Sizzling Reds In A Chilling Rain

Pure Fishing

I had to show Capt. Doug that yes "Santa does fish during duck season". I've gotta keep the boys honest and make sure they know the old man can drop the gun for a day to bend a rod. I'd been running over Reds in the back country for a week and made a mental note given the upcoming trip today. Barring any big change in water levels I figured we'd probably hammer them.

Coming off the water yesterday I thought I'd better reschedule the fishing trip for today. Forecast a few days ago was N @ 30 knots and rain. I was coming off a duck hunt yesterday and it was raining and the wind was cranking 25 out of the SE. Returning to the lodge I noticed that the forecast had backed down to a mere 10-15 knots out of the N. No big deal. I figured the rain would come through during the night and it did.

We hit the water this morning around 8:15am and it was a slick off. The front line was well offshore but this was to be a "double tap". Sure enough we entered the back marsh on slick water with darkening skies to the N. Rain hit us shortly thereafter and the wind kicked up around 20knots and chilly from the N. We'd made our first stop on the slick off and came up with nothing. I told the boys to bear with me, it's fixin to get busy and the second stop we went to working on them. Fish were solid but feeding sluggish to 24". You could forget trying to see fish, it just took a lot of experience knowing the depth contours and where they "should be" given the elevated water levels.

The clients dropped the bomb on me that they needed to be back at the ramp by around noon. "That's a handy piece of information to have right there when you are sitting 3 fish short and it's 11:20am. I said lets make some quick sets on the way out of here, and two quick stops racked up the limit to 27" "speed fishing".

We haven't hit gutted Wintertime low water levels yet but there sure on their way. We've got another front hitting Thursday and sooner or later we will start shedding some water.

Duck Hunting

Pulled a quick pm shoot with Capt. Matt and got him set up for a hammerfest in the morning. I'll be working the back marsh and hope to drag some toenails across the blocks.

Be safe, have a great hump day and come see us.

Capt. Kris Kelley
Castaway Lodge
1-888-618-4868
www.coastalwaterfowl.com

Cutter's Choice In The Drift

Fishing Scene

Capt. Doug put in a hard grind with Karrel L. and guests from NM over the weekend. The catching was off the charts but the keeping left a little to be desired. The trip crested in a crescendo of Trout action with Redfish to 27" coming to hand today. It was pretty raw out there and we're definately heading toward Winter "Low and slow" patterns.

Duck Hunting

Mornings seem to be outpacing afternoon action presently and the amount of birds and location options are "cutters choice". We've surely been waiting 8 years or so to see the unparalleled concentrations of ducks that we are currently holding. It's been awhile since I've seen it like this, not that the hunting over the years hasn't been exceptional with a lot of hard work. However, seeing the horizon turn black with ducks is something not witnessed since the late 90's.

While the hours are long and the list of things on the agenda are endless, the amount of brain crunching on location and eventual outcome are not that "white-knuckle". With birds as widespread as they are, there seems to be a new "spirit of cooperation" among local professionals and that's very welcome. It's only fitting when there is such a serious concentration of top quality watermen here.

We're fighting through to Christmas Day and gunning straight through to Christmas Eve. Then when we will "meltdown" for a few days and crank back up on the 28th. Timing of the holidays being on the weekends finds us real thin on shooters New Years weekend. If you'd like to join us, please contact us immediately.

We hope you have a great week, come see us!

Capt. Kris Kelley
Castaway Lodge
1-888-618-4868
www.coastalwaterfowl.com

Cupped & Commited

Duck Hunting

The second split opener was just breathtaking here on the middle coast. Fast action and solid limits with plenty of birds for everyone it seems. Today we started gunning special guests Worth Mathewson, 18 year editor of Wildfowl Magazine. Worth and his wife Marge are in for a weeks long trip hunting layout boats with us here in Texas. Worth has gunned waterfowl all over the world and we consider it a great honor to have him here with us.

Layout boat hunting is not for everyone and there's a reason why we are the only outfitters in Texas gunning them. It is a lot of work to do it right and you can't smash them all the time, everytime. Layout boat hunting is a lot of fun though, and once exposed to it, it will hook you like nothing else. It's pretty much like Deer Hunting. Once you've shot a few deer with a gun, bow hunting them takes the sport to a whole new level. I remember the first time I laid back in one. I looked over my left shoulder and was looking eye to eye with my Gadwall decoys. That's when I knew we were in a whole new ballgame. We've been gunning layout boats since 2008 because of their deep roots in the heritage, tradition, and lore of waterfowl hunting. We also gun them because we can.

Worth told me, I'd rather shoot one duck from a layout boat than 100 from a shoreline blind. With Marge on the camera in the secondary layout boat, Worth gunned his Redheads and passed on plenty. The decoy set is everything in layout boat hunting and for the perfect picture, you've got to have the toenail draggers just right. Sitting in a layout boat, you only have about 130 degrees of shooting range. So if the birds are on your bad side, you can't even pull the trigger no matter how close they are. This was our first layout shoot of the year and it turned out pretty good. We're going to sharpen up a few things with a small shift in location and timing and see if we can get some serious commitment and those perfect pictures.

Late this week we will be hosting yet another TV crew in shooting a pilot for the Outdoor Channel.

We hope you have a great week, come see us!

Capt. Kris Kelley
Castaway Lodge
1-888-618-4868
www.coastalwaterfowl.com

Red & White With Blue Shoulders

Fishing Scene

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.

Duck Hunting

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.

Goose Hunting

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