Hooked Up: September 2022

“Butt – beak – bang!”  That’s how I was taught to shoot birds on a follow-through swing when I was a youngster.  To this day it holds true and is a great exercise to get novices dialed in on their timing.  Unfortunately, and thanks to a shoulder surgery, I’m going to be holding down a recliner instead of a tailgate on opening day of dove season this year. I can’t remember this happening since I was 12 years old. Hopefully the sacrificing of bird season will result in longer casts on Baffin… reaching that rock or edge of a pothole is a big deal when you have a side bet with your buddies on either side of you.  

I’ll be honest, I usually take a lot of time off during dove season. I hunt on my own place, with friends on theirs, and we even pay for some good hunts when the outfitter starts babbling “it’s like Mexico.”  My love of wingshooting is the simple reason, but the truth of the matter is that I am pretty burned out on fishing come September. Fishing less frequently is no indication that it’s any tougher now than it was in July, I just need a different kind of fresh air, preferably with hints of gunpowder.  

Between dove season, school starting back, and football, there will be some peace and solitude on Baffin in September. If getting away from the crowds and far less pressure in the area you choose to fish, now is as good a time as any to get out there. 

Being we are in south Texas; we have not received any cold fronts yet. The water is very warm and summer patterns will remain in full affect. Get up early if you still want to focus on solid trout. Schools of all sorts will be gathering up to push into the gulf, so that’s a midday thing you can look forward to as the trout bite fades. Whether the schools be predominantly reds or drum, either will have some of the other in them, and both will have trout on the outer edges. This is primarily boat and trolling motor fishing, but it is common to have every rod in the boat bowed up when things are going right.

September seems to have a mind of its own. It’s offered up a little bit of everything over the years. Two events come to mind, but I only have time and space for one…

Early in my guiding career I had a client show up solo. I’d never met him and was glad to see he was an above average caster. We were having a good morning, catching some studs filled with roe for their final spawn. As the day got hotter we moved to deeper water with no success and eventually ended back up where we started on some shallow grass patches. We were pushing along and I had fallen about 15 yards behind to allow him first shot at whatever structure he might come upon. 

At the end of one very long cast with a plum Bass Assassin, my client hooked one of the largest trout I had  ever seen. It blasted out of the water and I was in shock at how thick this fish was, and unsure whether he was aware the class of fish he had on. As he was fighting it, in great form I might add, I softly mentioned, “Hey, stay calm and don’t get overly excited, but that is the largest trout I have ever seen hooked.” 

His head snapped back at me like a slingshot and it was game on. The trout never came up again, making a run into deeper water. The drag was acting more like this was 36” red, but I knew it wasn’t. All of sudden it stopped and we thought for a second it broke off. Turns out it was coming straight back. About the time the client got a firm bow in the rod again she broke the surface in full costume. A four foot tarpon!

I was sad and elated at the same time. That big flash of silver and bulk I had seen on the hookset had fooled me with the angle of the sun and the fact I had never seen a tarpon in Baffin. We’ve hooked three more since that time and have yet to land one, but for fully two or three minutes, I thought I had put my client on a world record trout. Good times!

Remember the Buffalo!  -Capt. David Rowsey