Early Summer?!

After a late night of drinking with Adam and our significant others, I decide I want to go fishing, but the winds still aren’t in fly fishermen’s favor so we decide to go chase gar. The following morning I wake up around 9 am and as usual the first thing I do is take a look at wind and surf forecasts. Much to my surprise the weather man had lied the night before and the surf was flat and winds nil. Being hungover I decided to not make the 40 minute drive out Mathis and instead take the 5 minute drive to Packery South, not expecting much.

Whenever I fish the jetties I usually throw sinking lines. In my experiences with most fish at the jetties you usually want to get down pretty deep, so I decided to try something different then the usual intermediate fly lines I throw. I got word of Orvis Online selling depth charge fly lines for $24.99 I decided to pick up a couple in 8wt (300g sink rate: 6-8ips) and 10wt (400g sink rate:8-10ips).

As I get to the beach I was welcomed by calm seas and blue water clear onto the beach. I rigged and made my way down the jetty to find spanish mackerel working really close to the rocks and bonito working right out of casting range. It was also toward the end of the sheepshead run so bait fishermen were catching them in the channel on live shrimp with the occasional redfish mixed in as well.

After 3 fish I decide to give Adam a call and let him know about the bonito. He calls bullshit and decides to come check for himself. The bonito were being pretty spotty, they would come up and go down any from right in casting range to 200 yds away. We both get quite a few shots at the schooling fish, but can’t seem to get an eat. After a few hours the heat is starting to get to us so we decide to call it quits. Fish totals are me 4 smacks and Shauna 4 fish as well. Continue reading…

An unusual catch with unusual friends

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…

First Tarpon on the Fly

With the wind laid up, Austin and I took advantage of it and hit Port A South. As soon as we hit the end of the rocks there were tarpon rolling on the left side of the jetty. Austin got set up before we got there so he started casting right into the fish. I finally get set up and start casting.

On my third cast I hook into a 25″ Spanish mackerel and as I was landing the fish with my brand new 8wt TiCr, my rod breaks right under the tip’s furrel…needless to say I was angry. I land the fish and in the process of trying to take it off the hook the fish falls in a crack and is lost forever. Fortunately, the fish fell in water so I am sure it could get back to open water. I run down to Austin’s jeep and grab my Mini Mag 6-8wt and run all the way to the end of the jetty again. When I arrive Austin has picked up another smack and there are still tarpon rolling on the end. We both keep casting and occasionally jump a fish or get rubbed off trying to set the hook. After a few hours and just a few smacks to show, Austin decides he needs water and runs back to his jeep to grab a bottle.

I would say he was probably gone a total of 15 minutes. 10 minutes after he left, I start seeing tarpon roll on the right hand side of the jetty and start casting to them. I finally hook a tarpon and my blood is pumping. After fighting it a few minutes the fish starts to tire and I know for my first fish it might take some help to land the fish, I look down the jetty and see Austin’s brown shirt bouncing up and down. I put my free hand in the air and start waving. At first I don’t think Austin realizes I am hooked up, he waves back at me like he is just saying hi. At this point I start yelling “Tarpon! Tarpon! Tarpon!” and I guess he hears me because he starts running and finally gets to me to watch the end of the fight and leader the fish. She turned out to be 3 1/2′ or 4′.

We stayed on the jetty until we could no longer take the heat. I would say we saw close to 150 tarpon that day, they were rolling 3-10 fish at a time, Austin hooked close to 5 and I hooked 2. Most definitely our most productive day targeting tarpon.