Explosive fishing for Trout and Redfish continues as lighter winds finally prevail heading into September! Teal buzzing the bays and a light North wind led to a slick calm mid-Saturday morning. I could care less, I’ll take anything less than 25 knots and screaming out of the South! The Lodge welcomed the largest group of attorney’s I’ve ever seen under one roof. With 14 guests coming from all over Texas and Louisiana for a bachelor party, 10 were attorneys varying from elite Texas firms all the way to United States District attorney’s. Needless to say there weren’t a lot of attorney jokes tossed around. And, yes, we did bring them all back to the ramp alive! 

 

Ingredients for trouble include taking 14 young upwardly mobile professionals and adding them to a bar in Seadrift, Texas. 14 of anything in a bar in Seadrift has got the contents for disaster. Add $1,000 pool bets and flashing plenty of $100 bills is like adding Nitro to the mix. Cooler heads prevailed, however, and I have to thank those with cool heads in management at the bar and in the group for diffusing the situation. However, there is no doubt that the group can now say that “they’ve been thrown out of a bar in Seadrift, Texas”! 

 

Saturday’s slick conditions led to a bay adventure that was a brutal assault on the senses of those with excessive alcohol consumption and poor “getting to bed” practices. Around 4:00am I noticed that “we’ve still got some partying going on with guests that have yet to hit the sack. 

 

Slick conditions and no wind made for slow going early and as the sun continued to rise with the bays slicking off further, mother nature dealt out some serious punishment. The first group to fold fished with Capt. James and he called and said “my guys are done” and started busting toward the ramp around 11:00 with 7 Trout and 2 Redfish. 

 

Jeffrey, the guest of honor was on my boat and he also had the distinction of still being up at 4:00am.  Derek and Mike accompanied and the crew dug in hard. With an hour of sleep, Jeff and his “best men” trudged through the sweltering siege of slick conditions. I haven’t witnessed anything quite as painful to watch in a long time. I don’t think I can ever recall anyone fishing with their eyes closed either. I’ve got to hand it to the boys for tenacity no matter how ugly. The reward was half limits of Trout to 21” for the effort.

 

Capt. Steve Boldt and Capt. Brad Graham kept their crews busy prospecting for Trout early and then shifting to a focus on Redfish as the wind started puffing around 2:00. Steve said “we were stroking them pretty good when I looked off the back of the boat and saw an upper slot Redfish swimming at the stern of the boat”. He said the fish never spooked as he cruised within dip netting distance from the boat. Now that boat is sitting on some Redfish!