Muddy Pumpkins

This past Friday was my first chance to fish the marsh in what seemed like a while. It probably hadn’t been that long, but it still felt like it. I decided to head to a location that I’m still learning and figuring out. It ended up paying off…

The area is covered with pipeline canals where the depth is around 8-12 ft. Branching off from these canals are shallow ponds, some as shallow as six inches. I headed north from my launch and soon found some swirling on the shallow banks of the canal. It didn’t take long before I netted my first red of the day. He came in right around 18″.

As I was unhooking this redfish, these two older men in an aluminum boat power past me. I wave, they wave, all is well. A few minutes pass and I’m on the opposite bank chasing a few blow-ups I’d seen. These two old guys come back through and blow-out the whole canal! Now, I don’t have a hateful grudge against stinkpotters, but I do believe we all need to respect each other on the water. Regardless of the vessel we’re fishing out of, we’re all out there for the same purpose.

Sorry. Anyway, I headed up the next canal going further north. Eventually, I came to a point and I could hear some nice explosions happening on the other side. I cautiously rounded the corner to find a very shallow pocket where there were several tailing reds. I made quick work of one of them, making number two on the day. This red was of similar size to my first. 

The fight hadn’t spooked off the other reds, who were cruising the sides of this little cove. After several failed attempts to hook another, they finally spooked off. I had noticed an opening into the marsh on the other side of the canal from where I was and decided to investigate. As I was entering the cut, I saw a bronze head come out of the water chasing schooled up baitfish, making a big splash! I immediately went to work and bagged another two on sight-casts. These were a little larger, maybe around 22″ and 23″.

I decided I’d finish off my limit in this group of linked ponds. After repositioning a few times, I hear my GoPro beeping; dead battery. I break out the spare only to find that it’s also dead. So I decide to take my second GoPro, which had been filming from the built-in GoPro mount, and put it on my head using the head strap. Note: when I finally upload the video, I apologize. I’ve never used to head mount before and it’s positioning was a little off.

After I had that sorted out, I continued to finish off my limit. I ended up in this pond with only one way in and found a red cruising the bank. I soon made a great cast to him and he fell for it. The fight began! Problems started materializing as he left the pond and my kayak went straight into the grass inside the pond. I held my rod-tip high in hopes that he’d stay connected. I don’t know how, but he did! Eventually, I netted this fat 25″ and had my limit. It was only 9:30am. I decided to keep catching reds and search for trout as well.

As it turns out, no matter what I did to search for trout, there was always a redfish there to take my offering. I’m not complaining though, tis the season! I lost count of the amount I ended up catching, but it was well over two limits!

 

Two days later, I’d find myself back here again, but for my first guiding experience. I’ll post-up on that later.

Gear Used:

The productive tackle for the day…

• Line:  FINS XS 20lb. Braid w/ Fluorocarbon Leader, FINS Windtamer 20lb. Braid w/ Flourocarbon Leader
• Lures: Vortex Shad by Matrix Shad in Purple Haze
• Rod:  7′ Light/Medium – Mod/Fast | 7′ Medium – Moderate
• Reel: 3000 Spinning Reel – 6.1:1 Gear Ratio, 3000 Spinning Reel 5.1:1 Gear Ratio