[Kilted Yak]

Fished Dollar and April Fools today. Spent most of the day drifting with croaker and shrimp under a popping cork. Both did well and the action was steady and mixed all day. Not a ton of keepers but ended up with 6 trout to 22" inches, one big gafftop, and a nice fat 29" red that I got to use my tag on (first experience doing that).

Funny side note...as we were pulling up with the big motor running slowly setting up a drift we got screamed at by this guide for having our big engine on. We were sincerely trying to make sure he (I'll call him "BM") had over 100 yards of space between us and his boat but he was really flipping out. I guarantee he was screaming louder than our boat was running. We always try to be courteous to others on the water, particularly guides, but this guy was really being a spaz. Hope his day got better.

Tight lines.

 

[coathanger]

folks

You know....Houston freeway drivers. grin

 

[harvey/mary]

I can promise, a quiet boat will NOT scare any fish....and when it is 50 or more yards.....for sure no way. Reason I am so sure, is 1....these redfish tourney's HAVE to be fished from the boats...and in a quiet approach...you CAN get within casting distance. 2....very recently at the mouth of the Brazos, my wife and I were in our boat with waders at least 100 yards away. My brother and his wife came from Houston and waded out. We quietly motoredaround everyone, 50+ yards away, coming around and from every ones back. We cut the motor and allowed the current and our oar to position our boat 20 to 30 yards from my brother. One of the other waders was walking in and casting and was within 15 yards behind our boat. It was 1 minute from the time we "slipped" through the sand flat and quietly dropped our anchor, that this wader hooked into a 25+ inch trout !!! Everyone was hooking up that evening from 6:30 to 7:45 PM. A quiet boat will not scare fish off unless there is LOTS of in-boat banging and such. Talking ABOVE water isn't a big factor either. Fish are spooked most by in/under water noises. A full speed boat within 50 yards WILL spook fish but that won't last long at all. Some people get all bent out of shape out of know-it-all ignorance.