Friday the 13th, My Lucky Day
Friday the 13th, My Lucky Day.
I am from hot and very dry West Texas. All in the world I wanted to do was catch a Red Fish on the fly. My wife and I had made the 500+ mile trek to Rockport to do that very thing. We arrived on May 10th to find, wind, clouds and white caps on the bay. Depression was the watch word of the day.
Two great guys really came through for me. Dave Hayward the Manager of the Orvis store (Swan Point Landing, 361-729-7926) in Rockport and Captain Eric Knipling (361-549-5923). These guys are the best. Dave does an incredible job matching the client to the captain. Eric is a very engaging, qualified and well equipped guide.
We tired Light House Lakes on Thursday. Cloud cover had us fishing in the dark and the wind blew us around like corks. We got word of the major system that was headed Rockport?s way and came in. That storm hit that afternoon and dumped two inches of rain in two hours. The bay would not have been the place to be. However, that storm opened up a window of opportunity for Friday.
We were leaving Friday and check out at the Kontiki is 11 am. If we were going to fish, it had to be early and productive. It was Friday the 13th; it looked to be my lucky day. Eric picked me up at the ?tiki at seven and we made the short drive to Goose Island to launch. Eric uses the incredible top of the line Hell?s Bay Glade Skiff. This thing draws only four inches of water, that is correct, four inches. He can take you places that no one else can reach. We left Goose Island to fish a favorite spot of his, and out of deference to him, it will go unnamed.
Favorite spot it is. Wow, it is hard to believe the amount of life in the bay. Birds, deer, gators, are on the land and in the water the mullet, rays and of course, Mr. Red Fish himself. It was idyllic. Mud trails zoomed out from the bank, big boys cruising everywhere. And then, just like on TV, there they were. Shiny red tails were out of the water in groups of six to ten fish. There were several groups of fish. Eric had me on MUTILPLE pods of Reds. There were reds feeding everywhere. I am not going to bemoan my poor casting at length here. I should have practiced more, but still it was just good enough to ?Git er Done!? and the first 20 inch fish was on. They are not called the Bullies of the Bay for nothing. What a great fight. Since we could not stay to take fillets to the Crab Inn for dinner, I did not want to kill any of these fish. That one went back to the bay for some other of Eric?s clients to land. Not five minutes later we were casting to another bunch o? reds. Slam, bam here we go again. This is a much bigger fish, he has the same big fight. Get him in and he?s a 27? fish, a real prize.
In only two hours Eric got me on numbers of big Red Fish. He got me to a place in the bay that is beyond description. He had me catching keeper reds. What more can you ask. Time constraints required we go in. We went a happy guide and an ecstatic client.
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