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.