Capt. James reported whipping up on the Reds on Saturday with Roger S. and guests. With winds cranking on pre-frontal conditions working mud/grass yielded full limits with fast n furious catch and release action using bait. That's about the extent of the fishing of late as we find ourselves here in the split working on Geese and awaiting the 2nd half opener of the Texas Duck Season.
Capt. Matt hunting the pool system on the upper Mississippi River in WI near Prairie Du Chien reports mild conditions with hundreds of thousands of ducks still rafted on the big water. Despite a strong concentration of birds here on the Texas Coast, we recognize that these numbers could significantly rise with the onset of freezing conditions. According to Matt, there was lots of tough hunting in WI this season with mild temps, slick-offs, and blue bird skies better fitting a lawn chair and an umbrella drink. He will be making his way down here on his usual migration to work the 2nd Texas Split with us. Right off the bat we're looking at 5 straight days of Layout Boat hunting with outdoor writer Worth M. and his wife. That will be a lot of fun for sure. We'll also be welcoming returning guests Scott W. and family along with long-time guest David C. and group; Karrel L. and guests for fishing.
As I had mentioned last week, conditions for goose hunting went from poor right before the end of the duck split to Holy Mother of God we've got birds everywhere. We welcomed in long time guests Mike M. and the boys from N. Texas in for two days of hunting. Capt. Jake dialed in the approach and we went to working on them. We managed 120 over two days with an 85 on Saturday to start things off shooting bone dry rice. It would have been an easy 100 plus bird shoot except for the lack of Dark Geese which were few and far between and very wild.
Sunday's shoot found us working bald row crop and fearing rain. Again, we managed a lot of Snow & Ross but couldn't come up with more than a handful of Darks taking 35 for the effort. Our birds are moving twice a morning, once coming off the roost and then a little later heading back for water. This combination of forced natural air traffic doesn't appear in their best interests and will likely bring more strong shooting as we move forward.
We hope you have a great week, come see us!
Capt. Kris Kelley
Castaway Lodge
1-888-618-4868
www.seadriftbayfishing.com
