Last week my wife and I stayed in Galveston with some good friends of ours. The good news is this meant lots of fishing for me, the bad news 20+ mph winds all week. One of the guys that stayed with us had never been kayak fishing before and so I spent most of the week trying to get him on some fish. I think he may be hooked for life.
Monday morning I went out on my own to do some scouting and see if I could find a few reds in one of my favorite Galveston spots. Not to mention my wife had added fresh fish to the menu Monday night and so she wasn’t giving me much time to “shop” around. I was on the water by 6:00 am and saw my first back by 6:15. Four casts later I was tied into a pretty hefty 26 incher that would eventually make his way to the dinner table.
As soon as the sun began to peek over the horizon it brought the wind with it. Even in the little back lake I was in I started to see white caps early. After fishing the grass line with a topwater for a little while with no luck I decided to try drifting for a while. Paddled back into the wind for a bit, deployed my drift sock and started fishing. In the first drift I picked up two trout so I tried it again. On the second drift I picked up two more. After that the bite just shut off completely. I called it a day at10:30 and paddled back to the truck with dinner in tow.
Tuesday 
morning my buddy was ready to go so we went to the same place I had been Monday and we were on the water at about the same time. Tuesday morning the wind was worse and it did not wait on the sun to rise. We fought the wind from launch to paddle back. There were a few tailers early, but my buddy got “buck fever”, which I still get sometimes, and botched up both casts. We had a good laugh and then started looking for more fish.
After about an hour of searching the marsh with no luck I thought we should try drifting like I had done the day before. We paddled back to give it a shot and . . . NOTHING! No bites, no blowups, not a single thing. We called it a day at 11:00 with no fish.
Wednesday morning we decided to spend a little time in with the family and give the fish a break. I mean after all we had just slaughtered them the day before HAHAHAHAHA!
Thursday morning I gave my buddy the option to try something new or go back where we had been the first day. He said he wanted to go back where we had seen fish. We were on the water by 5:30 and we fished some docks on the way out. We put a few rat reds in the boat, but nothing to write home about.
When the sun started to come up we made our way back to where we had seen reds the previo
us 2 trips and just like clockwork they were there again. I picked out a good one and my buddy makes a great cast. The red noses right up to it and FISH ON! I noticed pretty quickly that this fish wasn’t taking any drag which surprised me a little because the fish I saw was plenty big enough to peel some line out. As the fish got closer to the boat I realized it wasn’t a red fish at all, but a 20” flounder. Somehow in the midst of all the action they played the ol’ swticheroo. Still a good fish, but not the fight I had hoped for.
Since we were both checking out that morning we called it an early day as soon as the wind picked up. I must admit it was a little different for me as I tried my hand at guiding. I won’t be starting that business any time soon so no one has to worry. All in all it was a good week on the water. The conditions were not the best, but as I have been told many times, “The best time to fish is when you can!”
Thanks for reading and thanks for checking out my blog. Stay tuned after this weekend for an update on the Saltwater Survival Series.
| Wind | Tide | Weather | Baro | Depth | Bottom | Lures |
| 20-25 MPH | Incoming w/Small Differential | Sunny | Steady | 1-3 FT | Mixed Mud & Shell | Flats Minnow SS Junior |
Texas Flat Rat 