Sweet Redemption and a Visit from an Old Friend

John and his 30" red caught in the Upper Laguna Madre

This week I had an old friend, John, visit that I hadn’t seen in ten years. We recently got back in touch, and he currently lives in Austin. He and a couple of his friends (The Scott’s…ironically, both of the friends first names) came down from our capital city to get some fishing in. These guys are novice fisherman with John being the only one with previous saltwater fishing experience. In preparation for our Saturday fishing trip, Dad and I dusted off the spinning gear which hadn’t been used for at least six months, got the boat ready, dug up extra wading belts and boots, and debated whether or not we should rig them up with popping corks. I temporarily won that debate and left the gear rigged with plastics. I later called John to discuss our meeting time and place for the next morning.


Since our last trip the tides had begun to drop, and we gambled on our honey hole (same spot from my previous post “Lesson Learned”) as the first spot to fish. This spot is money during a high tide, but unpredictable during low tides. Granted, the tides had been unusually high, and the current low tide was more like our normal high tide…we figured the pattern hadn’t changed. I told my buddy John to meet us at 5:30 a.m. at a boat ramp very close to where they were staying.

When morning came I met Dad at his place as usual. We loaded up the boat and arrived at the ramp at around 5:15 a.m. I tried giving John a call on the way, but his phone went right to voicemail. I mentally prepared myself for this scenario the previous night after my conversation with John revealed the guys were still enjoying some cold beverages and fishing from the pier at 11:30 p.m. I told Dad that we would wait until 6:00 a.m. and then we were going to take off with or without them.

Now that sounds pretty harsh do to an old friend that I hadn’t seen in ten years, but we knew the bite was only going to last for a short time. We didn’t want to miss our window. Of course, six `o clock rolls around and still no word from John. I sent him a text letting him know we were out of there, and we would be back at 9:00 a.m. to pick them up.

After the short boat ride to the spot, John and the Scott’s had awakened and were slightly disappointed that they missed the bus, and so it goes fishing with two Ahrens’. Dad and I geared up and jumped in for the wade. We were right on time and figured the bite would be happening real soon. We nearly made it half way down our wade without a bite when I finally hooked into a red. It was a solid 25 incher. Several more yards down the wade I hooked and landed another one at 23”. Dad then lands and strings up a speck. After ten more minutes, Dad took a long cast, and a red inhaled it the second his bait hit the water. Seconds later my bait gets whacked and I’m yelling, “DOUBLE”! I strung up the final red for my limit at 7:20 a.m. Sweet redemption after our last outing…of course, I was using my old jig heads.

The bite shut down after only 45 minutes, but we did some damage. We had four reds and three specks. By then, it was nearly 8:30 a.m. and we decided to head back and pick up the guys. When we arrived at nine, the guys had been waiting at the dock for a half an hour to ensure not to repeat their misfortune. We decided to head to a flat where we picked up some reds the previous week. When we arrived at this spot we decided to rig the spinning gear with popping corks and Gulp after discussing the guys experience level…and so I was defeated by the old man’s experience, again. The Scott’s were blanked at this spot, but John managed to yank seven undersized specks from the grass. He had the presentation figured out.

After seeing several guides we know zipping back and forth looking for a decent fishing spot, Dad decided to head back to the honey hole and fish it hard until another bite occurred. John and the Scott’s hooked up with hand full of undersized trout and reds by early afternoon. When John decided to lose the popping cork and fish a true artificial rig. After a short time, he hooked into a nice 25” red and added him to the creel. He later lost another slot red only a few feet from getting it landed. Then, on our last wade he hooked into a lunker. The fish fought hard and John managed to land him…a thirty incher. Needless to say he tagged that puppy. One of the Scott’s even managed to string up a 22” red and a 17” black drum. By the end of the trip we had eight reds, four trout, and a black drum. It was a great day. We’re starting to get spoiled.