Local fishing conditions were MUCH less than ideal. Rains to the north a few days prior to our visit had caused most of the river systems to be blown out. We only had a couple of inches of visibility and maybe as importantly all that water lowered the salinity which can drive the specs out to the ocean. We talked to multiple local guys in high dollar boats that were scratching their heads trying to fiure out a way to catch a few fish. We were told that the fishing had been great prior to the muddy water. When you a working stiff, you have to plan ahead and go when you get a yard pass. I play the cards I'm given.
So despite the dirty water, when the fish refused full size offerings, I fed then finesse. Because Dave suggested that I give the Ned a try, I had my Ned gear. I think about my third cast with the Ned I was hooked up. At one point, I dialed in on a kill zone and had fish hooked up four casts in a row. I was lucky enough to get to fish with Richard Button who is a buddy of Billethead. Richard is a very good fisherman and was willing to stay in a set location and continue to work the Ned with very determined retrieves. Fish are moving in and out of the small bayou we were set up in and every so often there would be a flurry of bites. After, I caught a few fish, Richard tied on the Ned rig that I was offering. I was able to set up Les and Cody with Ned offerings as well.
As is often the case, I had decent numbers with minimal size. Henceforth, whenever you catch an undersized Red, feel free to refer to it as a "ham sized" Red instead of a Rat Red. I caught numerous fish that would have been legal in La, but not in Texas.
All my flounder were too small to keep. I had a couple of decent Specks, some small Black Drum, and a croaker.
Friday was cool, cloudy, and windy. Friday was much warmer, but still kind of windy. Sunday was WARM and windy. Thank God for the wind. The mosquitos would have carried us away and left our drained bodies for the crabs. Water temps climbed so rapidly. We saw 49 degree water in the afternoon of Friday. Water temp was all the way up to 69 degrees on Sunday afternoon.
I am confident that if the water had been normal that we would have caught more and bigger fish, but I had a great time catching the fish I caught and a lot of laughs with the fellows. Round trip it was 1515 miles. It was as pleasent a 12 hour drive as you could ever have. I finished up catching 71 fish over the three days.