# Lhl 7/2 -7/3



## TXyakker (Aug 18, 2005)

After returning from PINS I saw the wind and surf predictions drop down to nil wednesday afternoon into thursday, and with school fast approaching I knew my free time was dwindling. I loaded up the kayak and fly rods in hopes of getting my fly line stretched, and left san antonio around lunch time on Wednesday. I arrived at Tarpon Shores marina around 5:30pm. I paddled out in search of anything, and soon paddled into a cove where I found what appeared to be schools of fish pushing around. I staked out the kayak, got out, and started throwing a tan/brown kwan fly. After putting it in front of 2 schools of fish and no takers, i switched flies. I knew they were eating something, and I wasn't going to waste time just hoping that one fish would be hungry. Tied on a root beer/copper Lefty's craft fur shrimp (Lefty's 2k shrimp) I got in a fly swap on here a long time ago, and the first cast with that thing had me hooked up. Pig redfish in the boat, coming in at 26". I set the fish in the kayak, attempted to untie my stringer, but decided to just leave the fish and get back to the ones swimming around. For the next few hours, it was numerous shots at these fish pushing wakes in little schools. A lot of them were black drum, but there were reds mixed in for sure. I missed 2 or 3 reds, and a few black drum strikes as well. As it started getting darker, the schools were still pushing around but I thought it might be getting too dark for them to see underwater so I changed it up to a gurgled.

That got some awesome strikes, I missed some of them, had one red break me off, caught a trout, and then finally got a red to stay hooked. By then it was getting pretty dark so I figured I should head in. Had 2 reds on the stringer and 3 black drum. I was really hoping for that 3rd red, and thought I had my chance as I found a pod of about 7 tails as I made my way back to the truck. I threw the gurlger in there, realizing i should have had a quieter fly, but something still exploded on it. Sadly, it was that ole broad the ladyfish and not the redfish I was hoping for. After a few jumps it politely returned my fly and i tried one more time, only to hook another ladyfish. I gave up after the second one and paddled on back to the truck.

The next morning, the winds were absolutely still. I was launching into a mirrored pool. One down side to that, you don't get ANY kind of breeze to cool you off. It also makes it pretty challenging to sneak up on fish. I made my way back to the same area as the previous afternoon, only to find zero activity. I pushed through a canal into another lake, and it was just me and the mullet back there. No predators....keep moving. Made my way out to another flat nearer some deep water. On the way out there, I came across a stray duck decoy, so I named him Donald and hooked him the back of my boat. He said as long as I took him with me, he would show me where the redfish were. He didn't let me down. Finally came across some tails, first one that I actually got to eat, and then many more singles that were much pickier. Using the same fly I caught the first red on, I had a few refusals. I also got stuck in a lot of grass, as the stuff was growing nearly up to the surface and the reds were down in there. In hindsight, I should have been throwing a fly that rode hook up, but I was instead using a #6 grass shrimp pattern. After enough refusals/ignores, I finally changed to a flashier fly and got an immediate strike after dropping it in front of another red. Thats 2 keepers in the boat! The same story happened through, I started getting more refusals on that fly. I tried and tried, spooked fish, made some bad casts, but I just couldnt pull that 3rd red. You really had to be stealth personified out there with the conditions as calm as they were. I couldn't get out of the boat, because even wading slowly would have put too much disturbance in the water. Poling the boat was a good option, but it was trick to put that down and make sure my fly line wasn't tangled, then make a cast. But, I still had a great time! 
Still can't figure out how to embed videos on here, but these are the links. Enjoy.


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## AlaskaTex (Mar 9, 2006)

*Excellent report!*

Yakker -

Thanks for the report and video. I'm stuck in the UK with a bunch of carp fishermen and your report just added to my homesickness!

I've spent a lot of time in that area building rigs in the Igleside yards and I think I could count on one hand the number of days the wind was not howling.

Thanks again,

AT


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## JayTeeDubya (Feb 24, 2013)

Nice! Great report and videos!


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## salty_waders (Feb 13, 2006)

Great stuff! Thanks for sharing.


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## SaltMan (Jun 15, 2012)

Right On!!


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## southpaw (Feb 25, 2009)

Nice report and congrats on the catch


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## TXyakker (Aug 18, 2005)

Well I figured out out to embed files finally, but it looks like I cant go back and edit my post. Maybe its been too long...

Seems like the https isnt good for embedding video here. Copying the link right from youtube puts that "https", but when I take off the "s" then the video will embed.


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