It was almost too calm ...almost.

[Prof. Salt]

Yesterday's forecast confirmed a nearly calm morning for today, so I rearranged my work schedule and took the morning off to paddle. The marsh was mirrored as the first light of the day began to brighten the sky. I found a few small groups of reds quietly working grass edges, but they were spooky little devils. One ate the bait just fine, but the second group completely lost their cool over my 1/10 ounce jig softly landing four feet ahead of them as they approached. I resolved to be as sneaky as possible and continued with my search. Five miles later I finally found a lake loaded with fish, but the signs giving them away were very faint. I probably would have missed them completely except a few birds were walking a shoreline watching the water. As I got close I could finally see the faint signs, and that was enough. It only took one cast to get the attention of a monster red, and although he was just under 28 inches, the dude was thick like a brick and fought like he had done this a time or two before. The rest of the school had broken up, but in the same lake I located two more schools working almost as quietly, and they both gave up a solid fish. After that i put the plastics away and pulled out the little 2wt fly rod and hoped I could find another group to play with me. The next lake on the way back gave me a group of reds coming my way, and I got the little fly out in front of the fish. One grabbed it, but only the tail end of the fly. When I tried to set the hook, you would have thought I had shocked the fish. They all blew up and rocketed out in every direction. It was like a bomb had gone off and there was no question that there would be no more playing with that school. Oh well, I got in just over 12 miles and caught 5 nice reds. That was all I could ask for - and now I have to get office work done for a few hours, lol.

[karstopo]

From my very limited experience with Nueces Bay (one trip) I feel like I understand these epic distance padding you write about. I did the google satellite view of the area and Nueces bay and connected waters appear to have very limited public access. Chemical plants and refineries on one side, private land on the other.

Good on you for figuring out how and where to fish in a challenging situation. I don’t think the average Joe kayaker has it in them to do the work and effort to get on the fish. That bay looks daunting to say the least.

[Prof. Salt]

From my very limited experience with Nueces Bay (one trip) I feel like I understand these epic distance padding you write about. I did the google satellite view of the area and Nueces bay and connected waters appear to have very limited public access. Chemical plants and refineries on one side, private land on the other.

Good on you for figuring out how and where to fish in a challenging situation. I don’t think the average Joe kayaker has it in them to do the work and effort to get on the fish. That bay looks daunting to say the least.

Thanks, and you're correct. It is a demanding area but on the positive side, boats don't often go in there so it's a lovely expanse where I can meander around without disturbances most of the time. There are a few others who are adventurous enough to fish the same waters but there is plenty of room for us to spread out and avoid disturbing anyone's fishing.