like the bite was picking up. Caught all the trout late. Saw a redfish come up on a bar, but it dove down off the bar before I could react. I don’t think I did enough to up my chances. A little too stationary, not enough searching. I got fixated after seeing a flounder breech on bait and worked that area for a long time, but got a potato chip and a little redfish for too much time spent.

Fishing is a learning deal. I try to think about what I can do different to locate fish and sign, whatever the pattern is, and make the presentations the fish will respond to.

I didn’t bring a baitcasting rig and I think I would have liked to have it. I was in a hurry to get out, the afternoon was waning and my baitcasting rig needed some attention.

Still, I got out and used some muscles paddling around and my brain working the fish puzzle. That’s good and the day was beautiful.

karstopo wrote:I do the Borski sliders on Gamakatsu size 4 SL-45 hooks. They have a black finish.

Thanks!

I have some of those in size 4 and 8 that I've been wanting to tie some craft fur shrimp flies on.

I resurrected the old way, the wired slider, redfish crack minus the EP, plus the eyelash yarn. More of a flashy type, but they did work well as the old photos show. Easy and quick to tie. These are on size 8 SL11-3H hooks. Small and X small dumbbells. That rusty orange was a good color.

Haven’t done any shrimp in a while, until today.

karstopo wrote:I resurrected the old way, the wired slider, redfish crack minus the EP, plus the eyelash yarn. More of a flashy type, but they did work well as the old photos show. Easy and quick to tie. These are on size 8 SL11-3H hooks. Small and X small dumbbells. That rusty orange was a good color.

This is a Redfish Crack on a Gamakatsu SL12S in size 2 and I used the brush from Sight Cast Fishing. I've done different colors and this was my attempt at electric chicken for Specks.

Ben, your image didn’t load.

I took the flounder and the sand trout and filleted both. Then I stuffed them with Argentine red shrimp and Lump Crab. My son liked the trout better than the flounder. That’s heresy, but I tended to agree. Won’t be having any flounder for a while. November is a great month to fish, especially for fly fishing. Get out there. I plan on it.

More shrimp.

I had to change the settings for the Google Album. Did it load now?

Yep. Looks great! I’m sure that will catch some fish.

Anchovies. Steve Farrar blend. Size 2 Gamakatsu B10S

Shad

Got the wired slider and a tan Borski slider into action today. Water was low and the redfish were chasing shrimp and small finfish along the edge of a large drain. The sheepshead was in a tiny drain, backing and rushing bait. The fish chased down the wired slider. Aggressive sheepshead.

Caught most of the fish on the wired slider, the color in the sheepshead mouth. Lots of 18-19” fish along with four slots to 25”. Kept two 21” and a 24”. Kept the sheepshead that went about 15.5”. Caught a few little flounder and lost one big one and since those fish are off limits I didn’t feel too bad about losing it.

Trout on Crack.

What’s fall without Gartside Soft Hackle Streamers! This batch, I substituted Icelandic Sheep’s Wool for the usual Craft fur tail. Jack Gartside evidently didn’t add a separate tail, but I have been from the beginning so why stop now? Today’s version also has two or three wraps of Eyelash yarn mid shank, separated by the two marabou feathers palmered that makes up the body.

The chartreuse ones have gadwall flanks, the brown ones, hooded merganser flank. These would be a more natural materials version, excluding the eyelash yarn since the craft fur tail is gone.