Little Cut, Estes Flats, TX 2/20/21

[bulldog1935]

This plan began 6 weeks ago, Josh and I wanting to plan a February trip for low tides, wading, and fly-rod sightfishing for reds.  
I picked the 5 sequential best tides for the month to give us both current and sunny afternoon highs.  

At the same time, my buddy Donny in Colorado had been jumping through his computer wanting to kayak the TX coast flats.  
A few weeks out, Josh and I made the plan to invite Donny down to Neumie's Copano Bay digs and paddle a long weekend.  

 

The named winter storm that shall remain nameless hit just before our schedule, but that wasn't stopping us.  The deep freeze hit the coast just as hard as the hill country, and reports of fish kill looked devastating.  Still without water at home, and only recently with power restored, I headed south to meet Donny, who had swept west of the storm, and beat us both down there.  
Compared to the second hard snow we got the morning I packed out, Josh's digs sure look inviting. 
They had the same water problem, and it would be two days until we got a hot shower, slim pickings in the grocery stores, but we made do

The next morning, wind shifting from NNE to light E, we were launching at Palm Harbor to cross Estes flats. 
Note the size of the beach at Palm Harbor

The goal was to get to Little Cut for the late morning incoming tide current. 
With a week of beating NW wind, water level on the flats was the lowest either of us had ever seen.  My "bright" call, let's head north first to Trout Bayou cut - when we finally ran out of water and had to stand to float our boats, could see Trout Bayou was bone dry.  It was a really tough trudge through the mud to float and then drag our boats back to Little Cut.  So we should have gone due east straight to Little Cut, but maybe paying our dues this morning paid off.  

It was a huge relief when we got enough water to float again, and as we paddled the inside of the cut - right where they should be grazing on the rising tide - we crossed 300 redfish.
Here's Donny hooked up, looking from the cut to the inside pass

Here's Josh at the center shoal facing Aransas bay and far-away San Jose Island.  

It would be silly fish catching.  

Donny was catching them on Vudu shrimp, which he handed me one and after a slot red, lost it from my paper clip.  But the reds didn't care what lure, they wanted the mud balls from bottom-bouncing.  

I did just as well on a pink Trout Support on weighted swimbait hook.  
Almost all the reds were 18" - think I only caught two out of sixteen under that - I ended up with two slot fish to fillet, and Donny with a 3-fish limit.  

A fond farewell to Palm Harbor.  

We filleted the reds "on the halfshell" - skin-on fillets for grilling.  That night, Josh made us shrimp and grits, and we floated the fillets in ice water overnight, but I wanted to show you Sunday night's meal with massive grilled redfish fillets.  
They were amazing, and picking the charred meat from the ribs was the best part.  

 

[CountryboyinDC]

Somehow I have an almost uncontrollable urge to grill up some drum.

[bulldog1935]

Thanks, the other 2 days of the trip weren't quite so wonderful fishing, except for the good times with friends.  

I'm really glad we got Donny onto such a great tide phenomenon stacking reds for him (ok, us, too).  
The wind turned out to be brutal the next two days, and we weren't going to last long enough either day to find afternoon sight-fishing with reds up on skinny grass.  

Sunday, we made the long drive to Padre Island National Seashore, to launch on the Upper Laguna Madre side at Bird Island Basin.  
We knew the wind was going to be tough - we didn't know how tough until we got home - it was gusting to 24 kt on the Malaquite Beach gauge.  
The structure here on the barrier island is beautiful, and very much like far South Padre and LLM - hard pack sand, and potted sand holes switching to deep grass.  A drift will get you across this flat to the ICW spoil island shallows.  
Launching at the windsurf beach.  

The thing is, I don't drift away from home.  I paddle upwind first, so I get to fish easy all the way home.  
After one drift, a long struggling paddle to get back upwind, I planted on a beautiful hardpack shelf against the island, ate my lunch, lit my cigar, and watched them on my binoculars.  I saw Donny facing me almost the whole time, and wondering if he was ever going to get back across the flat.  

Finally, he and Josh made it - knowing we would have a hot shower waiting for us at the digs - a week without one for most of us - we called it early.  

Rather than paddling the wind, Donny and I walked our boats back to the basin boat launch - young Josh blasted ahead to get the truck and meet us.
Besides, we were grilling those redfish tonight.

[soflabasser]

Good report thank you for posting it.

[bulldog1935]

btw, Josh and I each got a very nice presento from Donny

 

 

I also handed over a wish-list venerable glass fly rod to Josh that he had been researching and asking about - in Josh's hands, it will get a lot more use chasing hill country endemic bass in small limestone creeks than it would if I kept it (I have too many to choose between).  

Josh's new/old rod is the 6'6" Fly Fox on the bottom.  

 

ps - here's one of Josh's photos, and his creative make-do feast - shrimp-and-grits with a good cajun sauce.  He blended some really tasty Gouda-goat-cheese into the grits.  Whatever he could find in the freeze-depleted grocery store. 

 

and a photo of me showing him my first red in Little Cut