Light House Lakes, 10-4, South Bay 10-5 & 6

I spent last week in Aransas Pass at the Sea Breeze Motel & Cottages. Drove down on Monday then fished Light House Lakes on Tuesday and South Bay on Wednesday and Thursday, then drove back on Friday. It was my first time to kayak and fish this area and I learned that next time I will pick a high tide day for Light House Lakes. I had a long difficult paddle back to my truck and was worried about making it before sundown, but I made it though I was very tired.

Light House Lakes are as beautiful as everyone says. Some of the lakes seem to be nearly pristine, with few boat scars, crystal clear water and carpet grass. I had no problem finding plenty of redfish and caught six on the first day. I fished with soft plastics all day, 3.5" Hogie Shad and Hogie Major Minnows. I used my usual glow and pearl colors plus a light brown Major Minnow with gold flakes which worked well too. All with Chartreuse tails.

South Bay was great too. Mostly covered with grass, a couple a different kinds, large shell reefs and scatter islands. I found redfish on scattered shell and around the islands. Specks were on the flats close to the deep water, as well as some Skip Jacks. I mostly drifted, though I anchored when I found several fish in one area. On Wednesday I caught 7 reds and 3 specks, on Thursday 4 reds and over 10 specks. Again I fished with Hogie 3.5" Shad tails but also tossed Cocahoe minnows. I also threw a MirrOlure 19MR with only a single hook on the rear, I do not like using trebles since I catch and release. I was impressed by how the bait went through the water and it really attracted attention. I had to slow dow my retrieve considerably from how I fish my soft plastics. I had quite a few strikes and one very fun redfish catch. I need to experiment with this lure a little more. That was the first time in years that I have thrown anything other than a soft plastic.

The weather was great. The winds were relatively light most of the day. It always picked up in the afternoon, I fished everyday from around 9:00 am to 7:00 pm. Of course I always had a head wind on my paddle back to the truck. Thursday evening the winds picked up stronger than they had been all week. There were few clouds on Monday and it was partly cloudy on Wednesday and Thursday. But I was able to sight cast to reds everyday. I caught one that was less than 10 feet from my kayak. I took my new kayak and stood up while I drifted. It is not worth trying to stand up paddle into the wind. A push pole would have been very helpful in the low tide shallow water of Light House lakes. Other than that I think my new kayak paddles well into the wind with conventional paddling. On Monday I traveled 11 miles, Tuesday over 9 miles and Thursday over 8 miles.