Incredible day in Baffin Bay

[wittich]

I had an incredible day in Baffin bay with Capt Cliff Webb. We made the run down from Mile marker 37& Cliff spotted a group of Pelicans and Birds congregated in one spot. He pointed them out and said there has to be a lot of bait around to hold that many birds closeby. His plan was to return later in day during the major.
First he wanted to show us a spot that had produced many large trout for him over the years. He snaked his way through submerged rocks recorded on his GPS and when we got to his Honey hole, we found clear water & saw mullet flipping on the surface.
My buddy Gordon was the first in the group to hook up on a Solid trout throwing a Softdine. He caught another and then my buddy Benhke had a bump on a pink plastic paddletail. I switched to a soft plastic also. You have to go with your confidence lure when you people start getting bites around you. I had a solid hit and I buried that hook into that fish. The water erupted, the fish belly surfed for a several feet with it's big head thrashing back and forth trying to shake that lure off. "Ohh that's a big one"- I heard cliff say as he watched. She measured 28 inches on my rod.
A few minutes at later several boats showed up with stereo's blasting. We had 4 guys lined up towards the shoreline and water was still glass calm. For no good reason at all some idiot comes full throttle and burns through the water between my buddy & the shoreline. He could have easily gone around us. The bite shut down after that and we were forced to move on.
We fished some rocks in deeper water nearby but the action had come to a full stop. Cliff pointed out something in water and then slowly moved up behind it and lunged forward snatched a turtle. It turned out to graveyard dead. Scott walked up to Cliff & said I liked on how you stealthy you were able to sneak up behind that dead animal without spooking it. Cliff burst out laughing. You could probably hear him at the other end of Baffin.

It was around noon and Cliff said he wanted to make his way back towards corpus and stop at a few areas along the way. We went back to where the birds had been and found a good concentration of bait. With that much bait we knew it was about to happen. I put on a Skitter V topwater and launched it past nearby potholes and watched it get blown up on its retrieve back by trout and reds. I had 4 fish slash and miss my topwater.
Meanwhile, Cliff and the other guys in my group were hooking fish left and right on Softdines. Cliff came over and handed me a Goldflash Softdine that had been working for him. I tied it on and made a long cast at a big pothole that looked promising. I told him I just never have any luck throwing Corkies and Softdines. About as soon as I said, I had the biggest Thump of the day.
"Well,... you just have to throw it at the fish" Cliff said as I hooked up. The fish started pulling drag and when it surfaced i would see the Softdine hanging from its mouth and a single hook on the first treble last point of contact with that trout. Then it turned it's big tail started slashing on the surface and spraying me with water. Cliff came over and landed the fish with his Boga. This one was just shy of 28 inches.
Soon afterwards my friend Gordon caught a 27 inch fish and everyone in the group caught between 5-10 decent trout with a few redfish mixed in until the action died down. 3 out of 4 guys in our group all caught their PB trout that day. Everyone except Rory Behnke who caught his personal best with his dad about 20 years ago. That fish was an 11lb beast also caught in Baffin. Pictures are on the way.

[wittich]

[wittich]

[wittich]

[wittich]

[wittich]

[shoffer]

Great report. I think Cliff Webb is a great guide, though I have never fished with him. He is so much fun to listen to on Mickey's show, and it makes we want to get down there with him. Sounds like it is totally worth it.

[junkyard chihuahua]

What a great day! Congrats!

[karstopo]

Great fishing. Thanks for sharing.

[Dandydon]

Great exciting report, Wittich!

I used to fish Baffin with local guides who knew the honey holes hidden among those glorious "worm rocks."
Caught a 28" trout on my first Corky cast & became respectful of Baffin Bay.

I hope to fish Baffin again before my advancing age makes it impossible.

Sent from my SM-S921U1 using Tapatalk

[wittich]

Great report. I think Cliff Webb is a great guide, though I have never fished with him. He is so much fun to listen to on Mickey's show, and it makes we want to get down there with him. Sounds like it is totally worth it.

I don't know anyone that is this enthusiastic about trout fishing. Cliff gets fired up about it & he has been guiding there for 40 years.
Now I understand why Jay Watkins & CLiff Webb were an unbeatable team in the legends tournaments.