You guys having fun ice fishing?

[fishuhalik]

Sorry to make you guys jealous, but I got out today. Worked a 42 hour shift from Saturday evening to Monday morning, so they gave me Tuesday off. Shoulda rested but with the wife & kids in MN for Thanksgiving, I had to get out & try some coastal duck hunting & fishing. I'm not gonna lie, I'm a little proud of the results. I had no idea what I was doing, was by myself & just applied what I've learned about duck hunting over the years & it paid off. Was hoping to get some divers & maybe see a pintail or 2.

Started off at 0300. Left Jourdanton Tx on my way to Corpus Christi. After studying my Navionics maps I settled on a spot. It was an island in a series of 4 islands, about a mile from shore.

It was thigh deep water but with a nice, solid sand bottom the whole way with lots of grass. Took me 2 trips with my decoys and a bag of dekes I borrowed from a buddy. Got to the spot & turns out there was a blind there. Perfect, since there was almost no cover. Got my dekes set up just as legal light showed up. Waited for 15 minutes without seeing a bird & then the bay erupted about 3 miles out. I watched for 3 hours as flock after flock of 100-several thousand divers moved from the main bay up the Intercoastal Canal, headed north. I can't guess how many ducks there were but it was quite the sight!! Kind of a bad pic but you can see the dark cloud of birds

About 20 mins later had my first flock come in, about 15 redheads. Whiffed. Next was a nice flock of pintails. Whiffed. Next was a pair of pins. Shooting for the drake, missed him & hit the hen right in front of him. Went for a follow-up but my Beretta jammed for the 2nd time in its life. Went to get the hen & a flock of 50 whistlers came in between me & the blind. That was in the first 2 hours. Waited til about 1000 with nothing coming in & decided to pull the dekes & do some fishing. Just as I was sitting up saw 3 bills coming in from left to right, behind me. Dropped the closest one, a hen. Went to find her in the shin-high grass & as I was walking around a pair of bills buzzed the blind, directly followed by a group of 20 pins that decided to land in my decoys while I was standing there with my "ahem" in my hands. Oops. Decided to sit it out for a while longer & dropped a single drake bill that decided to land in the dekes. At about 1300 I decided it was time to hydrate (it was 70 & sunny by now & I didn't bring any water) & take a little nap. Slept for 2 hours in my car then headed back out. 20 mins after I went back to the blind a beautiful flock of about 150 pins came in at 45 yards, just on the edge of my happy zone. Let em circle around, thankfully they did & on the 2nd pass they all dropped in at 15 yards. Took a nice drake & my pintail limit was full. Didn't see any more divers in range but I did get to witness another 500+ pins land on my nose in the last hour of legal light! Here was my take for the day. All in all it was one of my worst days shooting but a great day duck hunting. I've had more birds come in before but pins are my favorite & I had more decoy yesterday than I've had n my entire life combined!! Here the total take

A buddy had called earlier. He was out fishing nearby & asked me if I wanted to go gigging (spearing) black drum at night. I followed with a heck yes!! Think sucker spearing on steroids, at night, in the ocean. Picked up my dekes & met him at my car. We went out right where I was duck hunting & only stuck a few but it was a ball. I got 1 & had another shake off my spear. Between his fishing & both of us gigging, this was our take for the day.

[CANOPY SAM]

Thanks for the story fish. It's really a lot of fun to hear how it's done in other parts of the country/world!

Those Black Drum, we call em' Sheepshead up here, and to my knowledge they've always been categorized and treated like a rough fish, but I've also always known they are a very popular "table fair" down south.

What did you think of the taste of the Drum?

[minrod]

I believe the black drum is an ocean fish but closely related to freshwater sheepshead. Saltwater sheepshead is zebra striped

[fishuhalik]

Minrod is right on. These are saltwater fish. Still related to our MN sheepshead though. I've heard things are amazingly hard fighters & can't wait to catch one. They get HUGE!! Haven't tried em yet but I hear they're good

[Kettle]

Beautiful looking pintail! You will get some birds with fantastic plumage down there! Keep us up dated on your hunts.

Kettle

[123fish]

Nice job considering you have never hunted like that before. Shooting divers in 70 degree weather just seems very, very odd. Keep the stories and pics coming.

[fishuhalik]

Thanks a lot guys. I know I had fun. A few buds back home are already tired of the cold & are setting up trips down here. I think I need to start a guide service. BTW, if you didn't notice, the top 3 are sheepshead

[westguy]

wish I was there

[Mr.Seaguar]

Is that a sea trout below 3 black drum?

[fishuhalik]

Yessir

[MJ1657]

Very interesting fishuhalik.

[Wanderer]

Looks and sounds like there's a lot of fun to be had down there!

[fishuhalik]

On my way to the coast now. It's been a depressing couple weeks. Texas has a closed season for 2 weeks, from Dec 1-12. I work 2 weeks on 1 week off & my week off fell right in the middle of the split. To top that off, the 8 doz dekes I ordered showed up yesterday & we don't have any work to do today so I'm off. Figured since I don't have anything else to do I'd hit the salt & do a little scouting/bird watching. Gonna try setting up on the island a little further out into the bay this time. If nothing else I'll get a good workout carrying 5 doz weighted keel dekes a mile out to sea

[fishuhalik]

Quite the sight. Had a few thousand reds land in the spread today, along with a few hundred pins & scaup. Not gonna lie, it was killing me to not have ol' Betsy along but it was a ball. Picked up the dekes at about 10:00 & fished for redfish the rest of the day. Was a little slow but cpr'ed 7 from about 20-24". Another great day on the salt

[RK]

Sounds like you're having a blast down there. Good on ya. Those Sheephead are fantastic eating, as are the sea trout. Love those inshore critters.