Monday, March 23, 2009

Go Fish!

I finally decided that if I was going to be miserable I might as well do it somewhere fun while doing something fun. Despite feeling horrible favorite son Jonathan and I finished his Spring Break with a quick trip to Sabine Lake. We left Friday afternoon and drove to Orange, TX where we checked into a $69.00 Econolodge. Surprisingly, the room was nicer than the Wyndham Hotel in San Antonio we stayed in just a few months ago which, as I recall, was somewhere in the $200 range. I'm not cheap, just frugal. BTW, we chose the Econolodge because the Holiday Inn Express across the street was $120 a night. I'm not cheap, just frugal.

We put in at River Rat Marina. This place is so hard to find even another guide who was putting in there didn't know it was called that! It's really just a boat ramp in a boatyard but it serves it's purpose. The only bad experience of the day happened here when we got out of the car and were immediately swarmed by mosquitoes the size of Volkswagons. After beating off the vermin we met up with our Guide, Captain Adam Jaynes who goes by the handle of Just Fish Guide Service. You can reach him at 409.988.3901 A trip for two without a firm quit'n time will set you back $450.00. In my book that's about right. I've been out with guides before who charged the same and were looking at their watch to make sure they did not get a minute over their promised trip time. I'm not cheap, just frugal so for all of you cheapskates don't forget that if your Guide puts you on the fish you dig a little deeper for a tip.

Adam earned his tip. The last time I fished with a Guide this young I had a bad experience. This trip changed that completely. If I spotted him a couple of years he might be 25. What he lacked in years he made up for in know how. Within a couple of minutes we were in the river and on our way to the Lake in his 22 foot Blazer Bay center console. God provided a beautiful sunrise for a great start.

We heard of a couple of Guides who had fished the day before and brought back a pretty light catch. We were hoping to do better and we did. I have fished by chasing birds before but never like this. Usually we would look for birds feeding then go there and fish. If the fish are also feeding aggressively that will usually be a pretty hot spot for a while. Well, the birds were feeding aggressively but the fish were not. We would move into a spot, catch a couple of fish and it would go dead. Adam wasn't daunted. When the fish quit biting we got moving.

The really fun part was the pattern that developed. We would spot birds (Ok, Adam would spot birds!). We would move there. We would start catching fish. Other boats would see our bent rods and soon we would have two or three boats full of Chorpus Christi fishermen trying to hog their way into our prosperity. Adam would just shake his head, laugh and move.

The only thing better than catching fish is catching fish when other people aren't. We caught fish. I don't know how many we caught altogether but as far as the keep, batter and fry variety we brought home 17 speckled trout and three nice redfish. On a side note we never caught a single trash fish all day. Thanks to some excellent choices in regard to plastics we spent the day hauling in specs and reds.

Now for the additional fun. First, I have never lost a Guide before but there is a first time for everything. At one point Adam went to pull the trolling motor in and the rope broke. Into the drink went one red faced Guide! The trip never got boring because when weren't hauling in fish we were laughing at our slowly drying out Guide. Fishing and a show!

Back at the boat ramp a couple of other boats came in while Adam was cleaning fish. They would pull up, look at the fish, congratulate us, walk away muttering, pull their boats out and go home. All in all Adam provided us with one fine trip!