The fishing was tough, but it is good to be back!

I just couldn't stand it any longer. One quick phone call and Gene and I were on the lake yesterday afternoon.  It was "so good" to be back on the water, but we could never get anything going with the trout.  Aside from the fact that I was already freezing my tail off before it started raining to boot, we were able to fish anywhere we wanted with only a light wind.

We hit a number of spots all the way from Coffee Ground Cove to Game Warden Shack and the water was in pretty bad shape everywhere we stopped.  The water dumping out of the drains and bayous we stopped in front of was anywhere from 45 to 47.5 degrees.  The water behind Stewts and Sidney was 49 degrees, but even dirtier and we never saw any bait activity.

We stopped at the mouth of Burton's on the way in to see if we could fool a striper, but the tide was just starting in and that didn't set up well for striper fishing.  Much to our surprise, however, a huge school of small reds was hanging just outside the weir and it was a bite almost every cast for well over an hour.

Johnny ran a little further south than we did and he could not get anything going either.  He said the further south he ran the dirtier the water got and he also saw very little bait activity.  It won't take much to get the surface temperature back up to 50 degrees and the trout had been active all week in the slightly warmer water.

I was tickled to death just to get back on the water this quickly. I might be pushing it a little, but a few more scouting trips and I'm thinking it will be back to business as usual.  I hope I never have to go a month without fishing again!

Comments

[Lloyd Criswell]

Glad to hear that your back. Good luck.