Sgt. Miranda De La Morena getting in on some Combat Redfishing before she heads to her 1st tour in Iraq next month. Shoot often, keep your head down, and Thanks for your service.
Once again, Spring is in full swing. That means some great days on the water and some days that you don’t want to get caught in fast moving High Wind Thunderstorms. We send our condolences to the families and friends of the passed fishermen who have drowned while fishing in our area over recent years. The weather and currents this time of year can be pretty extreme from calm to steady winds, to violent winds switching directions with powerful rain and lightning, all within minutes. I’m by no means a meteorologist but have over 2 decades of on the water experience in this stretch of the Gulf Coast. The on shore flow from the Gulf of Mexico plus changing water temperatures causes unstable weather patterns in this section of the Coast. The severity, violence changes and timeliness of the pattern makes our weather unpredictable causing fishermen great grief, really it is anyone’s guess when and how the systems arrive here. So when northers meet our primarily southerly wind flow this also causes un predictable weather patterns which mean hazardous conditions on the water that even the saltiest boat captain needs to stay ashore.
Over the last several years, I have been involved in searches, rescues and other distressed incidents. Thank Goodness they have been favorable. Since we live in an outdoor oriented community surrounded by water, My personal opinion is we are exposed to more abnormal situations that normally don’t exist in most other communities inland. The vast landscape and hard to get places with limited on the water responders puts boaters at a distinct disadvantage when needing immediate on the water help. We already have great 1st responders and on Big Weekends, Holidays and Tournaments, they are consistently keeping us safe without any major disaster. It’s the rest of the time that boaters are exposed in our shallow water Bays. Obviously the deeper areas are easily traversed to get to open water accidents and scenes. I am talking about the shallow bays, back bays, small lakes which don’t have names and even smaller areas the seasoned Captains may have issues finding a distressed boater. How about the little ponds off of Pringle???? There are several small ponds or lakes that don’t have names but have subtle landmarks such as duck blinds broken roads and other washed up debris. This is where visitors young and old, locals and out of towners run the highest risk of unfavorable outcomes of needing assistance when lost or have an accident. Throw night into the mix. Add high winds with approaching Thunder boomers. Some of the Local Guides are having growing concerns of needing faster responses quicker assistance in the shallow out of reach places that only special boats can get to those locations. There is always multiple units sent out to accident scenes. See where I’m going with this? Shallow Running boats equipped with 1st responder equipment and airboats to get personnel in the hard to reach shallow water areas.
This growing need for an on the water team of responders that have shallow water knowledge of the terrain and current conditions is a topic that is a growing concern with our growing population of on the water boaters. Our County is growing, the population of boaters and on the water recreational users is the primary reason for a County Marine Response Team. This would be a great asset to our community and help save lives having on the water ready to go Marine Responders when time is of the essence.
It is our hope that we keep our waters safe through our articles and advisories. I always like to throw safety reminders in my articles hoping I keep someone from making a mistake on the water.
Back to the Report:
The fishing has been lukewarm to red hot. We went out on a scouting mission yesterday hours before the last storm. Top waters were the bait of choice. Bone Chrome Bone was the color and what those shallow water predators wanted as the barometric pressure was dropping, pre front. Trout responded on cue. The reds were a little skeptical but we inked out 4 keepers. The best thing about the grind of the day we had a guy in the group that paid attention to the Radar and picked us up about an hour before it hit the ICW. Now, I cleaned fish in the rain and wind but we were home safe waiting for VEC to restore power from the violent rain and winds. I did wonder about the couple of boats that were possibly still out when the Boomer hit the Bay.
The other day we were able to take trout on shrimp and popping corks. Other reports, Croaked are showing up at local bait stands and are already producing nice stringers of trout. Reds, well they still like mullet and sardines.
I’m not a fly guide so I never really have any fly stories. However, I was able to drop 3 fly fishermen off in a Sandy Pocket in the back bays and low and behold they each landed a fish on fly rods. That’s about the the extent of my Fly Fishing Guide Sessions.
Happy Easter and Hope your Holiday was Safe.
If you are looking to Book a Fishing Trip with Saltwater Lodge, Call Scott at 361 785 3825.
Re-Tie often, Don’t forget a rain jacket, and wear sunscreen.
Captain Jeff Larson
