Late October Rod-Bending in Port Aransas 
10-27-13


We left the Port A Marina early in the AM in search of some hot fishing in late October.

I was fishing with my main cameraman Tony Dehoyos. The 24 foot Pure Bay and 300 Suzuki was ready for the challenge.

We fishing the flats early in the morning and found some fish with soft plastics but nothing really to talk about.

After some time of moving short moves of 50 to 100 feet across the flats and surrounding channels and cuts we decided to move to the deeper water of Corpus Christi Bay.

At first we fished the yellow gas platforms and we had no luck, not even a bite on the soft plastics with swimming tails. We tried it slow and fast, deep and shallow and worked the bottom as well, nothing.

We then went to the shorelines and worked the drop, nothing. Okay it was looking like the fish had lockjaw. I wasn’t going to give up. We went into East Flats and threw the throw net and caught some Pony mullet.
We used that for bait and picked up 2 nice 24 plus inch Redfish. Okay, finally something was pulling back on the rods. Maybe the fish were starting to turn on. I then decided that we need to go back to the gas wells and get some Speckled Trout.

Back to Coco Ho Lures with lead Jig Heads. First cast, I got several taps….Nice. Was the bite coming on? The next cast, a nice 13 inch Sand Trout. Not a Game Fish but great eating and no limit. He went into the box, okay finally a keeper on board. Over the next 30 minutes Tony and I worked the gas platform and we had 7 Sand Trout and 2 really nice Gafftop in the box. We then went to several other platforms and …….nothing there.


Last Ditch Effort Pays off:
Okay, what was it about that first gas platform, was there a rock pile on the side like there often is? Was there more current there? Were there bait fish on that structure? Something was different.

On the second cast, It was a hard pull and then steady tension. What was it, a big Stingray ? That is what I thought I had, I was working on the bottom and bumping it up and down as I moved it toward me. I was up on the Yeti ice chest working it with the rod tip low. Okay, big something, but what?


I had to use the 36 Volt Minn Kota to chase her and get my line back. I was using 30 LB Power Pro Braded line. Finally I was making some headway and bringing her up. It was a massive Bull Red. She measured over 53 inches long and 41 pounds. She was 25 inches in Girth. This was the biggest Bull I had caught on a soft plastic 3
inch lure…..ever.

She went back to fight again and since she was Breeding Stock she will be part of making more big fish for future anglers. Normally these big big fish are offshore. We were over 11 miles from the Surf and open water. Hopefully she is on her way there now. Thanks for your time and-----“I’ll See You On the Water!!”

Dave