For You That Fish: This Week's Fish Tale

Share your fishing adventures, especially ones using antique tackle!
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joe klaus
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For You That Fish: This Week's Fish Tale

Post by joe klaus »

Back in the mid-70's I lived in Victoria (Texas) and fished several times a week...with majority of time spent fishing at Rockport. My fishing buddy and I especially liked to fish Cedar Bayou. We would launch at the Sea Gun at Goose Island and make the 45 minute run over to the Bayou. Many times we stayed over-night and slept in our boat.

Reason I write this story is that the crisp October weather has brought back a memory...that translates into one of my fish tales.

We arrived at Cedar Bayou around 1 or 2 pm on a cool Oct. afternoon. At that time, the Bayou connected Aransas Bay to the Gulf of Mexico. You could run a boat up in the Bayou but weren't allowed to go all the way to the Gulf. If you wanted to fish in the surf (which we did), you had to park your boat at a certain designated area and walk to the surf.

Therefore, by the time we walked to the surf and actually started fishing, it was probably around 3. The wind was blowing briskly from the south and the surf was rolling in big waves but water was clear to the beach. The tide was high. As we waded out over the first sandbar and into the 2nd gut to get to 2nd sand bar, the water came up to almost neck deep. We were wearing flotation devices.

After clearing the gut, we waded up on the 2nd sandbar and started to fish---throwing mirror lures. Those lures are vicious---3 separate treble hooks--with hooks sharp as I could get them. The waves were breaking in strong across the sandbar, and every time a big wave came in, we had to jump to keep it from going over our head.

Back in that day, it was considered a waste of precious time to use a landing net when landing a speckled trout or redfish. The drill was to catch the fish... wear him down a little, and then pull him in close enough that you could grab him with your hand with a quick move over the top of his back and into his gills for a good grip. When you caught one using a mirror lure...it was best to make certain your "quick move" was accurate.

All of the above is necessary to set the stage for what happened to me (us) that day. It so happened that on about every 3rd cast, we caught a speckled trout that would weigh anywhere from 5 to 8 pounds. Anyone that's ever fished knows this ain't usual and ordinary. It was like hitting a mother lode of giant speckled trout.

But there was a catch. There were some sharks out there along with the trout. And when we hooked one, the fish went crazy and typically came straight back towards us. Between having a 7 lb trout ... with a mirror lure dangling mostly out of his mouth...coming in to us "green"...and fighting the big waves that always threatened to break over our heads...and no landing net...you can imagine that it wasn't real easy to put the fish on a stringer. But we did manage to string a few.

After about an hour of this I was getting very frustrated in not being able to land all the fish we were hooking...and it was just *D.A.M. reel*ed *D.A.M. reel*ed disheartening to see those big fish eventually tear a hook out of their tender mouth.

All of this culminated with me catching a big trout, had him come in "green", got him up close enough to see and decided I would loosen my drag some to keep him from tearing the hook out of his mouth since he was in so close to me...and that's when he dove down right in front of me and tangled the mirror lure hanging out of his mouth with the shoe strings on the high top tennis shoes I was wearing.

How do you reach down and get a fish out of your shoe string with water chest deep and waves trying to break over your head? You don't. I had to somehow try to get back to shallow water to deal with this.

As I start wading back with that 2nd gut tween me and the shore, I discovered that the tide had come in enough that the water was now over my head and I had to swim to get across the gut. Do you think I was a little worried about the sharks that might be interested in a "wounded fish" that was all tangled up in the shoe strings of my shoe?

I don't mind telling you that the 10 yards across that gut put some fear into me. But I made it and eventually got back to shallow water. I did put that fish on the stringer but I'd had enough. I didn't go back out there. I still remember this like it was yesterday. And by the way, when I wade fish now, I use a landing net.
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john elder
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Post by john elder »

Great story, joe! I,m not sure i even had the stones for that adventure in my yoot! Glad you are here to tell it!
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kingfisher
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Post by kingfisher »

Thanks for the story Joe. You had enough brains to be worried about sharks. I have heard stories of sharks chomping on surf fishermen's shoulder bags containing caught Tailor/Bluefish while fishing at Frazer Island. ( Queensland, Australia)
Reel Geezer
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Post by Reel Geezer »

Great story, Joe. It's a good reminder of the really crazy things we do in our younger days, but also the great adventures we have had.
nomdeplume57
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Post by nomdeplume57 »

Definitely a Story to Cherish and tell the Grandkids.

Those Sharks kinda got me outa wadin in Port O'Connor along with the Alligator and Rattle Snakes I saw last time I got close to one of the Islands . Plus I don't move around in the Mud like I use to .
joe klaus
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Post by joe klaus »

I still fish quite a bit at Pt. O'Connor, but just shallow water in the bay. I don't wade the surf anymore because it's physically too much (most of the time). On rare occasions the surf flattens out and I'll go. But you can't plan on it.

During my fishing years I've had quite a few personal encounters with the gray ghosts. They're just about always around if you're fishing saltwater.
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