# Rockport fly fishing / new skiff report



## Redfish Rick (Aug 27, 2004)

The fly fishing around the Rockport area has been good over the last two weeks. 

The reds have been very strange in their behavior over the last 2 weeks. They have mostly been sitting on the bottom in one spot or crusing very slow over shallow sand/grass flats. Most times, they will not even look at a fly, lure, or bait. They have just been swimming by our flys, not even turning to investigate, until the "magic hour". Every day for the last 2 weeks, it seems like the reds only want to feed between 0930 and 1100 every day. During that time, the reds have been very agressive, chasing flys and hitting 5 feet from the boat at times. Outside of the 0930-1100 window, the reds have been very skittish and hard to catch. On recent guided trips, we have averaged 4-5 reds landed out of 50-60 sight casts. Again, most of the action has been during a short period every morning where the fish start biting all of a sudden, like someone flipped a light switch.

Every morning, we have also found a few schools of larger fish tailing over shallow grass. While we have caught plenty of reds out of these tailing schools, we have'nt been able to catch more than one before the school breaks up.

I have found that on most days the only thing that the reds will bite is a small shrimp or crab imitation fly. 

I picked up my brand new Beavertail Skiff on April 27th, and this boat is truly amazing. I have used it 4-5 days a week over the last 3 weeks and have run 7 guided fishing trips in it so far. I have the 2008 Osprey model with the Select Drive Tunnel and a 60hp. E-Tec. I posted a few pics below, but you can see some other pictures on the boating forum.


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## LaAngler (Mar 11, 2008)

nice boat


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## bleb (Mar 6, 2008)

Nice boat... but why run so close to the shoreline......? No more fish up there.. (not sure where it is so may not matter but just making a general point!)


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## munson (Nov 12, 2005)

nice feeesh, sweet sled, and good report.


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## flatshunter (Jan 16, 2006)

*boat*

I aggree Bleb we all know how shallow our boats will run but jeeeez ..............stay off the grass when running (my 2 cents)


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## Lat22 (Apr 7, 2005)

Great pics. I really need to get some casting lessons pretty quick.


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## bslittle79 (May 24, 2004)

Rick,

Is your boat rigged with the volvo trim tabs? If so do you like them? I've never seem them up close but they seem like they could be ripped off if the boat is bottomed out with the tabs trimmed down. 

Keep those fly fishing pictures coming. Congrats on the new rig.


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## Redfish Rick (Aug 27, 2004)

bslittle: I worried about the same thing, but with the tabs all the way down they only stick about 1/2" below the bottom of the boat. I usually run them about 1/2 way down (1/4" sticking below the bottom of the boat). They are very fast and responsive, and with them all the way down the boat will stay on plane at only 8 mph. Also, they automatically retract once the ignition key is turned off.


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## surfsideperson (Aug 22, 2005)

you had to know on this site you would catch , flack for that pic. running next to the shoreline, after all the discussion we have on this site, that was brave.......nice fish....anyway.


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## Stuart (May 21, 2004)

How do you you know he's not running or entering a cut and y'all can't see the other bank? Maybe, maybe not. Just saying.


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## surfsideperson (Aug 22, 2005)

good call, stuart, maby so.......pictures worth 1000 words, have a great weekend everyone.


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## Redfish Rick (Aug 27, 2004)

When we were taking the pictures, I had the cameraman set up on dry ground on the shore of a small cut between 2 back lakes. Since this small cut had deeper water, it allowed me to get on plane much easier and made it safer to do close passes by the camera. The cut is about 40 feet wide and only runs for about 300 feet before opening into another lake, also it is about 3-4 feet deep. 

OK, now that that is settled, I have to get some sleep, cause I have a long day planed tommorow for burning shorelines... LOL


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## Gottagofishin (Dec 17, 2005)

LOL! I was thinking the camera man was standing on something. Now fess up. Did you let all those reds go? LOL!

I run through lots of cuts and channels like that every weekend. I also run open flats and back lakes that are a lot shollower than that. You can get a clue that the water isn't that shallow by looking at the wave pattern in front of the boat.


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## kdumas (Aug 19, 2005)

Congrats on the new skiff, it just keeps getting better.


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## Melon (Jun 1, 2004)

Nice boat and pictures.


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## squidmotion (Apr 5, 2007)

nice boat.....


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## spitfire (Jan 2, 2007)

Go BeaverTail!!!


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## bleb (Mar 6, 2008)

I still wouldnt run so close lol

btw you still running that thing?


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## moemoepop (Jun 5, 2010)

He is running in a cut. Let's not be so quick to judge. I guide in Rockport and have had boats run between me and the shore line. Burning has been around since the skinny water boats hit the market. We should all respect fishermen, wading or in the boat. Give them a wide berth when going around or passed them. I think we need to post a few rules of ettiquete at every boat ramp.


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