FRONT DIDN’T HELP MUCH

For The Record- Capt. Dickie Colburn

At that exact moment there was every indication that while Jack Valence and his son, Daryl and I may not be anchored in a great flounder spot, we were at the very least anchored in a popular one!

I hadn’t fished for flounder with mud minnows since Foret’s Tackle closed, but they brought some with them and I wasn’t on a bite that held any more promise. The anchor rope was no sooner stretched tight than Daryl requested the net and his Dad scooped up the first fat three pound flat fish of the morning.

Twenty minutes later, Jack’s rod bowed under the strain of an even heavier fish that turned out to be a Shimano rod and reel that had been on the bottom much too long to consider any attempt at salvaging. “Someone else must have known about your secret spot,” teased Valence as he slid the useless rod under the gunnel.

Two more keeper flounder and a keeper trout that crashed the party later, Daryl rocked back on what appeared to be the best fish thus far. Just for the record the flounder may have weighed two pounds at best, but it was attached to yet another rod and reel. It looked like the irate flounder had just jerked the rod and reel overboard. We were on a roll with three flounder and two rod and reels in the first thirty minutes.

There was not another boat in sight, but the fish was alive and kicking and the Lew’s casting reel and Sarge Custom rod looked as though they had never gone overboard. Losing a nice flounder is always a little bit upsetting, but losing $500 worth of rod and reel made for an especially bad day on the water for some unlucky angler. Daryl, however, was obviously pleased that bottom fishing with mud minnows had been so rewarding!

They boxed nine flounder before mercifully running out of mud minnows. I undoubtedly shouldn’t sound so pleased as all of my high flying programs only produced two more redfish and seven trout. The conditions have been far too user-friendly lately for me to struggle as much as I have.

My unwillingness to run south has hurt me some, but aside from unseasonably high water, there is no reason for the bite on the north end to be so inconsistent. The flounder spot we were fishing is usually a great spot to limit on redfish when the tide is pouring out, but we never caught the first red.

It is certainly no secret that the redfish are schooling under the terns and gulls on the south end of the lake, but I dread the long bumpy ride back when the wind picks up around mid-morning. You can always drive around and launch on the south end of the lake, but I invariably fish a very small portion of the lake when I do that.

We spent more time last week fishing a three inch Usual Suspect under a popping cork than I normally do and it produced a decent number of 15 to 18 inch trout when other tails failed to produce a single fish. We started doing it because I had two fishermen that just could not keep their lure in the top column of water and that is where the trout were hanging out.

I found the fish by simply reeling the lure at a little faster pace and it worked better than it did under the cork, but it wasn’t a bad Plan B. Without a doubt the two best colors were silver shiner and cock of the walk. Our best bite took place around noon everyday as the outgoing tide was rolling out pretty good about that time.

I hoped that last weekend’s mini-norther would blow a little water out and improve the bite, but thus far all it has done is make for a frostier initial boat ride. The water is in great shape, but there is too much of it!

I saw yet another fishermen hit the piling floating at the mouth of East Pass on the lake side of the Pass last Friday. It is floating high enough to be easily seen, but it is dead in the middle of the Pass. Slow down and run on either side of the Pass if you have yet to see it and you will be okay!