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Post 23 Mar 2020, 16:07 • #1 
Piscator
Joined: 08/10/05
Posts: 19077
Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
Was planning this trip with Steve, Lou and Randy for a month. Watching the weather for 10 days, and finally made the call on Wed that NWS made it look ok. At the same time, Randy had to bow out because he went on weekend alert for the VA.

Had also been talking for two weeks with Blake - YaketyYak - he wanted to scout Estes for a PACK trip, and told him for sure Sunday would be the better day.
NWS kept making Saturday look better, with the two fronts hitting early, and both the rain chance subsiding and the wind easing back to the east by 10 am - it didn't happen. Though it was balmy and 70 when Lou and I arrived at Rahi Motel Friday evening, Saturday was a cold blow. We held out to launch until 8:30a, again, believing NWS that coming home was going to be better on the light East wind - we launched at 16 kt NNE with that promise.
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I included this photo, walking our boats to the Little Cut shoal, because it was the only good photo I took of Steve.
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Little Cut was dead in spite of the rising tide and beating wind current ripping through the cut - I've never not caught tourist trout there. So we headed upwind to drift back down Trout Bayou.

Instead of getting better, the wind picked up and continued from the NNE - gusts were definitely over 20 kts and the rain picked up. We regrouped at Sandy Point, sourhtern tip of Talley Island, grabbing a few calories before before making the hard WNW reach back to Palm Harbor. Steve noted that glass minnows were washing onto his deck through his Hobie drive port.
Lou showed up with a nice slot red, caught on a maroon+yellow-tail cocahoe. It was only 11am, but we were ready for warm and dry.
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Note the waves beating down Trout Bayou on Lou's hull. Because of the reaching wind and waves, the only way to make it back home was to tack upwind above Palm Harbor, and jibe for the last run across the ICW to the Palm Harbor bulkhead. Steve's Revo 16 capsized in 3 wind gusts crossing Estes Cove.
We made good the rest of the day, running into Roy's Bait & Tackle so Lou could buy a new Werner paddle on sale, and picked up a few more glass minnow lures. Also killer burgers at Steer Burger in Estes.

Sunday morning it was dead calm, but pea-soup fog. Ken - Yakrunabout - joined us along with Blake.
It was great fishing with these guys, and I hope they enjoyed Estes as much as we did.
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Even though we couldn't see Talley Is., made the call to paddle out into the fog - Sandy Point should be ESE, right?
I managed to get us kinda lost, or at least on a long semi-circle tour. I kept paddling to what looked through the distance like the island, but my compass didn't make sense. I finally figured out instead of Talley Is., I was looking at the dense fog on the horizon.
So Blake rescued us with his GPS, we rounded Talley, and went right to fishing as we worked our way East toward Little Cut.
Lou and Steve both kept fishing up Trout Bayou, remembering Lou's red from yesterday.
Blake, Ken and I took advantage of the tourist trout smorgasbord at Little Cut - no wind current, but a pretty good rising tide current. Trout were slashing glass minnows on the skinny shoal and along every bank in the cut. Lou also mentioned that he, Blake, and Ken paddled up on the west end of the Little Cut shoal and saw reds grazing on glass minnows, but none of them could turn a strike.
Blake heading into Little Cut.
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I knew about Sunday's calm, and brought my 8' UL, knowing it would let me cast a small, sinking Yo-Zuri PINS minnow from the center shoal to either bank in Little Cut. It was a blast, even with tourist trout.
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better photo, and I caught two that were 15 inches - would have kept them if I knew Lou was showing up with a stringer.
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Lou paddling in from the fog to join us.
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Ken fishing the grassy shore on the deep side of the cut - you get the sense of the light remaining fog in this photo.
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About 9am, the sun was slowly drying the fog and driving up a light NE breeze for us. So we paddled up Trout Bayou to drift back down. I missed so many good fish - had a really solid fish hooked - or so I thought. I was also getting many little trout strikes on grasswalker.
On this drift, Lou got the trip fish, a 25" hen trout on TSL Chicken-on-a-Chain.
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Our breeze finally gave up, so we paddled back to Little Cut for beer-thirty break and few more tourist trout.
With the promise of returning prevailing SE wind in the afternoon, we began working our way south to Big Cut.
The drift that followed was a blast, and promised to get better for the remaining afternoon. I know Blake and Ken were both catching trout and reds on topwaters.
I noticed they were striking better on a fast retrieve, so I tied on a cocahoe and lived with the grass balls.
Caught this rat red with the most beautiful tail coloration I've ever seen.
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Lou told me he badly gulleted his sow trout, so better to eat her than let her die.
Looks like Susie will let Lou play again, as long as he keeps bringing home trout fillets.
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How's this for a stingy fillet?
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We had an adventure - weather adventure, paddling adventure, fishing adventure. It was a great outing with good friends, and I hope to fish with both Blake and Ken again.
Food and the current weirdness - Steer Burger in Estes is top notch, Texas Monthly Top 50, and they've always been set up for excellent grab-it and go meals.
Also the Groove in Rockport - great menu, and they can turn out a fantastic wood-fired pizza in 10 minutes.


Last edited by bulldog1935 on 23 Mar 2020, 17:28, edited 1 time in total.

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Post 23 Mar 2020, 17:20 • #2 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 07/11/14
Posts: 1784
Location: urban Colorado
looks a bit hard-core on the Sat..

bulldog1935 wrote:
Steve's Revo 16 capsized in 3 wind gusts crossing Estes Cove.


yikes - hopefully everything was well tied in, and the PFD did in fact protectively float Steve..

ya I like maps and compasses, but GPS and Gaia maps are kinda nice to have in a fog..

never actually caught a sea trout, despite trying quite hard in the years we lived in NC. Sometime when all my children's rolling crises are done I want to drive down to Texas and see what I can find..


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Post 25 Mar 2020, 07:15 • #3 
Piscator
Joined: 08/10/05
Posts: 19077
Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
It was standing water, but tricky to get back on in the wind - the plan was not capsizing in the 25' deep ICW.
And it was pretty hardcore - manly sport.
I had fond memories of very successful 18-kt fishing from early last April, but I think all of us had a good time and would do it again.
Easy to recover after a Steer Burger - or it would be hard to recover after the burger if you didn't burn the calories keeping warm and paddling 5+ miles.
We really covered Estes Sunday, paddling at least 8 miles.
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adding a ps here - some photos Ken posted on TKF
Lou and me wading the Little Cut shoal
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Lou, Blake and me drifting Trout Bayou
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me with a short stogie just past Sandy Point - pushing the boat with the paddle, then casting
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Last edited by bulldog1935 on 25 Mar 2020, 15:51, edited 2 times in total.

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Post 25 Mar 2020, 10:49 • #4 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 11/09/10
Posts: 1355
Location: US-CA
Sweet, Ron.
Stay healthy, eh!


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Post 26 Mar 2020, 08:34 • #5 
Piscator
Joined: 08/10/05
Posts: 19077
Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
going to the grocery store, the Sheriff makes you wipe down your cart, wash your hands coming in, and wash them again going back out.
The city closed all businesses, and work is from home.
I think we're going to try another Estes trip in 3 weeks....never mind that
Though this was the first time I can remember going to Rockport without eating Mexican seafood at Los Comales.


The $100 Korean 8' UL with 1-6-g lure range (1/32 to 3/16 oz) made all the difference for me wading Little Cut.
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I bought it for Arroyo, but here, it let me cast the 3/16 oz lure I needed as far as I needed to catch fish, and was a blast on any size fish (and the reel has a longer-pitch handle).
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Also the Yo-Zuri sinking PINS minnow was it - 2 second countdown, and trout impaled themselves on any retrieve.
I also tried floating/diving, suspending, twich in similar patterns, and none of them took a strike.
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the Japanese have gone so far in spinning rod tapers, loading more and more like progressive fly rods, with a single rod having a working lure range of 1/16 oz to 3/4-oz.
Here's my next rod, 8'2", 1/16 oz to 1/2 oz, and just introduced at an attractive price.
https://youtu.be/FSg20hILrEA
The stiff butts these rods have also give you the ability to turn big fish, which at Arroyo, kept big trout from running under the dock piers.
Never mind about the Blue Current III - on inquiry at my Japan vendor, it was deposit to queue for a rod with maybe a June production schedule - he pretty much discouraged it. I was watching "this just in" on his website, with 8 other-model Yamaga rods listed while Japan slept - they all sold the next business day.


Last edited by bulldog1935 on 05 Apr 2020, 16:44, edited 4 times in total.

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Post 26 Mar 2020, 14:07 • #6 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 11/09/10
Posts: 1355
Location: US-CA
Don't know if I've personally encountered any hooks sharper than Yo-Zuri. Always stick in my fingers!


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Post 26 Mar 2020, 15:29 • #7 
Piscator
Joined: 08/10/05
Posts: 19077
Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
when those little trout start kicking in your hand, might as well be in a knife fight

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Last edited by bulldog1935 on 28 Mar 2020, 08:08, edited 1 time in total.

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Post 27 Mar 2020, 12:13 • #8 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 11/09/10
Posts: 1355
Location: US-CA
What fun!


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Post 04 Apr 2020, 14:31 • #9 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 02/12/16
Posts: 4093
Location: USA-CO
Great outing: company, food, adventure, and fish. Thanks for showing!


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Post 05 Apr 2020, 08:32 • #10 
Piscator
Joined: 08/10/05
Posts: 19077
Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
thank you, friend - we had a great adventure, and the Sunday calm made me brave enough to break in a new UL rockfish rod and exotic reel.
(We also had a "just in time" factor pulling this off - it couldn't be done today with municipal travel bans - and even coming home from this trip was like arriving on a different planet.)

I didn't care what size fish I was catching on the UL, they were all a blast.
The combination of the long UL with 3/16-oz sinking PINS minnow was the superlative glass minnow rig, delivering long casts with small enough lure (perfect shape and flash) across the cut.
https://www.tackledirect.com/yo-zuri-pi ... lures.html
Something else really neat about this day, there was tide current, but no wind current with eddies to focus the fish - every inch of shoreline on both sides of the cut, including the central shoal, was active, and everybody was catching fish, whether wading the shoal or fishing from a kayak.


If you want to see more of the rockfish rod school - and why - here's a pretty good video of the flagship model by one of the top Japan makers.
After about 7 min, he's into big fish, and you see where "rockfishing" came from - he's fishing from skinny rocks and reaching out to big fish with light tackle.
The action of these rods duplicates a good dry fly rod.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sU6OwKUZfZs

This video gets pretty lame when it goes to night fishing, but the casting examples up front are worth watching:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6HsK9m_DSg&t=
From 1g to 10.5g, and at the heavy end, you see the rod rolling out just like a fly line loop.

here's the rockfish rod catalog from my favorite Japan vendor, Plat
https://www.plat.co.jp/shop/catalog/def ... -game.html



Last edited by bulldog1935 on 06 Apr 2020, 06:45, edited 1 time in total.

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Post 05 Apr 2020, 15:19 • #11 
Guide
Joined: 02/25/08
Posts: 184
Location: US-NM
Great report and information! Thanks for posting.


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Post 05 Apr 2020, 22:19 • #12 
Piscator
Joined: 08/10/05
Posts: 19077
Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
Thank you.
In lengths 7-1/2' and shorter, the Japanese also take rockfish rods after trout, and some rods designated "Stream" - essentially independently duplicate Dave Whitlock's and Joe Robinson's threadline techniques - working equally well for river bass and panfish, throwing weightless lures and protecting light-tippet-strength line. Joe and Dave build their threadline rods using fly rod blanks. The Japanese rod actions very much fight fish and protect light line like a fly rod, and any of the blanks would make a great dry fly rod.

As I said, the Japanese arrived at theirs independently, and the first rods I hunted down for my daughter and me 10 years ago were bought through a Japan broker. This trip was actually the first time I took one out on a kayak, but planned it around Sunday's weather predictions and the thought of using it at Little Cut. My threads on fishing Arroyo in far S. Texas will talk about these rods some more.

Over those 10 years, the Japanese have better learned how to market to the US, and if you search UL Rockfish Rod on ebay, can find a page of examples ranging from the highest-dollar Breaden rods to very economical starter rods, including the Korean NS Black Hole rod I used this trip. They've taken on pretty solid in Europe, with many UK and EU vendors importing Japanese rockfish rods and selling online.
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