# Rockport area 1/29 - Fishing with BarronJ



## pocjetty (Sep 12, 2014)

I got an invitation to go fishing with BarronJ on Monday morning, and I jumped at it. We have talked a lot on 2Cool, but had never met in person. He said that he was on some nice fish, and had caught something like 200 on Sunday afternoon. We had him over for dinner on Sunday night, and agreed that he would pick me up at 8:30 the next morning (today). After calling to say that he overslept and was running late, he picked me up and we headed out for a mid-morning trip. We were expecting a warm morning with mild breeze, but it was chilly with a nasty north wind. The water was down from the day before.

Alas, we got to the boat ramp and his battery was dead. So we headed back to my house and pulled one out of my boat. Back to the ramp for a late morning trip. We were expecting a warm day with mild breeze, but it was chilly with a nasty north wind blowing. The water was down from the day before. On the way across, he headed for a small cut in the middle of a big ugly oyster reef. He kicked the boat up to about 50 mph, which I decided was good - because if he hit the shell I wouldn't have to worry about surviving and being horribly maimed.

We got to his magic spot and he dumped me while he headed farther up the shore. He was right about the fish being nice - they were all about 12-15 inches long, but they were very well behaved. I could see that he had gone ahead to snag some live bait for later in the day. (I think he must have been using a sabiki rig.) I caught about a dozen reds to the 3-4 minnows I saw him pull in. Eventually we both managed to catch a couple of keepers, but I showed him who was boss.

Now the real story:

He told me 8:00, and I messed up and put 8:30 into my phone. So even though he was 10 minutes later than he intended, he was 20 minutes earlier than I expected. He has a very nice Shoalwater Cat. The battery part really happened, but that's the nature of boats. He really did kick the speed up to make sure and run shallow enough, and I'm just jealous because my little flounder boat wont' go that fast when I'm pulling it behind the truck.

He put me in the spot he'd caught fish the day before, and I started catching fish. Mostly rats, but some pushing the lower end of the limit. He walked up ahead and I kept an eye on him while I reeled in fish - at one point I think I had caught a dozen or so, and he had caught about three. But then he dialed in on what they wanted and started stringing fish. By that time, he rarely made a cast without me seeing him jerk the rod back to set the hook Part of the difference was the location, and I started to catch bigger fish as I waded down his direction.

At the end of the day, we both caught our limits of nice trout and redfish. I filled my limits before he did, but only because he couldn't keep from catching redfish on nearly every cast. He had three trout, and I was yelling to him that I would be waiting in the boat as long as it took for him to finish, when his rod bowed up (again). I assumed it was another red, but then I heard him laugh and I knew it was a big trout. She was photographed and released, and the picture is on his phone, so I'll leave it up to him to post that picture.

Bottom line - BarronJ is a fine fisherman, and a good guy to wade with. He put me right on a good bunch of fish, just like he promised. I quit counting at 30 fish, but I know I caught quite a few more than that - and he caught more than I did. Since he clearly caught and passed me up on total number of fish, I was going to give him heck about catching bigger fish than him - but then he pulled in that big trout and got me on that score as well. We were bouncing plastics, but his switch to a shrimp-style jig really paid off.

It was a great day on the water, and a memorable bunch of fish. I'm not sure how it could get much better than that. Especially since he was nice enough to let me clean his big, nasty, bloody redfish for him.  Thanks, Barron, for a fantastic trip.


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## huntfish2011 (Jun 16, 2011)

Way to go! Nice pile of fish!


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## SaltwaterSlick (Jun 11, 2012)

Real nice stringers!! Y'all dun gooooood!


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## TxRedman (Oct 22, 2013)

Great read as always thanks for keeping us â€œin the actionâ€ with ya!


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## WillieT (Aug 25, 2010)

Thatâ€™s a great read and a fine report. Also two very nice stringers of fish. Sounds like a great day on the water.


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## Aggieangler (May 28, 2004)

Nothing wrong with those....keep grinding!


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## coup de grace (Aug 7, 2010)

Yes sir.


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## fish4food (Feb 11, 2011)

Nice


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## barronj (Sep 30, 2013)

Good times were had, and Scott saved me from having to buy a battery to make the trip happen. Very glad we connected.
The blue ribbon trout yesterday wasn't extreme, 24" and trim, but I didn't care to filet her.
I don't know where my shrimp lure came from but it went through plenty of keeper reds and just enough trout

















On Sunday, I was doing great on Chickenboy's new Whippin' Chicken in COC, but yesterday, they weren't having it. Retrieve was different the two days as well. Hard pops on Sunday, sometimes the hit came when the lure splashed, but Monday, it was colder, and I was bumping this shrimp across the bottom. Slight twitches, and undetectable bite. Only when you twitch it again and there's pressure did you know you had a fish.

Monday's water was green and a lot clearer than Sunday's.


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## SSMike (Aug 15, 2005)

What depth did you catch them in? Water temp?


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## barronj (Sep 30, 2013)

3'
water temp on my Lowrance quit last year, no idea, but they were over mud

When we were leaving Scott's and headed to Goose Island, outside temps read 51Â° on my truck. This was 10am. When we were getting off the water at 1pm, it was showing 53Â°


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## SSMike (Aug 15, 2005)

barronj said:


> 3'
> water temp on my Lowrance quit last year, no idea, but they were over mud
> 
> When we were leaving Scott's and headed to Goose Island, outside temps read 51Â° on my truck. This was 10am. When we were getting off the water at 1pm, it was showing 53Â°


Thank you sir. Tide come up at all? I hope to be down there tomorrow and Thursday.... Last trip the tides were extremely low


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## troutsupport (May 22, 2006)

Good Job Guys... Good people!


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## sharkchum (Feb 10, 2012)

Great report guy's. 

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## pocjetty (Sep 12, 2014)

barronj said:


> On Sunday, I was doing great on Chickenboy's new Whippin' Chicken in COC, but yesterday, they weren't having it. Retrieve was different the two days as well. Hard pops on Sunday, sometimes the hit came when the lure splashed, but Monday, it was colder, and I was bumping this shrimp across the bottom. Slight twitches, and undetectable bite. Only when you twitch it again and there's pressure did you know you had a fish.
> 
> Monday's water was green and a lot clearer than Sunday's.


I don't usually post reports that are just "Look at what I caught". This time, I wanted to give Barron a chance to weigh in, since this was his trip. But it really is a perfect opportunity to make a couple of observations that might help people catch more fish.

*The Anatomy of a Successful Fishing Trip*

The big thing to keep in mind is that this whole trip took place in the space of a few hundred yards of shoreline, rather than a half dozen scattered spots in different parts of the bay. We started at the exact spot where Barron caught a bunch of fish the previous afternoon - literally stood in some of his footprints. The wind had kicked up unexpectedly from the north, it was much cooler, and quite a bit of water had been blown out, so the spot was pretty shallow. I think we both knew within a few minutes that it was a different story than the day before. Really, even before we started casting, because of the water level.

We moved down a short distance, where the water was a little deeper, and it was all small rat reds to begin. It was fun reeling them in, but not what we came there for. Barron pointed out a spot farther down the shoreline, and tried to talk me into going there. (The host, looking out for his guest.) I told him to go ahead, and that I would continue to work in the general area where we were standing. The wind was popping from the north, and I saw a couple of points where I thought bait might be carried by wind-driven current. Unlike the first spot, I felt good about the second and didn't want to give up on it before giving it my full attention.

As he was walking down the shore, my theory seemed to be panning out. I began to catch bigger fish, and more of them. I was sort of "skidding" the jig - not totally swimming, but not the slow bump we've used a lot lately. The thinking was to mimic baitfish being carried down and across the point(s). Also, I had seen a couple of fish following my jig when I was fast reeling at the end of my cast, so I knew that they weren't being shy about chasing a faster-moving lure. I caught several reds that were maybe 1/8 of an inch that probably would have kept with a tail pinch, and then the first obvious keeper of the morning. Then I caught a couple of very respectable trout, with that same faster retrieve. By the time Barron got down to his spot, I had landed a dozen redfish, and could have strung three, plus a couple of trout. I was locked in on my pattern and technique.

Barron started slowly in his new spot, but made a few adjustments, and eventually was getting good pickups on virtually every cast. He was fishing in more of a deeper depression, and not on the points like I was. But he also moved to a different lure style, and a much different retrieve than I was using. And while I was catching a satisfactory number of fish, Barron was making up for lost time with very constant action. The stringer pictures can't show it, but he released more keeper fish than I did before we were done.

Here are a few points I want to make about that wade:

1. The first place we fished had been good maybe 18 hours earlier. The conditions changed, and the fish weren't there anymore. But they didn't swim across the bay, and they hadn't simply "quit biting". If you feel good about the general area you're in, make some small adjustments before climbing in the boat and wasting a bunch of fishing time driving around.

2. The pictures show that my results would have been a pretty successful day, in nearly anybody's book. But... fishing was actually much better than that, had I just made the same adjustments that Barron made. If you want to catch a lot of fish, sometimes you have to give up on the things that are letting you catch a few fish. I locked in on a technique, and never considered making any changes, even when I saw Barron reeling in fish more consistently than me. I've seen people do that more times than I can count over the years, and this time I was guilty of it. I was fortunate that what I was doing was good enough to keep me satisfied.

3. The location may have made a bit of difference, but we weren't far enough apart to think that it was the whole difference. Whenever someone else is catching lots of fish, and you aren't, don't tell yourself that "it's just the luck of the draw". Sometimes it is, but most of the time that person is doing _something_ different than you. Don't be hard-headed, put your pride aside, and copy them. (Remember that reels have different gear ratios, so cranking at the same speed may not be moving the bait at the same speed.) I'm not a big believer in specific color being the only thing that will catch fish most days, but light/dark or shiny/dull makes a difference. More important than that, I believe, is the profile and how it effects the speed and fall rate of a lure.

One last thing. I know Barron said that the big trout he caught was skinny, and that's the way the picture makes it look. But it's the camera angle - that was a really nice, heavy fish. I like his decision to release her, mostly because I really don't like the filets on a fish that big as much as smaller fish. He took good care of her, got his picture, and then made sure she swam away. But then he did something else. Look at the pictures of our stringers. Barron's only has four trout on it. After he released the big girl, he didn't start chunking to fill out that 5-fish limit, and it didn't bother him in the least. Something they used to tell us: whether it's kissing a girl, or going to the playoffs, try and act like you've been there before. The same can be said for catching fish.


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## Trailer Rig (Jul 25, 2011)

That was an impressive 3 hours on the water, way to go guys.
Barron - remember to buy a trickle charger for your boat stall.


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## barronj (Sep 30, 2013)

Trailer Rig said:


> That was an impressive 3 hours on the water, way to go guys.
> Barron - remember to buy a trickle charger for your boat stall.


Ha, it was new in the box in the back seat... I'd been trying to get down to RP and get it in place.

I drug the boat back to Austin, it will get some maintenance items, I put it on the charger as soon as I got it home, and I picked up a new burn bar off a Majek, going to give it to a fabricator I've used in the past (I'm not set up to weld aluminum) to make it fit my boat.

Great points pocjetty


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## barronj (Sep 30, 2013)

SSMike said:


> Thank you sir. Tide come up at all? I hope to be down there tomorrow and Thursday.... Last trip the tides were extremely low


Still very low. On Sunday at the GISP dock, on my return, I laid up on the north side of the dock since I was solo, letting the wind push the boat against the dock while I clambered off and went to get the truck. When I spun the boat around to trailer, I was in muck and hitting a lot of shell there... ouch says the prop.

On Monday, I came off plane on approach of the dock and the motor found the bottom again, churning up mud and some sand. It's VERY low for Rockport.


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## blackjack runner (Feb 24, 2015)

Great report and glad to see both of you out fishing. I picked up 4 poles that were in for repair and dropped off 5 reels for maintenance. With the sun out this week, getting the itch, but then nighttime drops to 30's and calms me down again. Hopefully get down pretty quick.


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## Puddle_Jumper (Jun 30, 2014)

I have said it many times... Just awesome reading your reports and lookin at the pics..... Thanks again !


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## Dick Hanks (Aug 16, 2007)

Dang Scott....You and Barron have really got me home sick for Texas fishin.

Excellent write ups you guys!


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## NOCREEK (Jan 18, 2012)

Wow, good stuff there!


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## schoalbeast101 (Oct 23, 2014)

Great stringers and a great read! Fun when the catching happens. lol.


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## lite-liner (Mar 15, 2005)

Great report! thanks for the detail, That's the kind of stuff my brain needs.


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