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East Flats with 7 others
Post 07 Oct 2020, 10:47 • #1 
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Joined: 08/10/05
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Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
I was originally invited to join my friends Josh and Whit in Josh's annual Redfish Rodeo, 5 days kayak fishing different flats in driving distance from his family's cabins on Copano Bay. My buddy Steve ramrodded a Palm Harbor trip the week before. Our tides were better than Josh's - he had neek tides the whole week, with tide movements at odd hours (unless you want to fish in the dark), I certainly didn't want to miss Estes, so I bowed out of the Rodeo.
With one exception - Monday's falling tide beginning at 4am was steep, with good fishing from first light to noon, the NE wind was perfect for Trout Bayou, and even the noon shift to E wind would push you home.

With my gear cleaned and staged from last week, Monday's tide was nagging me.
I told Lou I was going to see if Josh's invite still had room for me Sunday and Monday night - Lou had way too much work to play. That lasted about 12 hours and Lou wanted in, so we got our favorite fishing shack in Estes for those two nights.

All our free time was spent at Josh's family plot on Copano bluff - reveling, feasting, Whit's fabled ceviche, smoking cigars, top-shelf bourbons, and a big shrimp boil Monday night.
Whit and I go back 20 years - he's fished with both my dad and my daughter - so it was wonderful to catch up. Sorry, I didn't even take the camera out of the truck at Copano, but maybe Josh will post some of his photos on his TKF reports, and I'll borrow a couple later...

Josh somehow thought he put me out by picking East Flats instead of Estes for Monday. Shoot me in the foot Josh, I love East Flats.

Lou and I were 16 miles closer to the Port Aransas ferry, we hit it at 6:11 am, and were rigged and parked when the rest of the group arrived at Island Moorings Marina.


As always, Lou was the first one paddling


That's Whit with the blue kayak marked Spiny Norman


When Josh's sister Nina took off, I joined her and Lou - we were off first into the million-dollar canals.
We followed Nina through the first cut onto East Flats.

Josh and the others took the long way around Pelone Island, and fishing the cuts into the channel on the sharp falling tide was a good call.
Whit went all the way to the far end of East Flats Lake - had a great paddle, but was shut out of slot fish. We heard they all were catching small fish on topwaters.
I had a YoZuri wake bait rigged on my Legend Glass spinner, but after a couple of casts, decided we started too late to use it.

While I wanted to show Lou the Lake, I thought it would be dead on the falling tide, really wanted to fish this flat, and the structure turned out to be perfect on the falling tide and NE wind.
This is Lou and our new Cajun best buddy Dale against the lee side of Pelone Island.


Drifting from the island hit remarkably clear grass. The best redfish were in this water - my morning began with a redfish with shoulders following my red TSL grasswalker to the boat, but didn't eat.
Here was my best, 2" short of slot.


The first shelf was a little deeper and the water picked up turbidity. Here, every cast brought a half-dozen hits, and I've never seen so many 6-12" trout anywhere. I fished the 1/8-oz Texas Eye jigheads on my ML bait rod and had a blast.
The second shelf dropped to where you couldn't see grass in the deeper turbid water. For the deeper water, went to my reliable cocahoe on 1/4-oz Stazo jighead with double hook, rigged on my IM6 MM bait rod.
Here, I got a fish to make my day, a 23" trout.


From here, it was paddle back to the island and repeat the drill, making a zig-zag up the island and slowly moving toward the lake.
Fish the ML and switch to the MM when I couldn't see the grass.
Another drift I was blown away by this 24-1/2" trout. She tailstanded the whole time, shaking her head, and at my boat, slammed her head against my hull 3 or 4 times.
Holy cow, what a trout.


On our last drift, Lou got a keeper red on TSL grasswalker chicken-on-a-chain, a lure that has been good to him. .


The wind and tide movement both died at noon, Lou and I bowed out with Nina and Dale. Nina took our fish in her iced fish bag, so I could fillet them later at the cabin, also great for the long ferry wait and long drive.


By the time we got to the ramp, the others had called it, as well, and Josh called us looking for Dewitt - I think they finally found him.


Josh brought home a very nice red and trout.
The shrimp boil, corn, potatoes, andouille, blue crabs and shrimp was a feast.
Dale taught a seminar on how to shuck a crab and get out one big piece of meat - also which fat to eat on your way in.
From my four trout fillets, one fillet alone was a huge meal of fish tacos last night.


Last edited by bulldog1935 on 07 Oct 2020, 14:08, edited 3 times in total.

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Post 07 Oct 2020, 11:13 • #2 
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Joined: 02/12/16
Posts: 4094
Location: USA-CO
A great trip, with good food, friends, conviviality -- and fish. Thanks for showing!


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Post 07 Oct 2020, 11:21 • #3 
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Joined: 08/10/05
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Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
I wanted to fish, but I Really wanted to hang with my friends
Garrulous Lou fit right in.
Everyone enjoyed sampling from the flask of 23-y Matusalem I had with me.
Good beer, too, range of Dogfish Head celebration brews.


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Post 10 Oct 2020, 16:15 • #4 
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Joined: 01/10/06
Posts: 7811
Location: Holly Springs, NC
Did you have any issues with Hurricane Delta, such as extra swell or changes in the tides? In North Carolina the Outer Banks often get heavy surf from storms that don't even come close enough to bring rain.

It's been too long since I had fresh caught sea trout...


Tom


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Post 10 Oct 2020, 16:55 • #5 
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Joined: 08/10/05
Posts: 19078
Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
We didn't on Monday, but Josh had tougher wind to deal with by Wednesday for the last day of his roundup - he just got caught up to posting his daily fishing reports on TKF this morning. Delta landfall was almost 400 mi to the east.

Josh always posts with good stats, also google maps with the day's paddling trail - so every day gets a separate thread
http://www.texaskayakfisherman.com/foru ... 8&t=252758

wish I could have made this day on Dagger point - it looks beautiful
http://www.texaskayakfisherman.com/foru ... 8&t=252759

http://www.texaskayakfisherman.com/foru ... 8&t=252760
http://www.texaskayakfisherman.com/foru ... 8&t=252761
http://www.texaskayakfisherman.com/foru ... 8&t=252762

Most cool, he posted some great photos of the shrimp boil Monday night, and I'll repost those here


that's Lou, Nina and Josh (some of these must have come from Whit)





we fired up the fire pit to keep the mosquitoes away


here's Monday's crew,
Whit, Josh, Lou, Nina, William, me, Dewitt, Dale


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Post 11 Oct 2020, 10:53 • #6 
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Joined: 07/22/11
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Location: US-TX
Good stuff there Ron! What it is all about.


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Post 11 Oct 2020, 10:55 • #7 
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Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
about as good as it can get



Last edited by bulldog1935 on 12 Oct 2020, 06:44, edited 1 time in total.

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Post 11 Oct 2020, 10:56 • #8 
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Location: USA-CO
That shrimp boil looks terrific!


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Post 19 Oct 2020, 06:54 • #9 
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Joined: 08/10/05
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Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
Dale is a pro at shucking crabs - his grandmother was employed at it.

That's historic property on Copano bluff - one of the highest places on the TX coast, the first Spanish fort, and a Texian fort when Santa Anna invaded (also a Confederate fort). They used to run wagons onto Copano Reef to offload ships and had to get by this pass. His ranching family has leased their 10 acres for generations - five there excepting Whit, Lou and me were related to Josh at some distance. Whit and Josh met over fish talk at a Rockport bar a dozen years ago and have fished together since. I fished first with Josh a year ago April.

They have four houses there, a storage shed and two boats - it can all get scalped every 25 years or so, and someone is there most every weekend. They had a lot to repair after Harvey 3 years ago - they were on the west wall of the eye. Lost a gazebo on the end of their dock and will have to apply for a permit to replace it. One of their neighbors got fined for repairing his dock without permit - they monitor on google earth.
Best news, though, their fish-cleaning gazebo survived Harvey.


I got excited enough about the place, I ordered this definitive history from Abebooks: Aransas: Life of a Texas Coastal County


Since I showed another good photo of Whit above, and he since added his report on TKF, thought I'd round out his day on the water:
spiny norman wrote:
I believe this is the first time I have ever been skunked at East Flats. (I forgot to wear my lucky fish hook necklace. :lol: :evil: :roll: ).
The hog was fun. When he saw me turn towards him, he turned back to the shore he just left but I was able to quickly run him down in the Tarpon to get a pic. When me and Josh split up, he went south and I headed up to Mustang point to A, see if there were any trout there, (there wasn't), and B, see what all that construction was about. (Still have no idea, but it's a big project.)
Worked my way back to the island with the fish camps. lots of little blowups by dink trout and rat red. pulled up on the leeward side to drink some waterand re rig one of the rods. Saw a little movement in the mangroves and found a little wading bird caught in some abandoned fishing line. :evil: :evil: :evil:
She was tangled up pretty good and it took a good 5 minutes to cut it all off her. has some small break in the skin but I didn't think I could both hold her securely and get to the antibiotic ointment in the yak. I let her go, and she seemed to fly off fine.
worked my way back to the group annoying dink trout along the way. Saw a few reds in the first flat that were right at slot but that showed no interest in any lures.
Swimming hogs and rescuing birds still makes for a good day on the water


Last edited by bulldog1935 on 19 Oct 2020, 07:32, edited 2 times in total.

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Post 19 Oct 2020, 07:01 • #10 
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Fine times, Ron, fine times.
Nice ash!


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Post 19 Oct 2020, 07:21 • #11 
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Joined: 08/10/05
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Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
thanks Mark.
We could have been poster kids for Wilderness.
8 boats launched - 5 were Tarpons.


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Post 14 Dec 2020, 13:18 • #12 
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Joined: 01/12/20
Posts: 66
Location: US-TN
That hog smelled sausage and said "I'm out of here!"

What a cool trip. The redfish water had me drooling, and what amazing trout shots. We sometimes go down to Apalachicola and catch sand and speckled trout that are soooo tasty. Man, I miss the beach. Thanks for posting those wonderful pictures :)


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Post 14 Dec 2020, 14:16 • #13 
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Joined: 08/10/05
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Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
We stayed there 2 nights for one day of fishing, and really couldn't have been a better time.

Oh yeah, spec tacos


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Post 14 Dec 2020, 14:30 • #14 
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Location: USA-CO
Those look delicious!


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Post 14 Dec 2020, 14:43 • #15 
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Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
I didn't mention in my OP, because had so much to say, first night we arrived, we all went to Moondog Eats in Fulton Beach, with a deck on the harbor - shrimp fleet on one side, yachts on the other.
I had their softshell crab sandwich - it was massive and excellent.



Last edited by bulldog1935 on 16 Dec 2020, 00:21, edited 1 time in total.

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Post 15 Dec 2020, 13:28 • #16 
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Location: USA-CO
Sofshell crab sandwich... mmmmm good!


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