A BUGGS LIFE II
Sunday 6-20-10
The following report is from Kaylin, Kayaker extraordinare ( My wife)
Low winds, low water…..couldn’t be better for hitting the marsh (my personal addiction, lol). I headed out at dawn to make a foray deep into the marsh. I could have taken the boat today and waded some nice pretty grassy coves but the mud and visions of cavorting redfish were calling.
After struggling in the past 3 kayak tournaments with the high winds and ultra finicky redfish, this was a much needed slamming redfish day. I had plenty of sightcasting opportunities and even some “I know there is a redfish sitting there” blindcasting successes.
The marsh was full of mullet, some shrimp, a million fiddler crabs running back and forth on the mud banks, various assorted other little things, and tiny shad. I tossed a skitter jr converted with single hooks and had a couple of half hearted slurp-downs but no hookups so I picked up the rod with the Bugg tied on it and went with that the rest of the day. I had used that same lure in Rockport for the IFA and it was the ONLY thing those darn finicky fish wanted on that day.
We bought some Buggs at the fishing show after falling in love with the movement in the little tub of water that he had for display. I have been gaining confidence in using them but still needed “one of those kinds of days” to make them a first line go-to lure. Today was the day!
My first red I never saw. I cast at a drain and drug the lure slowly back into the channel. I felt something picking at it, thought it was a flounder so I cast back into the same spot and a red picked it up! He was undersized but would prove to be the only rat red I caught today.
After that, I spent many hours doing what I love which is casting to specific redfish or to action. The reaction was different depending on what the reds were doing. If they were cruising or working a grass line, they wanted that yummy looking thing right now. If they were tailing or sitting, it was about 50/50 depending on where I dropped the lure and if they were crawling around in the mud with their backs out of the water and I dropped that Bugg even 4 or 5 feet away from them to try and intersect, they generally moved away from it. Any closer and I got the very dramatic over-reaction can’t get away fast enough spook that had me giggling, you’d think I had pitched a concrete block at them.
My last red was another that I never saw. I pitched across a point where the water was coming in at what I thought was a flounder popping bait and much to my surprise it was about a 25” red! I never did find any flounder.
My final tally was only 7 reds but it sure seemed like 20, lol. They all came on the same Bugg lure, the same one that had already caught 3or 4 reds on past days. I was wondering how they would hold up after several reds and the answer is pretty well. This one will still fish although its looking a little frayed. The reds don’t care though.
L
