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.