good day on the flats

[Ron Mc]

with my baby.
We headed to the coast yesterday morning - I had already checked the weather, and knew yesterday would be the best day for us to fish, so we headed straight to the water.
And sorry, I can't edit photos on this computer, so these are what you get...
Here she is coming off the channel

she's towing the bait bucket behind her - we did real justice to a pint of shrimp.
Her first fish, a nice little rat red - below the 20-28" slot limit in TX, but great fare on a light rod, and I release reds anyway.

She was fishing a Falcon 6-1/2' spinning rod with a Penn 4200 SS ultralight, and 8-lb. spiderwire.
I didn't come prepared with a stringer, but when I caught my first spec (seatrout), 19", I made do with my pliers and a line from the boat.
I quietly added another to the stringer, and she really started getting into the fishing.

I was fishing my Lew's Saltwater baitcaster with a new Lamiglas Rogue River 8-1/2' rod. I love fishing long rods on the flats, and this one is rated nicely, 3/8-2oz. which will cover just about all inshore needs.
We were tossing shrimp on a bare hook below a styrofoam clicking bobber (Mansfield Mauler) and no weight.
My baitcaster did very well with little-to-no weight - I was very happy with it.
In addition to reds and specs, we were catching sheepshead, and they're an altogether different animal on the flats than at the jetties - they really want to get back to deep water. You can see what a bend they put in the rod

sorry I didn't photo one, but they were honking fish - 14-16 inches, and almost that tall, but with their funky mouths and armored heads, I had no way to string one up, but I did get bitten (very solidly) trying to string the first one - so we let them go (they're also hateful to fillet).
Getting down to the last two shrimp, the line was shot on her reel, from the pull of the fish jamming her line under the wrap on the spool, so we called it.
We got a dozen fish each, and some great table fare in four keeper trout

A good morning on the flats.

[Brian F.]

Great trip, Ron, and thanks for sharing the story. The girls make great fishing partners!

[Ron Mc]

Just finished the meal, it was great. I soak my fillets in ice water for at least 24 hours (up to 3 days). Drain them at least a half hour on each side and spice the side that's up - lemon pepper, and I like dill or Italian seasoning, lightly flour, and sauteed in browning butter 2 to 3 minutes on each side.

[john elder]

Can't get much better, Ron...great day..QT with your daughter...got to fish AND catch...and topped off by a great meal...you're doing it right..keep it up!

[Don Champion]

That really sounds great Ron! My favorite all time fishing partner was my daughter but she married, had a couple of kids and we haven't been fishing since. Maybe when the grandkids are old enough.

[Richard Lodge]

Thanks for sharing those photos and narrative. Those are great memories and traditions in the making for you and your daughter.

[Ron Mc]

Got a follow up on initiation last weekend of a Takamiya Japanese Saltwater Noodle Rod

I have an embarrassing number of fishing poles. Luckily, Mick has more, so I can always point to him.
Included in my fly rods are a couple of Japanese rods, and I recently added this Japanese salty threadline rod.

The only people who are more serious,... nuttier... how do you describe it?
OK, the only people who get more specialized about their fishing than us (and maybe the Brits) are the Japanese. They make rods for everything.
This is a saltwater Tetra (i.e., aquarium fish) rod, made by Takamiya.
I love the design of this rod. It has a super soft tip and plenty of backbone.
It will cast one-half gram, and protect 2-lb. test. It's a like a kokanee trolling rod on steroids.
I bought it for pier fishing with the girls for nursery seatrout - always a lot of fun. But I also believe it has the backbone to handle schoolies or a sow if one comes through the lights.


It's all about the tip. They started with a super light glass blank. They left the top quarter of the rod bare for that soft tip. They added linear graphite over the bottom 3/4ths - a beautiful jade green gel coat. Then a wrap of graphite weave on the bottom quarter with a clear gel.

Micro guides plus the latest Fuji spinning guides, and all the hardware with a titanium carbide finish for saltwater.

A nice spigot ferrule.

I hung a new Tica Cetus SS500 ultralight reel. I like the line clip on the spool, the instant anti-reverse, and the fact that it turns off (the current Penn SSg's don't anymore - full time anti-reverse)

Leave it to the Japanese to letter their rod with Real Method Loco Move - it must mean something cool in Japanese that doesn't quite translate.

__________________________________________________

We were in Corpus this weekend, and made our overdue pilgrimage to Fulton Beach to eat at Captain Benny's and fish the Fulton Beach pier (our favorite, next to S. Padre).
Captain Benny's was great, as always.
Everybody says so-and-so has the best fried seafood you've ever had.
This place really does. The oysters were perfect, so were the shrimp and grouper fillets, and hush puppies, and fries, and sweet potato fries.

The wind was horrible, beating 3' waves in 4' water. We've walked away many times with this much wind.
But my daughter wanted to go, so I agreed to fish, but they had to stay for at least one cigar. Which is exactly how long we stayed.

(I love this girl, her favorite smell is a bait shop.)
But success, even in the beating wind.

She's fishing a Penn 4200SS on a 5' Falcon UL

Two nursery specs for my daughter, and the first was a bit larger.

I got a half-dozen little trout on the noodle - sorry, too much trouble for photos.
But the best was 14 inches, which was a lot of fish on the little rod.
I had it loaded with a 4-lb. Japanese copolymer (sticking with the theme), Kamikaze, bought on ebay from an Aussie supplier.
Very happy with the line, the reel and the rod.
The noodle tip on the rod really made it feel like the little fish were in charge. To fish at all, we had to drop the rod tip and back feed, or the wind would lift our rig right up out of the water. When it got out to the edge of the lights, reel in and start over. The line and reel were perfect.