Going in Blind

A few months ago I had a buddy shoot me a text wanting to put a trip together. After discussing what our goal was, time of year, and even the moon phase, it left us only one decision and that was where to go. We finally decided on going to wade for trout and see if we could manage to catch a trophy-size fish. So we ran through our options and went down the list of notable places on the Texas Coast. We worked our way south in our planning; both of us have had the opportunity to fish East Matagorda, Aransas Bay and Baffin. That’s how we landed on Port Mansfield. Neither of us had been down there and knew that there are good fish to be caught, so we decided to book it. We ended up getting a guide for two days and a little Airbnb in the town which was perfect for our needs. We invited two more buddies to join us in order to have a full crew.

So now that I have laid everything out, my buddy Seth and I were going to head down a week early with my skiff to see if we could learn something on our own. Neither of us had been to the area before so we figured that we would have plenty opportunity to put our general knowledge and skills to the test. That is when our planning began.

I know that I have talked about Google maps being your best friend in past articles during your prepping work when planning to fish new places. I cannot stress that point strongly enough. It gives you the most realistic view of what you may be up against when you are going into an area totally blind. It can show you the clarity of the water, grass flats, oyster beds, cuts and channels that may be there and other attributes to a lake or bay. One of the other abilities it has is to zoom in to a certain area and you can see if there are boats present. This doesn’t always work but occasionally if an area piques your interest, you might be able to see another boat or two there which will give you some reassurance.

We also had an old Hook-N-Line map for the Laguna Madre that my buddy Seth’s dad had saved from years ago. I told him to grab it as I guessed it might come in handy. I am sure that most anglers have seen or maybe even used these maps in their time. However, to the younger generation who relies entirely on digital technology for everything, you really cannot beat one of these old school maps. One of my favorite features about the map is that it shows areas of interest, time of year when the fishing is best, along with the names the locals have assigned to many of the areas.

When going in blind to a new area the safety aspect needs to be given serious consideration. The Laguna Madre runs north to south but it is not particularly wide, which means a crosswind won’t be near as big a threat to navigation as a due north or due south wind might be. These directions in wind don’t allow too much refuge when running a boat and the thought of rough water is something that needs to be taken seriously. We sat down the night before and went over both maps to get a gameplan for the next morning. We knew that the wind was going to be light out of the north in the morning but becoming progressively stronger as the day went on. Knowing this and with safety in mind, we decided to head all the way north while we had light head wind, and no matter how rough it got on the ride back in, the wind would at least be at our back. For the most part though, the weather was near perfect the whole trip although we did experience a couple of days when we had to consider all our options for safe travels.

As far as the fishing aspect, we were going to keep it as simple as we could and stick to what we know – or at least thought we knew. The few things we did know were that the water clarity of the Laguna Madre is the polar opposite of Sabine Lake, so we had to use a fluorocarbon leader; and the water depth is shallow and grassy, so lures with treble hooks might not be the best option. When it came to finding fish, we both agreed that we shouldn’t spend a whole lot of time in any area that was not holding plentiful bait. That being said, we took off across the Laguna to see what we could find.

Our time on the north end of the Lower Laguna began to produce fish as soon as the sun broke through in the afternoon. Once it heated up we had plenty of redfish move up to the shallows and we began to have a field day casting to them. We spent the first day in that general area and then decided to try some areas on the eastside grass flats the second day. When studying the Hook-N-Line map we noticed several manmade channels (old oilfield cuts), that ran quite a distance up into the shallows. We figured that given the depth change, these channels could likely be holding lots of bait and game fish seeking an easy meal. As we eased down the first cut we began to see a few mullet flickering and assumed we were in a decent spot. Not long after that we began seeing redfish staged on the flats, just off the edge of the cut. They were way spookier than the fish we are accustomed to back home but we managed to pick up a few.

Once we got to the end of the cut we picked up the fly rod as Seth had yet to land a fly-caught redfish. After a few missed opportunities he managed to hook a proper 28-incher. He then passed the rod over to me and we didn’t go far before we noticed two dark forms at the edge of the cut. I made a cast and to our mutual surprise a trout rose and ate my fly. A great fight ensued and I landed a beauty that pulled the Boga Grip scale to an even five pounds. Both of us were tickled to death with our great luck at that point. The next day we went to the same area and decided to stay a little deeper over the grass and began to catch fish almost immediately. Around noon the wind became completely unbearable so we headed back happy, having landed at least fifty trout that morning.

The rest of our crew showed up that evening as planned and we were all stoked for two days of guided fishing we had booked with Danny Neu. Seth and I shared all that we experienced the past few days, wondering how it might stack up to fishing with a professional guide. A local guide’s knowledge is invaluable and I urge everyone to fish with one in areas new to you and to pick their brain as much as they are willing to share. Not on spots so much as basic fish patterns for the time of the year and the effects weather and water conditions might have on feeding behavior.

Through two days of fishing with Danny we caught some very nice fish but unfortunately not the trophy specimens we were looking for. We know they are there but they didn’t get to be that size by being caught! Overall though, I think that Seth and I did a fairly good job of showing up to an unfamiliar area and accomplishing what we did. Remember to stick to what you know and try not to overthink things. Port Mansfield was a beautiful place and the next time we head down there we won’t be going in blind!