Bent Hook Marsh - 11/14/09

I met up with John and Bobby C. yesterday morning at Bent Hook Marsh. Bobby C. brought along his neighbor, also a bass guy and also conveniently named Bobby (we'll call them Bobby C because that's what he goes by on here, and Bobby, whose last name I forgot). John arrived a bit early, having hit favorable traffic, I got there about 7:15, and the Bobbys got there about 7:30. We all put in and headed off to marsh #1. While we were cruising in there, I kind of gave a rundown of what the area was like and what to watch out for.

I didn't notice the same level of activity that I have been seeing here lately. I didn't pick up a trout first thing like has been the norm. Something seemed off and I still can't put my finger on it.

We moved deeper into the marsh, I tossed a pearl/chartreuse sea devil up into a little marsh drain and got a bite finally. Too bad it got off. I tossed there again and got a little rat red. Let him go and tossed in there again. The bite felt the same, but this was no rat red. Finally got it to the boat and it was a nice 23 inch red:

Here's John's "artistic" version:

I let this one go and threw my lure back out, got one bite but couldn't get it to the boat.

I decided to check the channel where Jason and I had found all those reds. Along the way, I managed to pick up this flounder:

The channel was empty of reds so I wandered aimlessly in the marsh looking for signs of fish. Finally found something interesting so I tossed the sea devil in there. Got a hit, but missed it. Tossed back in the general direction, got a really solid hit and a hookup. This was a nice slot red that started running. Well, bad luck strikes again. The knot holding my leader broke and I lost the fish. I was pissed. That's 2 leaders in 3 days that have died an unnatural death - and both times the knot's broken. I'm going to go without leaders for a while.

Came back around to near where we started and decided to try a shrimp colored saltwater assassin. Picked up a rat red about 15 inches with it:

Since it was now about 11:30, we decided to head out of this marsh and try marsh #2. John wasn't feeling great so he decided to head home, so it was just me and the Bobbys. I think John caught a few rat reds.

We got into marsh #2 just as the tide started coming back in. There were little white shrimp everywhere. Every time you'd cast, several would fly out of the water. I was interested in seeing if there were reds in that back lake that Jason and I had found, where I caught that big one last week. I didn't find any reds there, but there was a lot of mullet and I did see some signs that reds might be nearby (saw some bait flying out of the water). At the channel leading into the lake, I managed to pick up a trout on a gulp SM (pumpkinseed):

So, with trout, red, and flounder I now had my slam. Any day when you catch a slam is a good one, no matter what.

We left the lake and headed into some really skinny stuff:

Bobby C. yells that he found the reds. I had just run over a nice one, but I went his direction anyway. It's hard to find your way through the maze of marsh here. It took me a couple of tries.

Here's Bobby C. with a rat red:

I decided to explore another little part of the maze in the marsh, hoping to find a pool or something where reds were holed up and feeding. Taking note of the little white shrimp, I tried to find some sort of bait that would resemble it. The best I had on hand was a gulp SM (pearl white). I put that on and as I was approaching a pool in the marsh, I looked down to my right and saw a nice sized red about 23-24 inches just sitting in 6 inches of water. I almost could have grabbed him with my hand, but he scooted out of the way when I got too close.

I saw which direction he went and cast into the pool. After two casts, I had another red on. Got him to the boat and it was another 23 incher:

The whole time I was yelling out for Bobby to come up. I didn't care which one, both would have been good. Bobby C. came over.

I got this fish released and cast back out there. As soon as my lure hit the water, it was inhaled by a big red. The fight was on. He started running through marsh channels and I was afraid that if he went too close to some oysters or got much farther down the channels I was going to lose him so I started putting more pressure on him. He was still stripping drag and I was again afraid that I might get spooled.

At this point, the fish did something I've never seen a red do...or even heard about. He tailwalked. That was awesome and he looked like another 29-30 inch fish. Here's a photo of the fight taken by Bobby C.:

A few seconds after that pic was taken, my hook pulled loose. It came flying at my forehead with the speed of a bullet and it's only because of my cat-like reflexes that I was able to duck out of the way.

Here's the after shot, courtesy of Bobby C.:

Well, this fish stirred up everything in that pool and I was pretty sure everything had run out of there. I made a couple more casts, but to no avail.

A little while later, we decided to head out. I was running late and feared being grounded by my wife.

Just as we got out of the marsh, Bobby yelled out that he had a fish. I paddled back over to see. He had gotten a nice red, I think it's his first keeper out of the kayak. It was a really nice fish. Here's a pic:

Yes, I know. He's not wearing a pfd in the picture - shame on him. Truth be told, I didn't see him have one all day, but since I wear my own, I'm not his mother, and if you did fall out you could just stand up, it didn't really matter to me. I do think he needs more appropriate shoes though.

We got back to the cars about 3:30 and on my way home, since I was already late I decided to stop and take a few pictures:

LNG Tanker:

Floating hotel/shopping mall:

A few sunset pics:

All in all, it was an ok day. We had to do some serious grinding, but we did catch some fish. I ended up with numerous rat reds, a couple of slot reds, a trout, and a flounder. So, I got my slam. Bobby C. ended up with 5 rat reds, and Bobby ended up with a couple of rat reds and a slot red. John got several rat reds before he headed home. Weather was pretty nice. I think it was 70 degrees when we put in and in the low 80's when we took out. We had a tide change while fishing. Starting out, there was a pretty strong outgoing tide, this changed about noon to an incoming tide. Fish were caught around a mud bottom with lots of oysters, the last two were deep in the marsh. Water temp is now 72 degrees. We have a cold front approaching so that should drop off in the next week or so. Oh, and I didn't get grounded by my wife.

I'm developing a theory as to why there were plenty of little white shrimp in the marsh and we had a difficult time finding reds schooled up on them. I think it may be that a few weeks ago as a result of some high tides the shrimp were first being washed out into the main channels of the marsh. At that point, the reds were feeding like crazy. After a day or two of this, the reds have become used to it and so it take a little more work to get them to bite. I think that once the shrimp get pushed out into the bay, the resident redfish will become hungrier again and may start to feed voraciously again at anything that it put in front of them.

Bobby C. took a few more pics, but I don't know the story behind them. If he wants to add them to the comments section here he can.

Rick