Stupid Fishing

Even the sun shines on a dog’s ass some days.  Thanks to Sidney Deane for the quote, but that pretty much summed up the last time I got out to fish.  The day before my wife had to remind me that I had planned on fishing the next day and I’m glad she did.  Conditions were perfect and the fish cooperated.  Winds were light, the sun was out, water clarity good, and the fish were there.  Within five minutes of launching I caught my first redfish as he was cruising along the shore.

I then managed to catch a limit of reds on the fly in that same area within sight of my vehicle over the next hour or so.

It was stupid fishing, there were redfish everywhere early on.  All the reds were mid to upper slot sized with a handful being above slot, no true bulls, but no rats either, all nice fish.

Redfish were crawling on mud flats, they were tailing out in the open, they were cruising the shores, and roaming in packs.  If there was a moment where I didn’t have a redfish in sight all I had to do was wait and one would swim into my vicinity OR I’d hear them crashing shrimp in the next pond over.  The bait shrimp that day were THICK, the reds were gorging themselves.

When I decided I needed a break from the reds I stopped at a spot with clean moving water and searched for trout, I found out they were there too.

I caught them on the fly too, just for fun.  I had steady action on trout 12-15″ for a while before deciding to move along.

Everything I caught was released, maybe that’s why the fish gods smiled down upon me on this day, but it definitely made for an easier trip.

I stayed long enough to catch one at 29″.  I really couldn’t tell you how many I caught working my way up to that size.  I didn’t manage to break the 30″ mark, I spent plenty of time looking, but there just weren’t any big bulls around.

It’s been a long time since a day has gone that well for me, which is part of the reason I fish the coast so infrequently now.  I had forgotten how good it could be.  The drive seemed to get longer and longer as I caught fewer and fewer fish.  It’s good to have a good reminder that when the stars align the fishing can be pretty incredible.