Castaway Lodge Seadrift Report
By Capt. Kris Kelley
There are a couple of things that will stop a Mercury 225 Pro XS in its tracks, one of them is the sweet smell of watermelon coming off upwind structure. Another one is the sight of Menhaden and Glass Minnows showering out of the water over structure. A Menhaden doing cartwheels has been the downfall of a many a Trout here on San Antonio Bay over the years and a lot here lately. What separates one piece of structure from another may be the presence of active bait, diving Pelicans, and the likes. You can't always be so fortunate as to located active bait. However, Panther Reef today reminded me what a "dead zone" looks like as I eased into it probing for the shell taper. I knew "before we threw" that it wasn't going to be "the ticket". There wasn't a Pelican in sight; zero signs of any active bait movement; and, a few other adjectives you might apply to a fishless environ. On the other hand, approaching some other San Antonio Bay shell found a different conclusion. I noticed the water was pretty streaky and as I looked over the "kill zone" I noticed a Menhaden Shad flipping out of the water like a "seal being tossed around by a Killer Whale". What ensued was a meltdown on Trout to 21".
San Antonio Bay is seldom about the "spot" as it is about your timing on a particular piece of structure. There may be few bay systems that seem to involve timing more. What is emerald green and fishless early may be streaking dirty and covered with fish a little later. Vice versa can also be said. Water that's very off color in one location that fishes best on an incoming tide may be shoulder to shoulder with Trout in a feeding frenzy despite "what appears" to be impossible water conditions. Wind angles are also critical on SAB structure and the myriad of potential shell reefs all have appropriate and inappropriate wind directions. A lot of this involves the location and layout of the deep to shallow tapers and how the wind is approaching them. Some thing that fishes well on 150 degree wind directions may also fish well on winds of 180 degrees opposite while others simply won't. Figuring that out just takes an awful lot of time and days on the water.
Fishing Action
On the fishing scene, it's more of the same, piled higher and deeper. Lots and lots of Trout with a few Redfish showing on occassion. Capt. Doug had the best Redfish intercept of late taking 9 nice ones over mud/grass along with a Trout to 18". Doug and his wife just had a beautiful baby girl and now he's back from maternity leave and "hooking up" our guests. Capt. James, Jake, and I have been rolling out some solid Trout limits for a good stretch here lately. Mother Nature has blessed us with just enough of a decrease in wind speeds to light them up to 24" over shell in SAB. I don't see any "departures" in the forecast over the next week and that should keep us on them pretty good. We haven't seen a need to push onto mud/grass yet in search of Trout and really haven't quite had enough wind for it. However, if the next wind pop is accompanied by some elevated water levels I'm thinking that might be pretty "solid".
We're hoping that your "fishing is catching" and that you might come see us sometime. If you are in the area, feel free to stop by in the afternoon for a visit.
Capt. Kris Kelley
Castaway Lodge
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