13 Oct 2007

After rescheduling from last weekends endless wind, I met up with Dave and his dad Charlie this morning at 0600 in Bayou Texar. We began the morning catching Menhaden, the baits sure weren't very cooperative. But after 45 min and a little help from a friendly fisherman( who had crushed the baits with one well placed throw and had plenty of baits to spare), we were on our way to the 3-Mile Bridge.


The bay was slightly choppy with a 6-9 kt NE wind, perfect conditions to fly a kite! And fly the kite we did. Our spread consisted of 5 baits: 2 suspended from the kite, 2 flat lines, and one bait deep on the down-rigger. 10 min in to our drift the 12lb outfit on the flat line starts singing! Dave grabs the rod and here we go on our first King of the day. Dave quickly subdued the fish and as he got the fish within gaff range we realized that this was actually the biggest Spanish Mackerel that either of us has ever caught, 8 lbs!


We get reset and again, 10 min or so later, the other flat line starts screaming. This battle ends with a 15 lb King shaking around in the ice. The moment the fish hit the ice the flat line gets hit again. This was to be the first of 4 small sharks we caught in the next 30 min, all of them around the 2-3 ft range. Then we got to watch a small mackerel chase one of the kite baits around for about 5 min. The fish just kept chasing the bait, then swimming off then back again to chase some more, then swim away, then back again. It was neat just to get to watch a predator pursuing his quarry.


We finally decided to pick up and run to Navy Point and try our luck there. As the lines were being brought in the small 12lb rod, spooled w/20# power pro, starts really dumping line, what seems like a BIG king. Dave does an excellent job of fighting the beast and manages to bring the fish boat-side in under 10 min. Only when we see the fish it's not the 30+ lb King we were hoping for, but a 40-45lb Black Tip Shark. The shark made several more runs and we got him back to the boat 2 more times before he finally wore through the leader. On that note we hurried along to the base.





We continued drifting once we got to the base, and got the bite we'd been talking about all day. This King got airborne , big time!!! Right on the kite bait, no more than 80 feet from the boat! It was awesome! Another 15lb fish for the grill. Shortly after, the down rigger produced our last bite of the day, resulting in a cut off. Time to head home for some lunch and a nap!


We returned to Bayou Texar around 1130, took a few quick pics and cleaned our catch. Dave had a few nice fillets he'd already picked out for the grill and was itching to go home and get them started.





Thanks again Dave and Charlie, I had a great time, can't wait to do it again!



Capt Josh