Lots of fun in the sun and some absolutely gorgeous weather during the week. Wind volatility played a big role in strategy pushing defensively into Redfish while eyeing broader open water for tide movement and a possible run at Trout. As we headed toward the weekend, winds began to settle a bit and which opened up broader bay reefs. With grass being the go to for both Trout and Redfish in heavy winds, shell turned on with the incoming tide with Trout to 20” coming to hand.
On Friday, we even stumbled in to an aggressive school of Redfish handing a little deeper over shell and I can tell you that was a big surprise. Lighting up the boards included some strong boxes from Capt. James C. wade fishing shorelines to limits of Trout to 22” with Buck T. and family. Capt. Chris C. absolutely dominated the boards at Charlie’s with Redfish limits over two days fishing with Buck T’s. guests as well. Capt. James E. went to school with John C. and guests to limits of Redfish with a handful of Trout working grass while Capt. Terry S. dug in hard on productive areas taking half limits of Trout and several Redfish. I went deep in the Redfish late week with Scott L. and returning guests including oversize to 29” along with a few Trout.
Trout success still seems heavily centered around wade fishing approaches on shorelines with boat fishing approaches very hit and miss. Boat fishing so far this year has seen great success. However, it seems to all involved that boat fishing has a lot of timing issues right now and that’s something you can only do so much about. Defensive Redfish plays will continue to be an important part of boat fishing “Trout approaches” because we can’t predict one day to the next. With winds stabilizing and the WIX easing a bit, hopefully things will get more predictable in the near term.
Outlook for the coming week includes some chances of rain but the biggest mover, the WIX (Wind Volatility Index) has taken a nose dive into really strong technicals for some awesome fishing. We may have to dodge a shower or two but there’s more 5-10 knot predictions in the estimate than I’ve seen this year to date.
A First For Me
On Saturday I had another first in my career, something I’ve never seen before in all my years on the water. We were in the airboat fishing for redfish in the back lakes. We see a lot of Coyotes back there along with deer and some hogs and even a few Alligators. We see Coyotes crossing small back lakes from time to time. We watched as a Coyote wandered out into the lake we were fishing and began to actually “fish”. His nose was down and he was making slow small circles through the water. This went on for at least a half hour. While his luck and our luck were about the same in that location, it was really awesome watching him work.
I’ve heard stories from the old “net fishermen” that back in the day when they were Gill Netting, Coyotes would pull the end stake of the net up and drag the Gill Net and all the fish onto the bank and devour them. That’s pretty wild stuff right there.
We hope the start of the week is a good one for everybody. Come see us when you get a chance!
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Capt. Kris Kelley
www.seadriftbayfishing.com Facebook: Castaway Lodge
