Windy Day

Well, it should come as no surprise that the winds blew today. Seems thats the only days I can book are the windy ones. Fortunately, I had a crew of hardy souls today that were prepared for anything mother nature dished out. We ground out several spots along the north side of Baffin until the winds forced us to the south side. Like the last trip, we finally struck paydirt on the south shoreline. We caught quite a few trout up to 17" and a lone redfish until Carl showed all the young guns how it was supposed to be done. Click on the YouTube link below to see the video of Carl's catch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iQUUgY0DXU

Various colors of Corkies were the lure du jour except for a certain guide who stuck with a red/white Saltwater Assassin all day. Gonna grind it out again tomorrow. The winds are suposed to blow from the other direction this time lol.

February Fun

Been busier than a one armed wall paper hanger lately with a few charters and scouting trips trying to really get in touch with whats happening in my favorite bay system. Things are definitely on the upswing down here. Numbers are still down with the exception of one or two trips but our quality is picking up. Big Girls are definitely showing up. We've even been picking up an occasional flounder.

My brother in law, Capt. Bruce Miller even got in on the action with a nice 29"+ trout two days ago. Sorry about the background but you know how these damn guides are about their fishing spots lol.

Had a recent trip with some great clients that I prefer to call friends. I had been on a pretty fair concentration of trout for four or five days and was really looking forward to putting these guys on the fish. With the help of Capt. Sally http://www.captainsally.com/ , our intrepid group headed out with high hopes. The weatherman said light winds until noon but he was lying......... again. It was at least 20 mph when we arrived at my spot. The wind was all wrong and was blowing directly into the grassline we had scouted the previous day in pristine conditions I might add.

I gritted my teeth and decided to give it an hour just because I knew there were fish here. Ray struck first with a keeper trout just minutes into our wade. The water was quickly losing its clarity but the fish seemed not to mind so much as we hooked, landed and released two more keeper trout. And then it happened.

Randy made a long cast with a pink Corky Devil and began a slow retrieve in the thigh deep water. The fish picked up the offering and he set back hard on the fish feeling some weight as the Big Girl made a powerful run taking line against the drag for about fifteen yards. He turned her and started a slow back and forth struggle as the fish circled to his left. I grabbed my new Flip video camera and headed towards the action seeing that this fish was putting up a good fight.

As I got closer, she surfaced between us and I got a glimpse of a broad back and big black tail. The fight gained a new intensity as Randy realized what he had. I vowed to stay out of the way in case the unthinkable happened just so I wouldn't get blamed lol. After a couple of attempts, he latched the Boga Grip on the Big Girls bottom jaw and just like that............ a new personal best for my friend. A quick measurement and weight before safely releasing her. I couldn't wait to get home to put together a little video so without further ado, here she is. Randy's new personal best trout 28" 8#+ (Click on the YouTube link)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ej0UKh7ofB0

Looks like winter is going to stick around a bit longer as the north winds are howling outside as I type. That just means we will have something to look forward to on our next warm-up. Looking for bigger and better things as we slowly move toward springtime patterns. Hope to see y'all down here soon. Also, you might want to check us out at the Holder Show at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston on March 3 - 7. Capt. Sally will be giving a seminar at 1:00 on Saturday and I will be giving one at noon on Sunday.

Great Hunt

Chip Pitcairn, Sally and I headed out with Rocksy and Kelly to do a little duck hunting this morning. The forecast was for fog but it wasn't too bad down here. We had a couple miles visibility with a low cloud ceiling and light winds. Ducks were decoying very well into our spread and we had to start getting picky about our birds early in because of all the pintails, bluebills and redheads. Kelly made a great "hero" retrieve on a mature redhead drake and both dogs did well. Except for the two wounded ducks and the dogs version of "Keystone Cops". Duck season is winding down but there are still a few open dates before the close on the 24th of January

Quacker Smackin'

Duck hunted the past few days and got a variety of conditions with a variety of results. Good numbers of pintails and wigeon are flying and a few buffleheads mixed in. Can't figure out where all the redheads went. Hope they show up this week. Rocksy watching over the spread and Jeremiah with a Bull Sprig headed to the taxidermist

No Fish Kill In Baffin

Finally got out on the water today to check out any damage from the recent cold snap. Looks like we avoided it completely. Didn't even see a dead mullet. The water was very cold today and there was almost no baitfish activity.

The few places we saw bait, we caught fish. Nothing to write home about but we managed 4 trout and 2 redfish. Saltwater Assassins and Sea Shad were the top producers today. Water temps in the upper 40's for most of the day with overcast and drizzle.

I Heard It On The Radio

Had a little fun this weekend talking with Doug Pike on his Sunday radio show in Houston while I was in town for the Houston Boat Show. Capt. Sally and I teamed up to represent our area down here. You can click on the links for the podcasts of both hours of the show.

http://www.790kbme.com/podcast/dougpike.xml

We had a lot of fun just talking fishing, hunting and whatever Doug wanted to talk about. the show was almost two hours long so make sure you are comfortable lol.

SoTex Dove Hunt

Hunted on Monday with the Munoz clan. Had a great hunt just minutes from my house here on Baffin Bay. Tons of mourning dove and had some pretty good shooters as well. Still have openings through January 17, 2010. Call 210-355-5091 for info.

Here is a link to the YouTube Video.