The tide was low. Very low. And going lower. What usually is a large expanse of water had large pieces of dry land.
Heywood finally showed up taking a lot less time then I thought he'd take to change a tire. In surprisingly good spirits, we paddled into a cove we'd both fished before. We spent a long and unproductive hour or so in that area that is usually a sure bet. Very little life showed itself and we finally decided to head out to the flats. We should have made that decision from the very beginning.
In one of the first few casts out there my topwater got slammed. Big hit, big bend in the rod and drag starting to scream when the line jerked and went slack. I've not yet figured out how a big red that is bending the rod and pulling drag gets disconnected but he was gone. After another couple casts at the same pothole I get a an aggressive follow. Head out of the water trying to get the lure three different times during the retrieve but he never managed to get on top of it. After switching to a jig, hoping to get better hook ups, I pulled in a nice flounder.
Heywood was trying a new lure that had been given to him to try out. Well, it worked. He caught this redfish in the same pothole as I'd been casting to. I get quarter credit for warming up the fish for him.
The wind was a factor all morning. A steady 10+ made positioning on the potholes a bit difficult and a stakeout pole or anchor an absolute necessity. Heywood was also testing out a new braid that I suspect has already been pulled off his reel. He lost two more fish to broken braid.
After a while I found my redfish for the day after switching to a gold spoon. It was a nice take that I got to see while I was standing in my Native and casting.
This is the pic to give Barnacle some internet time. Same fish. Oh, check out the Tailin' Toads gloves!
By now the tide had come up enough to spread the fish out of the potholes. The wind had also cranked up another 5 mph. Neither of us wanted go downwind to fish so we called it a day. Heywood was all set to go out again on Sunday. "Sames tides but the wind is supposed to lay down!" I had him recheck that wind forecast and he decided to stay home. Good call Heywood.
Someone ask Heywood to tell us about the lure he was using.
