For some reason big tournament weekends always seem to mesh with brutally elevated winds and the past weekend was no exception. Friday, Seadrift monitors picked up winds gusting to 30 MPH between 8 am and 1 pm. This has been the story for days now. In the drought cycle of 2009, the winds ramped up on or around 6/11 and blew near 30 all day and 25 all night until August 22nd. 2009 was my first introduction to a cycle of this nature and it was extremely challenging both mentally and physically. Like an old song, I’ve seen rain, flooding, Tropical this, and Hurricane That, but never an endless cycle of near 30 MPH winds all day and all night. During that siege, we managed to keep our guests on fish with respectable numbers, some days better than others. I remember when the cycle broke near the end of August, we laid into the fish deep into the Fall and I was glad to see a break in the cycle.

Guided Division “Rodeo Uncorked”

We’ve had some lulls in the wind and it looks like we may potentially have another coming toward the middle end of this week. That is, if you put any stock in an extended marine forecast. Despite the challenges, we put our money on Red and hit it numerous times here lately. Our Capt. James and Capt. Doug were both entered in the 2nd Annual Port O’Connor Redfish Rodeo “Uncorked” Tournament benefitting the Port O’Connor Volunteer Fire/EMS. My team last year took 1st Place but elected to not fish it this year. With plenty of pressure, James and Doug stepped up to the plate for a “nail biter” all the way to the end. At the end of Day 1, Capt. Doug was sitting in first place in the Guided Division with 16.33 Lbs. Capt. Clint Anderson was sitting in 2nd with 15.95 and Capt. James was in 3rd with 13.74lbs. 4th place was more than 4lbs behind James.

With carbon copy wind and weather Doug struggled with size as did Capt. James. When it came down to the weigh in on Day 2, there was less than a pound separating 1st from 3rd and Clint managed to edge Doug out for top honors with 30.03 lbs. Capt. Doug took 2nd Place with 29.57lbs and Capt. James held on to 3rd with 29.08lbs. Capt. Doug managed to also take 2nd Place Redfish Stringer and 2nd Place “Heaviest Stringer”. Congratulations to everyone for making the tournament a tight race to the finish. This makes our second top three finish this month with Capt. James Eastep taking the win in the Guides Cup earlier this month.

Capt. Doug Russell’s 2nd Place Group Redfish Rodeo “Uncorked” Tournament

“Norm Invitational”
We hosted the Norm Invitational again this year celebrating school Teach Mr. Norm Stuempke from Austin. This has been an annual event now for 5 years running and it always seems to coincide with lack luster fishing. This changed big time this year and Redfish took center stage along with some decent Trout action. Students of Norm flock to the lodge every year coming in from distant places at times to celebrate a great teacher and someone that had a tremendous impact on their lives. Everyone managed to limit on Redfish and Norm always manages to catch the first “good one” to kick everything off. Our hats off to you Norm!
Other guests and trips also managed to go deep into the Redfish and we want to thank everyone for trusting us to get it done in challenging conditions. Hope you have a great week! Capt. Kris Kelley Castaway Lodge 1-888-618-4868 www.seadriftbayfishing.com

John Luna of San Antonio, John Brymer and son John Brymer of Pleasanton and Matt Brymer of San Antonio with a 25” red and a 25” trout from the ICW on a very windy day. Capt. Bob Hill

We had a little bit of a reprieve from the wind a few weeks ago but for the last 8 or 10 days it has been back to the 20 – 25 mph category. It doesn’t even die down much overnight. When the wind was down we were finding good numbers of trout, reds, black drum and even an occasional flounder or two. The forecast is for the wind to give us a break about the time this issue should be out. We’ll see.

The San Antonio Bay and Espiritu Santo Bay reefs have been unfishable under the strong south and southwest gales. The water is off color everywhere except tight to the south shorelines. Even the ICW has been off color but we have caught some trout, reds and “puppy” drum in the canal on live shrimp.

The Back Lakes haven’t been giving up much. The wind has a tendency to blow the water out of the lakes when it blows this strong from the south so its been hard to get in to most of the lakes. When you do get in, the water color is not that bad but the grass makes fishing a little tough.

The jetties have been close to unfishable, and certainly uncomfortable, most of the time. Most boats are struggling to catch much. The water color has gone downhill under the pressure of strong wind and high seas.

Lets hope that the forecasters are right and we see a let up by the weekend. There are a couple of tournaments this weekend. One is an offshore tourney so those guys really need a break to have a good tournament.

Max and Joann Estrada Jr. of Flatonia, James Freytag, Kacey Hodges of LaGrange and Steven and Rosie Velasquez of Moulton caught some drum and pompano at the jetties. -Capt. Bob Hill

Lone Star Shootout at Caracol

The Houston Big Game Fishing Club’s 7th annual invitational billfish tournament, The Lone Star Shootout, is being held in Port O’Connor,Texas this weekend. The tournament returns to Caracol Waterfront Development in Port O’Connor, Texas with a field of 50 or more sport fishing boats gathering to compete for over $600,000 in prize money. Two days of fishing began at 12:01 am Friday morning, June 24th and will end at 3:00 pm on Saturday, June 25th. The tournament boats will be fishing the deep blue water in the Gulf of Mexico from 50 to 150 miles offshore of Port O’Connor.

The Lone Star Shootout is a modified billfish release tournament emphasizing the catch and release of blue marlin, white marlin and sailfish with video verification of the catches. The winner is determined by the total of billfish release points plus any points earned for weighed blue marlin. Weighed blue marlin must meet a minimum length requirement of 102 inches, measured from the fork of the tail to the tip of the lower jaw. The minimum length is in excess of the federal requirement and assures that any fish weighed in will be well over 300 pounds. Cash prizes and trophies are also awarded to the boats with the most billfish release points and the largest weighed yellowfin tuna, wahoo, dorado and swordfish.

The weigh in will be held at Caracol with the busiest time expected to be Saturday, June 25th between 4:00 pm and 7:00 pm. The public is invited to watch the boats arrive to weigh in and can expect to see some big fish. The size of all the fish brought to the scales is expected to be impressive considering the minimum weight for tuna, wahoo and dorado is 25 pounds and considering the quality of the fleet and crews competing for the big prize money.

Proceeds from the Lone Star Shootout benefit the charitable programs of the Houston Big Game Fishing Club. Detailed information about the Lone Star Shootout is available at: www.thelonestarshootout.com

Port Lavaca Angler First to Win with Tagged Redfish

Congratulations to Paul Resendez of Port Lavaca, who caught a tagged redfish on June 4, winning a truck/boat package from Texas Ford Dealers. Paul entered the CCA Star Tournament at Indianola Fishing Marina.

CCA released 60 tagged redfish ranging from 20 1/2 to 25 1/2 inches in length. The first five registered Star Tournament entrants who bring in a tagged redfish will win a 2011 Ford F-150 “Texas Edition” XLT SuperCab, pulling a brand new 23’ Haynie Bigfoot boat rigged with a Mercury 150L OptiMax motor and Coastline trailer. The next five tagged redfish winners will each claim a 23’ Haynie BigFoot boat with a Mercury 150L OptiMax motor and Coastline trailers.

Other fish caught can also net big rewards in this 22nd annual CCA Texas State of Texas Anglers’ Rodeo (STAR) sponsored by the Texas Ford Dealers and Tilson Home Corporation.

For more information, including a list of weigh-in stations, instant entry registration locations in your area and weekly leader board updates, go to http://www.startournament.org .