2019 Fishing - Bent rods and tight lines

[bmbmd 1030]

On 3/15/2019 at 11:58 PM, DCA_HORN said:

I did not realize there were walleye that for south. Do we have them in Texas?

Couple of years ago, I caught a twelve inch walleye on a yellow popper below the PK dam.  

[Pescado_Rojo 19454]

On 3/10/2019 at 6:38 PM, crash_davis said:

Went to the Lagoon in Seadrift today. Holy rotting fish. I guess the freeze on Monday and Tuesday killed a shitton of fish.  Dead fish, mostly hardheads and gaftops, were littered on the north shoreline. Easily over a thousand as I paddled all the way to the major cuts. Dead fish covered the shoreline. Saw one or two reds, and a few trout. Fishing SUCKED. Saw ONE red. Absolutely no movement in the whole Lagoon. Hopefully the reds and trout moved out for awhile and are not all dead. Dock talk was much of the same. No reds or trout anywhere.

Got to Seadrift at 3:00 today and dunked the skiff at Charlie’s about 3:30: didn’t want to cross with a small time window so we fished in the lagoon for a few hours. Sadly, it hasn’t gotten better. Most of the dead fish are gone...I guess the raccoons and such had a feast, but didn’t see a single fish the whole time...not even much in the way of mullet. Supposed to be calm in the morning, so I plan to fish my way down to panther. 

[MalibuSheriff 1092]

On 3/15/2019 at 11:58 PM, DCA_HORN said:

I did not realize there were walleye that for south. Do we have them in Texas?

I don’t think Texas has an active walleye program.  Oklahoma Wildlife Department tried some stockings in multiple lakes back in the 1970s, some successful, some not at all.  Broken Bow has a sustainable population but the best walleye lake in Oklahoma is Canton Lake, northwest of OKC.  You can actually target walleye at Canton.

In Broken Bow, they are usually an accidental catch and not a dense population where you can target.  By far the most caught there is springtime when they make a run up the river on upper end of the lake.

[Pescado_Rojo 19454]

On 3/20/2019 at 8:45 PM, Pescado_Rojo said:

Got to Seadrift at 3:00 today and dunked the skiff at Charlie’s about 3:30: didn’t want to cross with a small time window so we fished in the lagoon for a few hours. Sadly, it hasn’t gotten better. Most of the dead fish are gone...I guess the raccoons and such had a feast, but didn’t see a single fish the whole time...not even much in the way of mullet. Supposed to be calm in the morning, so I plan to fish my way down to panther. 

Just to follow up on this. Crossed the bay Thursday morning and ended up fishing all day in those broken marsh ponds between Power Lake and Cedar Lake. Plenty of fish to be had in there. I poled and the boy fly fished all day. He had two eat and come unbuttoned on the initial run, one that wallowed all over his fly for a couple seconds but somehow didn't hook up, and one fish to hand. Lots of fish rooting around in the mangrove roots that were just about unreachable with a fly. Beautiful day, and only saw one other skiff all day. 

[RMac5 1551]

Lake Meredith has been producing some walleye lately. Buddy of mine used to spear fish for them at Lake Conchas in New Mexico. We would do this at night, he would gear up with scuba gear and I would follow the underwater glow of his spot light. He would spear them and bring them up and put in the live well. Walleye is a great eating fish. We would Bass/crappie fish during the day and walleye fish or spear fish at night.

[Mac8111 2118]

Buddy just sent me this. He took his boys and his dad fishing with guide. Said they ran down past Baffin.


Now I gotta delete his contact from my phone.

[bigshark88 388]

I know Paul Brown's Corkys are sacred for you Texas guys.  But do you find that putting them in a plastic tackle tray turns them into mush?  Do you just keep them in the original packaging until its time to fish?  We fish them occasionally here in FL.  A buddy of mine was absolutely hammering fish on one last weekend so I took one out of my tackle tray and it was "melted".  That's the second time that's happened to me with a Corky.  I am going to get a couple more I just want to see if I am the only one.  I do not know how long those baits had been in that tray (could've been years).  

[Judge Roybeanbag 11829]

36 minutes ago, bigshark88 said:

I know Paul Brown's Corkys are sacred for you Texas guys.  But do you find that putting them in a plastic tackle tray turns them into mush?  Do you just keep them in the original packaging until its time to fish?  We fish them occasionally here in FL.  A buddy of mine was absolutely hammering fish on one last weekend so I took one out of my tackle tray and it was "melted".  That's the second time that's happened to me with a Corky.  I am going to get a couple more I just want to see if I am the only one.  I do not know how long those baits had been in that tray (could've been years).  

Sometimes that's the interaction between the plastic tray and the lure type. I've had a few things melt when it was never in the heat.

[Llano Estacado 1257]

It’s official, now.

And I was so looking forward to the next blue crabbing report for Upper San Jacinto Bay.

https://www.dshs.texas.gov/seafood/PDF2/Active/ADV-55_Modification_20190327.pdf

[Pescado_Rojo 19454]

2 hours ago, bigshark88 said:

I know Paul Brown's Corkys are sacred for you Texas guys.  But do you find that putting them in a plastic tackle tray turns them into mush?  Do you just keep them in the original packaging until its time to fish?  We fish them occasionally here in FL.  A buddy of mine was absolutely hammering fish on one last weekend so I took one out of my tackle tray and it was "melted".  That's the second time that's happened to me with a Corky.  I am going to get a couple more I just want to see if I am the only one.  I do not know how long those baits had been in that tray (could've been years).  

I think Judge is right, it's an interaction between the plastic types. I had the same issues, and now I leave them in the original package until I'm ready to use them, though I don't fish them much. I've found they are really hard to fish properly from a boat, as they're designed to be fished really slow. I find that it's hard to get the right action and retrieve on them when the boat's drifting and you're trying to keep your line tight but not fish the bait too fast. Most of the guys I know that swear by them only fish them in the winter, and only wade fish. 

[bigshark88 388]

I fish suspending hard stickbaits here 98% of the time when throwing suspending lures. But I ventured over to Corky when my buddy started slaying them.

[fattyflattie 4639]

I don’t think it’s a tray issue. Mine have been doing that since I was buying them out of Mr. browns garage in the late 90’s.   I only fish a few of the colors and they get worked over if the bite is on so really don’t store them too long. Their colors will bleed into each other bad too. 

There is not a better bait for sow trout imo.  All but one of my >8# trout have fallen to an old style root beer/chartreuse corky.  The other was a spook jr.    Just remember, if you think you are fishing it too slow, you are not. Slow it a bit more.  They work fantastic in the surf as well but fuck dealing with treble hooks when the bite gets hot and you are chest deep. 

[crash_davis 23161]

i gave a shit load of money to paul brown.  never caught a fucking thing from his lures.  maybe i fished them wrong.  i use ttf trout killer II lures weightless for winter fishing.  they have good buoyancy and can be worked real slow.  i've caught many reds and trout on them in the winter.  also use them in the summer in the heat of the day when the bite slows and fish get finicky.

[fattyflattie 4639]

I didn’t either until I fished them in the surf. Then it clicked and after that, like riding a bike.


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[Sbbruin 21925]

I thought Braff was making up a town called "You're The Pimp", Idaho.  Turns out not only is there a town called Udapimp, there's also a Dickshooter, Idaho.  Fair enough.

Ha, so did I.

[davidg 4040]

What kind of tray are talking about?  I use the bag systems with the Plano 3600 and 3700 trays and don't think I've every had a bait/tray interaction with Corkies.   Sometimes you have an issues with two different brand baits touching but it seems like the tray is pretty stable.   The old school fold out boxes were pretty bad about plastic bait interaction.   You would open up one of these bad boys after not using it a while and have a big melted mush right in the middle.

 

[bigshark88 388]

i gave a shit load of money to paul brown.  never caught a fucking thing from his lures.  maybe i fished them wrong.

I feel this way about DOA.

[fattyflattie 4639]

1/2 oz DOA shrimp in the gold flake are murderous on surf specs.  They tear that hook out way too quick tho. Only good for 2-3 fish before they start foul the hook.  Another SLOW action lure. 

eta: I’ve never fished them outside of the surf. Maybe under a mauler a few times but I hate fishing with maulers.  That’s a last resort type of deal. 

Edited March 29, 2019 by fattyflattie

[Mac8111 2118]

Anybody ever go to a CCA banquet?

[fattyflattie 4639]

My fat buddy was sending me these from La Grange last night.


A good friend is high up in the katy chapter and has been pressuring me to get a table this year. 95% sure I’m going to pass. Might buy a raffle ticket, though the gun lineup is pretty weak.


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[Llano Estacado 1257]

My fat buddy...

A good friend...

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Lol. I see how they rate. La Grange
PS. - go to profile and settings and turn off Tapa signature.

[UTEX90 589]

.

Caught this on our private pond yesterday.  Been working on getting some quality fish in here for years.  I cull from the pond from time to time to keep the little fish from overpopulating.  Caught 2 over 6 yesterday.  This was the biggest 23.33 inches.  I didn't have my scale with me and wanted to get him back in the water.   He was healthy.  I hope to see him again next year.

Edited March 30, 2019 by UTEX90

[fattyflattie 4639]

On 3/30/2019 at 8:30 AM, Llano Estacado said:

 

Lol. I see how they rate. La Grange
PS. - go to profile and settings and turn off Tapa signature.
 

 

Heh. Not my fault ol fat boy doesn’t visit. 

I will try but can’t promise anything. Only have Tapatalk to post seldom pics.  I suck at things like that  dealwithit.gif

I haven’t been fishing at all lately, but friend sent me some hero pics with a shitload of flounder from last week. Bought a like new loomis for $85.  Getting boat ready for spring. Too much work    Haven’t even tried my new fly setup out in the neighborhood.   

Mac, which banquet you looking to attend?  

[Johnny Sack 8397]

Going to Mansfield for a tournament on Wednesday.  Pre-fish Wednesday to Friday.  Saturday is the tourney.  I have zero chance of winning, but I usually catch enough to make me happy.

I throw three things down there.  New penny gulp under a popping cork, a pink Strike Pro Hunchback wake bait, and a topwater.  I catch the most with the first two.

[Lerka Lerka 1094]

32 minutes ago, Johnny Sack said:

Going to Mansfield for a tournament on Wednesday.  Pre-fish Wednesday to Friday.  Saturday is the tourney.  I have zero chance of winning, but I usually catch enough to make me happy.

I throw three things down there.  New penny gulp under a popping cork, a pink Strike Pro Hunchback wake bait, and a topwater.  I catch the most with the first two.

Excellent lure, have had a ton of success with these.  Pretty much my go to top water bait.  Just change out the hooks.... 

[wutang75 452]

Love this thread - I go up to River's Inlet in BC every year - will post pics this year for sure.  

[Lerka Lerka 1094]

On 3/29/2019 at 10:44 PM, Mac8111 said:

Anybody ever go to a CCA banquet?

Attended the one in Austin many times. Went to a couple of random other ones as well.

[bigshark88 388]

From Naturday. Suspending hard twitch baits did the trick. Even caught a few nice fish on the new Rapala Twitching Mullet 8. Just tied it on for a test run and bagged a 25in red on the third cast.

[Dry Elbows 142]

On 3/29/2019 at 10:44 PM, Mac8111 said:

Anybody ever go to a CCA banquet?

Yes.  Been to the Central Houston banquet 8-10 times and POC a couple of times. San Antonio has a huge banquet. 

[troph 24929]

Best day of my life, Quepos, Costa Rica. Maybe when my kids get gone I can live here with a 30 ft center console or something and run out on any given afternoon and grab snapper for dinner.

[Braff Zacklin 13672]

You can't catch a fish like that and not tell the story behind it.

[Kennythetiger 9500]

One picture??

[troph 24929]

Gf and I took a trip to Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica to visit an expat friend of hers and check out the expat community and have a good time. Here for a week and went fishing two days one inland - we caught nothing and the first time that crew had gone o-fer in 3 months they said. Next day we went offshore fishing and hooked 7 sailfish and caught 3. Used dead ballyhoo for bait. Rigged for marlin and sailfish. We only pulled one out of the water for a pic the rest we brought up to the boat and let them go.

 

This one fought pretty hard but I had some help from the captain, had it in the boat in 15 mins? Maybe 10 mins I don’t know. He jumped out of the water 2-3 times when he knew he was hooked. Then took two long hard runs, then he wore out and I started bringing him in but he just held firm if I wasn’t creating slack to reel him in. He had a couple of short runs after that but I dunno it was hard to tell how far. Arms were pretty tired at that point and the boat captain put it in reverse and I started cranking on it and we got him to about 20 yards then he flipped and coiled around and the first mate brought him in by hand. I didn’t hook this one but I was trying to learn and they let me be more active as the day went on. It’s a super fast action moment and with 6 lines in the water it’s a bit of a challenge to keep up with it all. I’d love to learn more.

 

I didn’t go offshore fishing as much as I’d have liked to in the past - but now I’m with someone that loves the water but doesn’t want to fish so we go out and I get all the fish and she just loves being along for the ride. So we’ve been chasing big fish for 2-3 years now. It’s awesome. 16 years since I caught my first big game fish out of Port A and I’ve been waiting for my first sailfish and this was it. Need a few marlin now.

 

 

[tx 3 putt 77955]

good stuff troph !

[Johnny Sack 8397]

Got back from Port Mansfield yesterday afternoon.  We smoked them Thursday, Friday and Saturday.  Nice to have a full freezer of fish.  Pulled out the cast iron skillet and had fish tacos last night.  Sauteed with butter and lime juice with jalapeno peppers and onion and a little soy sauce.  Plated them on corn tortillas with home made cole slaw, home made guacamole, and fresh salsa.  Was so good.

[solamente73 1132]

^^^Please post pics in Shit I've Cooked Lately thread^^^

------------------------------------

I haven’t had to buy gear in ages, much less for the applications I’ll go into here.  What’s on the market these days that y’all would recommend for the following applications?  Looking for quality on a budget.

1)  Rods and reels (2) for ages 5-10 suitable for bay fishing and freshwater.  Kids will learn fishing on these.  Assume using live/dead bait with some artificials as they get older and more capable.  Bay fishing for trout and freshwater for anything that bites. 

2)  Rod and reel for adults for live/dead bait bay fishing for trout and reds.  Needs to double for freshwater river fishing (likely catfish).  Beginners need to be able to use this rig, so I assume spinning?

3)  Light spinning rig for an adult for freshwater river fishing with artificials

TIA!

[Kennythetiger 9500]

4 hours ago, Johnny Sack said:

Got back from Port Mansfield yesterday afternoon.  We smoked them Thursday, Friday and Saturday.  Nice to have a full freezer of fish.  Pulled out the cast iron skillet and had fish tacos last night.  Sauteed with butter and lime juice with jalapeno peppers and onion and a little soy sauce.  Plated them on corn tortillas with home made cole slaw, home made guacamole, and fresh salsa.  Was so good.

At least Troph posts pics.  The tacos sound great.

[bigshark88 388]

They finally started busting topwater yesterday

[troph 24929]

One picture??

I posted a bunch of fishing yacht boat pron in the boat fanatic thread.

[Mac8111 2118]

Sol - Penn spinning reels are probably the standard for durability and performance. Nothing fancy about them other than they perform day in and day out.

You can probably get 2000 size for them. Would be best to have them hold it in the store if possible.

[Mac8111 2118]

As for the rod in part 2 of your question - I think a 7 ft medium action spinning rod is probably the most versatile rod out there. Maybe check out All Star rods. They are usually pretty affordable and durable. I am guessing $89 or so. I got my wife a 7ft Castaway Taranis for under $100. It held up to me hooking a full grown pelican and reeling him in without breaking.

I love my Laguna Liquid rod I got at fishing show. I think it was $129.

[fattyflattie 4639]

On 2/25/2019 at 7:14 PM, Dry Elbows said:

I don't fish tournaments, but saw the POC Champions Cup is going to have a legit payout even without the calcutta and side pots.  I thought about entering, but haven't fished POC in years and don't have the time to scout right now. 

I would have been donating on this one. Heard the winning team had day 1 stringer of 28# and day 2 of 31#, with a 1# dead fish penalty. That’s some serious weight, especially on consecutive days. 

[UTEX90 589]

\

 

 

Edited April 9, 2019 by UTEX90

[UTEX90 589]

 

Edited April 9, 2019 by UTEX90

[thrillhammer 684]

utex, is that the guad?

[UTEX90 589]

3 hours ago, thrillhammer said:

utex, is that the guad?

No it is the Toccoa River in Georgia.  Took a float trip last Thursday.   We caught about 30.  Mostly rainbows in the morning and then the browns turned on.  Great trip.

[thrillhammer 684]

50 minutes ago, UTEX90 said:

No it is the Toccoa River in Georgia.  Took a float trip last Thursday.   We caught about 30.  Mostly rainbows in the morning and then the browns turned on.  Great trip.

looks great.  we stock the guad with rainbows and browns, about that size too.  looks great.

[Mac8111 2118]

I usually try to keep work and Surly separate, but I have been working on this for a while and it is finally a done deal.  Signed a deal to be a sponsor of CCA Texas with our Seaglass Wine Company.  Those of you who are CCA members should see an email blast any day now.  Those of you who go to the bigger  banquets will probably see our wine served there.  The Sav Blanc is always tasty and the Rose just got a 90 pt rating from Wine Enthusiast for back to back years. 

 

On separate note - the wind personally has it out for me and continues to kick my ass in 2019.  Those very rare days that I am not traveling or have kids events and think I can sneak down for a fishing trip, the wind and fronts seem to be giving me the big middle finger.  Went down to POC last week.  Weds was a complete bust.  Oyster boats were tearing up South Pass. It was windy and sun refused to come out and warm up the water.    Only saving grace was that Tuesday night, put the boat in the water at 6:30pm and made a quick run to Bill Day reef area.  Nothing was happening,.  On way in, right at dark, I saw bunch of birds diving, so we made quick decision to check it out.  Sure enough, bunch small trout sitting over this reef. Pretty much every cast was a 13-15 inch fish for 30 min or so. 

 

POC crawfish festival is last weekend in April.  They do a really nice job at the event. 

[fattyflattie 4639]

I’ll be fishing a small tournament on the 27th, hopefully can get some practice from about the 24th on.  Will likely be in West or Carlos south, but won’t be in ESB proper  

That crawfish festival must be legit. Last year there were cars overflowing several streets back (we stay off either front beach or 2nd, depending on weekend). Last year we were off second and couldn’t get boat in yard due to all the cars.  Crowded af. I can’t even imagine navigating front beach during that.  

 

[atomheartbevo 90109]

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.