Rockport 5/5/23

[wittich]

I had a good trip with Capt Jay Watkins last weekend. The trout fishing was difficult, but he did put us on a bunch of tailing redfish. I was able to get one red to bite on a trout support grasswalker lure. One of the guys on the trip spotted the school of reds and we stalked them together and then made sure to cast at the same time. Both lures hit the water and instantly we were hooked up. The school broke and then reformed closer to the shoreline. The rest of guys stayed in knee deep water and caught a several redfish. I wasted a lot of time stalking these fish in the shallows.
I realized that chasing redfish in the sheetwater is usually a wasted effort. The splash of a lure usually sends them torpedoing off the flats.
I hooked into my first Big Jack Crevalle in the bay. That beast took off and nearly spooled me on the first run. Watkins yelled: " Watch out that is a rod cracker". The fish swirled and turned on the surface and cut my leader with its tail. I am just glad my rod did not break. Those are some powerful fish.
I am ready to give the trout a break until the fall & focus on tailing redfish for a while.

[Kitsune]

Tailing redfish can be frustrating. I have found the fish tailing alone are the most difficult. If there are a group tailing usually jealousy gets the best of them. On Friday all the reds I ran into were picky. However, two reds starting fighting for my spoon and I could see the two jetting in and out trying to get it before I hooked one. Sometimes they just want what the other one has…. kinda like kids . My favorite way to catch reds is “blind” casting large flats that I have seen action in. Every cast is at something… bait, wake, pot hole, grass line, depth change, color change, and so on. I’m just not casting at at a fish I’ve actually seen. LHL in the middle of the summer can be this way, lots of tails, but as soon as you get close, the tail goes under….

[Onski326]

Sounds like a blast!

[mwatson71]

Thanks for the report. I once spent 30 minutes fighting a jack in West Bay. I didn’t even know they wandered into the bays until then. As for chasing tailing reds, I may not always catch them, but the challenge and the chase are very much part of the fun, so I don’t consider it a waste of time. Heck, just being out on the water with a rod in my hand makes it better than most other things I could be doing.

[motoyak]

For tailing reds, I like a subsurface lure like Manns Walker or such. I'll pitch it well past the red and work it very slowly pausing often until in somewhat the vicinity of the fish. At that point, Ill stop it then make a fast few cranks. Lots of times, the red will just explode on it!
If they are real skidderish, an immatation weightless crab soft plastic pitched in front of red gets bite when they wander up on it. Twitch it slightly on occassion