We got on the water about 9am Saturday morning, the wind had blown the water out of the bay and the water was 2-3 foot lower than normal tide. After launching we motored out into the intercostal and Jesse started winding our way out to espritos santos bay and started looking for flats that had some water we could pole in. Jesse settled on a spot we had success on previous outings and started poling us across the flat.

I was up front and as we started to see a few fish and make cast the first of my go to flys were getting no love from the local redfish population they were spooky and didn’t want us within 80’. Finally after a few fly changes and a little different bottom condition we found some cooperative fish and I started to hook up. After two fish, I hooked up with a larger redfish that came in at 27” my PB.

We swapped and I poled Jesse around for a while and he picked off 3 fish and we swapped again. At the end of the day we had caught 10 fish.

We set out a little earlier on Sunday morning wanting to make an early day of it. We checked out a flat that we like but it didn’t have enough water over it so we headed back to the same flat we covered on Saturday. Upon arriving at the flat we picked a different entrance than the previous day and started poling across the shoreline looking for fish on the edge. We saw some action on a point we were approaching but the fish were spooked and didn’t get any good shots off. We decided to push up into a lake off the flats we were fishing and follow the shoreline to get out of the wind. About 100 yards in we picked up the first fish and in short order I caught 4 more.

Jesse got interested in the action and I picked up poling while he started hunting fish I pushed him about 50 feet and we had 3 fish heading our way. Jesse picked off a fish from those and by the time he unhooked we had 3 more in range picking up another. I pushed another 50-100 foot and we had several more fish on the way Jesse picked up 2 more one right after another and while releasing the 4th fish I told Jessie he had to hurry there was a big pod of 75-100 fish about to be in range feeding along the shore line in 6-8 inches of water with their backs showing. Jesse made several cast at the first few fish in the pod and finally got one to look up from the buffet and take the fly.

After that crazy scene we swapped and I started hunting fish again. We blew past the 1:00 time for leaving and stopped for water and shared the single granola bar on the boat (we had planned to be off the water by lunch) and kept fishing. Jesse polled me around that lake twice and we picked up an honest 25 redfish together by 3:45 when we decided to get off the flat and head back to the dock I would estimate 20 were slot fish. It was the best Texas coastal fishing of my life and Jesse commented he had only one other time better on artificials with spinning gear.

We finished the 2 days with 35 redfish and one puppy drum. Of the redfish an honest 25 were slots up to 27. 

My take aways from this past weekend is: Be very patient  and try not to hurry shots. I found that if I had a fish that was fairly close and not spooked, toss the fly out leading by 5-8 feet at the distance needed and wait, stripping only once the fish is in range. This saved me many blown shots.

There be many trips for redfish before I ever have another experience as these 2 days (if ever). The redfish fishery on the middle Texas coast is strong ( there has been some great trips this summer for myself and friends). Practice catch and release, you don’t always have to keep the limit but please enjoy some of your catch if you wish.

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