A Beautiful Weekend of camaraderie and saltwater fly fishing the flats for redfish

This past weekend, my son Philip, our good friend Ben who is the son of my college roommate and I went on a fishing trip down to our floating cabin. With a great forecast, we were anxious for a cabin trip and to get in some quality fly fishing the flats for reds south of Corpus Christi. Great fun was had by all and we even caught a few fish.

The cabin is located a little ways south of Baffin Bay in the Laguna Madre which is a hyper-saline bay system south of Corpus Christi known for really good fishing. It is a very unique area in that there is no development along the lagoon for over 50 miles on either side. Starting about 8 miles south of Corpus, the Padre Island National Seashore runs southward to the Port Mansfield channel with no roads or buildings. Along the other side of the Lagoon sits the King Ranch which is one of the nation's largest ranches. South of the King ranch sits the Kennedy ranch which is also one of the nation's largest ranches. This means you had better take lots of gas and ice because the nearest gas station is at least 25 miles away.

The cabin sits on large blocks of styrofoam which allows it to float. It is tethered to a 20 ft drill pipe which is driven into the sand. It's a little rustic, but a wonderful place to hang out and get away.

We launched at 10:30 pm Friday night and made the trek southward, running off GPS and with the aid of a spot light.. Once there and settled, it became woefully apparent that I'm a little more advanced in years than these two yoyo's who are still young pups. We went to bed about 2:30 am,

We got an early start the next morning, despite the yoyo's complaining of headaches and were greeted with a beautiful sunrise.

It was Saturday and I try to avoid weekend fishing trips like the plague, but my two partners have jobs. We were mentally prepared for a crowd on the water but we got lucky. We found a little pocket of 13-14" deep water that we had to ourselves for the entire morning.

With light winds, the decision had been made that this was to be a fly fishing trip. Philip throws a nice line but had never really tried to catch a fish on fly. Ben is relatively new to the saltwater fly fishing game as well. Luck was with us that day and we had plenty of redfish in the area. Everyone caught fish. Here are Philip and Ben.

Here's is a little video of me catching a fish at close range.

You surely notice I am wearing a stripping basket. Hold on to your thoughts and I will address the use of a basket and other options in a separate blog.

For those who may be interested, I am using a G Loomis NRX + 7 wt rod, an Orvis Hydros II reel and a Rio 7 wt Elite Bonefish floating line. I do go with lighter rods sometimes, and also heavier, up to a 9 wt, when the wind gets to smoking. The 7 wt, however, is my usual preference. I also really like the Galvin Grip reels which I have on the 8 and 9 wt NRX+'s.

We got up early Sunday, and is so typical of fishing, the red's had moved. We did catch a couple but nothing like the day before.. So, we adjusted, moved and caught a number of decent trout on topwater lures, putting the fly rods aside for the next time.

Regardless of the fish we caught or missed, it was a wonderful trip and I was grateful the young guys invited this grizzled veteran along for the ride.