Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!  It is raining right now and we have been fishing under overcast skies all week long.  The incredibly easy bite slowed way down yesterday and today for us, but the earlier part of the week was as good as it can get.  The redfish appear poised to take over the shallows again, but we still caught a few trout in the 27-inch class when they would leave us alone.

I have been catching some very nice trout Carolina rigging a Maniac Mullet on the deep breaks along the river over the past month or so, but we have just been tying it on and fishing it the way it was intended to be fished this week.  The better trout started showing back up in the shallows and they have eaten the Maniac Mullet better than anything else I have offered them.  You have to fish it a little quicker becasue it sinks faster than a Corky Devil or other suspended lures and they are crushing it when they catch up with it.

I am not throwing my Corkies or Catch V's away any time soon, but I fished wtih two friends that are better fishermen than I am half a day last week and all but two of the fish we kept were caught on the Mullet.  We threw tails, topwaters, Fatboys....you name it!

This hawk would have drowned had she not turned loose of her catch!

Gene and I scouted one day this week and drove up on a sight neither of us had ever seen.  Two large hawks (I don't know what kind) were drifting side by side in the middle of the bayou.  One was all but going down for the count, while the other one was trying to get whatever the other one was dragging beneath the surface.

One immediately got up and flew off, but the other one was reluctant to drop its prey unti we got right on top of it and herded it to the shoreline.  It climbed up on a log and dried off before finally flying away.

The redfish like the Maniac Mullet as well!

Everyone we talked with just killed the fish that day as it was dead calm and the conditions were perfect. We caught all the trout on tails that Gene wanted to keep before switching to the M.M. and drifting the shallow flats.  It was surprisingly good as we not only caught and released some very good trout, but several big reds as well.

Gene released this nice trout after a little oral surgery.

The last two days have been tougher for me.  We caught at least one big trout both days on the Mullets, but we didn't get a lot of bites.  I have really enjoyed the incredibly easy bite in the river, but it has been great finding the larger trout back on the flats.  That unexpected thump on a Corky or M.M. is as good as it gets any time of the year.

I ran over to Daley's Friday to pick up a few more Mullets before they closed through Monday for the holidays and they only had a couple of the colors I needed.  Much to my surprise, Keith called Dana Bailey and he said that they would send him a 100 more early next week.  I had talked with Dana earlier in the day and he said they were swamped and making them as fast as they could.

My wife is telling me to hurry up so we can get to Christmas Eve service on time.  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!