Birthday on Halls Bayou

Yesterday was my birthday and I'd planned to spend the morning flounder fishing with my son.  I knew the day before by the weather forecast we likely would not have a good day, but we went anyway as it was my birthday.  The morning met me just as I had figured; a bright Bluebird day after a front with lots of rain the day before and a very stiff north wind still blowing.   Bluebird days after a front are not the best days to fish and add that to very stained water and the strong north wind not letting the tides run their course makes for a really tough day.

That was the bad part of the day and the good part would be I was fishing with my son.  Even though he over slept and we didn't get on the bayou until 8:30AM I don't think it would have made much difference.  The conditions were against us from the start but you know the saying "A bad day fishing beats a good day working".  This is the case when ever I get the chance to fish with my family, it is always a good day on the water.   The boat ride was great and the Ole Cajun purred like a kitten as she carried us to our first spot.  Every time I get to thinking about getting a newer boat she does this and at 16.5ft she really is the perfect bayou boat.

We make it to our first spot and get our lines in the water and my son immediately hooks up.  I also miss a fish and I'm thinking hey it might not be a bad day after all.   Even though the fish my son catches is a small speckled trout it does break the ice.

 We did get the flounder to bite somewhat, but the ones we were catching were little guys that were under the 14 inch legal limit.  Sure we had several that were 13 3/4 inches but just couldn't get a 14 in the boat.

Of course that would soon change as my son started whipping my butt pretty good and on my birthday to boot.  At least he wasn't rubbing it in too hard, guess that was because it was my birthday.  He hooked up and we landed the only keeper for the day.  She was a 22 inch beauty that this picture just doesn't do justice to at all.

My son also decided that while he was giving me my birthday butt whipping he would also go ahead and ring up a Texas Slam (Trout, Red and Flounder).

That is also not a great picture of the Red as it was 24 inches and gave my son a really good fight on the light tackle.

We were fishing the Flounder rig and tactic that I published in my last article and it was how all but one of the fish were caught.  In an attempt to catch up to my son I did try a few other tactics that only yielded one small flounder, but there is really no need to discuss what they were as they really didn't work.  What did work was the Rattling Cork and Berkley Gulp combo and the Nuclear Chicken colder was the best for this day.  We did catch a couple on white/chartreuse and rootbeer/chartreuse but it was the nuclear chicken that was the ticket.  Well do not fear we will return for more flounder action in the near future and hopefully under better conditions.

Until next time, Tight Lines and Take a Kid Fishing!!!