12/29 West Bay

[OldTownYakBoi]

12/29
I launched early in the morning and was met with fog so thick you couldn't see more than a few hundred yards. Wind was sporadic throughout the day but was predominately blowing from the ENE. The tide was low and dropping. I stayed close to the shoreline for safety as I headed to my target location which was a back lake. There is a narrow winding cut that leads to the lake and the tide was ripping out as I arrived.

I worked the mouth of the cut that had some oyster beds that were adjacent to the mouth. Throwing a glow/chrt Vudu shad in quickly picked up an unexpected surprise, a potato chip flounder. I quickly released him and continued fishing, before long I was hooked up again on a solid thump which turned out to be a 14.99999 in flounder. Boy was I disappointed haha, I desperately wanted him to go 15 as I haven't caught a keeper flounder all year, oh well. Despite my disappointment I noticed a pattern of how these fish were staging. They were hanging right on the edge of the shell beds just on the edge where the shell mixed with mud. I threw at the shell another 15 minutes and was getting bites every other cast but was never able to connect again. I wanted to continue, but with the ENE wind and the tide ripping out the mouth had become a washing machine and just a pain to fish from the yak.

I moved through the cut and made my way to the back lake and saw the only boat I would see all day. Once I got to the lake I immediately began seeing a lot of bait, especially this late into the year. It looked to primarily be mullet, but there was also wads and wads of tiny glass minnows. As I moved along the shoreline I began to see some tails here and there but they wouldn't be visible for long. By the time I got to them and casted they were gone. A few hours went by as I explored and was nearing the bottom of the outgoing tide which also coincided with the start of the major. Right around this time I found a group of fish very tight to the shoreline in around 3-4 inches of water. The wind also magically died off to practically 0. This was good and bad as the fish became hyper aware in the glassed off water. I watched the group for a minute trying to decide how to best approach. I ended up paddling upstream of them but still within casting distance of the bank and let the trickling tide pull me back in their direction. On my first pass I got about 3 casts with the Vudu shad, but got no interest. I then decided to repeat this drift, but this time I had my tiny trusted boyo spook tied on. I figured the tiny top would be perfect for the glass calm conditions and I was right.

As I drifted back into the fish I saw a small wake and a tail and tossed the spook right between them. I worked the plug as light and slow as possible to not spook the fish. It was dead silent, I twitched the bait about 5 times before there was an explosion at the surface. It was a hit and run and I had to reel as fast as I could to catch up and get tight on the fish. He made a few runs under and around the yak before I got him in the net.

I was very happy to land him considering how slow the morning was. I tried repeating this process on multiple shorelines over the next few hours with fish I spotted but was never able to connect with another fish. I did learn a lot about the area though, I found some deep holes that were filled with tourist trout bullying the wads up mullet and minnows.

All in all it was a good day, a long one, but satisfying. All in all I finished with 2 short flounder, 3 tourist trout, and a healthy 23 in red. This area has all the right ingredients with a lot of diversity to target all 3 species. Now I'm just waiting on a big cold front and SaltyKat to get his butt down here so we can target some Big Trout.

Tight lines - YakBoi

[shoffer]

Good report. I fished West Bay the same day from my boat, and it was super slow for us. Snake Island cove and mid-bay reefs in the morning - one tourist trout. Afternoon mid bay reefs and Greens - 4 tourist trout, a small red and a piggy perch. While in Greens, we wished the outgoing tide in a drain ands later, an incoming tide in a different drain where normally, I would have expected to kill them. Both times - nothing.

[OldTownYakBoi]

Shoffer what I'm thinking is the tide seemed to drop more than I expected through the night and fish fed aggressively through it to early morning... I had been keeping an eye on the NOAA tide charts and I believe we had more of a NW in the wind over night which may have accelerated the drop. Who really knows though, thanks for providing your observations. Helps with the "Woulda, coulda, shoulda"

It did seem like the fish were lazy, even the school of trout I came across wasn't that fired up and the reds seemed to just be cruising

[deptrai]

Interesting spot pattern on the tail.

There was also a lot of bait in Freeport on that day.

Do you have much success with that topwater? I need to pick one up after losing my Super Spook Jr that I never hooked a fish with before losing it.

[OldTownYakBoi]

Interesting spot pattern on the tail.

There was also a lot of bait in Freeport on that day.

Do you have much success with that topwater? I need to pick one up after losing my Super Spook Jr that I never hooked a fish with before losing it.

He had the same pattern on both sides, pretty fish. I've caught more redfish with this small spook boyo than any other topwater. It excels in very shallow zones that are more protected, I use it when sight fishing when I see wakes, or fleeing bait. I rarely blind cast it. If I'm going to blind cast or fish deeper zones I'll throw something bigger like a skitter walk or shedog.

I really like it because it's able to get a fishes attention without spooking it like the bigger lures might. Another thing I noticed about this topwater even compared to a spook junior is the hook up ratio is better than any other top I throw. I credit that due to its small size, reds have a smaller mouth so a shorter offering leads to better hook up ratio. It's one of 2 topwaters that I never leave home with. It's a confidence lure for sure.