2011 Duck Hunting

Duck Hunting Camouflaged Boat
Posted on May 7, 2012 in Fishing

I have been duck hunting in the past, but never was really serious about the sport. I would go maybe 8 times a year, but this year I wanted to do a lot more duck hunting. I bought 2 1/2 dozen decoys and Texas-rigged them. Since I knew I would most likely do most of my duck hunting alone and on foot, I decided to get unweighted keels. Turned out to be a good idea because on a few hunts I walked miles with my decoys, hunting bag, and gun on my shoulder.

The decoys I decided to buy were Acadmey’s Game Winner brand. While they chip and the paint isn’t the most realistic, they do their jobs. I got 12 pintail, 12 green wing teal and 6 redheads, along with weights and crimps for about $150. A lot of the hunting I did was in mangroves or blinds on an open flat.

On the whole, we had a pretty warm winter, but did have a few really cold days. This year yielded tons of redheads and scaup, as well as a few pintail, bufflehead, teal and even a merganser. My father-in-law came down from Austin for a couple weeks and we went hunting quite a bit together, Adam would join when he could. Continue reading…

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An unusual catch with unusual friends

Don Alcala jetty fish
Posted on April 1, 2012 in Fishing

From August until October or so I had the opportunity to fish with a guy named Brad form out of state. He was born and raised and Colorado, but came down here for a few months to compete for a spot to be an AC-130 pilot which was pretty cool if you ask me. While he was down here he was looking for someone to show him the ropes and help put him on some fish. Austin ran into him first at Jerry B’s but soon put me in contact with him. While he was down here we caught quite a few reds and some black drum as well.

On one of our trips we went into the Lighthouse Lakes and got on quite a few reds, they were every where and doing what I like to call crawling. Crawling is when the water is just shallow enough for them to not swim great so they use their pectoral fins to drag them a long the bottom, it looks as if they were crawling when you see them coming your way. This type of redfishing is easy because all you have to do is throw a small surface fly, #4 gurglers or VIPs,  1′ in front of them and start popping it. They won’t always take immediately, but if they don’t it makes for an exciting take. They’ll follow it for 20′ sometimes and you can see the wake the entire time, right when they are fixing to eat they’ll lift their heads out of the water and crush your fly from above. The reason they do this is because their mouths are on bottom and to eat something on the surface they have too.

Around the same time a friend of Adam’s came down his name is Eric but we call him EGG. He to is a long rodder who targets trout frequently but lives in Northern California. While he was down I was working quite a bit and didn’t have the time to fish with him like I would have. Adam tried to put him on fish as did Austin but didn’t have any luck. While fishing with Adam they did run into a few tailing fish but chances were nil. One of the few shots that EGG got he hit the 26″+ fish right on the head. Conditions were less than ideal with rain and overcast the entire time he was here. Continue reading…

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A vow to start blogging regularly

Redfish caught on fly by Don Alcala
Posted on April 1, 2012 in Fishing

It has been way to long since I have posted on my blog, after meeting a blogger from Canada (chroniclesofcod.com) who is 30 or so days in on a trip all over the Americas I have decided that it’s time to start posting. Most of his posts are short and to the point, the same with his videos. His grammar and speech is raw, which inspired me not to be as crucial on my writing as I was in the past, which inspired me to blog more.

My last post was August 16th. I plan on going back as far as I remember and posting trips that I can remember. I don’t remember the exact days that the trips happened but do remember roughly the time of year.

Just a quick recap of what I have been doing from August until now. There have been trips to the Guadalupe river for trout, river fishing trips that yielded a lot of white bass and a monster crappie. Redfishing trouters from California and Colorado, some odd species of fish that I have caught on the fly, and sadly some bait soaking.

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