Thunder on the Bayou

I meet up with a new fishing friend at the boat ramp of Halls Bayou Friday morning 10/10/2014.  Things did not start out very well for us either.  We hit some pockets of rain on our way down the bayou that caused us to slow down.  The wind was blowing very hard from the SSW and I'd guess 15-20mph in the morning and 20-25 in the afternoon.  The water in the pockets where we wanted to fish for flounder was very sandy and all we could get was one small flounder to bite.  It had the makings for a very bad day on the bayou!!!

Well we decided to switch from flounder and move out to the main bayou to see if we could find some Redfish or maybe Bass that wanted to bite.  Because the wind was blowing so hard it was pushing the boat up the bayou at a pretty good clip and I was only able to control the direction of the boat with the trolling motor.   Controlling the boats direction was even a task because as the bayou snaked its way north west we got hit with wind from all angles.  I figured the best bait for the task at hand would be a spinnerbait in white or chartreuse with gold or brass blades.   The one I decided to throw was made by Throw-n-Thunder Lures. You can read my full write up on their baits here: Serious Spinnerbaits  Here is the TNT I decided to throw.

When throwing a great spinnerbait like this TNT you also have to use a great trailer!!!  My trailer of choice these days for both my spinnerbaits and swim jigs are the XZone Lures Swammers.

The color of the Swammer above is Cisco and it is also my color of choice when using them as a trailer.  Now I do dip the tail of the Swammer in some Spike-It Chartreuse Garlic for both the garlic smell and also the color.

It didn't take me too long to have the first Red on and fighting with this combo once we found the places they were hanging.  Basically they were in the bends of the bayou where there were reeds and the wind was blowing almost directly into the reeds.  The tactic was pretty simple also; just toss the TNT spinner bait up as close as possible to the reeds and retrieve it slowly letting that 4 willow blades do their thing.

 I only had one TNT bait in this color (this will change very soon) but I did give my new fishing friend a bait that was chartreuse and had 2 gold willow blades.  He was fishing it in the same manner as I was fishing the TNT but after I'd put more Reds in the live well I started to feel bad for my new friend on the back of the boat.

So I took off my TNT and handed it over to the new guy.  I grabbed a different color TNT out of my bag and went back to fishing.  The new TNT (picture below) was the Table Rock Shad color that I have come to love use on Lake Fayette for those big she pig bass.  I finished it out with an XZone Swammer and the Spike-It dip.

The Table Rock Shad has been a proven big bass bait on Lake Fayette and it didn't disappoint me on Halls Bayou.  We were so far south on Halls Bayou that it really couldn't be considered Brackish water any longer.  The Salt content might be a little lower than in the bays but not by much.  However bass are caught in the high salt areas of the bayou and when you do catch one it is generally an above average bayou bass.  The average bayou bass come in between 1-2 pounds with the exception of the winter when your average will push 2-3 pounds. The Table Rock Shad tends to draw strikes from above average bass on Lake Fayette and that was the case on Halls Bayou as it did draw a hard strike from what was a solid 3lb bass.  I got the bass up next to the boat and before my friend could get the net under her she decided to say her good byes.   Too bad too as all I wanted was a picture with her and she would have been set free.

Back to my new friend and how he had been doing on the day.  He had caught the only flounder we caught on the day early and had also picked up some just under the limit specks during the day but that Redfish just hadn't come so far but that was to change.  He may have not caught the most Redfish but he did end up catching the biggest!!!

 After we landed his big Red all we caught were a few more under sizes specks and reds to round out the day.  From what started with the makings of a really bad day fishing on the bayou had been completely turned around with the awesome Spinnerbaits by Throw-in-Thunder Lures.   I highly recommend these spinnerbaits for bass and now I highly recommend them in the bayou for both Bass and Redfish.  They do draw lots of strikes and those strikes are big fish!!!

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