Fishing Lesson

 

Adventure Location: Rockport, Texas

Today's Date: 5-01-2022

The day with the intention of hitting the Beach Park and getting in a nice long walk and then fishing for a little while. Well that changed when we got to the wooden pier area to park. The conditions were near perfect for fishing with a prediction of high winds by noon. So it was fishing time we chose. It was a good choice.

The small speckled trout were there in large quantities and hungry. A couple of casts looking for where the fish were yielded the general location and the fun was on. The first fish landed was this one.

It was about 13 inches long and needed a few more inches to be legal. So it went back in the water. The next several were carbon copies so apparently the schools were large in quantity. But it gave the OFM some nice practice in unhooking fish. After several fish we were ready for new adventure.

But here is a lesson on identifying fish you did not even see. The lure we use is the Storm Wild Eye Shad in ¼ oz Pearl color. It looks like a 3 inch minnow. When you are getting nips on the lure and not getting hookups it is nice to know what fish is messing with you.

Here is a clue that it is likely speckled trout doing the nipping at the lure. When you reel the lure in and the flexible tail is wrapped under the hook as the picture shows, then it is nearly a guarantee that it is speckled trout messing with you.

The solution is to speed up the retrieve a little bit so the fish has to grab the lure with more vigor. Then you will have self hooking trout you are working with. After about a dozen fish landed we decided that yep the trout were back in the area trying to grow up.

By now the wind was getting a bit strong and not so pleasant so we just packed it in and went back to the Castle to work on what we are going to do this summer for trying to have tooooo much fun.