Lou and I were happy to be invited to join Josh and old friends for 5 days of coast kayak fishing, and to stay in his great family digs at Liveoak Point on Copano Bay.
The weather slowed us down by two days, with Thursday's big blow and rain, so we turned it into a 3 day trip.
I shot 94 subjects, probably won't post them all, but certainly enough to give you the flavor of this great annual event.
When we arrived Thursday evening, Josh cooked up a perfect shrimp creole - maybe he'll post a photo for us.
Friday was fishing our old friend Estes Flats and Trout Bayou on a NNE.
The incoming tide should stack fish at the inside of the passes to Aransas Bay, and the wind is a perfect drift down the length of Trout Bayou.
As always, Lou's the first one paddling.
He did paddle back to Palm Harbor beach for a group photo - six of us fished both Fri and Sat.
We were off like a herd of turtles for our 3-mile paddle, and the sun was already up.
Lou, Josh, William and I each spent a little time wading the hardpack beach at Trout Bayou cut.
Rat reds were stacked at the corner of Traylor Is., right where they ought to be, and I got my first redfish on my UL baitcaster.
The real day, though was drifting Trout Bayou, and everyone found nice fish, especially big trout - Josh brought home a 21"
My day was mostly 18-19" reds, of course several small rats, though I did get a 22" to fillet.
This beautiful hardpack beach on Talley Is., we call Lunch Beach - that's Lou drifting by
Note the swirl behind Lou's boat
Lou released a beautiful 26" sow trout to keep breeding little trout in Trout Bayou - his lifetime best
A good photo of Lou and Josh at Sandy Point
Lou and I were back to Palm Harbor first, and went to work filleting
The rest followed us in - Josh and Nina
Whit
and William
Everyone else took their stringers back to Copano to fillet, and the pelicans lined up for fish carcasses
I don't think Nina wanted to be in this photo
Friday evening we had a culinary feast at
495 Chesapeake Eats in Rockport, and Lou picked up the tab - I think this made serious karma for his fishing.
Their calamari and crab dip were outstanding, their stuffed flounder special was better than any I've tried elsewhere, and Lou made a great call on an aged rye Old Fashioned, which I was smart enough to duplicate.
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Saturday, we crossed the ferry at Port Aransas to Mustang Is and Island Moorings Marina to fish East Flats.
We had to be off the water at 2pm, because Nina coaches her daughter's volleyball team, and learned the evening before they made the playoffs.
Unfortunately, Lou and I were staged on the ramp, had to launch before a boat backed down, and our partners had to wait out two more boat launches before they could play.
We paddled out first to East Flats.
What we didn't know, our friends stayed in the boat channel to fish the cuts onto East Flats and East Flats Lake
We had two fairly boring drifts diagonal across East Flats, Lou was happy with a keeper trout and rat red, but I was shut out.
We spent the rest of the day looking for our friends on East Flats Lake, and paddled 8 miles - it was a beautiful day.
But our friends caught 100 trout, mostly dinks, and Josh boated a keeper limit.
I would have given anything to be there with my UL.
Maybe I'll have to buy Josh a VHF - I don't do cell phones on the water.
So my Saturday was about food - Whit's famous ceviche, spec fillet cooked by key lime juice, and mostly chopped by William.
Josh's perfect and rightly famous shimp boil.
A great time around the firepit, and serious libation.
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Sunday was also a short day - we had to be off the water at 11 am, time to clean up and pack out.
We picked Estes again for the easy logistics and light NE.
At least we got a good start.
A short visit to Little Cut without any action, and then rode the NE between the two duck blinds between Little Cut and Big Cut.
Two drifts, a 19" and 18" redfish for me.
And sorry, I think there's shrimp boil on my polarizer.
After another drift and a half without fish, I made the long paddle back to Lunch Beach for a final drift down Trout Bayou and Talley shore.
That was also mostly fruitless, though when I got to the mouth of the big Talley slough, I found a thousand rat reds that would try to impale your lure until your took it out of the water.
Lou got his best red of the trip.
Great times with great friends, and Josh and Nina are amazing hosts.