Culvert Fishing

Went to Gator Creek this afternoon with Odie to take advantage of some culvert fishing.

We left the house armed with three rods and a box of lures hoping to catch anything along the dirt roads in the reserve.

When we got to Gator Creek Road, I stopped at a spot where I usually catch fish in the shallows, especially when the culverts are open and the water is running.

I spotted a lot of action around the shallow grassy area adjacent to the road so I decided to toss a few lures to see what was biting.

Odie sat in the truck with the A/C going while I started tossing a Storm paddletail bait around the milling baitfish.  The lure was apparently way too small so I tied on a larger version and almost immediately started getting hits.

On the third or fourth cast with the 3" Creme paddletail bait. I briefly hooked a ladyfish that shook off the bait after the third jump.  

I continued casting into the grassy area and hooked a couple more ladyfish that I promptly relesed.

I let Odie out of the truck to do his duty and started casting a small topwater bait around the area with no success.  

It was around 5:00 pm and the fish should have been interested in the bait but today they were only interested in paddle tail baits.

I switched to another Creme paddle tail bait and after a few casts hooked into a small redfish that I quickly released.

Several casts later, I hooked into another red that I took a pic of before releasing.

The action around the open culvert continued for about a half  hour or so before I decided to try another spot.  Odie was in the truck and I didn't want to leave him alone too long.

We headed to East Gator Creek where I tossed around a Chug Bug and a Badonk-A-Donk top water bait.

I had a couple of hits on the Chug Bug but couldn't get a hookup, so I switched back to the smaller paddle tail baits.

I spooked a good redfish that I walked up on along the bank and after getting a brief bump on another fish decided to move on up the road.

The next spot I stopped at produced a couple of Mayan Cichlids that wanted to murder the paddle tail bait I was fishing with.   I kept getting good hits but I couldn't get a hookup.

Finally, a Mayan nailed the plastic bait enough to hook itself.  The fish put up a surprisingly goods fight for its size so I took its pic before releasing it.

After landing a second fish, I decided to get back home.  

Odie was getting antsy and I couldn't watch him while I was tossing lures.   Way too many gators in the area for him to get too close to the bank.

The tally for the short time I was on the water was 3 ladyfish, 2 redfish, and 2 Mayan Cichlids.

Not bad for an hour and a half of fishing.

Till next time,

Tight Lines.