Dog Days of Summer

Its hot and summer is creeping on, we still have about another 3-4 weeks before we get any relief. I do a little bit of fishing during this time frame, but mostly just day dream, reflect on past trips and plan for new ones. Football season is fixing to start and that's great. I'll start refilling the fly box as I sit in front of the TV watching the games on Sunday afternoon.

Went fishing this morning, it was really slow. The fish are feeling the heat and aren't overly active with these long days of the bright sun. I worked an area over pretty hard for a good hour and never got a bite on the clouser. This area always has fish in it. I switched and picked up a Game Changer that I tied on a 60 degree jig hook and put lead eyes on so it would ride hook point up. On the first cast I picked up a decent little smallmouth. But that was it. With no further bites I switched back to the clouser and picked up 3 more small fish, all spotted bass. I called it a day around 10 am and headed home. Fishing will continue to drag until it starts to cool. Once the days start getting shorter the fish will start to feed more.

POC Video

Here is a short video I put together from our trip to Port O'Conner. Enjoy

Port O'Connor; Day Three

Spent the last day of our trip with Capt. Tom. Capt. Tom Horbey has fished up and down the Texas Coast for 37 adult years, with 28 of those as a pioneer saltwater fly fisherman. He is able to accommodate both fly fishing and conventional tackle. In addition to guided fly fishing trips, Tom can provide casting instructions as well as general information about saltwater fly fishing. Tom Horbey is the only full time fly fishing guide living in Port O'Connor, Tom is able to provide guiding services year round. Licensed and fully insured, make sure to book him for your next fly fishing, sight casting, conventional, wade fishing, or jetty trip. In the meantime, feel free to browse his website http://captaintomhorbey.com/. Capt. Tom Horbey makes a great spoon fly that should be in every redfish anglers fly box. They are available on his website.

Port O'Connor; Day Two

On the second day we fished the flats with Capt. Tom Horbey looking for redfish. We had a good day and landed several nice reds and also broke several more off. All in all a great day on he water. 

Port O'connor; Day 1

Scott and I had a great trip fishing with Capt. Steve Barnes out of Port O’Connor Texas. Steve took us offshore to chase some fish with the long rods. The Gulf was awesome to us. The weather was perfect, light winds and the waves were almost nonexistent. The fish were happy and feeding on our flies. We first started off at a shrimp boat that was dumping its by catch from the night before. It was covered up with Jacks. Scott and I both landed several 20+ lb Jacks. We then moved on looking for some different fish. Steve took us to a second location with some rocks in 200’ of water. Steve anchored the boat so we could hold our position on these rocks and really work it over. The current was ripping and all we really did was let our flies dangle behind the boat in the current. The current gave the flies plenty of action and Scott and I caught several nice size kings. On the way in for the day we stopped at a last location. This old wreck was covered in red snapper and we quickly put the hurting on some nice snappers. We had 3 cobia show up and we were able to pick up 2 of the 3 with only 1 being of legal size to keep. All in all it was a great day, we caught amberjack, cobia, jacks, red snapper, and sharks.

24lb Jack

Scotts big Jack

Another good 20+lb Jack

A nice King

Scotts King

Lots of Red Snapper were caught

Scotts big Cobia

Scott putting the heat on a big Jack

Airing Out The Mokai

One of the problems with the Mokai is the  engine compartment getting hot and the engine losing power while under way and after the engine has been shut down it can be hard to start while the engine compartment is still hot. I installed some 3" cowl vents to help air out the engine compartment and cool things down a little faster.

Top side of engine cover

Bottom side of engine cover

The Tug is the Drug

Its always fun when you hook up with a fish. It doesn't matter if its sight fishing to a cruising bonefish across a white sand flat. Watching a largemouth bass explode on a deer hair bug that just splatted down next to some lilly pads. Drifting across underwater structure with sinking lines probing for schools of striper on an underwater hump. Or watching the slightest tick of your indicator as a trout takes your #20 red midge as it is dead drifted down the run. But what about the times when you set the hook on a snag, and you say to yourself there goes another fly, but experience tells you there is something different. Your not really sure what it is but you can feel the line slowly moving. That's when you realize this isn't a snag. It feels like an eternity but has only been seconds when you start feeling the head shakes of the fish as it slowly starts to swim off. He isn't spooked yet because he can't believe the meal he just picked up was a mistake he has avoided for so long. He's to smart for this, he has evaded anglers for to many years so he continues to shake his head as he starts to pick up speed. That's when you both know whats is going on. He realizes his mistake and you realize you have just hooked into "the fish of the river." These are the fish that make your hands tremble, your knees shake and you sick to your stomach if you lose them. They keep you up at night dreaming of them, spending hours preparing for them and keep you coming back for more time and time again. You cant wait to keep searching for that fish that makes you shake again.