Jones Lake - 11/19/09

Jason called a few days ago and wanted to make a really quick trip to Jones Lake this morning. That sounded good to me because I've been pretty busy with school and all lately. We agreed to meet up at Fat Boy's this morning at 6:30. I was a little worried because I'd heard that the cold front we had a few days ago drove all the water out of the marshes. In that case, we'd be relegated to fishing only in the main water body and probably wouldn't get into many fish, if any.

Well, we both arrived on time and put in. I realized about then that my camera was still at home, so no pics of this trip. We cruised up the North shoreline to where I had found some trout and a nice fat red not long ago, but there was very little activity today. We got a couple of bumps, but it was pretty disappointing.

We came to an area where there was a break in the shoreline so that we could go into the marsh. There was a hard outgoing tide, so it was a little tricky with the 5 foot wide ditch and a fast outgoing tide. Not much room to swing a paddle to counter the tide.

Got into the marsh, and still didn't see much action. I did see one redfish bust some bait, but despite tossing a pumpkinseed/chartreuse assassin his direction several times, couldn't entice him to bite.

We continued on to the very back of the marsh, to where there is a rail line and several small bridges. We stopped at the first bridge, and Jason picked up a flounder. Not real big, but a solid 15 incher. We fished around there for a bit, Jason then pulled in a really nice trout. He went a little over 20 inches. I was getting skunked and because of the temperatures when we launched, left my jacket in the truck. So, now that I was cold and skunked I decided to cross the current ripping out from under the bridge. That was kind of fun, I did it a few times just playing around.

We went over to the next bridge, same thing with the current, but I started tossing a white gulp SM and finally got it slammed hard. It fought like a big trout, but it got off and I never saw it. Meanwhile, Jason kept pulling in rat reds. So, he had his Texas slam and I was still skunked.

I kept at it though, and at one point I had another large trout on the same lure. Unfortunately, he also got off.

The wind started picking up, I was getting colder, and generally miserable. When I'm catching it's not so bad, but when you're getting zeroed it's not too fun. I decided to stick it out though and I'm glad I did. A few minutes later, I switched to the popping cork with a gulp shrimp (bone jack) under it. It got slammed by a rat red. Got him to the boat, he was only about 13 inches, but still it's a fish. Finally the skunk smell is off and I can start fishing.

Well, when we arrived at the bridge there were a few birds working but soon enough they left. So we did too.

We cruised around the marsh aimlessly for a bit. Jason picked up another rat red. We paddled past a powerboater who said it was slow today, "you should have been here yesterday", he said. That's always how it goes.

Well, I was getting discouraged and wanted out of the wind so I decided to head back to where I had seen that red busting bait earlier. He was still there. Actually, now there were several. I saw a bird dive right on top of one and spooked them. Most of them ran the other direction, one came my way. He slowed down and just stared cruising. I could make out a dark shape cruising about 10 feet off my port side. I tossed a gulp SM (watermelon) near him and gave it a jiggle.

Soon enough, the fight was on. Got him to the boat and he measured almost 22 inches. A healthy slot red.

I saw some birds working deeper in the marsh, right up against the railroad tracks. I decided to work my way over that way. As we came around a corner, I yelled to Jason that I saw them. He was in the best position to take the shot, but he cast in the wrong place. I moved up and put it right in the middle of the pile.

I felt that familiar pull on the line and set the hook hard. The battle had begun. This red was no 22 incher, he was bigger than that. He pulled me so that the wind and current slammed me up against an island and then he was running behind me. Remembering what happened last week when a red got my line tangled in my rudder, I raised that. After a long fight, finally got him to the boat and he went a little over 26 inches and was fat. I didn't think to weigh him, but I'll bet he was every bit as much as the 9 pounder I caught last time I was here.

Meanwhile, Jason had come in and I saw him hooked up. He got it to the boat and it was a nice 22 incher. I went into a little cove in the marsh and saw a nice red with his back out of the water just cruising around munching on shrimp. I cast at him 5 times and missed the position each time because of the wind. He finally bolted.

I kept hearing splashes, so I finally found a little channel about 5 feet wide that went right along the railroad tracks. Went into this channel and bagged another red that was about 23 inches. Just as I got him to the boat, Jason yells out and holds one up. His personal best. Although Jason took his measuring stick off his kayak, he was guesstimating it to be 29-30 inches. A nice fish. I told him he'd better not catch a personal best because I forgot the camera. Sorry Jason.

Well, we thrashed around there for a little longer, seeing occasional activity but I think the fish grew wise to us. No more bites. Before we knew it, it was almost noon and I had to get going.

The wind had now risen to around 25 and we got a little turned around in the marsh. In addition the tide had run out. We finally got trapped in a little pool and were forced to get out of the boats, slog through knee deep mud and portage over the bank into the main lake. Once there, we had a paddle that normally would have taken 15 minutes back to the ramp that took us almost 45 minutes because of the wind being right in our faces. At one point Jason even asked me if we were going backward. It kind of seemed like that at times.

Finally made the ramp and we were quite pleased with ourselves. What started out as a pretty awful day turned into a pretty good one. The reds were holed up in the very back of the marsh chasing little white shrimp. And they were hungry too! Totals for me were 5 reds total, of which 4 were slot reds and only 1 was a rat red. Jason ended the day with two flounder (one was foul hooked), 5 reds including 2 slot reds and 3 rat reds, and 1 nice fat trout.

Wind was the main problem today. It wasn't bad early, but by about 8:30 or so was picking up pretty bad. Best place to be was deep in the marsh but that still caused problems casting. Tide was hard outgoing the entire time. Water temp seems much cooler than last week due to this cold front. At Eagle Point, it measures 64 degrees. Air temps this morning were 58 when we got on the water but it felt warmer. When we got off, it was around 70 but it felt colder than when we launched. All fish caught over mud bottoms near oysters with plenty of little white shrimp.

Rick