June 3, 2012

I launched this afternoon from the east end of the bridge to Bay Pines into Long Bayou. It was hot and windy with a falling tide.

I started fishing the oyster bars around the bridge, alternating between a weedless shad tail and a flat rap. It looked really fishy, but I didn't get a single bite, so I paddled around to the mangroves below the Cross Bayou Canal and worked them over with the same combo of lures. Eventually I hooked up with a ladyfish, but the water was otherwise quiet back there.

I continued along the mangroves and up into the entrance of the Cross Bayou Canal, finally seeing some action as a gamefish was busting bait flowing out of the canal. I made a few good casts, but there was nothing doing.

I ventured 50 yards up the canal, casting at the mangroves, but it was dead, so I drifted back out and returned to the bridge to fish the now exposed oyster beds. I saw a big red tailing and made a few casts at it with my shad tail, but to no avail. I was wishing for a popping cork and a few dozen shrimp at that point. I finally hooked up with a trout a short time later on a shad tail.


I ended the day by paddling up into the canal toward John's Pass. I stopped at the narrow bird preserve there and threw my topwater over and over and over. I had three blow ups there, but nothing big enough to connect. At that point, a thunderstorm was bearing down on me, so I paddled back to the launch and called it a day.