09-07-2003, 02:38 AM
I hit one of my favorite wading spots this morning shortly after sunrise.When I pulled up I saw someone else in my honey hole.It was another flyfisherman. An older gentleman from the area named Bob.I had met him before. The water was perfect and the wind was almost nonexistant. What little wind there was, was hitting me on the back.I spent the first 30 to 45 minutes casting an olive and white closer with out a bite.Then I hear Bob hooping it up. I look up and he's holding a little red.I can't let him out do me so I give him a wave and keep casting.I come upon 4 sunken , encrusted tires in about 2 feet of water.Each one of them are about 40 feet from me in a semicircle.My bass fishing experience takes over and I cast past one of them and strip the fly past it.Thump, fish on.Its a little mangrove snapper.I unhook him and make another cast. Thump, another small snapper.Not what i hoped for but it's fish.A couple more casts with out a bite. So I cast to one of the other tires and catch another mangrove. Now I'm wishing I had my stringer and the other two fish. So I spend the next hour casting to these four tires.I catch a mangrove off of one then cast to the next one.After I fish the last tire in the lineup I go back to the first one.I just keep catching little snappers.Finaly I guess I caught all the hungry ones and I move on.Ahead about 50 feet I see a large wake being pushed.I can see the fish but it does not look like a red. Its pail grayish white.I cast to it and it does not even check up.I made a few more casts to it before it dissapeared. Not even a nudge. I was almost afraid that it might snatch up my fly. This fishes head is almost as big as mine.Thats pretty big.
Later i stopped by THE SHOP in Port Isabel and tell Larry haines about my morning experience. He informs me that the big fish I saw is a pet of sorts.They have been seeing it there for a couple years now. He said it is an albino black drum.Larry told me a few people have got the fish to take a fly but he always brakes them off.
I'll take my 10 wt surf rig next time and straighten that right up.Maybe.
Well the day wore on and I only managed to catch one small red.There was rat reds running all over the place but every time I saw one it was hauling tail.It saw me first. I saw a nice Jack Crevalle that afternoon and tried making a few cast to him with no luck.I could not get it interrested in my fly. It was harassing a large school of hand sized bait fish. At first I thought they were mullet but a man fishing there had caught some in his through net. They looked like freshwater shad. Ive caught 3 Big jacks in the surf that tipped 40 inches and a few small ones in that very spot on baitcasting tackle.They are the hardest pulling fish I have ever tangled with. I was not sure how the fly rod would handle one of them. I tried anyway.
Well i hit a couple other places without any luck.I had been casting that fly rod for 9 hours straight and was getting hungry and my casting was getting sloppy. So I packed it in and headed for the house.
Not an overly productive day but at least I did not get skunked.I was hoping for a few nice reds and maybe a trout are two, but thats fishing.
There's alway Next Time
[signature]
Later i stopped by THE SHOP in Port Isabel and tell Larry haines about my morning experience. He informs me that the big fish I saw is a pet of sorts.They have been seeing it there for a couple years now. He said it is an albino black drum.Larry told me a few people have got the fish to take a fly but he always brakes them off.
I'll take my 10 wt surf rig next time and straighten that right up.Maybe.
Well the day wore on and I only managed to catch one small red.There was rat reds running all over the place but every time I saw one it was hauling tail.It saw me first. I saw a nice Jack Crevalle that afternoon and tried making a few cast to him with no luck.I could not get it interrested in my fly. It was harassing a large school of hand sized bait fish. At first I thought they were mullet but a man fishing there had caught some in his through net. They looked like freshwater shad. Ive caught 3 Big jacks in the surf that tipped 40 inches and a few small ones in that very spot on baitcasting tackle.They are the hardest pulling fish I have ever tangled with. I was not sure how the fly rod would handle one of them. I tried anyway.
Well i hit a couple other places without any luck.I had been casting that fly rod for 9 hours straight and was getting hungry and my casting was getting sloppy. So I packed it in and headed for the house.
Not an overly productive day but at least I did not get skunked.I was hoping for a few nice reds and maybe a trout are two, but thats fishing.
There's alway Next Time
[signature]