Friday arrived, and while we were sad it was our last full day on the island, we were also excited because this was the day for our second - and most looked forward to - fishing expedition. We had chartered with Captian Bryan Ray. He was optimistic and said the fishing had been good, but little did we know how good it would be. Again, it was another early morning since the boat left at 7, but today's trip would only be a 5 hour excursion.
After leaving the dock and running for about 45 minutes, we arrived at our first fishing spot. The Captain Bryan handed us our tackle, explained its use and off we went. Let me tell you, this was some unconventional tackle - I'd never fished for specs or reds this way before. Every other trip I'd been on, we would fish either with live shrimp under a popping cork or with artificials. We didn't use either - we used frozen shad he'd netted at the jetties a couple of weeks prior. No weight on the line - just hook the shad between the bones in the bottom of the jaw and draw it up through the skull and - gingerly - toss it out as far into your direction of drift as possible. Work the bait sort of like a topwater lure, and KABOOM!!! Man, the trout would blow up on them big time. It was an absolute blast. We fished that way until we were out of bait, and by that time we had boated 22 trout! It was FUN! We only ended up keeping two of them, as we're huge proponents of catch and release. The two we kept had swallowed the bait so far that they would've died anyway if we'd thrown them back.
Here are a few pictures of the trout we caught that morning (along with the sunrise we saw on the way out - Derek took that shot as well as several intermixed in this gallery). The last trout pic with Derek was the biggest trout of the day. She was a beaut - a 28" yellowmouth sow! Derek thought he had a nice red hooked and was shocked to pull up a monster trout.
After repositioning a couple of times and running out of shad, we moved to another part of the bay to hunt specifically for redfish. We definitely wanted to get into some reds because they are so fun to catch. They pull really hard and you have to work them, especially on lighter tackle. Well, Captain Bryan delivered the goods, and we got into them - but again on unconventional tackle. Again, I'd always gone for them before with live shrimp and popping corks or with spoons or other artificials. We caught these on cut bait! Captain Bryan had netted some ballyhoo while he was catching shad, and he chopped it up and put in on a hook under a heavy triangle weight. You'd throw it out as far as you could into your direction of drift and just let the bait soak, keeping the slack out of your line. James kept asking, "How am I going to know if I've got a redfish?" We all answered in unison, "Trust me, you'll know!" As luck would have it, he hooked into the first - and largest - red of the day, and he said, "Oh yeah, now I know what you're talking about!" That fish was just shy of 29 inches, and what a nice fish it was! Here are a few pics of that fight and that fish.
The Monkey wasn't the only one to have some success with reds that morning, though. He caught the biggest, but I caught the most. James caught 2, Derek caught 1 and I caught three. But the only reason I caught three is because the second redfish was hooked by Captain Bryan, and he just handed his rod to me. I should've told him to hand it to Derek, but in haste and a desire not to lose the fish, I grabbed it and brought him in. The smallest red we caught that morning was 25" and besides the big one James caught, everything else was around 27". Here are a few more pics of the reds we boated that morning.
Also, James used Derek's digital camera in video mode to capture Derek's fight with the red he caught that morning. It is a little hard to hear because it was a little windy, but you can still hear some of the conversation and you can see the fight and the fish as it was coming to and onto the boat.
Needless to say, it was a great morning of fishing. If you're ever in South Padre, you need to look up Captain Bryan Ray - the link to his website is at the top of this story. He's a great guy and really knows his stuff when it comes to bay fishing in the Lower Laguna Madre.
Unfortunately, Saturday was our last morning. We had to pack up, clean up and be out of the condo before 11 am, and we met the deadline with no problem. We hit the road and made it home to Houston by about 5:30 that evening. We'd been eating a LOT of seafood the entire week, and Derek and James had a hankerin' for some good Mexican food. So we hit our favorite Mexican food haunt for some good food and Margaritas. Their flight left on Sunday about 3, so I took them to the airport and the trip was officially over.
What a great trip it was. We're so glad Derek and James could make it down and accompany us on the trip. And thanks to Neal and Jeanette for sharing with us for the holiday. But look out: Derek and I are already planning our next fishing conquest. We haven't picked a date or an exact location or outfitter, but we already know what we're going to do: we're going to work with a back country outfitter in Canada and go after monster Northern Pike and Walleye. That trip's probably a couple of years away, but we're working on it. Until then...