A Few of My Favorite Things

A rare Saturday trip this week.  I found myself off to a slow start and changing my game plan on the way to my fishing spot.  I decided to scrub the exploration and go back to Point Aux Chene and see if the reds were still there.  And they were!

You will notice a few of them have extra spots.  I'd say about half the fish I caught today were "Leopard" reds with more than the usual two spots.

As usual I was throwing a modified spoon what I call the "Black Spoon of Death" (TM).  I love that spoon!

It was a good day in large part because it included a few of my favorite things - my favorite ways to catch a redfish:

1. The fish is right on top of you but you still manage to make a perfect short cast (harder than you think) and you see it inhale the bait (literally you can see the gills flare and the bait is sucked in).  
2. You see the shadow of the fish in the distance, make a perfect stretch cast and it pounces on the bait. 
3. You see the fish crashing bait in the distance, you paddle over, cast and get it.
4. You hear a fish in the pond next door, you paddle over, and blind cast it.
5. You look at a spot and say to yourself, "there has to be a fish over there and first cast - BAM fish on!
6. Or you look at a spot and tell your buddy, "Cast right there - there's almost always a fish there"  and BAM fish on (I can't decide if this is number 6 or number 1 really).

I did all but number six on this trip.  You see the five fish I caught I released two big slot reds pushing 7lbs each.  Also released 5 "rat reds" too small to keep.  

Tip of the Day:  Sometimes you just have to be a little bit "reckless" by paddling around and risking spooking fish to get a bead on what they are doing.  A number of anglers didn't fish because it was a slack tide day but I figured out where they were laying by paddling through a few of them.  Then I knew where to look.

The other thing is standing up is a big part of finding fish.  You just see more fish this way.  

I'm very thankful today that the 4-5ft black tip shark that swam under my boat yesterday didn't get frisky. I'm pretty sure it was checking out my paddle splash to see if there was dinner around.  It was not at all scared of my 14 ft kayak.  It was the biggest shark I've seen inshore by a good bit.  I'm glad I didn't have a fish on when he came by.  

Most of my fish went off to the neighbors but three fillets were added to the fajita buffett I put on tonight here's the prepped fish:

Lime juice, Tony's seasoning, jalapenos, and fresh cilantro - mmmm (one without the jalapenos).  After ten minutes on the grill add the green chiles and cook for 5 more minutes.  Eat it straight up, put it in a taco, or put it on nachos (my family's favorite dish).