Mud Boil Redfish
Mud Boil Redfish
“A diller, a dollar, a ten o’clock scholar…” or fisherman I am since that’s when I launched today, the same time and place as last Sunday. Today, I shared the launch with friendly come to find out retired career USAF gentleman. He was bank fishing and said to me as I paddled away “you gonna bring me some extra fish” I said “okay, but if you catch them and I don’t I hope you’ll help me out”.
I shared the water with two kayakers although they moved off someplace else. I dinked around for a littke while fishing pretty close to the launch although the bait didn’t seem to be getting worked over by any significant predators. I then paddled over to the same general area where the action was last Sunday.
No two days on the saltwater are ever identical and today the water was a lot lower than last Sunday. It was probably close to dead low tide. Wind was ESE, mild and the water green with some faint staining. The light was infinitely better with full December sun. All that combined to make mud boil fishing viable. And that’s what I did, cast at mud boils. The challenge was to keep whatever I was tossing out of the live reef that studded the mud. I mostly succeeded not getting hung up in the shell. I also succeeded getting three slot reds to take three different flies. Two different Gartside soft hackle streamer and one redfish crack.
The most important attribute of the flies was that they didn’t sink very fast, but were negatively buoyant just enough to stay in the strike zone which was about 10” or so below the surface and just above the shell and the flies had to be moving slow enough to get the strike.
Anyway, it worked out and I quit once I caught the third redfish. I was back at the launch at noon. I gave a 21” fish to the retired USAF man. He had just caught a 14” red as I paddled up and he said it was his first fish of the day. He was happy to have the fish to share with his wife. I was happy to share. I kept the two mid slots. I got plenty of mouths to feed for those.
The fish had a few odd ball crunched up crab parts in their gullets.
I shared the water with two kayakers although they moved off someplace else. I dinked around for a littke while fishing pretty close to the launch although the bait didn’t seem to be getting worked over by any significant predators. I then paddled over to the same general area where the action was last Sunday.
No two days on the saltwater are ever identical and today the water was a lot lower than last Sunday. It was probably close to dead low tide. Wind was ESE, mild and the water green with some faint staining. The light was infinitely better with full December sun. All that combined to make mud boil fishing viable. And that’s what I did, cast at mud boils. The challenge was to keep whatever I was tossing out of the live reef that studded the mud. I mostly succeeded not getting hung up in the shell. I also succeeded getting three slot reds to take three different flies. Two different Gartside soft hackle streamer and one redfish crack.
The most important attribute of the flies was that they didn’t sink very fast, but were negatively buoyant just enough to stay in the strike zone which was about 10” or so below the surface and just above the shell and the flies had to be moving slow enough to get the strike.
Anyway, it worked out and I quit once I caught the third redfish. I was back at the launch at noon. I gave a 21” fish to the retired USAF man. He had just caught a 14” red as I paddled up and he said it was his first fish of the day. He was happy to have the fish to share with his wife. I was happy to share. I kept the two mid slots. I got plenty of mouths to feed for those.
The fish had a few odd ball crunched up crab parts in their gullets.
Re: Mud Boil Redfish
Awesome!
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Re: Mud Boil Redfish
Gotta love mud boil fishing.
I remember a trip to Matagorda where a couple of locals put on a master class in mud boil flounder catching. They'd spot a mud boil and more often than not pull a flounder out. no one else could buy a bite...
I remember a trip to Matagorda where a couple of locals put on a master class in mud boil flounder catching. They'd spot a mud boil and more often than not pull a flounder out. no one else could buy a bite...
Re: Mud Boil Redfish
Somewhere over the years I began to make searching out mud boils a priority. I still struggle with the idea that good fish might be in some of the places they end up being in. Today, I watched a pair in a technical poling skiff apparently pass by right by the mud boil fish without a second look or at least make a cast or two. They were fishing, but as far as I could see while I they were in eyesight range fishing mostly the unproductive places.junkyard chihuahua wrote: ↑Fri Dec 09, 2022 7:41 pm Gotta love mud boil fishing.
I remember a trip to Matagorda where a couple of locals put on a master class in mud boil flounder catching. They'd spot a mud boil and more often than not pull a flounder out. no one else could buy a bite...
People, including myself, paddle or pedal or poll by fish everyday. I paddled by structures and areas for years and barely gave them a cursory look writing them off as not possibly productive and now some of the once dismissed water is my favorite water.
Seems like with fishing I’ve often been my own worst enemy being hindered and handcuffed with my own preconceptions and prejudices of what is good water and what is bad water.
I almost never leave Brazoria county to fish and have fished the same waters numerous times for years and yet still find I fish these familiar waters not quite right or fail to understand the signs that are there.
For all these reasons and more, fishing remains interesting. Plus, we like to eat fresh saltwater wild caught fish that we know the provenance for.
Re: Mud Boil Redfish
Not trying to hijack your thread, but your talk of the retired USAF guy reminded me of a surf trip a few years ago. 80 year old Ray from Georgia stopped to see how I was doing. Come to find out he was making one last long road trip. Interesting guy - college professor, bank president and a half dozen other like jobs. He ended up spending the day with me and even ended up catching a bull red. Sometimes you never know who you're going to run across in the great outdoors.
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Re: Mud Boil Redfish
Thanks for the descriptive fishing report and the realization that old guys can be interesting and still quite competent at what they do.
Yes, I'm in the "old group," and like the oldsters herein mentioned, enjoy passing on my knowledge to any youngsters willing to listen. Some are and some aren't, ha ha.
On a related note, this afternoon we've got the annual Army/Navy football game. I'm cheering for Navy because my father and uncles were Navy.
All our troops deserve respect.
Sent from my SM-G973U1 using Tapatalk
Yes, I'm in the "old group," and like the oldsters herein mentioned, enjoy passing on my knowledge to any youngsters willing to listen. Some are and some aren't, ha ha.
On a related note, this afternoon we've got the annual Army/Navy football game. I'm cheering for Navy because my father and uncles were Navy.
All our troops deserve respect.
Sent from my SM-G973U1 using Tapatalk
Re: Mud Boil Redfish
Mud Boils. So that's what they are called. Makes sense.
Thanks for the report.
I'm gonna give it a try tomorrow.
Dave
Thanks for the report.
I'm gonna give it a try tomorrow.
Dave
Last edited by deptrai on Sun Dec 11, 2022 1:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Mud Boil Redfish
Nice report, and I bet that guy was super happy to get dinner.
Curious about the mud boils... are these what I find googling (some kind of built up sand structure?)
Curious about the mud boils... are these what I find googling (some kind of built up sand structure?)
Re: Mud Boil Redfish
These mud boils are really just redfish rooting around for crabs and such and stirring up the marsh mud as they feed. Water that’s maybe just a little too deep to directly see the fish themselves or maybe enough little surface chop to obscure the fish. I don’t know where I read the term or phrase “mud boil”, though, it isn’t my own.
A lot of the water I fish seems ideal for casting lures or flies to these mud boils.
Re: Mud Boil Redfish
OK, so it's what I thought you meant when I first read it. I had a different reply that I edited before I googled it... guess I should've left it as is.
I only see those kinda boils from reds when I've spooked them and then its pretty much over for that fish. Maybe because I fish further down the coast, almost always over grass. Sounds kinda like hunting for carp--look for the cloud. Maybe when I'm in the marsh, I'll pay more attention.
I only see those kinda boils from reds when I've spooked them and then its pretty much over for that fish. Maybe because I fish further down the coast, almost always over grass. Sounds kinda like hunting for carp--look for the cloud. Maybe when I'm in the marsh, I'll pay more attention.
Re: Mud Boil Redfish
The only water I might regularly fish that has a firm sand or sand and grass like what might be more the rule on down the coast is parts of Christmas Bay. The rest of the shallow water is primarily over mud or mud and shell. But, in the cool season the water tends to want to clear up, especially over live shell. Summer tends to be more stirred up water wise and I suppose any mud boils tend to get obscured in the overall murkiness.preast wrote: ↑Sun Dec 11, 2022 7:20 pm OK, so it's what I thought you meant when I first read it. I had a different reply that I edited before I googled it... guess I should've left it as is.
I only see those kinda boils from reds when I've spooked them and then its pretty much over for that fish. Maybe because I fish further down the coast, almost always over grass. Sounds kinda like hunting for carp--look for the cloud. Maybe when I'm in the marsh, I'll pay more attention.
Re: Mud Boil Redfish
Lovely....just lovely!