Bayou Vista - Jones Lake - 11/22/09

After our trip to Jones Lake a few days ago, Jason and I started to plan a trip where we would launch at Bayou Vista, paddle through the bayou to see if it's starting to turn on yet and then cruise into the marsh we had so much success at in Jones Lake. Seemed like a good enough plan, so we also invited John along.

We all three met up at Whataburger this morning to have breakfast and discuss the day's paddling/fishing options. After that, we went to Louis' and put in about 6:15 am. The sun was just starting to rise, there was very little wind and the tide was a strong outgoing tide. We had high tides yesterday and this morning and it was going to be interesting to see if everything had scattered or if the fish were still where we had found them a few days ago.

Anyhow, we paddled on down the bayou, got to the railroad bridge and started fishing there. I got a couple of hits near there, but wasn't fast enough. We all went under the bridge and started casting about hoping for a trout. I got one. A nice one too! This one went about 20 inches. Here's a pic, courtesy of John:

Cast out a few more times and got three more trout, all on a gulp SM (pumpkinseed). None were over 15 inches though. Jason also caught a small trout. Nothing yet for John.

We continued on down the bayou. Jason and I checked the shoreline next to the oysterbed that I like to fish. I saw a red feeding in the grass but wasn't in position to take the cast. I yelled to Jason since the red was right next to him, but Jason was too far away from me to hear. Meanwhile, John saw some birds working and went to check them out. He came back and said they weren't working, but roosting.

We continued on. John finally got on board with a small redfish:

We decided to head out of the bayou and towards the marsh in Jones Lake. We followed the railroad tracks all the way there, stopping at each of the small bridges.

Jason managed to land a flounder. Looked like a nice one too, but when he held it up for the picture, it jumped out of his hands. This is the second time in the past few trips. All you can do is grin, I suppose:

At the first bridge, I started tossing the white gulp SM. I got a big hit and a good hookset. It fought like a big trout, but I couldn't raise it. Finally decided it would be a big flounder, maybe a personal best. Alas, it bit through my line. Still don't know what it was but I'd put money on a big flounder due to the location, the way the line was cut and the fact that I couldn't raise it.

Meanwhile, John was back in action. Here he catches another small red:

And the release. I didn't get a good picture of the fish:

It was a little slow, so I decided to get out and stretch my legs:

And the railroad tracks:

Still a lot of hurricane debris and other trash there. Since the railroad owns that levy, I wish they'd clean it. Or at least let some volunteers clean it.

Got back in the boat and continued on into the marsh where we found the reds a few days ago. I saw a little activity and tossed a gulp SM (watermelon) there. First cast, got a small red:

Two casts later, got another but saw two nice slot reds run past my kayak.

I decided to go up this channel a little ways since I saw lots of activity there. Called Jason and told him to collect John and come my way.

As soon as I got into the channel, I saw this redfish running with his back out of the water eating little white shrimp. I sightcasted to him. After a short fight, he was in the boat and was a nice 21 incher:

I kept in the channel and was stalking a pod of feeding reds when my phone went off. It's a new phone and so far I hate it. I can't figure out how to make it not vibrate. Well, since it was in the hull, the whole hull started vibrating and sent those vibrations through the water. Scared off all the fish. Found the pod again and then the vibration started up once again telling me I had a voicemail. Lost the pod again.

John and Jason finally came up. Jason went up a back channel to a little back lake. John and I stayed in the channel with all the reds. Soon enough, John sightcasted to a red and caught it. His first that he's sightcasted to.
The fight's on:

In the boat:

He was a lively fish and didn't want to lay straight for a photo. He was about 21 inches. It seemed all the slot reds were lower slot today.

A few minutes later I found another feeding fish. I tossed my gulp at it and it was on. Got it to the boat and it was another 21 inch red:

I had given the cell phone channel a rest for a few minutes so went back up there. Found the pod again. Tossed the gulp into it and had a hard strike but my reaction was slow and I lost the fish.

After that, the bite seemed to shut down. It was just before 9 am. We continued on and went through the marsh. I saw plenty of reds, even feeding reds but I couldn't entice them to bite and neither could John or Jason.

I went into the back lake where Jason had gone. He hadn't found any fish, but decided that since it was only about a foot deep, he'd practice standing:

We decided to head back. We'd fish the small bridges again and then up the oyster bed and see if we could find anything in the main bayou. Along the way, I got out again to look around:

Got back into the main bayou channel and couldn't find anything. Along the way back, Jason picked up two small trout but that was it. Slow day in the bayou.

Today was a pretty good day. It was a little slower than expected, but with the high tides I guess we should have expected that. Strangely, we saw a lot of fish but couldn't get them to bite. Maybe too much shrimp? It was cold in the morning, about 50 degrees when we put in, warming up to about 70. Water temp is now 64 degrees. We had a hard outgoing tide the entire time. All reds caught over mud, varied depths. Mostly chasing shrimp with their backs out of the water. Trout were caught in the main bayou, in the deepest parts. Wind wasn't much of a factor. Maybe 5 mph to start with, it was inconsistent. Sometimes it would get up to maybe 10 mph, sometimes it would die altogether. Wind was from the west. Water was amazingly clear. In places there was at least 2-3 feet of visibility.

Afterward, we all had delicious hamburgers at Louis'. Perfect end to a nice day.

I got a new rod yesterday. Since AllStar got bought out, they quit making their Tops N Tails special that I like so much. I've been searching for a brand to replace that one and had decided on either a Waterloo, a Kistler, or a Falcon. I was at the store yesterday and saw a nice Kistler that was basically everything I was looking for in a rod. I brought it home and paired it with a Stradic. That was mainly what I used today. This is a pretty sweet rod. It fights fish differently than the Tops N Tails specials, but it does pretty well. It casts well, and the guides are lined up right. I've found that a lot of "premium" rod manufacturers make spinning rods, but they don't line up the guides correctly or they don't use the right size guides. This was the case with the Laguna rod I had. It was a very nice rod, but the guides were so misaligned and wrongly sized, it just wouldn't cast any distance at all. The Kistler is almost perfect. It even has a skeleton grip, although that's wasted on me since I hold and work my rods a little differently. I'm anxious to see how this rod holds up over time. Here are some pics:

And the skeleton grip:

Rick