Calm Conditions, Calmer Bite...

Hadn't fished in two weeks, so I had a pretty bad case of fisherman's withdrawal symptoms.  The weather conditions for the past two weeks, especially the weekends, had not been idyllic.  But the forecast for Sunday morning looked promising, calm winds out the W to NW along with some warming temperatures.  Sounded perfect for fishing those flats off the ship channel in the north end of Sabine Lake.

With that forecast, made the decision to get my medicine and head out Sunday morning.  Glad I waited till 9:00 a.m to launch, a fog and heavy mist was still prevalent, but visibility was good enough to safely navigate the channel.  Headed towards Goat Island, as I passed Sydnes Island, some waders were already in the water there.

Other than the lingering fog and mist in the air, the conditions were great.  Very calm with a nice glass table of water to cast into.  Began a drift behind Goat Island on the far east end.  Drifted the entire length to the island throwing Catch 2000's, a Corky, and an Electric Chicken Blurp.  Didn't get a hook up till I had reached the far west end of the island.  I had been chunking a black Catch 2000 most of the morning before switching to a gold one.  The gold drew a strike from a small trout.  Decided to head to the back side of Stewt's Island.  On the way, made one drift behind Sydnes around some scattered gulls without a bump or bite.

Began a drift behind Stewt's throwing the black 2000, tried the electric chicken blurp as well without any takers.  Switched over to the gold 2000 and hooked up on a nice 21" trout.  Landed another trout but just under 15".

After what seemed to be a thousand casts, decided to run all the way back to Goat Island in hopes things may have improved there.  Once again, the water was like glass.  Too perfect to not give a topwater a try.  I'll spare you the details, all I got to do with it was practice walking the dog, not a single swirl let along blow up.

All the while, gulls could be heard in the distance and some boat traffic was moving around in an attempt to pin down some fish.  I decided to pick up and run back toward Stewt's.  Ultimately ended up there along with some scattered gulls.  About a 1/2 dozen boats were further into the lake, I decided to hang where I was since the gulls were not really holding and were only making an occassional dive on bait.

Decided to go back to the blurp.  Made a cast to a swirl and immediately hooked up on a nice slot redfish.  Released him.  Went back to the gold 2000 and managed another trout at 18" and caught another that was once again just under 15".

Continued to drift behind Stewt's till about 4:15 p.m. before deciding I'd had enough.  Headed on in.  Seemed a shame, such nice calm conditions, but the bite was even calmer.  We can only hope to get such good conditions more often to find when that bite will turn on.

Behind Stewt'

Skittish Birds, Howling Wind, Limits of Patience...

Got my better half to go out fishing this past Sunday.  Besides, she bought the boat right!  Anyway, thought it would be a good day to get out on the water for some peaceful time out away from the house.  Wind was blow'in a little, but figured, eventhough the reports were good on North Sabine, we would be better off fishing in Keith Lake.  I always like a good excuse to fish there.

Well, that was a good call from a wind standpoint.  The wind was blowing pretty good, roughly a 15 mph clip out of the the ESE.  Not the best of winds for Keith Lake, but would have been way better than attempting it on Sabine.

Got out of the launch and headed not more than a half mile out when my wife spotted a flock of birds.  We had to attempt an approach from a downwind position.  That wasn't a good idea.  Shutting down 200 yards away, trying to troll into the wind, and then cast into the wind, you might as well be pulling against an anchor and casting into a brick wall.  And, my wife, although quite adept at using a rod'n'reel, hadn't been out in awhile, birds could have laid eggs in that reel after a couple of those casting attempts.

To avoid impending frustration, we ran into Johnson Lake, then into Mud Lake.  Spotted some bird action there as well.  Had a better opportunity to position upwind and work in silently.  But, the birds, at first glance, began to disperse.  I know, the fish are still there.  We caught a few undersized trout and reds, but without birds, an outgoing tidal current, and the wind, it was difficult to stay on fish or to find them.

We made several attempts at birds, everytime, no matter how far away we started in, they scattered.  With that frustration, anchored at a favorite floundering spot, baited up my wife with a live shrimp, while I chunked a glow/chartreuse curly grub tail, tipped with shrimp.  No matter, no flounder, no trout, only a lone redfish would be a taker.  He ended up a celebrity in these photo shots before returning to the waters.

Getting the wife out was very nice, she enjoyed the ride and fishing despite the wind.  But not catching fish with all the effort in that wind can tax ones patience.  I for one don't want to push the limits of patience, so it was time to head on home.

Where are the Flounder...

Fished Friday the 13th over in Calcasieu.  This was my first time to explore Calcasieu on my own and in my boat.  Brought along a friend and die-hard fisherman as well.  Calcasieu was our choice and we had high hopes of making a good haul on flounder.  See, in Texas, in November, you are only allowed 2 flounder per day, but in Louisiana you are allowed 10 per day.  Big difference.  Big difference in the frier, broiler, skillet, or on the grill as well.  And, we sure wanted to have just this one trip and stock up on this delicacy.

Well, we managed to do alot of exploring in the West Cove Area, Oyster Bayou Forks, and we even made a run to the west jetty boat cut.  Made a run around Monkey Island as well.  We managed a few nice specks early under some bird action, two nice bull reds at the boat cut, and finally landed two nice flounder in West Cove along with a redfish.

Here's one of those Bull Reds we caught.  Actually, we had doubled up, I landed what would have been a twin, I got mine to hand first, so unhooked and released so we could land the other and get this photo.

Friday the 13th may have spoiled our high expectations, but it didn't spoil our day on the water and away from work.  But, I am wondering, where are the flounder?

Keith Lake Chain Produces Fall Trout and Reds, But Flounder on the Other Hand?

Took out one of my son's childhood friends, Colby, who is like a half nephew and he calls me Uncle Mike, out into the Keith Lake chain for some fall fishing this past Saturday - November 6.  Although I had to make a cell phone call from his driveway at 5:30 a.m., he put himself together and was out the door in less than time than I could tie on a spoon.

We got launced at Junior's at 6:05 a.m. and headed out in the morning twilight.  I had high expectations and felt we couldn't go wrong in Keith Lake, especially with the freshwater influx into the north end of Sabine Lake from Rayburn and Toledo Bend.  The water looked good, we had good calm conditions early.

But, the ride to through Keith Lake, then through Redfish Pass and along all the points in Johnson showed no early gull flight overhead.  It was early, but I still fully expected to see birds.  We proceeded back to Mud Lake, cast netted some shrimp for tipping grub tails and catching what I now believed a very attainable limit of flounder.  Ok, 2 per person in November isn't much, or is it.

After catching some shrimp, set up a drift on a strong incoming tide with an ENE wind to push us along as well.  We were fishing curly grub tails in a root beer color and tipped with shrimp.  My favorite flounder hole produced that hammer thud on the 3rd cast, missed him.  A couple casts later, hooked up.  This fish starts to run, Ok, redfish.  Then she breaks the surface, she's a nice speckled trout - a 22 incher.  Made some more casts and produced another trout and an undersized Red.  Wait a second here, who's catching all the fish.  I turned to Colby and said "You go'in to watch me catch fish, or you go'in to start catch'in as well?"  It didn't take him long before he began contributing as well.

Soon after are first drift, we spotted a nice flock of gulls and began to catch a mixed bag of trout and redfish.  Most of the trout in the keeper size while the reds were mostly undersized with an occassional slot red.  We fished this pattern for awhile and managed 7 keeper trout and no tell'in how many redfish, we released all of them. 

Along with all the fishing, we did some exploring and sightseeing. Had a nice flock of geese fly directly overhead and had ducks flying within eyesight all morning long.

Now, back to the fishing, as you probably noted, no mention of flounder.  To my amazement, we didn't catch the first flounder all morning.  I'm confident the flounder are still in the Keith Lake Chain.  Water temp was 69 degrees, and the tide was running quite high.  I can't imagine them having migrated out of there just yet.  Besides, I've caught nice stringers well into November in the past.

We'll make another run at'em this coming weekend, but I may just give Calcasieu a try as well, gett'in into some flounder over there sure would be nice.  I can honestly say achieving a limit over there won't be easy, but it will be nice to know I won't have to stop at two in the box.

Later, and enjoy the few pics I managed.

Gett'in Together with the Ole Roomies

Heading up to the Chicago area to get together with the ole roommates from our Penn State days and high school days for that matter for a couple of the guys.  One of the ole roommates lives in the Chicago area.  One of the roommates is coming in from the Pittsburgh area, the other (along with his wife) is coming in from the DC area.  We all decided to take in the Penn State Versus Northwestern game on 10/31.  Apparently, Northwestern isn't too far from where he lives.

Anyway, looking forward to a tour of Downtown Chicago.  He's got quite a day planned for us.  Then, Saturday will be tailgating and Penn State Football, WE ARE PENN STATE!

More to come after the trip.

Murphy's Law, or Something Like That...

Murphy's Law, or come corallary to it applies to just about everything and anything, especially fishing. The one law or corallary of fishing is, 80 percent of the fish are in 20 percent of the water. Recently, I experienced both ends of the spectrum regarding this corallary.

Last weekend (10/17), a nice little cold front pushed through, figured the lake would be lit up with the flight of gulls over hungry fish. Went out in a friends boat, along with another friend of his. We launched at the RV park on Pleasure Island and proceeded to run across the lake toward Garrison's Ridge, then all the way to Johnson Bayou. Not a single flock of gulls! Fished the mouth of Johnson Bayou, one oversized redfish, one undersized redfish. Expecting the tide to turn and come in, we decided to head south to find better incoming current.

Once again, ran all the way to Blue Buck Point, nada, all the way through the south end of the lake, nada. We ended up all the way in Sabine Pass trying to catch some flounder. All the while, not a single flock of birds, except for those following the prop wash of a ship. And, nothing more than a couple of hardheads.

Made the run back to the launch where we meet up with another group just coming in as well. His comment, "Could you believe all the birds?" My buddy replies, "You've got to be kidding." He says, "No, not at all, the north end was wall to wall birds". He had culled some keeper trout and a couple of limits of redfish to boot.  He called a friend of his who was fishing the south end that was experiencing the same thing we were, no birds, no fish.  But, that friend got the word and made the run to the North End to join in on the fishing frenzy.

Well, that's experience no. 1 on the bad side of the 80/20 corallary.

The following Saturday (10/24), decide to bring along my buddy's friend from last week's long boat ride and make a late afternoon trip. Word once again was, "wall to wall birds in the north end." I know how that goes, but, this late in the day, gotta go on the best and only information we had.

Headed into the North end via a boat launch and ride from Port Neches park. Get in behing Stewt's Island, nada, run along further, looking, trying to find just a glint of a gulls flapping wings, nada. Beginning to sound familiar. We figured, this can't be, can't end up in the wrong 80% again.

Well, continued to run up into Coffee Ground Cove, and saw a couple of gulls sitting on the water, decided to inspect a little more closely. A swirl in the water, some nervous bait, that trout kissing the surface of the water sound, yeah baby, we found'em.

No flock of gulls, but we had finally found some fish. Caught one trout, moved around, looking for more signs, caught some more, began culling some keepers out of the schoolies. For the most part worked one area pretty good, had one boat move in, but they kept their distance.

Decided to see if there were greener pastures, ran further east and found a good flock of gulls. By this time, we already had 8 keeper trout. We fished this flock for a solid hour and a half and finished off our two limits of trout and also picked up 3 keeper reds. Caught most of the trout and reds on plastics, glow Yum minnows. And, couldn't resist some topwater action and caught a few on a Top Dog Jr. silver belly, black back.

We finished up right at sunset and headed back in. We didn't want to quit till we had those two limits of trout. To get those, it was probably a 6 or 7 to 1 ratio of schoolies to keepers, so, you could say we caught a bunch of trout. And, we could say, we finally found the right 80%. That's fishing both ends of the spectrum. But one things for sure, you don't know where the fish are from your couch. Get out and get'em.

My Amazing Wife

Well, the boat had been in the shop for several weeks, so, yeah, I was antsy. Prime time fishing is about to be upon us and I'm still boatless. I was so antsy, Melissa, my wife, and I decided to look at some really nice Blue Wave boats on the lot while my boat was in the shop. On the lot was a Blue Wave 19STL, a tunnel hull boat. I just went GaGa over this boat. My wife obviously sensed this. Now, her plotting and scheming began.

With my boat still in the shop, she worked with Jody, the owner, to order me a new boat (the one on the lot got sold). And, the plotting and white lies ensued everytime I had gone in to check on my boat. The mechanic was sick, carburetor part on back order, etc. It was getting down to the wire, Labor Day weekend upcoming, I wanted my boat back.

Then the call came in the Friday leading into the Labor Day weekend, "Mike, your boat is ready." Sure, ok. Honestly, I wasn't all that pumped up, I'd been without my boat for nearly 8 weeks, so I wasn't real sure just how much I wanted to get out on Labor Day weekend after all. Figured it would be crowded, I don't like crowds or waiting at the boat launch. My wife persisted, "You want to pick up your boat or not?" Ok I guess.

We headed down to the Boat Ramp. Oddly, my boat wasn't out on the lot ready to pick up and the bay doors to the shop were closed. Headed into the store. Jody came out, said, "Your boat's ready, I need to show you something."

"Ok", I said, figuring I'll finally see what part had been on back order and that was keeping me off the water.

We walked into the shop, and in the right shop bay was that Blue Wave tunnel hull boat, identical to the one I liked so much. Jody says, "Here's your boat, its changed a little."

I looked at him and said, "Don't mess with me, that's not my boat, where's my boat?"

"No, this is your boat, really!"

"No way, just get me my boat."

Jody and Melissa, both confirmed, this is Your Boat!

Jody, further confirmed, "Your wife bought you this boat."

In disbelief, but knowing my amazing wife, I wasn't surprised. She has always been amazing and pulled off some surprises in the past, just none this big or well risky.

Jody chimed in, "You've got a great wife." I couldn't agree more.

Here's what I'll be, no, here's what my wife and I will be fishing out of. I think she likes it nearly as much as I do.

Cajun Guide Does It Again

Fished with friends and the Cajun Guide Service out of Hackberry, LA. Like last year, got into some outstanding fishing. As one of the gang said, this trip was probably one of our best, not only caught lots of fish, but we also caught some good quality fish. And, I'm more and more convinced about the quality of the fishery over here on Calcasieu Lake. As Capt. James said, the question to be asked isn't "Am I going to catch fish?", it's "How many am I going to catch?"

Last year, we hammered the redfish early and limited out within 45 minutes. This year, the speckled trout were on fire. No complaints at all with those trout, and we did manage a handful of keeper reds along with an oversized red that we obviously released.

We fished the Cameron Jetties this year with Capt. James. A first for me. The fishing started out slow, but really picked up by 7:30 a.m. or so. And, the bite was steady for about an hour and half. Our boat landed 29 specs, several in the 20"+ range and one easily pushed 25" or 26". I think we only measured one trout, while all the others were easily eyeball rulered and thrown on ice. The other boat, piloted by Capt. Kevin, landed 35 specs and a couple of reds as well. I'd be remiss to not mention the third boat, Captained by Philip, our Capt. last year, they managed a nice haul of fish as well.

This was a very welcomed and appreciated fishing trip as I had not been out fishing in nearly 2 months due to my boat still out of commission, carburetor part on backorder. And, it's always a pleasure to share a good time with not just coworkers but also friends. This was a really a great trip from arrival to departure. We got in earlier than last year and had the opportunity to sit, relax, sip a brew or two...maybe more, snack, and then sit down to a delicious, cajun meal. This year we were treated to shrimp and crab gumbo. I've had none better. Up early in the a.m., fixed a quick breakfast or eat some of the leftover brownies from the night before, as I did. Then off we go. Fished from sunrise till nearly noon.

This trip has merely caused a relapse of fishing fever. It's only going to get better with fall approaching. My boat better be ready soon!

Here's a pic of the gang and the haul of fish. And, Thanks to Capt. Kevin, Capt. James, and Monica at Cajun Guide Service.

Pictures From Camp...

Couple of pics from the 4th of July Parade up at our camp near Mill Creek Park. The one photo has our two puppy dogs, Casper and Frosty, enjoying their favorite pastime, riding in the golf cart. All in all, we had roughly 30 golf carts in the parade. The parade route was through Mill Creek Park where we threw out candy, beads, stuffed animals, etc. out to the kids.

Pens Fan Superstition Wins Cup...

Sidney Crosby bucked past superstition and happily embraced the Prince of Wales trophy this year. Quite different from last years almost black cat in my path scared avoidance of it last year. Superstition runs high amongst all sports players, especially hockey players. For a good rundown of them in hockey, go to http://msn.foxsports.com/nhl/story/9620326/Hockey's-best-playoff-superstitions.

But, as us sports fans know, superstition extends through that cathode ray tube, those light emitting diodes, or that kaleidascopic of plasma or digits and pixels that make these new-fangled TV's display our sports dreams. The players on the other side feel our almost warlock spell casting aura, that ESP, that voice in our head. To cast our goodness, or for that matter our misfortune against our opponent, we have to wear a certain hat, jersey, sit in a particular chair, eat a particular meal, etc., etc., etc. to ensure our team wins, or, fail to carry out your rituals and cast a spell of doom over them.

Well, I must say, it's my fault for the Penguins immolation, as the Pittsburgh Post Gazette's David Molinari put it, in Game 5. In the Pens wins in Games 3 and 4, I chose to sip on The Balvenie Scotch. But, I had run out for Game 5. Oh, believe me when I say how I pondered the decision to just stick to a nice stout beer for Game 5 or to go with a Scotch, albeit a Bowmore Islay malt. I chose the Bowmore, a bad choice; and you all saw the result, a 5 - 0 loss.

How did I reverse that atrocious spell and bring the Pens to victory? Well, this took great thought as I had a problem, no Balvenie in the house, and the 10 yr old is nowhere to be found, it's been discontinued. Onto a backup plan, the old faithful standard, a good stout beer, my other choice back in game 5. Nothing like going to a gameplan that has carried me and my team to victory more often than not. My record with a good stout is an impeccable .867 (hell, I don't really know what it, that just sounds good and almost honest). No changeups in game 6 or game 7, oh how I'm so glad my superstition carried the Pens through to victory. Toasting Maxime Talbot's goals, Hal Gil's and Matt Cooke's hits, Rob Scuderi's pokes at the puck, Malkin's magical skate assist, Crosby's skating prowess, Fleury's saves, and on, and on, and on. From now on, I'll just have to keep it simple and not imbide my superstition on a discontinued scotch - We can all ill afford to jeopardize next season so soon.

Early to Bed, Early to Rise, ...

Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise. I believe Ben Franklin is credited with that quote. Leading into my planned outing, the only thing I did was rise up early only to be let down by more wind and just a little too much easterly component to hit the surf in the LA pocket. Was through the boat cut of the East jetty at 5:45 a.m. only to find choppy, muddy water. So, abandoned that plan right away.

Decided to go to the outside of the West/Texas jetty hoping to find better water there on the outgoing tide. It was marginally better. Trolled from the boat cut to the end of the jetty throwing traps, plastics, and slow sinkers. My only highlight, lost a redfish on an Assassin Blurp.

Headed back up the channel hoping for better water and wind conditions, to no avail. Decided to pull out, eat breakfast and settle in on a new plan.

Well, the new plan was to head into the north end of Sabine. The wind had not relented and was still out of the NNE. So, the open water of the north end was a bit rough. The water clarity was much better though. And, I found a dirty water/tide line. Worked it with a variety of lures, nada.

With the chop in the lake, I opted not to run too much in search of fish or birds, so headed up to Bird Island bayou. Tried a cut there for awhile. Nothing, decided to call it a day at about 2:00 p.m.

Maybe next time, I ought to go to bed earlier, get up later, and catch a lot more fish. After this trip, I needed a good nap.

Good Weather, Good Water, But...

Wow, fishing conditions last week were really great. Usually, the pattern is great weather during the work week, crappy weather on the weekends. Well, this was one of those exceptions. Decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather starting Friday afternoon.

Brought along a fishing partner and headed to Sabine Pass and Lighthouse Cove. As expected, lots of boats at Lighthouse Cove, word was out that this has been a Hot Spot of late. We still managed to find ourselves a spot and not get in the way of anyone else.

The fishing was, well, Ok. Lots of little trout and flounder. We were fishing Gulps. Fishing the plastics was yielding short strikes on virtually every cast. Suspect those were all small fish. Live bait being used by some around us probably brought more fish into the boat, but I would venture to guess 1 in 5 may have been keepers. But that is better than the 1 in 50 we put in the boat. But the one we put in the boat, and, no I didn't catch it, was 24 7/8" trout. I'd venture to guess that's pushing 5 lbs or more. Not a bad one to put in the boat.

Beyond the one trout, we did manage two keeper flounder out of probably 10 or so undersized. Between two stints at the cove, we tried the Texas Jetty. Water looked good, but of all things, the wind had shifted to out of the south. It wasn't supposed to do that. I fought the wind and the trolling motor for maybe an hour before we had headed back to Lighthouse Cove.

Seeing the water conditions and with the wind and weather holding through Saturday, and, no, didn't make it out Saturday, some home chores to take care of, I headed out to some uncharted, unexplored waters on Sunday morning. I knew with the wind and weather holding along with great fishing reports, the boat traffic would be bad. Let's just say, the jetty wall looked more like pit row at a NASCAR race. Anyway, I made it an very early morning, got to the Launch at 5:00 a.m. and headed for the surf area in the Louisiana Pocket. I had never ventured into this area before, but figured the water ought to be right.

Motored up into the pocket area slowly and monitored the water depth. I'm alway nervous about running in unfamiliar territory. And, with Hurricanes Rita, Humberto, and Ike over the past several years, you just don't know what's beneath the surface.

Amazingly, I was able to run up to probably 100 yards of the beach. And, this was on a low tide. I was very pleased to see green water and lots of bait. Spotted some nervous bait and starting chunking a topwater, a top dog jr. No takers. Tried some plastics. On one of my casts, had one of those strikes that quickly yielded an lureless line, I suspected a spanish mackerel.

Went back to a topwater, had one blowup and then finally stuck a good 23" trout. Getting that first fish is always a great feeling. And, with the conditions as they were, I thought, man I'm in the fish now. Well, after another hour or so of chunking lures, that was all she wrote.

Made a run to the LA jetty. As I already said, lots of boats. Trolled some open areas along the outside of the jetty. I'll say this, the water was absolutely gorgeous, along the jetty wall, you could see bottom. Although I couldn't rustle up a strike, I was able to see sheepshead come out of hiding from the rocks and either turn a nose up at my offering or strike at some glass minnows.

I had another interesting observation while chunking a rattletrap, a, what I believe to be a triple tail, made a pass at it. After talking with a couple of other folks who had also fished over the weekend, I suspect it was. Apparently, lots of triple tail were in.

That observation along with bluefish at the end of the jetty busting bait along the dirty water line was neat to see. With the tide all but slack at 10:00 a.m. I decided I wasn't going to wait on the tide to turn and the bite to turn on. From what I heard, I would not have had to wait much longer as the bite turned on at about 11:00 and was good till about 2:00 p.m. Hey, no regrets, I accomplished what I wanted, I explored some new and very promising water. So, when the weather, the water, and the bite all get right, I'll be there --- Some Day!

Finally, Back on the Water...

After about 2 months of not being able to get out on the water and get some inshore action in, I finally got back on the water and back in the game so to speak. Heading into the Memorial Day weekend, I was getting pumped up. I had Friday off to boot. But, I couldn't hold back my anticipation, bugged outta work early Thursday and headed out for some late afternoon fishing. And, what a start it was.

Launched at Sabine Pass and headed for Lighthouse Cove, set anchor on a swift outgoing tide and started chunking Gulp's the mackeral variety. And, right away, catching fish. Started out with a couple of keeper flounder. Then, started catching a mix of undersized redfish and trout. I didn't have many of the Gulp in mackeral. Started using a curly grubtail with some shrimp Yum. Continued to catch numerous undersized redfish, right in that 16" to 18" range.

Amidst the undersized fish, managed a couple more keeper flounder and two nice trout, both over 20". Then, finally, some bigger redfish. After a couple of breakoffs, managed three very nice 23" to 25" redfish.

At this point, relinquished my anchor spot to some other fisherman and decided to troll the bank. Redfish were teaming up the glass minnows and darn near wiping out some egrets at the shoreline dinner table. Threw a topwater, but only got one to roll on it, no serious takers. Called it quits right at sundown. 4 flounder, 3 redfish, and 3 trout.

With that trip, I was once again pumped for Friday. Different game plan though. Headed to Keith Lake at first light. Launched the boat and headed to Mud Lake. Got up on a flat and attempted to do some poling, not too easy with about a 10 mph NW wind. With a lot of water up on the flats, and with the wind, was difficult to see any action. Abandoned that plan and headed to Salt Bayou. The flounder were thick along the bank and busting glass minnows and shad. I threw several different lures, gulp, grub tails, bass assasins, topwater, no takers. Since I had afternoon plans to fish with a friend and some trolling motor problems to resolve before 4:00 p.m., decided to head on out. On the way out attempted to explore the Horseshoe canal only to find out it is closed, and probably just as well, it appears Ike had dropped in quite a bit of mud and grass was growing in the canal.

Also, while on the way out, spotted a boat up on a flat. Some guys fishing out of a shallow water boat with a crow's nest. Saw them when I got to the launch, they were apparently pre-fishing for an upcoming Redfish Cup tourney.

Once back home and running some errands, got the trolling motor woes resolved and headed back out at 4:00 with a friend. Back to Lighthouse Cove. My friend doesn't get out as often as he would like (don't we all), and it's difficult to string together a nice outing. And, I was sure hoping we could get into the same spot I was in Thursday and that the bite would be on again. Well, it was. Once again, lots of undersized fish. Both reds and trout. All our fish were on Gulps. We managed 6 flounder, 3 redfish, and 2 trout for the cooler and alot of other landed fish made for a very good trip.

That's not all, but Saturday's trip was totally different. A neighbor friend and I headed out to Keith Lake to do some crabbing. Some threatening weather to the west kept us from running too far, so tried a spot that I hoped would produce some crabs. Not a problem, we ended up with 5 1/2 doz crabs over three hours.

So, what am I about to do right now, on Sunday evening, eat some crabs! And, Monday, or sometime real soon, a fish fry. MMMMMMM,MMMMMM GOOD!

Every Fishermans' Caught a Limit of Red...

Wow, never though I could catch a limit so quickly this morning. Every fisherman, let me clarify, every fisherman with a boat can quickly catch a limit. Here's just how quickly it went.

Number 1, boat in the water at sunrise. Number 2, boat doesn't crank on first try, oh yeah, prime the fuel bulb. Number 3, still no fire, pull the cover off, and the carburator cover, we're getting fuel, still no go. Number 4, fellow fisherman offers some starter fluid, hey thanks man, I owe ya, still no fire. Number 5, pull the boat out of the water and head home, just 1:45 minutes after sunrise.

That's a pretty darn quick limit of Red Ass. My fellow fisherman, we've all been there. I've been towed in three times in my boating lifetime, and towed a couple of individuals in myself. You gotta love it, till the limit of Red Ass bites ya in the ass.

Better luck next time on a different species.

The First Blog...

Well, giving this blog thing a go for the first time. It's been around for quite sometime now, and I've been doing the twitter thing, but there just isn't enough room to say anything unless you just keep updating. This blog thing seems to be the better way to go to just post more information, news, or whatever for anyone who cares to check out this blog.

So, what will this blog tell the world, or at least the small community that may stumble here. Well, I like to fish, inshore saltwater fishing to be exact. I'll share fishing reports for the Sabine Lake area and also Lake Sam Rayburn (freshwater for those who don't know).

Beyond fishing, I'll share my passion for various sports teams. I'm a damn Yankee from the Pittsburgh Area, so I'm a Steelers and Penguins fan. I've lost my passion to follow the Pirates since the "We are Family" days. I'm an Astros fan now.

After fishing, yardwork, a hard day at work, I enjoy beer, tequila, and scotch tasting. I make periodic runs to Spec's to check out a new beer, test the complexities of a different brand of single malt scotch, or a nice reposado or anejo tequila.

That's just a few of the things you might run into here. I might get on a rant about some other topic, but I'll steer away from politics, religion, and my family, those are personal, sacred, and just don't need to be shared.

I just hope I can make someone's day or share something useful.