Wind stopped and the fish started!

Cole with a fat four-pound speck

The wind backed off Thursday and Friday and we got in two very good days.  The Peterson family fished with me Thursday and we had a great time.  We actually found very few gulls to work, but were fortunate enough to find several solid schools of fish chasing shrimp to the top. The boys kept their Dad and I busy unhooking fish and untangling lines, but he caught his fair share when he had time to cast.

All of the Peterson's got in the act

I got lined out early on when I expressed concern that we would have to have a little luck as timing and location are critical right now.  Nine year old, Cole, immediately responded, " Don't worry, If God wants us to, we'll put meat on the table!"  This was there first shot at saltwater fishing and I think we caught at least one of every thing before the day was over.

We kept our string alive with two more big trout, but most of the school trout were in the 16-18 inch class.  We did much better with dark colored Assassins even though the water clarity had not changed much.  It was silted up badly in the morning, but continued to clear with the incoming tide.

Earl and Peggy Theiss drove in from the Hill Country to fish with me Friday and we had one of those special days.  Once again we found some solid trout with Texas roach and Pumpkin-chartreuse Sea Shads. but the best trout of the day ate a bone-chrome She Dog.  We already had a very good box of trout when we found the big trout feeding on a 2-3 foot flat right in the middle of the day.

Earl Theiss with one of several big trout that ate his bone-chrome SheDog

There was no indication that they were there until I had a 24 inch fish blow up on a Super Spook.  From that point on, it was the Earl Theiss Show as he quickly bested my fish and worked his way up from there.  The largest of his specks just sucked the lure down and headed east.  He did have two in the 5-6 pound ranged that blew sizable holes in the water!

As good as all of this sounds, and it was good, there was a premium for being in the right place at the right time.  We could have just as easily done very poorly both days had we not stumbled up on solid schools of fish that were not even under the birds.  It can be very frustrating knowing the better trout are in the area and trying to decide to stay or cover water when they do not quickly show.

The later it gets each morning, the more panicky the anglers get and there is lots of boat traffic through prime water at much too high a rate of speed.   We are finding far better schools of fish idling around smaller areas than covering lots of water in pursuit of gulls.

Most of the trout I have cleaned lately have been full of eggs.  We have been on a run of late with big trout that has surprised me.  With the exception of Friday, we are catching only one or two a trip, but they are big ol' fat trout.  Johnny caught a trout on a Spook while talking with us that would push six pounds Thursday and Chris Allen said that he and Tracy Stringer broke off a trout that may have gone double digits a few days earlier!

We released a 27 inch fish in all of the wind earlier in the week that was obviously full of eggs that hit a Poppa Dog.  I do not fish that lure very often, but we have done well with it when fishing choppy water.  I think it is a much better lure with a bucktail added to the back end.