We are putting together a group trip to go to Silver King Lodge in Costa Rica for 4 days of Tarpon and back country fishing. SKL has offered special pricing to the club to help promote the lodge, help the local guides and staff. We have 8 cabins reserved for up to 16 anglers.
Read more
Continue reading
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.
Both groups, the “Beach Runners” and the “Jetty Campers” all met at the Malachite visitors center looking for the adventure PINS had to offer. The weather was cloudy and a reasonable temperature, we hoped the recent small weather change would have kicked of the bite of the predator fish, after getting the vehicles and equipment rigged out the groups headed out. We had about 10 anglers in the BR group headed down the beach hunting for active birds and signs of bait, the sand was firm providing perfect driving conditions. The sky cleared up as we got down to the 20 mm, everything was perfect except the fish were not cooperating. By the end of the day we made it all the way to the Port Mansfield jetties and back to roughly the 48-mile mark with only a few fish to hand.
Day 2 started off with cool air and beautiful water, some of the mullet and bait action looked promising as we made it down to the jetties with no major catches. The jetties had some limited action Lady Fish and Specks were brought to hand along with a few other species like Red Fish, Whiting, Baby Jacks, Hardheads and others. Most were small and under legal size. We set up camp just south of the turtle shack and prepared for the evening. I have to say one of my favorite parts of the PINS trip is the campfire. By the time we had got settled in we had picked up a few extra anglers that knew guys in the club and that had seen the trip on our website, and we ended up with around 16 anglers
Day 3 started off early with Puck going through camp warning of an approaching rainstorm. We got up and broke camp most were packed up by 7am. The storm never made it to shore but it gave us a nice light show and some good pictures. We spent the morning relaxing and trying to catch fish smaller lady fish were caught and one or two specks were brought to hand. We headed out at 9:30 stopped a couple of times on the way North, nothing notable was caught. We pulled off the sand almost exactly at 12:00.
Overall, we all wished the fishing had be better. We were however gifted with beautiful weather, good driving conditions, great campfires, new friends, no accidents, a gnat invasion Friday night that some would have described as biblical and stories that will be shared at campfires for years.
Photo credits go to the all the anglers who uploaded to the Evite link we had some talented photographers on the trip.
I had been cooped up too long without much fishing and decided I needed to get out. What better fix than exploring PINS after the extend closure from hurricane Hanna. I drove down late Friday got a room for the night and hit the beach about 7:30 AM. Driving was smooth only a hand full of spots with loose sand. A lot of debris both organic and inorganic was everywhere as to be expected. The beach has changed significantly some good and some maybe not so good. The dune line has been pushed back 20′ – 50′ back. The narrow spots in the 30’s are wide open. All of the mile markers that had been in the dunes are now on the beach and a potential driving hazard so unfortunately a lot of valuable dunes and grass were lost but ultimately will enhance our driving experience for a while until mother nature takes it back. The beach was fairly busy up to the 25MM then started spreading out some. By no means was it crowded there was still plenty of room to social distance.
Fishing was well… lets just say it was a beautiful day to be on PINS, blue sky and pristine water conditions that favored the Caribbean more than the Gulf of Mexico. The tide was a little low and there were some beautiful Gin clear flats on the first gut line that were full of finger mullet, fairly still and should have produced fish. I stalked some rat reds and slot reds in these flats but didn’t get any to commit they were pretty spooky. I settled about the 46 MM and decided to spend the rest of my day there. I did get a couple of Lady Fish to hand. I fished some soft plastic and silver spoons in the surf looking for takers this produced 1 lonely lady fish and a snagged sea turtle the size of a Volkswagen, fortunately I broke off quickly from her and she kept going. There were people catching fish, most on live bait or cut bait. I saw some kayakers with limits of Kings and Red Snapper from the beach front I found that catching red snapper on the beachfront was incredible.
Heading South 5MM
I took my 5 year old granddaughter fishing last weekend at my “go to” bluegill / sunfish hole to catch her first fish. Fortunately, as you can tell by the pictures she was not disappointed. She managed to catch 5 on her own with little help from me and about 20 more with some help from grandpa. After an hour or so she started getting bored and that turned to playing with the fish as I caught them, calling herself a “Fishrinarian” taking care of the fish as we released them. All fish were caught on this little 3 wt and a Prince Nymph with spider legs.
The neighborhood kids were on the other side of this little drain area, cracking freshwater mussels for bait and catching as many gill as they could just being kids. It was awesome to see a small group 8-10 year old’s being outdoors getting fresh air and just being “kids”