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!