Airboat Reds & Ducks, Seadrift

Early Week

 

Blown up tides and super elevated water levels are bringing some oversized reds into the extreme shallows on the flats. While fishing on my airboat yesterday I saw a double mud stir with a fish kicking through the water that looked like a miniature “porpoise signature”. About five minutes later, the fish took a run at one of our guests. It was ON! Drag stripping with the rod at max bend from the cork is always an impressive sight in the back reaches of the flats. As the fish came to hand, there was no question it was oversized. For grins, I put it on the check stick and to my amazement it was 27.75” with massive girth. When we got to the ramp to clean fish, I emptied it’s bloated stomach to find six huge pieces of cut mullet? We didn’t put it there for sure. Come to find out, one of my guides had been in nearly the exact spot earlier in the day and had dumped some bait before making a move. The double mud stir was from the fish consuming the bait about 10’ from the boat and then it eased out to the edge of the grass flat and took one of our baits, unbelievable feeding frenzy for sure!

 

Starting off right

 

Capt. James and I had airboat trips while Capt. Jake was fishing his bayboat. James and I took off shortly after Jake, maybe 20 or 30 minutes. As I was heading down the bay I could see Jake giving me the double arm pump which meant “we are catching them like Tuna” over here. Jake was limited out before James and I got to our first stops. 

 

Leaward Falling Water

 

James worked a falling water pattern in the North marsh and managed full limits with two oversized Reds.

 

Rising Windward Water, The Island

 

I took the longer run to the Island to work a North wind pattern with “windward fish” and for the second time this Fall, that was a big mistake. Salinity ravaged back pocket lakes in the far reaches of Matagorda Island are losing grass by the day. This is creating huge “yellow water” zones devoid of any grass. No grass, no bait, no fish. This is breaking patterns I’ve seen for over a decade.  It is pushing and holding the Redfish in deeper water areas of the back marsh closer to the bays. That’s making them a lot harder to see and even harder to find. We managed 5 Redfish to 27.75” for the effort along with a couple of Drum.

 

Late Week (Ducks & Fish)

 

Capt. Chris Cady took our guests with Pesado and managed full limits of Redfish around noon. Capt. James Cunningham and Steve fished Sunday with James taking half limits of Redfish and reporting a lot of undersized. Steve’s guests got a late start with a little too much hangover and struggled. 

 

The Duck opener was slow for some and hot and heavy for others along the coast. Few and widely spread numbers on the bay lead many to hunt inland where concentrations were larger. Capt. Jake Huddleston started it off right with a 24 bird shoot including a lot of Blue Wings on Saturday. On the bay, it turns out opening day pressure inland helped a little as we took half limits with Gadwall and Teal making up the majority of the straps. Sunday was a carbon copy of Saturday with mild winds and clear skies dominating. Capt. Jake and I were working with a client from Houston and managed solid straps on our inland ponds. At one point, my guests and I were huddling up to see who had more shells! Teal, Gadwall, Shoveler, Redheads, and Tree Ducks made up the majority of ducks taken. 

 

Inland pressure along with a substantial tide fall-out seems to have put more birds on the bay and we will have a better handle on that as we hunt through the week. Prospects are good for fast action as more birds continue to find their way to the bays.