Andy Dear | Monday, 14 October 2024
Somewhere around 2005, I found myself in need of a good outboard mechanic. Capt. Freddy Lynch recommended a fellow down in Aransas Pass named Max Woodard. Max and I hit it off immediately, and when he found out that I was building all of the rods for the Redfish Cup tournament team of Freddy Lynch and Jeff Clarkson, he approached me with a proposal. Would I be willing to build him and his cousin (who was also a mechanic at the same marine shop), a couple of fly rods, as they wanted to learn how to fly fish. In exchange, he would do the labor on my outboard repair for free. Sounded like a good deal to me, as the repair in question was NOT going to be cheap!
Max proceeded to ask me if I ever fished Port Bay, to which I responded "Absolutely I fish Port Bay", and explained that I had waded just about every inch of the east shoreline of that estuary. He then proceeded to tell me that his wife's family owned a large parcel of land at the very back end of Port Bay where they spent a lot of time duck hunting. The reason he wanted the flyrods was that while duck hunting, they often saw schools of tailing Redfish in the marsh, and wanted to partake in what we rednecks down here have affectionately termed a "cast and blast" Before I go any further, I should explain that the southern 1/3 of Port bay is separated from the main body by the highway 188 bridge. Since I was a kid I have often wondered while driving across that bridge if the fishing was any good back there.
When Max finished explaining to me the reason why he wanted fly rods, he kind of leaned in and said "have you ever been back there?" "No" I responded, "but I've thought about trying to get back there many, many times over the years". He then said, "ANdy, that's 2 miles of water that sees very little if any fishing pressure, because boats with center consoles and poling platforms, can't get under that bridge...it's too low to the water. BUT, your Jon boat can most definitely get underneath that bridge". And from that day forward it became my mission in life to slide an aluminum skiff underneath that bridge and go explore.
Years went by, I had a kid, sold a business, quit fishing for a while etc...When Jack started fishing with me back in 2015, I told him that story, and for the last 9 years, we have often remarked that at some point we need to explore the south end of Port Bay. Well, that day came this last Saturday. The weather forecast predicted a glass calm day, so we left the house at 5am and made the 3-hour drive south. Honestly, it was pretty exciting that we were FINALLY doing this! Last week we had crazy high tides along the Texas coast from Hurricane Milton over in Florida. I was a bit concerned we may not be able to slide underneath that bridge with the recent storm surge. Fortunately for us, the tidal surge had started to recede the day before, and we had no problem at all navigating the low lying bridge.
The entire area was every bit as beautiful as I had hoped. No development, not another angler in sight, and LOADED with baitfish. In spite of the super high tide that had the gamefish scattered, we still managed a couple of nice Speckled Trout. As I get older, to me, this is what fishing is about. These days I really don't even care if I catch anything....or fish at all for that matter. I love poling Jack around unexplored areas like the one we had the privilege of visiting on Saturday in complete isolation. Honestly, it was a bit like going back in time to the days of fewer fishermen and more fish. The place was just as MAx had described...it was downright fishy. So much so in fact, that we are already planning a trip back in a few weeks when the hydrology has returned to normal.
Hope you all are having a great week!
Andy