After the three mile paddle to my first spot, I was happy to discover a school of fish feeding in the first few minutes of daylight just outside of the drain. In the dim light and chop it was difficult to see what they were doing, and I approached thinking the fish were working away from me. The first cast looked like it landed just behind the fish but it quickly became clear that they were actually feeding towards me, so the placement was accidentally perfect. Within a second or two the lure it got hit, and upon setting the hook the entire school blew out, as expected. It was a few hours and miles before I could locate shallow fish again. Thankfully this first fish was a nice one and went on ice.
I'm patient and just took my time searching shorelines. I found a few deeper fish but left them alone and continued the search for exposed crawlers. At around 10 the tide began to come back in and I started checking drain edges for visible fish. It didn't take long to find a few, but those blasted mullet kept scaring the target fish before I could get within casting range. It gets frustrating when you make a long quiet approach and then the mullet just start jumping all around and spook the target fish. I finally found a four-spot crawler on a shallow shelf beside the incoming water and away from the never-ending mullet parade, and when the bait passed in front of him it was quickly inhaled.
As I began working back toward the truck I took a shortcut through a small twisting canal that connected to another large area, and the flowing water kept me looking for another fish. As I came around a corner there was a tail above the surface tight to the muddy shore just ahead. I glided to within eight feet of this fish and he stopped moving but sat still, trying to figure out what had approached. I gently placed the bait in front of this one fully expecting it to bolt, but it wasn't as spooky as I feared and had no hesitations eating the bait.
No paddles were snapped in half during the trip
, and by splashing water onto myself during the last few hours the temps were comfortable all morning. If the fish keep showing up later in the mornings I may sleep in until 7:00 and head out late on the next trip. The tidal movement seems to determine most of the crawling activity, so I may have to adjust to target that time rather than all that low-tide time spent searching empty shorelines.