I love reading a Texas Report
Boat is still in the shop, so I had to improvise. Took the new wife of 2 weeks to Surfside Saturday. In 1 hour she had 10 specks on live shrimp, biggest went 22". I threw a rattle trap and a she dog but nothing wanted the arti's, so I gave up and took the role of hook baiter. Gave 2 fish to my neighbor in exchange for a fresh homemade pie! (Good trade if you ask me).
Sunday I begged a friend to take us to a spot in West Matty in his Baby Cat, where 3 weeks earlier I took a friend who caught a 27" speck. We got there pre-dawn. I gave the wife a paddle, and I threw a Super Spook Jr. This was my first time throwing top water in the bay's.
First blow up came 5 min after getting in the water. As soon as I set the hook the line broke. Guess I had a soft spot in my 6 month old braid. Tied on another Spook Jr. 30 yard down the bank and I had a fish miss the bait. I paused and twitched, and the fish and and missed the bait again. I paused and twitched again and this time the fish came 2' out of the water, hitting and taking the spook in this time. I set the hook on the fish while it was in the air!
Definitely a trout over 25", but I fought it too hard and tore its mouth. Fish got off, and I had a nice chunk of flesh still on my treble hook. I was bummed.
Another 30 yards down the bank and I saw some bait working in 10" of water. Threw to it and this trout hammer it hard. Got a good hook-up and fought it tenderly. Fish went 28" and was a fuzz over 7# on my bass pro scale. It was close, but we decided to keep and weight it for the STAR. Unfortunately it weighed in at 7.1#. This was my first top water trout! Personal best before was a 29" trout in Corpus that was 6.9# last June, so this one was shorter but heavier.
Anyhoo, great day on the water considering. Boat should be back in commission this week, and you can guess where I will be Saturday (and what I will be throwing!).
Also, this was my second Texas Slam thanks to a delicious
little 15" flatty.
Big Shout Out to Trout Support. I caught my very first redfish EVER in May 2010.
These DVD's helped me out tremendously. First summer I spent learning (and got pretty good) and finding and catching Red's, but if I caught Trout it was always by chance. Since I watched these, I have found that my daily average on Trout has gone up substantially.
So far in 2011, I have held a 27" and and 28", let's hope for a 29" next!