‘‘Twas time to just be a Viking

[Prof. Salt]

Not much keeps me from pursuing fish if they’re in the shallows, and this mornings cool rain and winds failed to put a damper on the festivities. I looked at conditions and decided to launch late, so at 8:30 I hit the water and began the search during the falling tide. I was hoping that the tidal movement would get the bite going, and it pretty much did that. Sixteen miles of searching turned up fish after fish that were oversized, but I also managed to locate one 24” red to ride home with me. I guess it was my turn for some misadventures because flies broke off during fights, plastics did too, hooks pulled and a few fish spooked before I could entice them to eat. I found cawlers, schools of fish and more crawlers, on skinny flats and in drains, since the tide was pouring out of the shallows. After the rain got heavy and soaked me to the bone I soldiered on for four more hours before I had enough and headed for the truck. I guess the fish can breathe easy until next weekend. Thankfully the heater works well, and by the time I got home I was comfortable and ready to clean up the gear.

[Kitsune]

Incredible on the amount of oversized.

[karstopo]

Y’all got more rain down there Saturday especially than we did. I stayed pretty close to the launch Saturday just because the potential threat of rain (even though the radar looked pretty clean), but I suppose covering that much water generates enough body heat to stay reasonably warm even while soaking wet. That’s always been my cure for when I’m feeling a bit chilled in the kayak, vigorously paddling somewhere.

If the large redfish seen and caught totals aren’t impressive enough on their own surely the mileage paddled would impress almost anyone beyond a roman or ottoman empire galley slave or ancient polynesian mariner.

Mishaps with pulled hooks, flies and lures coming off mid-fight, and the like seem to be impossible to fully eradicate. When I’m being extra careful I’ll re-tie knots after each fish, but I hardly ever am that careful. I hate chipping away at perfectly good leader material if I don’t have to. I’ve got a cinched down wind knot up about 18” from the hook on one fly tippet that I know I should take out, but I’m almost more fascinated by seeing if and when it might break on its own.

I had such a tough time seeing the fish until too late this past trip or if I did see them it was a fleeting moment and hard to stay on them. I paddled over a few. I hate it when a nice redfish suddenly becomes visible four feet off my port bow and my barely forward moving momentum is still enough to spook the fish before I can do anything to change the outcome.

I’m going to try to get out one of the upcoming sunny days this week and see if the fish remain where I left them.