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Pics... 'cause IT Happened Again ..

4K views 14 replies 10 participants last post by  troutsupport 
#1 ·
late report, been busy. I'm still down in Baffin. After my last pics and phone disappearance ... my buddy never found that phone, I had to have another good trip to tell ya'll about with pics this time. Topwater, DDXL, TroutSupport GrassWalkers, Floating FatBoys all produced for us Friday with a shifty wind sort of day but one of those rare low wind days. Luckily we had clouds that day, hazy thin fog, hit the water early and were in the water at day break starting off hard with Rick catching a 27 right before we could take a picture. We put here on the fish hide stringer to rest up while the light came up. She hit a DD XL in bone slow rolled under the surface, just nice easy presentation, slow reeled with a twitch here or there. I hit a few fish in that area as well, we saw the first slick of the year pop, It's a deep point with a little rock and grass and sand. Then NOTHING... .I'm all about patterns and I knew a nearby point with similar features and depths shot over there and took a look from out deep, we saw bait and slick, we idled in all the while a group of guys was ended a wade 100 yards shy of where the slick popped up. He picked up his guys, they hauled arse somewhere else, plenty bait flipping.. just think... thant guy could read the water and walked right into where those fish were... they probably didn't catch much becuase they were leaving and not quite up to where the activity was going on... Reading the water is such a useful skill to catching more and bigger trout and reds on our coastal inshore bays and being more consistent and having fun on the water ;-) it really is. I've used that slogan for nearly 10 years ... and IT TRUE. Anyway, we worked those fish over for a good two hours with a limit of keeper for each of us between 18 and 24 with another couple bonus big fish.. I caught a 26 and a 27 on a DD XL shallow in the 'forgotten water'... that shallow gut right by the shoreline, and Rick lost 2 near 28inch fish on tops. After we switched to tops we both had some good fish pull off, but some great blow ups. We weren't done so when it died down there we hit a set of rocks that we could wade and it was a perfect area for tops and also grass Walkers. I lost another BIG fish on a topwater (black super spook) and also caught a nice fish, then switched off to the GrassWalker and nailed a couple trout flossing the rocks with a Bone Diamond Grass Walker. Caught 2 or 3 nice ones and finished it all off with a solid 24" fish on the GrassWalker. Not doing anything special with the GrassWalker, just casting out directly into the rocks, cool thing is you don't have to cast to the side of them, you can pick the nastiest set of them and cast right into them and fish it slow allowing it to fall over the rocks. I'll do a slow pull with a twitch on the end of it, let it sink on tight line after the twitch while feeling for takes. Repeat.

Was a fun day. Holla at me by email if you have any questions about reading the water. tobin@troutsupport.com
 

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#5 ·
Ok Tobin... I commented on your last post asking a few questions and now I have a few more. I fished Baffin Friday as well and I can’t say my day was as awesome as yours.

I got on the water a little bit behind schedule (launched at sunrise) because I was waiting on some guests I was taking.

Headed down to Baffin through the the thickest fog I’ve ever been in. We stopped at a point on the KRS that had some scattered rocks a few miles north of the entrance to Baffin. Tons of bait, kinda scattered but they were there. Most were acting “lazy” as you called it, but a few were acting skiddish. We got out of the boat and 1st cast in I hooked up to a 19” and my buddy hooked up to a 22”. I was feeling like a Bad a** for taking some friends fishing and instantly putting them on fish.... well I guess god had to humble that attitude. We fished that spot for another hour and not a single bite. I noticed I hadn’t seen bait in awhile, so we decided to move. I won’t kill you with bordem, but long story short we fished every rock structure we could have in the mouth of Baffin. (Twin palms, bad lands, compuerta etc..)

And could not find a single fish..
we were throwing gamblers and DD’s all day.

So after my story, my questions.
1. I didn’t even think to use a top water. I thought the water temp would have been waaay too cold. I know I was cold through my waders. What’s the lowest water temp you will tie on a top water?

2. What was your game plan leaving the ramp? Tell me what you were thinking before you even saw the conditions. Right off the bat, we’re you thinking rocks? Grass? Guts? I like to have a general idea of what I am looking for and then fine tune from there reading the conditions.

I was thinking the water temp is cold, but warming up. So close to rocks, but not necessarily IN the rocks. My theory was kinda true, the 22 we caught was in grass patches but he was covered in fresh rock scars all over his belly.

I didn’t have the time to rewatch your videos before I went out Friday so I’m sure I would have scored a few more fish if I had a refresher.
 
#7 ·
I will answer what I can here...

I fished Baffin Friday as well ... Tons of bait, kinda scattered but they were there. Most were acting “lazy” as you called it, but a few were acting skiddish. We got out of the boat and 1st cast in I hooked up to a 19” and my buddy hooked up to a 22”. I was feeling like a Bad a** for taking some friends fishing and instantly putting them on fish.... well I guess god had to humble that attitude. We fished that spot for another hour and not a single bite. I noticed I hadn’t seen bait in awhile, so we decided to move.
Never fish for an hour without a bite. So let me get this straight.. .you saw what my videos show, got out the boat and caught fish. That's actually pretty awesome and you should pat yourself of the back. Not every group of fish is 20-30 fish.. some groups of fish are 2-3. i only stay about 15 minutes if I'm not catching fish. You might have also gotten there right when when the bite was dying and they pulled off the shoreline... as evidenced that you didn't notice much bait anymore.

And could not find a single fish..
we were throwing gamblers and DD’s all day.

So after my story, my questions.
1. I didn’t even think to use a top water. I thought the water temp would have been waaay too cold. I know I was cold through my waders. What’s the lowest water temp you will tie on a top water?
Really depends on what the bait is doing, what depth I'm fishing, how aggressive the fish are, solunar feed times, and if a front is approaching, if I see a lot of surface bait activity then I might throw a top in 50 degree water. For example, I fished Matagorda last february and saw what I wanted to see and they didn't want my fat boy... put on the super spook and it was almost instant. There were a lot of mullet on top, it was prefront, foggy, etc. The water that day was 62.

2. What was your game plan leaving the ramp? Tell me what you were thinking before you even saw the conditions. Right off the bat, we’re you thinking rocks? Grass? Guts? I like to have a general idea of what I am looking for and then fine tune from there reading the conditions.
email me at tobin@troutsupport.com ... 2cool is not a private site nor is it MY site... let's be respectful of my livelyhood guys, ... so email me and I'll help you. There are fishing clubs that watch every post I write and they'll make a full instructional youtube video off what I write... just the nature of it these days. I also noticed that they just started making trout slicks and I'm hitting that pretty hard right now.

I was thinking the water temp is cold, but warming up. So close to rocks, but not necessarily IN the rocks. My theory was kinda true, the 22 we caught was in grass patches but he was covered in fresh rock scars all over his belly.
Those scars on their belly could have been from spawning.. a lot of fish spawned this past full moon.. they don't all spawn at once. A lot of the fish we've been catching all have those red belly scratches as well. Water has been warming since late January but the fish move to where the bait that they are feeding on is and that may be different things at different times of year. Water is plenty warm and they've been in the rocks for quite some time. There are pockets in the rocks that have grass and some have a little silty mud as well. The rocks or any structure is where they come to when they are ready to feed, and sometimes they stay on them between feeds. Conditions for feeding is usually a little wind to move some water through the rocks and the fish will ambush bait as it comes over / around a rock.

I didn’t have the time to rewatch your videos before I went out Friday so I’m sure I would have scored a few more fish if I had a refresher.
I would suggest the biggest thing you could work on is moving faster. 15 minutes is plenty if you are fishing for numbers of fish and you are working sign on structure. I would also rewatch the section of the Seasonal Forage movement in the Bays and Shorelines redfish video. If you are seeing the signs and not catching any fish or getting a bite, then move to the next structure that meets the pattern with sign on it. Spring Transition is in full affect and the fish are spread out in different places and on different forage and that makes it hard.

Keep rewatching the videos and if you need help EMAIL me.. don't ask your questions here though, as I can't help you to the full extent on public forums. I'm sure you understand. tobin@troutsupport.com
 
#9 ·
Nice report I was out there Friday as well and I can say it was one foggy SOB started in alazan on some bars and found a few but the bites weren’t consistent so moved out to the main bay stopped at a few areas that I’ve had quality production but no bait action so kept moving and found some good trout green water with lots of spring time bait of all types jumped out and whacked em all 18 to 24 no big girls but nice quality plan on being back out Friday and Saturday to give it a shot again
 
#10 ·
There ya go.. we have to hunt the fish but if you keep looking for it just like Aquillin, and don't waste unnecessary time then it can happen most of the time except post front with high pressure and clear blue sunny skies. That day is just tough fishing. Can still catch a few, Monday I fished with Les Cobb and a couple of buddies of mine... I saw a 29-30 in trout swimming shallow coming right at me but the boat came to pick me up. We caught some smalls hitting areas with slicks and finally picked up a 26 and a 28 around 230pm.
 
#15 ·
There's quite a difference in the DD and the DD XL... The XL is much larger, larger than a FatBoy. Also, you can walk the XL while the DD is not easy to walk but more just an erratic darting. Both work about 6-8 inches under the surface and don't sink. I'm not sure they'll make it on my favorite or must have list but I can see times to use them.
 
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