[Marque]

My brother and I were working on a project all morning and managed to knock it out a little after noon. I checked the weather and it looked good enough to put up with so we decided to jump in the truck and head to Big Lake. We left Cow Island at 1:30 and were on the water for 3:00. Checked a few spots on the east bank but the water was brown and stained. Continued working south till the water cleared up. Found some fishable water and decided to beat a little bank to see if we could pick up a few redfish. It didn't take long to hook up. Actually we both did at the same time. They were both bulls and seemed to not enjoy the hooks in their mouths. I got mine without too much hassle but my brother's was a different story. He was using my MedLt Duce that I use to throw topwater and couldn't put any pressure on the donkey he was hooked into. And even less when I told him if he snapped it he was buying me a new one. After what seemed like 15 minutes the fish gave up and I netted him. Continued fishing the bank but couldn't find the school again. Redfish in Big Lake don't really act like other Redfish. When they are stacked up at the weirs, you can run an out board through them and they don't care. But if you find a school on the bank or under birds as soon as you hook one and fight him for longer than 10 sec the rest of his friends will spook and run off. You can usually wait 5 or 10 min and they will reappear a few hundred yards off and you can repeat the process if you have time. We were already at our limit of bulls so we decided to look for some trout. The wind had picked up pretty good out of the North but the tide wasn't really moving all that much. It was supposed to be falling and figured the North wind would jump start it soon. Decided to try and fish a little reef in a protected cove I found with my prop this winter when the water was low. After about 20 min we caught a couple of small redfish. Trolled around a little and caught 3 more in the area. By this time the wind had picked up to 15 to 20 and the water was getting stirred up pretty good. It was 6:00 and we were running out of daylight. Ran to Grand Bayou to see if we could get back into the marsh to find some cover but the water was too high for my center console to get under the boat door. Tried for a second at the weir but the water was still going in and we didn't get a bite. Said to hell with it and decided to run across the lake to some protected areas off the ship channel. Made it there around 7 and found the water going out pretty hard. Started off throwing top water and caught a a 4.5 lb'er on the first cast. It hit my one knocker so hard it my brother and I both jumped. Before I managed to get the fish in the boat my brother had another one on. Managed to put 3 more in the boat before we had to move. Trolled up the cut a little to a spot I had caught before. A sharp bend where the channel gets deep then shallows up a little. Anchored where we could throw across the top of the hole and put another 6 in the boat. We caught all the reds on Lemonhead Matrix and Chartreuse Wedgetails. All the trout were caught on a either Chartreuse One Knocker or a bone colored Skitter Walker. Not a bad afternoon all things considered. Although I could have done without having to run back at night through the washout with the wind kicking like it was.