Midnight Madness II

We made another trip down to west bay Wednesday night to get some meat for the freezer. The East wind was blasting and it was making fishing tough, but we managed twenty one nice trout and a dozen throw backs. All fish were caught on purple chartreuse tail Mirror lure soft plastics and pumpkin seed with chartreuse tail. Once again the preferred retrieve was a slow steady reel with a light twitch every so often. I wasn’t able to take a lot of pictures due to the sporty conditions on the water but I did get one of the ice chest full of fish and Cody holding the first fish of the night. If anyone from Mirror Lure is reading this I just want to say you make the toughest soft plastics I have ever used. I have used the same lure on two trips and caught around forty fish on it and its good for another trip or two.

Midnight Madness

We launched the yaks around three o’clock to catch the evening bite and picked up a few 16”-18” trout and some ret reds. After the sun set the big girls came out to eat. We caught three trout over 20” and a red that went 23”. At eight o’clock we decided to go grab a bite to eat and wait for the outgoing tide. Around midnight we got back on the water and it was feeding time. The bite to cast ratio was about one out of five and the hookup ratio was about one out of three. The tally for the night was around thirty trout with ten over 20” and half of those were over 25”. Fish were caught on plum chartreuse TTF straight tails and glow mirror lures. All fish were set free to fight another day.

First time in sabine

On the way home from the IFA championship in Alabama we decided to stop and fish the north end of Sabine on the Texas side. After two days of punishment from the Fish Gods we caught a break and a ton of fish. The Red fish and Trout were stirring up the shrimp and the birds were getting the extras. The only word that could explain the day would be total chaos. At the end of the day we had two limits of Reds and two limits of Trout. Fish were caught on Gulp shrimp under a popping cork, topwaters, plastics, and corkys.
I could go on for days about how great the fishing was but I will let the pictures do the talking.

IFA Championship Orange Beach, Alabama

We headed out Thursday morning around one A.M. with no sleep since Tuesday night. We arrived in Alabama a little after nine A.M. and were pre fishing by ten. At the first spot all we could find was one small trout and some very fresh water. After we loaded up I did some research and found another promising spot in Oyster Bay which was about an hour away. When we arrived at our next stop we found a good amount of Reds and Trout. After a couple of hours of fishing and exploring it was decided this was going to be the place to start Friday morning.

After the captains meeting at the fabulous Cobalt restaurant we went back to Oyster Bay so we could finally get some much needed sleep. A little after five A.M. we crawled out of the truck. Yes we slept in the back of the Tahoe for three nights. On the way down the intercostal I had two blowups on a topwater just before the entrance to Oyster Bay, and I knew it was going to be a good day. Once inside the bay we saw some seagulls working on the south shoreline. After a short quarter mile paddle we were in a school of trout under the gulls. All of the trout were small but I was able to pull one out that was sixteen and a half inches. Now that I had my Trout I could go find one of the many Reds that we saw the previous day. After going to all of the spots that we found Reds on Thursday we came up empty, so I went exploring and still could not find a Redfish anywhere. I did manage to find a trout that was a little bigger. I fished until the very last minute and had nothing to show for it but an eighteen and a half inch trout.




Saturday we changed our location and fished Wolf Bay which gave me the same results as the previous day. I caught an eighteen and a half inch Trout and not a single Red. I don’t know what the deal is with Alabama fish but if I could take all of the places I fished during the tournament and bring them back to Texas they would be loaded with fish.

I wasn’t able to pull off the win that I wanted but it was a great experience. Once again I am very grateful for all of the hard work that the IFA and Hobie has put into giving us kayakers a chance to prove ourselves in a pro tournament.

The boys first tournament

Grady and Sterling had their very first fishing tournament October 30th. The event was put on by Texas CCA and is a wonderful family event. Although, the boys did not place with their fish. we all had a great time and they won a new fishing pole in the raffle.


Grady caught a 9in Whiting.


Sterling caught a 9 1/2in Sand Trout.

Working on the yak hauler

I was informed Friday that my ride to the IFA championship tournament decided to go hunting instead of going to the tournament. Now I’m going crazy trying to get everything lined out to get myself to the tournament. My truck needs new tires, the yak trailer needs some work and tires to be road worthy. Luckily things are starting to come together. Some new lights and some extra supports for the kayaks were added to the trailer today with the help of my boys. Once some new tires are put on it will be good enough to get me to Alabama and hopefully get me back home. This is some last minute rigging so don’t laugh too hard. My plan is to build the trailer how I want it thanksgiving weekend. The only reason I’m writing this post is because the pictures are pretty funny.

Wild day on west bay

The day started out with Travis’s reel being frozen up, and after a shot of oil and a few turns of the handle it was back in working order. After we set sail I noticed my rudder would only turn left, so I headed back to shore and pulled my yak back onto the trailer, and with a few adjustments we were ready to fish. The red fish and trout were smashing shrimp every where from the bank out to around a hundred yards. On my third cast I stuck a sixteen inch trout and he was the first and last trout to go on the stringer. A few minutes later I bowedup with a nice twenty four inch red with three spots and he was the first of four reds to join the lineup. Almost every cast with a top water resulted in an aggressive blowup but not very many hookups. I was having a blast watching those fish destroy my super spook. In my opinion missing fish on top waters is more fun than catching fish with any other bait..
The mission of the day was to catch some red fish for Travis to take back to college station since he has not been able to come in town as often as he use to. We closed out the day with a trout, four reds from twenty two to twenty eight, and a whole lot of blowups without a hookup.


The baits of choice were any top water but I mostly used a white with red head super spook jr., and the two biggest reds fell victim to a natural Gulp shrimp on a weed less jig head.

The new kayak trailer

I’ve been searching for a kayak trailer for a while now and I finally found one that fit my budget and design. She needs some modifying but it will work perfect for hauling two yaks when finished. I thought I would do a little before, during, and after for those who are interested.

The trailer started as a catamaran sailboat trailer and I picked it up for two hundred dollars. The frame and wheels are galvanized so they are in good shape. The leaf springs and wheel studs need to be replaced. The wheel hubs came with bearing buddies already on them and are in good shape. I removed the cross bars that held the hulls of the sailboat so now the trailer is a little over four feet wide. My plan is to make it a double decker and make the tong removable so that it fits in the garage.

Morning wade

Sunday morning I took a solo wading trip to my hole in west bay and it was very productive. When I arrived at my spot the wind was dead and the water was boiling from schools of mullet being chased by bull reds. Bull reds were not on my menu so I just watched the action while I waded over to a marsh drain I like to fish. While I was in route to the drain there were some rat reds destroying grass shrimp on the shore line. I decided to make a cast with my skitter-walk and it was hammered by a two spotted rat red. Once inside of the drain I was shocked by the number of red fish that were in there. My second cast landed a twenty two inch red and the action was non stop until around eleven. A few times I caught myself just watching all the action instead of fishing. Fifteen reds from twenty to twenty seven inches were caught inside of the drain in knee deep water. The baits of choice were a chrome and black skitter-walk and a red and white kicker fish bait shad stick There were numerous times red fish would swim right up next to me and not get spooked, I guess they thought I was a pole or something. There were a few times reds would come completely out of the water and land on the bank trying to get shrimp. It was a very nice day to be on the water, and a shame I had to enjoy it by myself. All but three fish were released, and the three fish were mighty tasty.

There were a few strange things that happened Sunday morning. There was a large sea turtle that hung out with me for a while, not that strange but kind of cool. Then there were stingrays flying out of the water chasing shrimp and mullet, I’ve never seen that before. The best one of the day was the small waterspout that ran over me, it was neat but it got me pretty wet.

I guess I could be more Specific about the hole, I was fishing the south shore line of west bay by the pass.

Wife appreciation day

Tatum (My wonderful wife) and I headed down to Tabbs bay today for her first trip in her new (My old) Hobie Outback. We arrived at our launch spot a little early so we decided to hang out in the truck for a while and talk some fishing. When the sky started to lighten up we made our way to the water and started fishing. Tatum rigged up a Gulp shrimp on a popping cork and made her first cast. With a few pops of the cork it was gone and she was bowedup. After a quick battle we discovered a big slimy gafftop on the other end and of course I was nominated to remove it. While scoping out the area a large amount of nervous bait caught our attention, so we went to investigate. We approached the grassy shore line the as sun started peaking over the trees and we witnessed numerous flounder coming completely out of the water chasing mullet. While watching the flounder go crazy a shrimp fly’s up in the air next to me. As the shrimp was falling towards the water I looked down and there was a little Redfish waiting for the shrimp to land. When the shrimp got close to the waters surface the Redfish came out like a rocket and the shrimp was gone. After a few casts with a super spook it was smashed and I bowedup with a fat twenty inch Redfish.

Tatum started throwing a Gulp shrimp on a ¼ ounce jig head and it didn’t take long until she was catching reds. As the morning went on we caught some more Redfish, Flounder, and Tatum was killing the Sand Trout.


Today was a great day to be on the water; even thou Tatum caught more fish than me. All fish were caught in one to four feet of water over mud and shell.

Hobie Pro Angler

The F.I.S.D. skool bus (the new yak) performed like a champ. It worked well in the shallow water with no problems, and paddling it was effortless when the water was super shallow. The turbo fins on the mirage drive work great, Cody was using my Hobie Outback and I had no problems keeping up in the bus. All of the storage is great, I can take all of the lures I use most and put them in the middle compartment and never have to dig through my tackle bag. The bow storage is so big I could not find enough stuff to fill it up, and the back deck is big enough to fish off of or carry a full size cooler on it. When I stood up on it for the first time I was very comfortable moving around, and fishing while standing up was no problem at all. The Hobie Pro Angler is defiantly in a class of its own.

First time in Freeport

We met up with bogdog (Clint) if Freeport Saturday morning and hit the water by six fifteen. After a short paddle we reached the first stop, we split up and started looking for some reds. It didn’t take long for the action to get fired up and the reds were exploding all over our top waters. Between the four of us we landed seven reds between eighteen and 30 inches on top waters in an hour, and a couple of small trout. The tide was super high and you could see reds chasing shrimp and mullet way up in the grass, so I put on a (Kicker Fish bait) strawberry white tail shad stick. I rigged it up weed less and sent it into the grass after a red that was chasing some shrimp. When I say way up in the grass I mean about twenty feet in from the waters edge. As soon as the shad stick hit the water that red inhaled it and the fight was on, and then it was over. My twelve pound line was no match for a big red in thick grass, so if anyone sees a red swimming around with a strawberry white tail shad stick bait in his mouth watch out he’s a feisty one. After that we paddled back to the trucks, loaded up, and headed for our next destination.

When we arrived at our next stop we unloaded and started fishing. The fishing was a little slow but we managed four nice reds on top waters. Most of the fish were caught out in the middle of the lake we were fishing, and some were caught out of a school we found that was running bait on the bank. After about two hours the bite was over and we headed home.

Thanks for the trip Clint we had a blast

Moon light bust

Friday night we decided to pull an all nighter and do some moon light top water fishing on the west end of the island. When we arrived at our spot we were greeted by calm winds, high tide, and some flounder gigers. There was a good amount of bait in the water and you could hear fish busting the schools of bait every so often. We fished from around two until four with only three blowups each and no fish caught. It wasn't a very success full trip but it was a nice night to be out there.

Specks in the spot light

Friday night we headed down to the east end of Galveston to do some trout fishing. After the lights and generator were fired up it didn’t take long for the trout to show up. The trout were not in there usual numbers but there were some decent size fish in the lights (18-20”). I started throwing the usual baits, mirrodine, small finesse shad, and bass assassins with little luck besides some throw backs. I decided to tie on one of the new baits I picked up from KICKER FISH BAITS and that was the ticket. First cast with a pearl pepper saltwater shadstick landed an 18” trout. A couple of casts later another 18” trout, and many more after that. The shadstick was rigged up weed less with a bass hook, about 6” of leader line, and a swivel (no weight). The trout couldn’t stand the action that the shadstick has. The best retrieve was slow letting it sink about a foot down and then twitching it a few times back to the surface. We only kept enough fish for a meal and let the rest go back. If you get a chance to do some night fishing I would suggest getting some shadsticks, they were a life saver and kept me from getting skunked at the hole.

It's official now

Click for Official Results.

The fishing was great on Sunday; there were schools of huge reds all around and all you could hear were mullet getting smashed and running for there lives. Once the sun came out and I put on my Costa Delmar sunglasses everywhere you looked you could see tails and big bronze backs sticking out of the water. A school of big reds caught my eye about fifty yards away and the chase was on. I eased my way over towards them in my stealthy Hobie outback and made a cast with a skitter walk. With a few twitches of my Castaway rod tip they all turned towards my bait like a group of synchronized swimmers. After two more small pops it all broke loose, reds were going nuts trying to kill that skitter walk, they were fighting each other and completely forgot about my bait. I made another cast at them and it looked like some one threw a grenade in the water, red fish were flying everywhere. During all the commotion my skitter walk disappeared and the sleigh ride was underway. I knew it was a good fish when it instantly started taking line off of my Shimano Castaic reel. After a short battle she gave up, I pulled her on board, made a short paddle to the bank, took a measurement (26 ¾”), and took her picture. After the picture I made sure she was in good health and watched her swim away to fight another day.




The next four hours were spent in search of the elusive mustard mouth. I was catching everything from six inch specks to ten pound black drum on Berkley gulp jerk shad. The Berkley ad is true about out fishing live bait because it will catch any fish out there. Finally, I set the hook on a fish and got that wonderful head shake on the end of my line and it was pulling harder than the other specs had been pulling. I knew I finally found the one speck out there that was at least fifteen inches long, and low and behold it was fifteen and a quarter. After a short photo session it was set free to see another day.



After a little more fishing we packed up and started the hour journey to the weigh in at Seaworthy Marine. As always the ride to the weigh in seems like an eternity, especially when you think you have a good stringer. When I heard my name called for the biggest red fish I knew I had a good chance to be in at least the top five. The next thing I remember was hearing my name again for first place, I could not believe it. With the win for Port "A" put me at number one for Texas angler of the year. Now I get to go to the championship and represent all of our Texas fishermen.

IFA Kayak Fishing Tour 2010

IFA Kayak Fishing Tour 2010

Josh did it again! Biggest red fish, this was a clean sweep winning the Biggest Red in ALL 3 tournaments. 1st place for the tournament and Texas Angler of the year. Josh said “the fishing was awesome and I had so much fun”!

Winnings were $200 for biggest red fish, a New Hobie Pro Angler Kayak $2,499, representing Texas is the Champions tournament, and entry fees paid for all 3 Texas tournaments next year.

Thanks to all the supporters of the IFA Kayak Fishing Tour:
Hobie Fishing,
Cabela’s,
Kayak Angler Fishing Magazine,
WFN World Fishing Network,
Columbia,
321fish.com



A BIG THANK YOU to Seaworthly Marine and all the workers who helped put this event together!



Special Thanks to my personal sponsors:
God
Tatum MacNaughton TX Realtor.

Thanks to Jay and Tommy Zachry for letting us use their Condo on Mustang Island! Having my family there meant so much!

Fishing Lights

Last weekend. Sorry, it took so long to put up.

IFA REDFISH TOUR

The fishing was tough this weekend with the 20+ mph winds and two tide days, but I was able to catch one fish on Sunday (with the help of my fishing partner Travis) and luckily it was a 28" red. That one fish was enough to take the biggest red for the tournament (second time in a row) fifth place, and now I am tied in first place for Texas angler of the year.

The picture was taken in the pelican not the Hobie. I needed a confined space to keep this monster under control, and the Hobie has no confined space.

I couldn't have done it without a Berkley GULP jerk shad, my Hobie mirage outback, Shimano reel, Castaway rod, and a spool of Pline.

AFTERNOON TRIP WEST BAY

Made an afternoon trip to the south shore line near sanluie pass Saturday. The east wind was blasting and the water was dirty but we managed some trout, flounder and a red. Most fish were caught on plastics, the red was caught on a monster live mullet. Going to try some night fishing this weekend with the guys.

FIRST TRIP

I left the house around four A.M. on Sunday and headed to the boat storage "Grandmas house". Meet up with some of the guys on the island and rode the ferry over to bolivar. We put in on the beach and fished the jetties out to the boat cut with no luck, then we tried the pocket with no luck. We tried plastics, mirror lures, and some top waters but the fish weren't buying what we were selling. I didn't see anyone catching anything. There was a lot of bait but no signs of fish.

Now the story on the new yak, WOW that Hobie hauls butt. I think I spent most of the day playing around and a little bit of the day fishing. The pelican is the only yak I have ever fished out of and after the trip on Sunday I now know how a real yak should perform. It is very stable, it drifts straight, and when you want to move it gets up and moves.

2010 IFA Kayak Fishing Tour Texas Division

Josh MacNaughton made second place and caught the LARGEST Red Fish in his first tournament (Results).

2nd Place prizes included Hobie Mirage Outback Kayak and $200 cash for catching the biggest Red Fish in the tournament. Josh also won a new fishing net in a raffle.

Special Thanks to his sponsors:
GOD
Tatum MacNaughton TX Realtor.