I slipped out of the snowy winter conditions of Wisconsin yesterday and flew to Austin, TX and met up with buddy Brian Iannacchione. Then Brian and I drove to the TX coast to meet up with our friend and top coastal fly fishing guide, Jako Lucas. We’re fishing here for the next four days.
You would expect me to tell you this would be a wonderful break from the cold, but at 7:30 am it was far from a break from the cold. It was freezing this morning down here in Texas. Add in the wind and it was flat out frigid. Even the hearty pelicans weren’t moving at sunrise.
But only a fool would delay a departure on a fishing day because of cold temperatures. This team for sure aren’t fools. Jako, Brian and I were on our way and before 8 am Jako was on his polling platform pointing out the first redfish tail.
Honestly, one would think when its 46° a redfish wouldn’t be tailing. I wouldn’t have imagined it. I thought all flats fish would be lethargically sleeping in the deep. But man was I wrong and in no time Brian was casting to the first fish.
There were quite a few fish active. A mixture of reds and black drum were tailing, waking and mulling around. We had nervous water as far as we could see. The only issue to start was that Brian’s fly was too heavy for this very shallow area.
While Brian was fishing I switched to an olive shrimp fly with lightweight eyes. The plop of Brian’s fly spooked a few fish and he also had some refusals. When it was my turn, the first fish I cast to ate my fly.
I always have a goal on trips and this week it’s for Brian and I each to catch our first sheepshead on fly. But we don’t plan to pass up fun opportunities for other fish species when they’re are around. Though we were looking for sheepies on this first spot, when all we saw were reds and drum, we went to work. There was no hesitation on casting to this redfish. And this is by far, the coldest I’ve ever been while holding a redfish!
Brian hopped up after we released my fish and nailed a dandy of his own. His fly change made the difference. We went back and forth over the next couple hours and each landed four reds. It was truly unbelievable.
On top of catching a heap of hungry redfish, there were some black drum mixed in. Drum can often be choosy on what they eat however we each managed to land one. Brians was an absolutely gorgeous specimen.
Wading in todays freezing conditions was something I hoped to avoid. But strong wind made it difficult for Jako to pole stealthily for sheepshead. Jako suggested wading a flat so we could sneak up on them. Once again, cold wasn’t going to deter anyone on this team.
The funny thing is, we didn’t see a sheepshead, a redfish or a black drum. None of the above were around on this wading flat. However, stuck in a shallow pool, likely trying to find some warmer water, was a seatrout. It was a truly trapped fish and the boys challenged me to wrangle him up. It was an adventure that ended with this poor guy actually beaching himself in panic. We took a quick photo then I released him to the open water which in turn, probably saved his life.
It was a super fun day and we caught far more fish than we expected including more redfish and drum in the afternoon. While we saw only one sheepshead all day (and this fish looked cold and lethargic), we had amazingly good fishing. Far better than we expected when we looked at the morning thermometer. The good news is that tomorrow it will be ten degrees warmer and the wind will blow closer to 10 mph rather than 20. I’m not sure how we could have an even better day, but who knows. We’ll be on the water early tomorrow once again!