Arrived at LL at 12 noon and water was
stunning–almost no wind. South Bay was clear and blue. Was able to
see structure and plan for later in the day then did some exploring
about one mile in. Nice hard sand and clear water deeper in but saw
most fish closer to channel. Encountered several groups of cruising
reds [not feeding or hunting] and had several shots but no mater where
the fly landed they spooked. Headed back to channel about 3:30 and as
I approached there was a skirmish line of kayaks about 300 yds into
the bay and parallel to the channel. No one was near the little
island I anchored at last time and that is were I had planned to
fish. Wind now picked up and the water started getting turbid near
the island but as I approached the windward side of the island I
flushed a school of about 30 reds. I anchored and went to the calm
side of the island and my first cast with spinning hooked up and
landed a 19 inch red. Second cast same result–about 20 feet out I
could see it was the same size so I horsed it in and my fenwick rod
exploded into 6 pieces. So much for the dark side. I could see the
reds kicking up mud so I started blind casting with the
olive/chartruse clousers and between 4 and 5 landed 10 reds total with
#7 being a 22 inch keeper-all others just under the limit. Lots of
fun. At about 5 all the other kayaks started leaving [were they sight
casting and the sun started getting too low?] I was still seeing reds
but action was slowing down and when sight casting I still could not
buy a take. I went over to the drain and caught 3 specks, one being a
keeper. By 6 I was too tired to cast anymore so I paddled across the
now very choppy channel, packed up and left.
Phil Lambrecht