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It was a beautiful calm day at Mallows Bay. I launched at 8:15 in my smallest kayak -- a Native Manta Ray 11. I wanted a comfortable but easily maneuverable boat to work around the sunken hulls. I rigged it with two Scotty rod holders on each gear track. It worked fine for a trip like today where I mostly repositioned myself and did not paddle long distances.
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Five minutes into the trip, I tossed a Redfish Magic spinner with a white 12 Fathoms Fat Sam mullet to the shaded shoreline. The lure was most of the way back to the boat when a huge mouth engulfed the lure. The fight did not take long -- I soon lifted a 19"-20" LMB onboard.
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This is my personal best LMB. Last year I caught no fish out in the bay around the ships. So this trip was already more successful in both quantity and quality.
The catching slowed down after that, but by noon I had caught 4 catfish in the 19"-21" range, and had an even large one pull hard, wrap the line around debris, and break me off (that lost my first Redfish Magic).
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I tied on my backup Redfish Magic but managed to hang it up on debris and lose it. That was the end of my larger spinnerbaits. I tried throwing a RattLTrap and caught one more catfish before losing that lure too.
I found two small perch and two more LMBs before stopping for lunch at the ramp. After lunch, I headed up the feeder stream to the right. Last year I found one area that produced several fish for me. Today it still held fish, but they were more catfish. I caught a 19" catfish on a Woody's feather spinner and my ultralight rod and later on a similar spinner made by Bignose on a light rod.
I rarely catch catfish and cannot tell which species I caught today. Some of them were bluish grey in color (like the photo) while others were brown with spots. They were all in the same general size range.
It began to drizzle at 1:30 so I called it a day.
001.jpg
Five minutes into the trip, I tossed a Redfish Magic spinner with a white 12 Fathoms Fat Sam mullet to the shaded shoreline. The lure was most of the way back to the boat when a huge mouth engulfed the lure. The fight did not take long -- I soon lifted a 19"-20" LMB onboard.
003.jpg
This is my personal best LMB. Last year I caught no fish out in the bay around the ships. So this trip was already more successful in both quantity and quality.
The catching slowed down after that, but by noon I had caught 4 catfish in the 19"-21" range, and had an even large one pull hard, wrap the line around debris, and break me off (that lost my first Redfish Magic).
005.jpg
I tied on my backup Redfish Magic but managed to hang it up on debris and lose it. That was the end of my larger spinnerbaits. I tried throwing a RattLTrap and caught one more catfish before losing that lure too.
I found two small perch and two more LMBs before stopping for lunch at the ramp. After lunch, I headed up the feeder stream to the right. Last year I found one area that produced several fish for me. Today it still held fish, but they were more catfish. I caught a 19" catfish on a Woody's feather spinner and my ultralight rod and later on a similar spinner made by Bignose on a light rod.
I rarely catch catfish and cannot tell which species I caught today. Some of them were bluish grey in color (like the photo) while others were brown with spots. They were all in the same general size range.
It began to drizzle at 1:30 so I called it a day.
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