2019 Fishing - Bent rods and tight lines

[troph 24,891]

There is a lot crazier shit you can do when midlife crisis hits. Believe me. Lulz. Sounds awesome especially if you stock that sucker with tons of hungry fish.

 

[Pescado_Rojo 19,427]

No pics, but the boy and I spent yesterday afternoon at the ranch sight-fishing bass on beds. The boy started out throwing some giant rubber crawfish he had to buy because he follows the guys that make them on Youtube. He threw at the same fish for almost an hour without even a follow. I walked over and threw the smallest woolybuger fly I had in my fly box, and it ate on the first strip. After that he went and got his flyrod out of the truck and we spent the next couple hours creeping around the tank and throwing tiny flies at them. We seriously lost track of time and what was planned to be 2 hrs of fishing turned into 4. Great way to spend the afternoon. 

[solamente73 1,132]

Looking for recs on charters out of Galveston area.  Asking for a friend and his extended, adult family members.  The group wants to go ‘deep sea’ fishing as well as ‘near shore,’ defined as boat fishing the bays, jetties, and within a couple of miles of the shore.  Trip is in early June.

On a completely unrelated note, my family and I rented a bay house in Galveston for this weekend.  The house is at the mouth of a canal, has a pier, and has lights.  Reports are the fishing can be good.  Get to teach my BIL and my nieces how to fish.  Hope they tear into some trout.  Will report back.

Edited April 16, 2019 by solamente73
No kids on the charters

[Johnny Sack 8,397]

4 hours ago, solamente73 said:

Looking for recs on charters out of Galveston area.  Asking for a friend and his extended, adult family members.  The group wants to go ‘deep sea’ fishing as well as ‘near shore,’ defined as boat fishing the bays, jetties, and within a couple of miles of the shore.  Trip is in early June.

On a completely unrelated note, my family and I rented a bay house in Galveston for this weekend.  The house is at the mouth of a canal, has a pier, and has lights.  Reports are the fishing can be good.  Get to teach my BIL and my nieces how to fish.  Hope they tear into some trout.  Will report back. 

How many people?  If 4 or less, this guy is excellent:

http://www.ronsfishingcharters.com/

[solamente73 1,132]

up to 6 adults, so could split "near shore" with another boat, figure all 6 on a sportfisher for offshore....

[ChickenSandwich 9,843]

On 4/16/2019 at 12:22 PM, Johnny Sack said:

How many people?  If 4 or less, this guy is excellent:

http://www.ronsfishingcharters.com/

Dude has the same boat. Had to be a good sign. Will pass along. Gracias. 

[Lat22 4,015]

On 4/12/2019 at 8:04 AM, troph said:

There is a lot crazier shit you can do when midlife crisis hits. Believe me. Lulz. Sounds awesome especially if you stock that sucker with tons of hungry fish.

 

Listen to this man.....wait, wut?😀

[Masshole Horn 775]

On 4/11/2019 at 11:24 PM, atomheartbevo said:

So props to my mom for not throwing out my old Star Wars and G I Joe toys from the 80s, along with my old comics.   My 6 year-old loves them.   

But along with that, she kept some heavy totes that had a bunch of my old magazines (the girlie mags were disposed of at some point).  Among those were a solid collection of 80-90 Outdoor Life and Field and Stream from the 60s through the 80s (bought the 1960s and 70s ones at a garage sale for like a couple of bucks).

The magazines made their way to our place in Austin three months ago, unopened.  For some reason, I finally began looking through them earlier today, and couldn’t stop reading.   

Looked up my favorite author.  Patrick F. McManus.  Best outdoor writer ever   His columns and books were right there with my Mad Scientists Club books    

He passed away a year ago today.

A year ago to this very day   

Shit   Did his ghost prompt me to start reading his stories again or something?

And with Red Green retiring this year (farewell tour and looking really old), I’m realizing that I’m getting old.  Well, Red Green show came a lot later - I was an adult when I started watching (and still do on YouTube).  But the part of me that enjoyed McManus enjoys the Red Green show.  

Not sure where I was going with this, but my midlife-crisis isn’t going to be a tricked-out Subaru WRX, it’s going to be finding some land in New England with a decent-sized pond and woods and building a fishing lodge of sorts.  

McManus and Gierach are poets.

[Sbbruin 21,865]

Anyone ever do a fishing charter on the Big Island?  We'r estaying north of Kailua/Kona, so going out of Kawahae would be better, but could do Kona as well.  Any recs on a charter outfit would be appreciated

[DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt 12,301]

fishing with @Pescado_Rojo in a week...if i bury a frog pattern in his cheek I'll take a pic and post it here.

[El Diablo 4,232]

9 hours ago, Sbbruin said:

Anyone ever do a fishing charter on the Big Island?  We'r estaying north of Kailua/Kona, so going out of Kawahae would be better, but could do Kona as well.  Any recs on a charter outfit would be appreciated

Like a 3 hour trip?

[Blotto 23,560]

25 minutes ago, El Diablo said:

Like a 3 hour trip?

get on their boat

Edited April 20, 2019 by Blotto

[justhookit 4,191]

10 hours ago, Sbbruin said:

Anyone ever do a fishing charter on the Big Island?  We'r estaying north of Kailua/Kona, so going out of Kawahae would be better, but could do Kona as well.  Any recs on a charter outfit would be appreciated

Fish out of Kona. Try https://www.marlinmagic.com/  or https://ihunui.com/ or https://www.humdingersportfishing.com/ or https://konaseaadventures.com/ . Also have read good things about a boat there called Melee. These are billfish recs btw. If I was going it would be with the Marlin Magic guys.

[Hook1997 5,397]

Me and a couple friends are running lines and camping out on the Colorado this weekend. We’ve probably got around 35 fish so far.


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[Judge Roybeanbag 11,819]

Whereabouts on the Colorado?  

[Hook1997 5,397]

16 minutes ago, Judge Roybeanbag said:

Whereabouts on the Colorado?  

Altair out by Eagle Lake.  

[Judge Roybeanbag 11,819]

Ah, Hwy. 90 bridge or there about.  I grew up about 10 miles downstream from there in Garwood. Heading down there tomorrow actually.  Good luck the rest of the weekend!

[UTEX90 589]

Fishing in a bay tournament in Aransas Pass the first week of May.  Any tips?  Boat will be captained by a local but was curious what some of you throw down there. 

[CHIEF 5,094]

On 4/20/2019 at 1:48 PM, Hook1997 said:

Me and a couple friends are running lines and camping out on the Colorado this weekend. We’ve probably got around 35 fish so far.


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Humpback blues have to be the meanest sumbitch in local waters. Only fish I know that will actively try to bury a barb in ya.

 

CHIEF

[Hook1997 5,397]

Fishing in a bay tournament in Aransas Pass the first week of May.  Any tips?  Boat will be captained by a local but was curious what some of you throw down there. 

We fish mud island over that way a lot and do good. Soft plastics most of the time but if you are staying on the boat shrimp or croaker have always worked over there too.

Ended up with 40 fish this weekend. Got some good yellow cats Sunday before picking up the lines.




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[Judge Roybeanbag 11,819]

Hey hook, when we drove through Altair the smell there was horrible.  Turns out it was this.  Lucky you were upstream.  Makes me sick.  My friends who own land on the river and use it for irrigation are mad as hell.  

 

https://www.texastribune.org/2019/04/17/texas-attorney-general-sues-inland-recylcling-and-remediation/

[Hook1997 5,397]

1 minute ago, Judge Roybeanbag said:

Hey hook, when we drove through Altair the smell there was horrible.  Turns out it was this.  Lucky you were upstream.  Makes me sick.  My friends who own land on the river and use it for irrigation are mad as hell.  

 

https://www.texastribune.org/2019/04/17/texas-attorney-general-sues-inland-recylcling-and-remediation/

Yea a guy down there was telling us about that, we never go down that far.  We fish between the bridge and the rocks down stream.  That shit is just terrible.  

[Braff Zacklin 13,635]

Anybody here with much experience in an inflatable fishing kayak?

Like the idea of having a 2-person craft for light river/reservoir use, but lack the transport and storage for a hardshell.

Lay your knowledge on me.

[crash_davis 23,114]

uhhhhhhh, sharp points and inflatable anything should not near each other. 

i do know this. inflatable kayaks will paddle like shit.  tracking (ability to travel in a straight line) will be utter shit.  hope you aren't paddling far or that it's not too windy.

[Braff Zacklin 13,635]

Thanks, crash.

I won't be taking these on classified whitewater--plenty of that around, just not my interest. However, I use a float tube to fish local reservoirs during the melt season (April, May, and June). Some of my friends don't have their own tube, however, so I thought it a 2-man 'yak might come in handy.

I also do a lot of wet wading on bigger water (Snake River) during the late summer months but exploration is limited to the bank opposite the cut. Having a kayak or canoe to cross over or drift down seems like I could hit a lot more water.

If you don't mind me asking, what inflatable did you have and how recently was this?

[DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt 12,301]

2 hours ago, crash_davis said:

uhhhhhhh, sharp points and inflatable anything should not near each other. 

i do know this. inflatable kayaks will paddle like shit.  tracking (ability to travel in a straight line) will be utter shit.  hope you aren't paddling far or that it's not too windy.

Hmmm, thousands of inflatable rafts where I’m at getting the ever-loving shit beat out of them carrying anglers down rivers without incident. Maybe you’re talking about something cheap? I’m not sure you could poke a hole in a PVC or Hypalon rubber vessel with a hook if you tried.

[Braff Zacklin 13,635]

I know you have some wisdom here, Hollywood. Lay it on me, bruh.

[DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt 12,301]

41 minutes ago, Braff Zacklin said:

I know you have some wisdom here, Hollywood. Lay it on me, bruh.

Man I really don’t know much about kayaks other than I’ve never really seen one being used as a fishing vessel around here...occasionally on stillwater I’ll see one but on the rivers it’s just recreational rafters on duckies.

are looking for something you can strap to the top of a car or in a truck bed and don’t need a trailer?

have you looked at a 2 man fishing cataraft? My neighbor has one and he throws it in his truck and it’s super stable on moving water. 

I hate sitting and fishing so something with a raised platform/seat would be my preference.

 

[Braff Zacklin 13,635]

31 minutes ago, DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt said:

are looking for something you can strap to the top of a car or in a truck bed and don’t need a trailer?

have you looked at a 2 man fishing cataraft? My neighbor has one and he throws it in his truck and it’s super stable on moving water. 

I hate sitting and fishing so something with a raised platform/seat would be my preference.

Ideally, I wouldn't have to strap it to anything because it would break down and fit in a carry bag/backpack. That's the biggest upside of an inflatable--they are ultra portable.

From what I've heard, they can be "floating marshmallows" on the ultra-low end, but better models (e.g., NRS Pike) are supposedly solid and stable enough that you can stand while you fish. There are even some with a collapsible framework (tubing of some sort).

I'd be using mine on flatwater--either ponds and reservoirs or on the Snake when it is lower and slower. Curious what others' experiences have been.

And I'm with you on the suckitude of "sitting and fishing." I'll always prefer to be in the water, but watercraft fishing is virtually the only option this time of year when everything is blown out.

 

 

[DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt 12,301]

6 hours ago, Braff Zacklin said:

Ideally, I wouldn't have to strap it to anything because it would break down and fit in a carry bag/backpack. That's the biggest upside of an inflatable--they are ultra portable.

From what I've heard, they can be "floating marshmallows" on the ultra-low end, but better models (e.g., NRS Pike) are supposedly solid and stable enough that you can stand while you fish. There are even some with a collapsible framework (tubing of some sort).

I'd be using mine on flatwater--either ponds and reservoirs or on the Snake when it is lower and slower. Curious what others' experiences have been.

And I'm with you on the suckitude of "sitting and fishing." I'll always prefer to be in the water, but watercraft fishing is virtually the only option this time of year when everything is blown out.

 

 

Ah gotcha...you’re going super light. Every time I float the Gunnison I see folks in tiny inflatables that they’ve hiked in and use to navigate down to the next run that they fish from shore. Haven’t seen anyone in 2-Man set ups but eager to see what find out there. 

[crash_davis 23,114]

if you are just going to float down a river and fish from it, then i agree with colt that inflatables will work great.  if you are going to paddle an inflatable any sort of distance, up current or on a large body of water, than an inflatable probably isn't going to work for you.  i mean, you can do it, but you'll be zigzagging your way there.  god forbid you have any headwind.

[Ollie Slatt 289]

17 hours ago, Braff Zacklin said:

Anybody here with much experience in an inflatable fishing kayak?

Like the idea of having a 2-person craft for light river/reservoir use, but lack the transport and storage for a hardshell.

Lay your knowledge on me.

I have an old Dave Scadden inflatable kayak that I traded a fly rod for.  Its portable and OK for fishing ponds where I don't have to paddle far.  It would probably be good for paddling rivers so long as the river did not have any flat water that required heavy paddling, but I never use it on rivers.  You have to fish from a seated position, its slow, it tracks like shit, and it is a pain to inflate every time I want to use it. I also have an old two man cataraft, which has not been used in years and I have just been too lazy to sell -- it is also a pain to row and takes way too long to inflate/set up.  And I have a SOT fishing kayak.  The SOT kayak gets used 99% of the time. 

For our waters in Texas, a hard SOT kayak is unquestionably the way to go -- especially one that is stable enough to fish while standing (like a Native, Diablo, or one of the bigger Jackson models).  But our rivers have a lot of flat water and relatively minor rapids. Western rivers tend to have more current and more significant rapids, which would make an inflatable much more doable.  

[Judge Roybeanbag 11,819]

A buddy of mine used one in the surf to take shark baits out with.  Worked fine for that.  It was heavy, though.

[Brisketexan 105,177]

I hear these inflatables are quite seaworthy:

Edited April 26, 2019 by Brisketexan

[Mac8111 2,107]

We just got back from POC. Friday morning, did a quick run over by Decros Point/ Bird Island with the wife and the oldest. Nothing really happening. Found some blue water coming in with the tide and fished the color change, but only caught a big gafftop and a 12 golden croaker. There was bait there. If it had just been the old man and I, we would have waded it and found some trout.

Helped the old man install a new Minnkota trolling motor with the ipilot on his Majek. He is pretty pumped to try it out next trip.

My buddy hired a guide and they went to jetties. His daughter caught her first oversized Red and he brought in a beautiful 25 inch trout.

We hired a flounder guide Friday night and took my dad, a buddy, and two teenagers. Was first time hiring a guide flounder . Was a long night. We left at 9:30pm and got back after 2am. Managed to find 7 keepers. Was disappointed there wasn’t much action, but everyone enjoyed themselves.

I judged the POC crawfish festival on Saturday. Bloody Mary category was pretty fun. Some creative submissions and several tasty ones at that. Side dish competition was pretty tasty, except for the assholes who submitted deviled eggs. Ain’t nobody wanna taste your nasty deviled eggs that have been sitting in the turn in box for an hour. The crawfish competition was ok. They have been sitting in the turn in box for at least 30 min, so they definitely weren’t warm. You had to really standout to get noticed. Same team won third year in a row. 40 teams entered. Bri Bagwell was the headliner. Other than needing to eat a couple of sandwiches, she was entertaining and good singer.

They didn’t fence off the beach this year, so you could sit in a chair drinking beer and listening to music and the kids could run out and play on the beach and come back when they were tired. We managed to leave with the same amount of kids we came with, so that is good.


The development around POC is at an all time high. People building and clearing land like crazy.

[HouTex 1,887]

We just got back from POC. Friday morning, did a quick run over by Decros Point/ Bird Island with the wife and the oldest. Nothing really happening. Found some blue water coming in with the tide and fished the color change, but only caught a big gafftop and a 12 golden croaker. There was bait there. If it had just been the old man and I, we would have waded it and found some trout.

Helped the old man install a new Minnkota trolling motor with the ipilot on his Majek. He is pretty pumped to try it out next trip.

My buddy hired a guide and they went to jetties. His daughter caught her first oversized Red and he brought in a beautiful 25 inch trout.

We hired a flounder guide Friday night and took my dad, a buddy, and two teenagers. Was first time hiring a guide flounder . Was a long night. We left at 9:30pm and got back after 2am. Managed to find 7 keepers. Was disappointed there wasn’t much action, but everyone enjoyed themselves.

I judged the POC crawfish festival on Saturday. Bloody Mary category was pretty fun. Some creative submissions and several tasty ones at that. Side dish competition was pretty tasty, except for the assholes who submitted deviled eggs. Ain’t nobody wanna taste your nasty deviled eggs that have been sitting in the turn in box for an hour. The crawfish competition was ok. They have been sitting in the turn in box for at least 30 min, so they definitely weren’t warm. You had to really standout to get noticed. Same team won third year in a row. 40 teams entered. Bri Bagwell was the headliner. Other than needing to eat a couple of sandwiches, she was entertaining and good singer.

They didn’t fence off the beach this year, so you could sit in a chair drinking beer and listening to music and the kids could run out and play on the beach and come back when they were tired. We managed to leave with the same amount of kids we came with, so that is good.


The development around POC is at an all time high. People building and clearing land like crazy.

Stuffed flounder is probably my favorite dish.

[Judge Roybeanbag 11,819]

I’m heading down to PINS with my brother Thursday morning to spend three days working the surf down to the Port Mansfield jetties and back.  Will probably get some rain but hopefully nothing too bad.  I won’t get much done at work until then. 

[fattyflattie 4,639]

Fished POC and Rockport this weekend. Friday was tough af. Tons and tons of redfish but worst lock jaw I can remember. Saturday we caught pretty good but I’ve never been muscled in on so many times in my life. I had two boats get between me and my boat at Jaybird. Then get pissed when I walked back to the boat? Wtf, you came and parked between us, prick. Then same boat does it again about an hour later. Moved onto mesquite and Ayers but wind had both completely blown out, totally trashed.

Lots of flounder in the backlakes and drains. Lots of reds but no size. All our our trout were 18-22” with exception of a few 16’s and a single 15”. I snapped my go to loomis on a large trout that got sideways. BIG girl and of course, on day before tournament. Pretty sure I subconsciously thumbed spool or something, drag was pretty light but snapped about 6” below the lowest eye, deep in the rod.

Maddens was same as usual, half glorious, half am I going to get shanked by this bay shrimper shooting pool. I’m certain I had 100 beers there Saturday and am still not all there. Could hear the live music from crawfish festival from the front porch. Back to real life again.






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[Dry Elbows 142]

Fished West Galveston on Saturday.  Bounced around to a few places before I finally found fish.  Caught 10-12 trout in the 2-3# range.  When I went to head in I discovered my prop had somehow come off.  Fortunately a buddy of mine was willing to grab my spare from my house and bring it out.  All in all, a beautiful day on the water. 

[davidg 4,038]

Caught a fish Saturday ...  

 

 

[crash_davis 23,114]

15 hours ago, fattyflattie said:

Fished POC and Rockport this weekend. Friday was tough af. Tons and tons of redfish but worst lock jaw I can remember. Saturday we caught pretty good but I’ve never been muscled in on so many times in my life. I had two boats get between me and my boat at Jaybird. Then get pissed when I walked back to the boat? Wtf, you came and parked between us, prick. Then same boat does it again about an hour later. Moved onto mesquite and Ayers but wind had both completely blown out, totally trashed.

Lots of flounder in the backlakes and drains. Lots of reds but no size. All our our trout were 18-22” with exception of a few 16’s and a single 15”. I snapped my go to loomis on a large trout that got sideways. BIG girl and of course, on day before tournament. Pretty sure I subconsciously thumbed spool or something, drag was pretty light but snapped about 6” below the lowest eye, deep in the rod.

Maddens was same as usual, half glorious, half am I going to get shanked by this bay shrimper shooting pool. I’m certain I had 100 beers there Saturday and am still not all there. Could hear the live music from crawfish festival from the front porch. Back to real life again.

 

On Saturday, fished the Lagoon out of Charlies in my yak.  Saturday was fucking crazy.  Crossed the ICW and knew something big was happening out of POC because the ICW was a damned flats boat drag race course.  @ 6:45am, mofos one after another were flying down the ICW like they were racing to go have sex with the last woman alive.  Once I got into the Lagoon, it was stupid all day with flats boat running up and down the Lagoon and in and out of Shoalwater. 

Fishing sucked.  Reds were in the heavy gross.  That meant that I only could use texas rigged jerk baits which you have to reel down on before setting the hook or you lose the fish on a bad hookset.  The reds would quickly eat and spit the lures before I could reel down to set the hook.  Managed to catch 3 undersized reds.  When the wind picked up, the bite died.  Saw many reds and hand many followers but not many committed.  Did catch an 18" flounder which never happens in the Lagoon.

[fattyflattie 4,639]

That was the legends tournament they had going on hosting out of Josies. I understand they only had 12 boats and they leave at first light. I saw one about 0700 screaming across Aransas and if he wasn’t hitting 80 he wasn’t moving at all. Prop was getting loose and you could hear it breaking water.  The tournament we were fishing you can leave whenever so we left early and never got over 65 or so and that was once we got 3/4 way thru SAB. Trying to save fuel in case we had to go further south. 

[Deej 76,858]

Buddy caught this 47 inch red off the jetty this weekend.

[4th and 5 4,915]

We fished the Chandeleur Islands last week. The storm and north wind shut the bite down Friday morning but it picked up in the afternoon and we ended up with some trout and reds to 38 inches. Saturday was the most productive fishing day of my life. We had 4 slot reds, and 6 oversized around 38 inches (released) and broke off a few more just trying to horse them in instead of fighting them forever on light tackle. One large Spanish mackerel and a bluefish. And so many trout that I think I better not post the number on the internet. Could not get much going with the topwater lures, unlike last trip, but the cork and gulp combo spent more time underwater than above water. Can't wait for the next trip.

[RMac5 1,551]

Fatty, will loomis still replace broken rods for $100? 

[ChickenSandwich 9,843]

7 hours ago, Dry Elbows said:

Fished West Galveston on Saturday.  Bounced around to a few places before I finally found fish.  Caught 10-12 trout in the 2-3# range.  When I went to head in I discovered my prop had somehow come off.  Fortunately a buddy of mine was willing to grab my spare from my house and bring it out.  All in all, a beautiful day on the water. 

Heading there next week with the old man.  Where did you finally find them?

Got the old man a new reel I'm excited to try out.  New Shimano Curado DC

[fattyflattie 4,639]

24 minutes ago, RMac5 said:

Fatty, will loomis still replace broken rods for $100? 

I don’t know. I haven’t broke a rod in about 20 years.  I always heard loomis sucked on warranty and would only give you a blank, but now that I type that out it doesn’t sound right. I kept it either way, and will look into it.   Not that it should ever break, but this rod was bought back when Vince was still killing Trojans, and many many fish have succumbed to it.

I think I’m going to replace it with something custom.  This was a 95% topwater use rod.  6’-6” mod fast med light.  Think I may get something in 6’-9” range. Maybe. I’ve never had recoil guides or fancy things like that so may take the plunge.  I just bought a slightly stiffer loomis that had 2 uses on it for $85 off craigslist from a bass guy who needed something with more ass.  It’s nice for the cost, but definitely not a replacement for the one I broke. 

[fattyflattie 4,639]

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[Dry Elbows 142]

1 hour ago, fattyflattie said:

I don’t know. I haven’t broke a rod in about 20 years.  I always heard loomis sucked on warranty and would only give you a blank, but now that I type that out it doesn’t sound right. I kept it either way, and will look into it.   Not that it should ever break, but this rod was bought back when Vince was still killing Trojans, and many many fish have succumbed to it.

I think I’m going to replace it with something custom.  This was a 95% topwater use rod.  6’-6” mod fast med light.  Think I may get something in 6’-9” range. Maybe. I’ve never had recoil guides or fancy things like that so may take the plunge.  I just bought a slightly stiffer loomis that had 2 uses on it for $85 off craigslist from a bass guy who needed something with more ass.  It’s nice for the cost, but definitely not a replacement for the one I broke. 

Was that a custom on a Loomis blank or an off-the-rack rod?  Loomis doesn't sell blanks to the public anymore, so I'm not sure how they would handle it.  If was off-the-rack, I bet they do something to work with you.  If you're game for trying another Loomis product, check out the Conquest; it's a bad bitch.

[Dry Elbows 142]

1 hour ago, ChickenSandwich said:

Heading there next week with the old man.  Where did you finally find them?

Got the old man a new reel I'm excited to try out.  New Shimano Curado DC

Those DCs are sweet.  I fished with a guide on the Shimano prostaff and he had a Metanium DC on his boat and let me chunk it a few times.  Amazing.

I was around the Pass.  Not a place I would recommend those not familiar with the area venturing.  Not only are you apt to get stuck on a sand flat, but it can be a dangerous place to wade.