Mud Boil Mayhem, Big Weather Beat Down

Friday - Winds of Fury

Just about when you think you've got it all figured out, Mother Nature will throw you a curve ball or two. Fishing feeding aggressively on hard wind and big weather is a given....to a point. With expectations of strong feeding activity on Fridays 30 knots and gusting, that was about the breaking point in my opinion. 

As near as I could tell, the ripping wind just about scared the heck out of the fish and sent them off the flats and away from traditional wind driven patterns. I've seen it before, I'm just not sure what gives them the willies and sends them running for cover? I can tell you it was a seam ripper out there Friday and that's just about as close to the edge as I want to see it. Despite hauling a ton of water, we did manage to push up to near limits of Redfish in the middle slot. 

Saturday

With nagging bone chilling rain and lingering through noon, I told the boys "lets do it another day" and I didn't hear any arguments.

Sunday

Gorgeous on the water today but the fish were a bit scattered for me. Black Drum made a big move out of the back country, I'm guessing Friday's weather spooked them out deeper and they are holding there. Redfish to the upper end of the slot weren't very aggressive until well after mid-day when things heated up a bit. That sent the rods bending regularly with the sound of the line singing in 10 knot winds from the east. 

We managed full limits of Redfish to 27.5" along with a few token Black Drum in the 17-20" range.

Monday

The lodge welcomes PT Construction from Waco back for a spring run at the fish. 

We'll see what tomorrow brings us, in the meantime, have a great start to the week and come see us when you get a chance.

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

Ribs, Bruised not Brazed, Trout to 23" & Reds to 29

Predictions & Predications

We had really high water levels as of Saturday and I didn't think there was any possible way this latest front could make much of a dent in that. The front that came through on Saturday saw a bay gutting water level drop of over 6" by Monday. Capt. Doug reported water gushing out of the back lakes with both Trout and Redfish working mud/shell and sand near back water drains and outlets. Doug said they found fish in the bayous as well as the mouths out front with a decent bite on soft plastics while wade fishing. Capt. James E. has been working some traditional later spring locations and finding advanced patterns as I have been discussing with both Trout and Redfish showing up on SAND/GRASS. He is still using soft plastics and paddle tails, not working tops much as of yet. This correlates with advanced indicators I'm seeing in the back marshes as well.

Prediction: Fish locations and the structure they are gravitating to is going to be well advanced on the calendar requiring a mental shift forward in approach. We are probably going to see a topwater bite break loose anytime coinciding with water temperatures currently at 62 and climbing as the frontal systems get farther apart heading for that magical 70 degree mark. At the rate we're going, we could see that in early March. I'm looking for bait supplies to bolster this prediction as well. Talking to some of the camps, live shrimp should start showing up in good supply here in the next week. Push that forward and we will probably be looking at Croaker hitting the camps early as well, maybe by late April or Early May.

Predication: All this is going to be dependent upon waning cold snaps and big chilly wind events with more days of warming sun and less cold and overcast. And, I'm not too sure that even that is going to hold these fish back.

Backbreaking Rib Buster

Despite a big water drop in the back marshes, swarming schools of Black Drum and Redfish made for a great day on the water Monday. We picked up a decent SE at 10-15 and found an aggressive bite over mud/grass working bait. Saturday's fish had made a pretty good move with water levels dropping to less than 4" by Monday in locations where they had been foraging. Pools and swales held solid numbers of mixed schools which led to a thrashing for our guests from Brenham. We ended up with full limits of Redfish to 29" releasing a couple of low end slots along the way with full limits of Black Drum in the 17-22" class.

Dennis K. - "From the food to the accommodations, to the fishing and fellowship, it just doesn't get any better".

John H. - "Kris, it's all about relaxation and having some fun for us and you guys make it happen everytime. If we catch a few fish while we're at it, that's even better!"

Greg A. - "What an awesome trip Double K".

It's HUMP day, have a great rest of the week and come see us when you get a chance.

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

Ticker: REDS, Position: Long (Testing Lows)

There are lots of weather strategies to consider during this month as we move toward Spring. We gather as much information as we can and then hope for the best. We have to step out of the box right now and be prepared to adjust timing and approaches. A week in advance of a trip, you can take the forecast with a grain of salt. About two days out is time to focus and then adjust and position for the trip. Then be prepared to advance, strike, or delay depending upon what's happening on the day. 

This was never more evident than with the cold front that passed through early on Saturday. Weather related client phone calls started around Tuesday. On Thursday, I visited the weather with them and gave them my "two cents". With relatively new clients, they made a gutsy call that I had some idea what I was doing by recommending and preferring to fish Saturday over Sunday in better weather. I told them it was a gutsy call on their part and I appreciated the vote of confidence in taking my advice. 

We hung out at the lodge until about 8:30 when the rain let up and then hit the water. The winds had yet to really pick up so I made a few conservative approaches to see just how bad it was going to get. I pretty quickly came to a conclusion that there wasn't going to be a big wind blast with the fronts initial arrival so we got more adventurous. It was overcast and there was a lot of water piled up in the bay so seeing fish was pretty tough. We muddled through a few slow blind stops taking a Red here and a Drum there. As the clouds broke a little and visibility improved slightly, I was seeing fish a little better. Some locations with lots of fish turned out lack luster while other areas with less impressive obvious concentrations proved pretty brutal on Redfish to 27" and Black Drum in the 20" range. 

Patterns are very advanced for February so you better move the playbook up about a month or so. Our trees and plantings here at The Lodge knew it was going to be an Early Spring about 3 weeks ago. As it turns out, so did the fish!

New Cats In Town

Capt. James E. just dropped my new 24' Haynie Cat in the driveway fresh from CMC Aluminum Fabricators and she's looking gorgeous. His new Haynie Cat is in metal work at CMC as we speak and should be done end of this week. We can't thank everyone enough for pulling these rigs together in such timely fashion. From the great people at Mercury Marine to Bryan and Scott over at Chris's Marine to Mike, Kyle and the guys over at JC Custom and Haynie boats here in Seadrift; Chris Mapp at Coastal Bend Marine and Glenn up at CMC Aluminum Fabricators along with all the good folks at JL Marine makers of Power Pole and Bob's Machine Shop. Thanks to you all for everything you do to get us on the water and keep us out front!

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

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

New Cats on the Block

New websites are in final stages of completion, look for their publication shortly.

Fishing Scene

Lots of Spring cleaning and clean up after duck season and a lot of balls up in the air but, not a whole lot of fishing going on. Weather has been spotty and we've been getting quite a bit of rain here lately. The new Cats are all in now, Capt. James Eastep picked his up on Tuesday. Mine is getting the finishing touches on the aluminum work and Capt. James' will be heading up to Houston end of the week. The boats just look amazing all tipped with fresh 225 Mercury Pro XS motors, Yeti's, Power Poles and CMC's gorgeous metal work. For me, I'll be airboat fishing for the next couple of months and I expect a tremendous run on the Island and other back marsh environs.

We've also been getting some limited freshwater inflows, mostly from local runoff. Last week, we had 3.5" of rain and that should all help to freshen things up a bit and break that hyper salinity down a tad. An early Spring is definately in the cards, all our trees are getting ready to blush green and our plantings are all blooming.

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

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