Freeport Area 9/28

[karstopo]

Late report. First trip in kayak since March. Fished moving 18”-4’ deep water over packed sand near a deeper channel. Lots of 13-14” speckled trout caught on shad imitation hard lures or shad imitation DSL small paddle tails. Tried shad imitation top water early, but only blow ups, no hook ups.

Water 18” visibility. Winds light. Launched at sunrise. Back at launch at 10 am. Scratched out a barely 15” trout and one about 16” and the single keeper redfish. Saw a few power boats, but not much else.

Anything shad like seemed to draw strikes. Saw plenty of shad and some smaller mullet. Cast at predatory disruptions and nervous bait. Missed plenty of fish.

Might try to sneak out this week, otherwise I won’t have another shot to kayak fish until mid October.

Good to be back in my Commander. Beryl clean up and other challenges have come between me and the kayak fishing, but I hope to do a lot of kayak fishing this autumn and winter.

Didn’t try the fly rod, but I had it handy.

[karstopo]

Went back out one afternoon this week and fished the same structure as Saturday. Water wasn’t moving like last time around. Still, I was able to scratch out a few fish

including this mid slot red.

Less trout, 4, all 14” or less, caught this outing and I had a 3# ladyfish take a dsl tail and a 3 pound gaff top slam a shad twitch bait. Lost my pliers trying to unhook the ladyfish. I hate ladyfish. Not a fan of gafftops either.

Fall pattern not yet there, but getting close. Fall and winter are by far my favorite times to fish. Two, two and half hours on the water. Wind south and light. Tide sort of hanging. Red came early. About 5pm. Off the water by 7. Covered about 1.5 miles of water scouting for sign, but fished 200-300 yards of structure. Cast to sign, even sign that looked like gafftop which it proved to be. The lady fish surprised me.

[deptrai]

Almost looks like a Rainbow Trout on the bottom. Been 3 years since I caught one of those.

[karstopo]

Almost looks like a Rainbow Trout on the bottom. Been 3 years since I caught one of those.

Been less than a week since I caught a Rainbow trout.

But, the effort required a significant drive to a neighboring state. My daughter was the trout fishing guide. Best guide ever!

Been one day since I caught a speckled trout, but that only required a short drive in a power boat. Fish came on paddle tails in shad colors .

[deptrai]

Caught on the fly = extra credit!

[karstopo]

Fought the big east wind today to fish. Launched about 1 pm, in by 5:30. Water was coming in hard. Fish over packed sand. Hard to fish in the wind. Covered 3 miles of water. Shad like paddle tails on 1/4 ounce heads to fight the wind. Maybe 24 trout caught, very many 14.95”.

[karstopo]

Going to go in the boat today. Fighting the wind in the kayak is a challenge. The boat makes things easier. The boat gives me some range that the kayak doesn’t have. Hoping to get on some bigger trout and maybe some keeper reds. Another flounder would be nice.

[karstopo]

Been fishing three times in four days. Saturday was a boat trip and we covered several miles of water with only one mid slot redfish keeper, I caught that fish on a paddle tail, coming aboard between three fishermen. Hardly any bait visible. Tide was outgoing. Water had 2’ of visibility. No bait, no fish. Some dink trout also caught, but only a few.

Went back Monday and launched about lunchtime. Some of the same water we covered in the boat on Saturday. Difference was this time plenty of fingerling mullet were around. Wasn’t going to fish the same water, but this area has some protection from the wind. Three consecutive casts, three keeper trout.

Searched for redfish or flounder, but none found. Back at launch by three. Fish found over sand.Tide outgoing.

Launched at 10:30 today at a different area of Freeport. More marshy. Goal was to get a flounder. Goal was reached about 30 minutes after launching. I have more confidence catching flounder on fly tackle than conventional so I used an olive borski bonefish slider to cast to some flounder sign.

This flounder was destroying bait in a drain between two marsh lakes with moving water.

Moved a little and immediately saw a pod of fifteen redfish or so pushing bait around in the marsh lake. I followed them into a cul de sac and then staked out realizing they were obligated to come back by me for the exit. Cul de sac was about two tennis courts long and one tennis court wide. Kind of a can’t miss scenario. I didn’t miss. Five of six of the reds slammed into my kayak on their escape. 21” red came to hand. Olive borski bonefish slider, a second one, the flounder ruined the first one.

Anyway, ran into another pod of redfish and hooked up with a mid slot on the borski, but that fish pulled off after a couple of minutes fighting.


Covered some water, but didn’t see much. Dredged up some rat reds and a couple of decent croaker. Got tired of tossing flies and switched over to a paddle tail. Got one 16” trout for the slam.

Water falling and fairly low. Good visibility. Fish all up shallow except the trout. That was in 4’ of water.
Glad to get the flounder.

[karstopo]

Takeaways I have from recent trips especially yesterday are bait means predators and no bait, no predators. Pretty elementary, but still a good reminder. Yesterday, the marsh was loaded with little shrimp. There were tons of mullet and other finfish.

Second takeway is that lower water levels concentrate fish or at least move them out of the cordgrass and onto and into the flats and lakes. Lately, the water level has been extra high with the bull tides of fall plus the persistent easterly flow. Historically, here in Freeport any drop in the water level to mid ranges in the fall moves scattered fish out of the grass and into areas where they are easier to get to. I did see some good fish feeding yesterday way up in some impenetrable oyster areas. Water levels mean a lot as to where the fish might be has been my experience over the years.

Third takeaway was the solunar minor best time didn’t appear to mean much. Most of the activity I saw and had was well before the start of the minor period.

Fourth takeaway would be to fish moving water, another duh, but still true, especially for flounder. I did see a flounder in the distance breaking the surface. Going back to review the Google satellite view, I realized I was slightly off target when I finally got to the area to see if I could get the flounder. I should have been fishing roughly fifty feet from where I fished.

Yesterday, I covered roughly 2.5miles of water from 10:45 to 3:15.

[karstopo]

Going to try one of the local rivers today but a boat trip. Water levels look elevated.