11th Annual Redfish Rodeo

[bulldog1935]

Impossible to detail 5 days kayak-fishing different grass flats and marshes along the Texas coastal bend, so you get the condensed version and good photos. 

Josh has hosted this fall event 11 years in a row from his family's digs on Copano Bay. 

The big group, 6 to 9 people over the week, were arriving Wednesday night, so for the preliminary day, Josh and his sister Nina drove up the coast to Indianola to explore mud marsh trails, while Lou and I drifted our favorite Estes Flats and waded our favorite tide pass.

The mud marsh. Look close - they were fishing to redfish backs. 

 

Josh and Nina brought home major meat, including a rat from the gullet of a redfish. 

 

Lou and I didn't bring home meat, but got into nonstop fish catching on a falling tide pass. 

When the big group arrived Wed night, Josh cooked a feast of Flat Iron Steaks, Crab & Toasted Pecan Risotto, Grilled Shrimp, and Grilled Romaine with Parmesan.  Of course, chased with cigars and brews around the firepit. 

Thursday, we picked mud marshes up the Aransas River delta in Port Bay.  From sunrise, we fished up the bay piers with topwaters. 

Nina took the day with a 28+" red, following a sleigh-ride through the marsh

Friday, couldn't be farther from the marsh, a ferry ride to Port Aransas on Mustang barrier island, and our favorite shallow grass lake on East Flats

I scored my trip-fish 24-inch red on a topwater shrimp plug

We dodged Saturday's power boats with a long trek up the coast and a long paddle along the ICW to more mud marshes. 

Josh snapped a photo of my orange T160

Josh established himself as the mud marsh king with an early red limit. 

We saw dozens of redfish with their backs out of the water, and tough to catch because they were so close together.  Twice I cast to a fish, lined a different fish, and they all exploded.  I did bring home a good flounder. 
Josh made 4 artful fillets from my flounder, and barely offered a skeleton to the waiting pelicans.

Saturday night was Josh's fabled shrimp boil - he gets better at this every year with his own spice blends - and that's saying something.

 

We knew Sunday would be another strong south blow, a short day, off the water by 11 am, and picked Brown & Root flat because the focused wind down the cut channel is a guaranteed ride home. Lou and I found some wind shelter to drift, Josh joined us with a redfish that he caught twice, jumping out of the boat when his stringer was drifting away.

Stevo came in with a 22" red sight-fished on TSL Grasswalker chicken-on-a-chain

 

Great times with great friends - fish are gravy. 

 

And yeah, grill-blackened halfshell redfish fillets are da bomb. 

[AlabamaSpothunter]

Your posts have a level of detail, and organization that makes them very enjoyable to read.   Concise, yet informative.   

 

Looks like an awesome time, beautiful fish, and beautiful friends......what more could you ask for in life

[bulldog1935]

Our buddy Steve went over the top for us. 

A long story, but he hauled down his Oliver travel trailer around his 4-day work week. 

Lou and I stayed in it all week, and Steve returned Friday night. 

(long story about the Monday errand, including his brother Dennis with his boat in a repair shop there waiting for a lower unit)

This way, we weren't stepping on each other in Josh's cabin. 

@AlabamaSpothunter

But it was so easy to notice how over the week, Lou and I relaxed from the world too far from the salt, while Steve's Friday road funk lasted until Saturday night's bacchanal. 

 

Good for Steve, Josh loaded him and Lou with half-shell fillets. 

Also, a guide coming in handed Steve a bag of red and black drum fillets. 

So taking fish home to MA, maybe she'll let us borrow the trailer again...

[AlabamaSpothunter]

10 minutes ago, bulldog1935 said:

Our buddy Steve went over the top for us. 

A long story, but he hauled down his Oliver travel trailer around his 4-day work week. 

Lou and I stayed in it all week, and Steve returned Friday night. 

(long story about the Monday errand, including his brother Dennis with his boat in a repair shop there for lower unit)

This way, we weren't stepping on each other in Josh's cabin. 

@AlabamaSpothunter

But it was so easy to notice how over the week, Lou and I relaxed from the world too far from the salt, while Steve's Friday road funk lasted until Saturday night's bacchanal. 

 

Good for Steve, Josh loaded him and Lou with half-shell fillets. 

Also a guide coming in handed Steve a bag of red and black drum fillets. 

So taking fish home to MA, maybe she'll let us borrow the trailer again...

That trailer looks awesome.   You have a great group of friends it seems, something quite rare, and something that takes work to maintain.    

 

Looking forward to seeing the report on the 12th Annual Redfish Rodeo

[bulldog1935]

@AlabamaSpothunter the trailer is an Oliver, made in Hohenwald, TN.  

Lou and I were styling. 

Steve has a Sprinter 3500 to haul it.  With everything paid off, he's in the mode of cashing out retirement toys before he retires in 2 years. 

This is his man-cathedral with vintage GMC motor home. 

He provides this as a repair landing for other members of the GMC motor home owner's club. 

 

Josh, on the other hand, has a young family with twins due next month. 

He always jokes about how all his friends are old, because we're the only people who can keep up fishing with him. 

 

BTW, we all paddled 40 mi over the 5 days. 

[bulldog1935]

Thanks @AlabamaSpothunter for your contributions. 

I'm a little surprised as many people here who fish the salt, that no one added fishing discussion. 

Even the old reel collectors on ORCA wanted to talk tackle and lures. 

 

I debuted a new inexpensive Abu all-range salt finesse rod, one with extreme wide range.  While I can cast the light weight (and a bit lighter) on my Yamaga Blanks salt finesse rod, and it's great for wading, the 8'2" Y/B rod just doesn't have the backbone to keep a redfish from going under your kayak. 

The longer Abu rod has the power to do the job, and not worry too much about this $100 rod.  It casts almost as light as the Y/B, and proved itself this trip, turning reds from going under the boat, casting finesse lures, and catching most every significant fish on my trip.

I had it matched with my Zillion Silver Wolf and PE#0.8 X-braid (16-lb).  This is a 16-inch rat red in Little Cut

 

Josh joked about the length, but in the tight marshes, it fished finesse lures quite well, such as 1/15-oz Texas Eye Finesse jigheads for imitating mud minnows. It fished very much like a fly rod in tight quarters with light lures. 

Both wading the tide pass and drifting the flats, the combo easily cast more distance than I needed with 5-g finesse plugs - the short soft tip is just right for topwater action.  Two plugs that stood out were the Ima K-Ta 58 diving plug in the passes for a bite-size prismatic mullet (bora in Japanese), and INX Supra 65 prop-tail topwater shrimp drifting the flats.  The topwater shrimp was especially fun to fish, and caught my trip-fish red. 

 

The only reason the Abu rod won't retire my 7'1" Omen Green ML is that rod is freakishly light-in-hand for all day fishing (caught the flounder with 3" Minnow-Z shad tail on 1/8 oz Texas-eye jighead).  They'll still fish two different niches from my kayak. 

 

BTW, a friend on FFR is using a shorter and lighter Abu Salty Style rockfish finessse both for bass finesse and shore fishing Sierra Nevada lakes, and really likes it - especially for the price. 

[AlabamaSpothunter]

Awesome setup, those Silver wolfs look sweet!    

[bulldog1935]

<burp>  Excuse me. 

Flounder fish tacos