Yuku free message boards

Time flies when you're having fun. And its definitely been fun around here. We have run the gamut all the way from hurricanes to Chamber of Commerce, beautiful days on the water. Adapting to whatever mother nature throws at us is the game we all have to learn in order to be successful. And that is what makes this such a fun challenge.

The past few weeks have had us really hopping around here. our dove season was good but not quite as good as last year Hurricane Ike messed up our opener when several groups had to cancel. After that, we had several rains in the area which kept the birds from congregating around typical watering holes. We persevered and ended up doing a lot more walking to get to prime locations but managed plenty of shots. We didn't always get our limits but most of the time, it wasn't the birds fault.

The fishing since Hurricane Dolly and into mid September was slow to say the least. Thats not to say we didn't do any catching but consistent patterns and bites were hard to come by. Redfish saved the day on many charters because we knew they would be up shallow and we could use the clear water to our advantage as we sightcasted to many reds.

Then, in mid-September, things to a significant swing for the better. The trout started showing up in the places they usually do in late summer, early fall. Not only did they show up in numbers, but they had some serious shoulders to back that up.We have been catching some of the healthiest looking trout for this time of year that I have seen since coming to Baffin. The redfish bite has gotten even better and boy! you should see the sizes of some of these brutes. More on that in a bit.

Duck season is here and it too has us at the whims of mother nature. "Too pretty" weather has plagued (?) us. Calm winds and bluebird skies have not been conducive to good duck hunting. Also, it seems just a tad warm after lugging guns, decoys and supplies to the blinds and struggling through the mud to set them out and pick them up after the hunt. I think I've lost about 5 pounds since duck season started. My wife says I need to go duck hunting more often LOL.

To get back to fishing, its been very good recently and many of my "go-to" baits remain the same. here are some of the baits I carry once I get out of the boat.


Brown Lures Devil Eyes have been a mainstay in my arsenal. Almost every color I have tried has met with success. Like everyone else though, I have my favorites. Rootbeer, Morning Glory/Chartreuse, Amber and the new Pink Lemonade is quickly moving its way up the list.


Red/White Saltwater Assassin Sea Shad is my redfish killer. And, its also pretty darn effextive on trout in shallow grassy water.


I rig all my plastics on 1/16 oz Hogies Springhead jigs. They stay put and I can catch several fish on each bait before changing them out. The weedless spoon pictured above is from H&H Tackle and has a Spro ball bearing swivel underneath the little red plastic cone. It is by far the most weedless lure I have ever used. It really comes in handy when the floating grass becomes a problem in late summer. The Super Spook Jr and the Corky Devil are mainstays when fishing shallow rocksthis time of the year. The topwater is a great fish finder and when I find those areas where I think there are big fish, the little red Devil is a proven fish catcher. You'll notice I included Berkley's Gulp on my list. I mainly use this when sightcasting to finicky reds. I like to think I can catch them with presentation and accurate casting. However, sometimes the best placed casts and "perfect" presentation will meet with failure when they just won't bite. When I tie on a Gulp, my odds increase dramatically. Great lure to carry with you.

A good example was from yesterday. I had spotted a slot redfish and made a cast in the path of it with a red/white assassin. Usually this is money in the bank but this day, it just wasn't meant to be. The fish completely ignored my offering. So, I re-tied my jighead put on a Gulp Jerk Shad (natural). As soon as I had it tied on, I saw a huge red in about a foot of water to my left moving left to right. This fish was slowly cruising on top of a sandbar I was fishing. For a brief moment, I reconsidered casting to it because I knew if I hooked it, it was going to quite a battle. Ahh what the heck, I cast about four feet in front and past it quickly retrieving the lure into its path. I let it settle on the bottom and gave it a quick twitch when the fish was about a foot away. She made a little head movement and slurped up the Gulp. I set the hook hard and she never made any indication that she knew anything was up. Did I mention this fish was HUGE!!??!!

I was quite a way from my nearest fishing companion and had this area of the sandbar all to myself. The epic struggle lasted almost 30 minutes. I tried to capture the last little bit on video. The fish was way too large to lift out of the water for a picture So I removed my reel from my rod and got a good measurement of the length of the fish next to my rod. I thenm released her (on video) and when I got back to the boat, I measured the mark on my rod and realized this was oneoth the biggest redfish I have ever caught. She taped 50" Yeah thats FIVE (5) ZERO (0) Fifty inches. Click on the two links and watch the vids.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXmTN_TnSyE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-o-AGmIxAMA

Sightcasting redfish has become a great new challenge down here and I have had opportunity to fish with some of the best. I wasn't theonly one to hook up with a behemoth yesterday as Craig ended up with a nice string of reds and three oversize fish to release as well. Here is a pic of his biggest.



I think the next couple of months are going to be extremely exciting down here. As I type this, a cold front is bearing down on us. It promises to change the weather to a more "ducky" situation. I am looking forward to that but I am also looking forward to trophy trout time. As I have said before, we received veryu little pressure this spring, summer and fall. I believe fuel prices had more to do with that than anything else. Folks from Corpus area didn't really want to make the long haul to the back of Baffin when they had good fishing in the Upper Laguna. Many folks stayed a little closer to home instead of spending all that money on gas for the trip. All of that translates into what I hope will be our best Big Girl season in quite some time. Our water is a beautiful trout green and the fish are healthy and ready to go. Hope to see a few of y'all down here and help me chase a few.

Here are just a few recent pics of notable catches.

My old Bass fishing buddy Oscar landed this personal best trout literally on his last cast of the day.


Adrian used a Cajun Pepper Devil Eye in shallow water to trick this nice trout



Not all "bluebird" sky days are tough duck hunting. Rocksy with a mixed bag including my first ever hooded merganser.


Carl, his Dad and I had a pretty good couple of days topped by these three Big Girls.





The big reds just keep on comin



And releasing yet another beast.




More big redfish. You shoulda seen the one that got away LOL.



Y'all have a happy Thanksgiving and come down and see us. We'd love to have ya.

Remember to practice conservation and just keep 5. Later, Aubrey