# Today was the payback for a lousy month



## pocjetty (Sep 12, 2014)

I walked down yesterday evening around 5:30 and started whacking fish. It's been so slow in this spot over the last month that I didn't expect anything. But I put five in the box, released about five more, and headed in. The fish were all 16"-18", and heavy-bodied. Just a very nice evening of fishing.

I went out last night around midnight, fishing in the dark with a MiroLure Catch 2000, and caught six really nice trout. I had a LOT of fish slash the Catch 2000 that I didn't get a hook in, which is pretty typical of using a MiroLure at night. It was after midnight, but I released all of those fish.

This morning was something else again. I had the Catch2000 tied on from last night, and I caught a few fish but it was slow. I switched to a 3/8 oz. jig head, with a sort of gold/cream colored Norton Sand Eeel, with a chartreuse tail. After that, it was just nuts. The fish were slamming it. Lots of times I missed the hookset, and the fish chased it down and inhaled it again. The key was getting it to the bottom and using small bumps. Overall these were bigger fish than yesterday evening. I never caught one smaller than 16", but they went up to almost 22". I lost one big girl just as I got reeled up short.

I came home and texted StabbinFlatties since he's planning on coming down to fish with me early next week. We'll be getting a late start, so just for laughs I went back out around 10 am, to see if they were still biting. I immediately started whacking fish again, but after landing a half dozen they cut off like someone flipped a switch. I went down the shoreline a way, and found them again. If anything, it was crazier action than it had been earlier in the morning. Miss a hookset, and another one would grab it on the way in. I made very few casts that didn't end with a fish coming in. 

The water has cooled a lot in the last few days, and it's dumping silt quickly when the wind isn't howling. The first norther pushed some water out of the bay, and did a good job of mixing in all the fresh water we have had. The tide is back up again, but the water must have come in cleaner from the Gulf. It's not trout green by any means, but it's the nicest I've seen in in a month. The fish were feisty, and came up cool and firm. (As compared to the mushy hot water fish of summer.)

Like the thread title says, this day was sort of payback for a pretty miserable month. As bad as it's been recently, this day stands out as one of the best fishing days I can remember. The question about whether it's still possible to catch a hundred good fish in a day is settled in my mind. It may be unusual, but this day felt like fishing in the 70's. I don't know if it's because there hasn't been much fishing pressure lately, or if it was just a perfect storm of conditions. But after the month (actually the summer) I've had, I felt like I deserved it.

As always, these were the first five fish I landed. They aren't trophies, but they're nothing to apologize for either.


----------



## eliris (Dec 4, 2016)

Sounds like lots of fun. Is this bayside or gulfside?

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk


----------



## pocjetty (Sep 12, 2014)

eliris said:


> Sounds like lots of fun. Is this bayside or gulfside?
> 
> Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk


I'm in Rockport. Fishing in Aransas Bay.


----------



## Old sailor (Mar 30, 2014)

Good catch three nice trout and a three toed sloth.


----------



## Whitebassfisher (May 4, 2007)

Sincere congratulations!


----------



## pocjetty (Sep 12, 2014)

Old sailor said:


> Good catch three nice trout and a three toed sloth.


LOL! Took me a second to understand what you were talking about, but that's probably more appropriate that you know.

I wind up getting my toes in a lot of my fish pictures on the driveway. I used to think I had to figure out how not to, but now i just sort of take the toes for granted.


----------



## RockportRobert (Dec 29, 2006)

Don't think I've ever even owned a 3/8 oz head! Might have to look into that. Good report, thanks!


----------



## barronj (Sep 30, 2013)

Good read, very jealous.


----------



## Dick Hanks (Aug 16, 2007)

Excellent report Scott. Glad to see that you are back into em. Always enjoy the extra details that you take the time to put in your reports. Tight Lines!


----------



## c hook (Jul 6, 2016)

*Post Harvey*

I'm going to assume you are pretty lonely fishing Port Aransas post Harvey. It sounded like everyone vacated the area once it got leveled. It's difficult to see people lose everything like they did in Port Aransas, but I bet you are enjoying the solitude. :texasflag


----------



## Dick Hanks (Aug 16, 2007)

Scott's in Rockport and he fishes there as well.

c hook....Is Port A. still not recovering from Harvey?


----------



## WillieT (Aug 25, 2010)

Another great report. I am a little disappointed, in that I thought you....well you and Sharkchum caught fish every time you went out. Nice to know youâ€™re human after all. 

Nice catch.


----------



## onplane (Jul 26, 2017)

c hook said:


> I'm going to assume you are pretty lonely fishing Port Aransas post Harvey. It sounded like everyone vacated the area once it got leveled. It's difficult to see people lose everything like they did in Port Aransas, but I bet you are enjoying the solitude. :texasflag


No solitude in Port Aransas. It has much recovered since Harvey. No doubt lodging for visitors isn't back where it was before the storm, but Port Aransas, like Rockport, is alive and well.


----------



## DA REEL DADDY (Jun 7, 2005)

Nice report and fish! How much do you pay to get your toe nails done? LOL joking.


----------



## pocjetty (Sep 12, 2014)

WillieT said:


> Another great report. I am a little disappointed, in that I thought you....well you and Sharkchum caught fish every time you went out. Nice to know youâ€™re human after all.
> 
> Nice catch.


Oh, no, you're not hanging that on me. :biggrin: I hate to get skunked... I mean HATE to get skunked. But it happens. And when it does, I post it just like the good trips. I figure I can share what I saw, conditions, and where not to look for fish the next day. This past month has been the worst fishing of my adult life. I did post about one or two long, long boat rides I took where I tried every trick I know and just struck out. I don't have words for how good it felt to feel those first few fish bite, because I was starting to take the skunkage pretty hard.

I love just being out on the water, and I feel blessed every single time I get to get out. It never gets old. But I'd be lying if I said I don't care if I catch fish. I don't pass a wet ditch without wondering what's swimming in it, and if I could catch it. I've been like that since I was little. I fish in my dreams. Heck, I have recurring dreams where I'm fishing inside some gigantic building. I dream about floundering in the yard, and finding that they have moved in behind bushes and under the car. I always say I have salt water in my veins.

But I most definitely get skunked.



DA REEL DADDY said:


> Nice report and fish! How much do you pay to get your toe nails done? LOL joking.


Okay the truth is, the nail on that big toe is really jacked up from jamming into the end of poor-fitting boot waders year after year, when I was younger. It turned black and came off many times, and each time it grew back more messed up. It freaks my wife out, because it has great big humps and ridges that shouldn't be there. The two toes next to the big one have both been broken multiple times, and never got set. So they curve and look like they have more joints than they should have. My wife says it doesn't look like a human foot, which is why I laughed about the "three toed sloth" comment.


----------



## barronj (Sep 30, 2013)

Scott, how deep was the structure you were fishing that you were choosing such a heavy jig head to get to?


----------



## pocjetty (Sep 12, 2014)

barronj said:


> Scott, how deep was the structure you were fishing that you were choosing such a heavy jig head to get to?


There really wasn't structure as such, Barron. It was all about getting the retrieve they wanted. There was a bit of wind/waves and some wind-blown current, and even though the water wasn't coffee-brown, there was still some new fresh water runoff. I wanted to make sure to get down below that. Plus with the wind/wave/current, a lighter jig just made it much harder to get the retrieve the way I wanted it.

I had caught some fish on the Catch 2000, but it's hard to get that down farther in the water column. A lighter jig wants to swim more, and I wanted to be sure and get it on bottom, and bounce it up from there. With a light jig, it's swimming more with the occasional trip to the bottom.

About the structure - I'd like to say that I carefully analyzed and picked this spot. The truth is, I just know that there have always been fish in this area at this time of the year, at least since I've been here. The beauty of is that it doesn't get a lot of fishing pressure.


----------



## WillieT (Aug 25, 2010)

pocjetty said:


> There really wasn't structure as such, Barron. It was all about getting the retrieve they wanted. There was a bit of wind/waves and some wind-blown current, and even though the water wasn't coffee-brown, there was still some new fresh water runoff. I wanted to make sure to get down below that. Plus with the wind/wave/current, a lighter jig just made it much harder to get the retrieve the way I wanted it.
> 
> I had caught some fish on the Catch 2000, but it's hard to get that down farther in the water column. A lighter jig wants to swim more, and I wanted to be sure and get it on bottom, and bounce it up from there. With a light jig, it's swimming more with the occasional trip to the bottom.
> 
> About the structure - I'd like to say that I carefully analyzed and picked this spot. The truth is, I just know that there have always been fish in this area at this time of the year, at least since I've been here. The beauty of is that it doesn't get a lot of fishing pressure.


Thatâ€™s home field advantage.


----------



## sharkchum (Feb 10, 2012)

Great report as always. I've been so busy with the reds lately that I haven't even fished for trout in a month, so I don't know if it's been slow here or not. I guess I need to go find out. I love heavy jig heads, especially in the winter when the trout will stick to the bottom. If I can't feel my lure hitting bottom, I don't feel like I'm really fishing. 

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk


----------



## fishingtwo (Feb 23, 2009)

Good Stuff


----------



## B&C (Jul 23, 2010)

We found a similar bite in POC yesterday. Slowed it down, got it on the bottom and was rewarded with a limit of trout to 21". All were extremely healthy. Copper/blackback Hogie swimming jacks and purple phantom whippin chickens did the trick.


----------



## saltwaterjunky (Aug 17, 2012)

*pm*

Scott sent u a pm


----------



## Rack Ranch (May 25, 2004)

Nice going Scott, thanks for the report.
For those curious about Port A, 2 Sundays ago after church I decided to make the loop around through CC and take the ferry back across to AP, I waited in the ferry line for 1 1/2 hours with 4 ferry boats running wide open. To say I was surprised to see that in October was an understatement. PA is back in a big way!!


----------



## MonsterRed (May 30, 2015)

*Flounder in the yard*



pocjetty said:


> I love just being out on the water, and I feel blessed every single time I get to get out. It never gets old. But I'd be lying if I said I don't care if I catch fish. I don't pass a wet ditch without wondering what's swimming in it, and if I could catch it. I've been like that since I was little. I fish in my dreams. Heck, I have recurring dreams where I'm fishing inside some gigantic building. I dream about floundering in the yard, and finding that they have moved in behind bushes and under the car. I always say I have salt water in my veins.
> 
> But I most definitely get skunked.


Nice report and read as always pocjetty. I've had the same dream a few times. That all the yards in my old neighborhood in Victoria had 6" to a foot of water over them and the flounder were everywhere. LOL.


----------



## SaltwaterSlick (Jun 11, 2012)

Every time I read one of your reports, I learn something... I've been trout fishing for dang near 50 years and still sometimes I feel like a novice when reading some of the reports on here!
I have never been a fall/winter fisherman... Normally have bow in hand by this time, but in early May, Alberto washed out my first attempt at another Chandeleur trip, rescheduled for Oct.... Yep, Michael!!  Next attempt will be mid-November AFTER the official end of Hurricane season!! So unless a blue norther or something similar blows us out, we hope to finally make it to the islands...

I've used heavy jig heads when fishing the main bays (around Galveston and POC), but since this will be my first real late fall/cool weather trip in a few weeks, is it wise to concentrate more lower in the water column, or will fish be up high (especially if it's cold but sunny)... When wade fishing, which is most of what I do now a days, I don't really even carry anything heaver than a 1/4 oz head, mostly 1/8 and now the TSL weightless hook set up... Think I should go diggin' round in my old stuff for some heavier lead?


----------



## pocjetty (Sep 12, 2014)

SaltwaterSlick said:


> I've used heavy jig heads when fishing the main bays (around Galveston and POC), but since this will be my first real late fall/cool weather trip in a few weeks, is it wise to concentrate more lower in the water column, or will fish be up high (especially if it's cold but sunny)... When wade fishing, which is most of what I do now a days, I don't really even carry anything heaver than a 1/4 oz head, mostly 1/8 and now the TSL weightless hook set up... Think I should go diggin' round in my old stuff for some heavier lead?


More than anything else, I'm a big believer in the retrieve - how the lure is moving through the water. You control it, but you have to compensate for many factors. Wind, current, direction of the cast, the weight of the lure (but more importantly the buoyancy and fall rate of the lure). Only with all that can you do a proper job of deciding how high/low in the water column you will be, and how much "action" to give by bouncing the rod tip, and what profile of lure will work the best.

I'll give you an easy example. You're fishing in a stiff wind, and cast downwind. It's easy to cast. But when you retrieve, that same wind is going to make your lure want to "ski" or rise higher in the water column. So to get it deeper, you slow down your retrieve. But that may wind up moving the lure slower than you want it to. So to keep it lower AND move it a little more quickly, you might put on a heavier jig head.

But the profile of the plastic makes a big difference, too. A paddletail will put up more resistance than a sand eel that is just a straight tube with a tapered end. So pulling against that wind, a paddletail will generally tend to rise higher in the water column than a sand eel, with the same speed of retrieve. That gets a little more complicated, because some plastics are more buoyant than others.

If you're bouncing the jig, a paddletail will tend to run out of momentum and fall more vertically - so more of an up-and-down. A sand eel, being smooth, will tend to glide more through the water and move farther horizontally. Try throwing a sand eel with a strong side wind, and give it a big jerk on the rod tip. It will shoot toward you, and you will get a lot of slack in the line, and get "disconnected" from the bait. In other words, if a fish hits it on the bottom, you might not feel it. Do the same thing with a buoyant paddletail, and you won't get as much slack. You will feel the lure on your line much more of the time.

On Saturday I was casting almost directly into the wind, and what wind-blown current there was. I was throwing a sand eel, because that's what I caught fish on most recently (and because that's what I had in my pocket). The extra weight gave me a little more casting heft. But mostly, to keep a lightweight jig near the bottom, I would have to have slowed way, way down. And when I twitched the rod, I could have gotten more slack (coming toward me) and gotten disconnected from my lure. I'm sure I would have missed a lot of those pickups.

That's all pretty general, but I've already written a page - but the basics are there. I'm convinced that on most days, there is a combination of speed, depth, and "action" that will catch more fish. The trickiest thing is that you have to make adjustments when you throw at a different angle, relative to the wind. When you get into that zone you know it. _I'm just as convinced that you will do better pulling the "wrong" lure the right way, than pulling the right lure the wrong way._ And you notice that I never even mentioned color. Sometimes it matters a little more than others, but I mostly look at light/dark/natural when it comes to color.


----------



## SaltwaterSlick (Jun 11, 2012)

Wow you described a trip for me last year to a tee! Had 5 guys standing within arms (or stringer's) length of each other casting into the same gut... 2 of us were catching a fish or at least getting bit almost every cast, all throwing the same baits (DSL's) the other 3 guys would catch a fish maybe every 5 casts... color didn't matter but presentation sure did. In fact it was everything... On the same day after the tide changed and we went back out, I tried the same presentation and quickly found out that wasn't the ticket... changed it up a bit, but only slightly and it was ON again... just like in the morning... finished out my limit and did catch n release for another good hour or more that afternoon...

Do you have any generalities about fall/cool weather fishing as far as where the fish (targeting trout) may hang out? Usually a deeper bite or no?


----------



## pocjetty (Sep 12, 2014)

I had to go to a stupid fundraiser this evening. I had a few minutes before leaving, so I walked down to look at the water. The wind calmed, the water dumped a lot of silt, and pelicans were going crazy on shad. I took one cast and caught an 18" trout. Second cast was a little bigger fish. Took this picture and had to leave for the ridiculous dog and pony show I'm at now. I think tomorrow is going to be a good day to fish.


----------



## pocjetty (Sep 12, 2014)

Sorry, I typed that on my phone. The trout is going to be breakfast. The drum was released healthy and happy after snapping a picture. I know it's hard to believe that's an 18" trout, but I promise you it is. I hated having to leave. You could see fish up under all that bait, and the pelicans were having a feast from above. I think there are a lot of fish out there, if we just get a little bit of a break from the weather.


----------



## barronj (Sep 30, 2013)

Thought you swore off fishing with hot dogs? Thanks for all the reports!


----------

