Brown & Root Flats - October 23nd, 2022

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Neumie
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Location: SA, Hallettsville, or Rockport

Brown & Root Flats - October 23nd, 2022

Post by Neumie »

On our final day of the trip we always go somewhere close to the cabin so we can get there quickly, fish for a few hours and have a quick trip back to the cabin before everyone heads home. With the wind forecast looking to be the worst of the trip, and everyone beat down from the previous 4 days we decided on launching in the Sailboat Channel and fishing Brown & Root Flats.

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We all paddled to the end into a stiff headwind and kind of spread out from there. I saw some activity on the island to my left and went to investigate. I almost immediately paddled on top of a small school of reds. Maybe fighting the wind would be worth it.

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Nothing really materialized along the protected shoreline, so I bit the bullet and paddled out into the open flat and pointed the nose of my kayak straight into it. I paddled as far up as I felt like, and set up for a drift with my topwater. I had some small blow ups, probably piggy perch, before a really solid one. I tossed the topwater back in the general area and it got swiped at again. Third cast with the Lil John and I hooked into a solid 24” red; strung her up.

At the end of my drift was WIlliam and I said to him, “I just caught the dumbest redfish on the flats”, and went to grab my stringer to show him. It was gone, both the redfish and my stringer. I must have clipped it in wrong. Although it was an extremely long shot, I paddled back up wind to reset my drift. Threw out my drift sock, stood up in my kayak, and started to scan the waters looking for a bright orange stringer or very small float. Drifted right back into the shoreline without seeing it.

I was done. Even though it wasn’t even 9 am I was already tired of the wind. I paddled over to Lou who was about 75 yards away from me, and about 2/3rds of the way there I glanced to my left and I saw it; my stringer WITH a redfish. I made a hard left and briefly chased it down with my kayak. I jumped into the water and chased it some more on foot. It stopped after 20 or so feet. I was able to reach down, grab both ends of the stringer, and yank it and the redfish out of the water and above my head. I effin’ found it! I’m still in disbelief. I told William, “I really did catch the dumbest redfish on the flat, because I was able to catch it twice”.

(edit: I measured the difference from where I approximately strung it up/lost it and where I found the stringer, and it was about 150 yards)

I met up with Ron and Lou over on the point next to channel around 9, and even though I had found my stringer and red I was done for the day. We hung out there, staked out, for about 30 minutes.

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I paddled in and was off the water by 9:30, with the rest of the group showing up before 10. Chase ground it out a little longer, but I don’t think he strung a fish up. Steve was the only other angler to string up a redfish this morning. Whit and Nina had found a group of reds along an island but couldn’t get them to bite. We had a lot to do back at the cabin cleaning up before Whit and WIlliam head back to Dallas, and the rest of the group back to San Antonio.

Thanks for making the effort guys, it was a fun year.

Meteorological Observations
Time: 7:00 am - 9:30 am
Air Temp: 77°F - 79°F
Wind: 17-22 kn SE (gusting to 25+ kn)
Barometric Pressure: 1010 mb (rising)
Sky: Overcast
Water Clarity: 12-18 In
Water Temp: 76°F
Structure: Grass

Solunar
Sunrise/set: 7:33 am/6:51 pm
Moonrise/set: 5:44 am/6:02 pm
Moon Phase: Waning Crescent (2.0%)

Predicted Tides @ Port Aransas (MLLW)
High @ 1:51 am (0.80 ft)
Low @ 8:49 am (0.45 ft)
High @ 2:38 pm (0.90 ft)
Low @ 9:15 pm (0.52 ft)

Lures
Silver Mullet Spook Jr
Kitchen Sink MirrOlure Lil John
Strawberry/White Chickenboy Pyscho Chicken
1/4oz weedless Gold Spoon

Fish
Reds: 2 Keepers

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Ron Mc
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Re: Brown & Root Flats - October 23nd, 2022

Post by Ron Mc »

We knew Sunday would be another strong south blow, a short day, off the water by 11 am, and picked Brown & Root flat because the focused wind down the cut channel is a guaranteed ride home.

Early start

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Lou and I found some wind shelter to drift, Josh joined us with a redfish that he caught twice, jumping out of the boat when his stringer was drifting away.
More spooky redfish - we saw fish everywhere, and they fled when they saw a lure. Chase stayed out and was telling Josh on the phone that he was catching over-slot fish.

Steve came in with a nice 22" red sight-fished on TSL Grasswalker chicken-on-a-chain

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The epilogue, well, great times with great friends - fish are gravy.

Huge Thanks to Josh and Nina for being such great hosts, and Steve for going over the top hauling his trailer down early.

We had to hang around Rockport a bit longer to get Steve's errands, had a nice seafood dinner at Mickey's in Aransas Pass, and a slow drive home.
Josh loaded Steve and Lou with half-shell fillets, and a guide coming in handed Steve a bag of red and black drum fillets.
So Steve took home a lot of fish to MA - he's almost as good a cook as Josh - and maybe MA will let us borrow the trailer again.

Dinner the other night, shared with my folks up the road - thanks to my dad for taking care of the cat while I was gone.

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