Marker 12 Redfish
Texas has never been on my bucket list of hundreds of salt flats I’ve dreamed about visiting.
That all changed this spring when I found myself in El Paso Texas for work, and a number of influences led me to taking a 4am flight from El Paso to Houston to Corpus Christie, Texas. Our ultimate destination was Rockport, Texas and the redfish flats near Marker 12. The goal was to get Texas Rob his first Redfish on a fly.
Our product designer, Rob Bolke known as Texas Rob (He’s from Minnesota), was living in Fort Worth, TX and has been taking trips down to Rockport to learn more about the redfish down there. So much so that he and his girlfriend were considering moving there to get to spend more time fishing the area. Luckily, he was also willing to get up at 4am with me to get on this crazy little flight to Corpus.
The second major influence was Jeff Johnson, a Missouri River, Montana fishing guide I’ve known of for at least 10 years who now spends 8-9 months a year guiding and building saltwater skiffs in Rockport. He owns and operates Fly Fish Rockport, is a part owner of Black Duck Skiffs, screen prints his own line of apparel, day trades in his home office surrounded by 6 big computer monitors, he’s an ex pro snowboarder, works with local businesses and schools… and he acts as if he does nothing but fish, play golf, and go to local baseball games. He’s a laid back fishing guide with hundreds of stories that he has earned from hard work and a creative spirit.
I had texted Jeff our flight and situation and in his words, “Let’s make it work”.
Jeff picked up Texas Rob and I right on time when our flight landed in Corpus with a Hells Bay skiff in tow so we could head straight to the flats. We drove directly to Aransas Pass and Rob and I changed clothes, half naked, right on the boat ramp. We debated getting Whataburger since we hadn’t eaten that day, and it’s evidently Texas culture, but passed. Time on the flat was the biggest priority.
We loaded a 7 and 8 weight Squatch II fly rod, jumped in the skiff, took off and rounded the corner that was signed with an orange triangle that said “#12”.
Rockport, Texas fly fishing doesn’t have the media attention that Louisiana or the Florida Keys receive which for me makes it more exciting. There are a ton of redfish in Texas, and big ones, the biggest redfish in Jeff’s boat being taped at 53”. There are also opportunities to fish for tarpon, jack crevalle, sea trout, black drum, sheeps head, and other targets. There is an ongoing wager amongst the Rockport guides to catch sheepshead, a striped fish with a small toothy mouth and skittish attitude that will eat a fly about as well as a Keys permit.
I’ve learned to arrive at any saltwater fly fishing spot with no expectations or for sure low expectations because I’ve been defeated many times.
I showed Jeff some of the flies I had tied for the trip and to my surprise he wanted to fish them, rarely do guides like to experiment. I had wanted to try some of the new Genryuu saltwater hooks and had some of our new tying materials as well. In hindsight, even though they worked, they should have been smaller. For these flats, and after watching lots of redfish eat on them, I think flies that are about 3.5” in size tied in black and purple or reddish tan on a size 1-4 hook in patterns that are similar to redfish crack, a crab, or a tarpon toad will keep you in the game all day.
I wanted to makes sure we put Rob on the deck first so we could get the main mission taken care of first, to catch Rob his first Redfish on a fly.
We started poling the first flat along a mangrove edge filled with mallard grass. We were immediately in to redfish blowing up on all sides of the boat. We had to calm down, get our saltwater eyes adjusted to seeing the redfish before they were under the boat, listen to the guide, and be prepared to cast. However, it took us about 30 good shots before we realized it and finally at the very end of that point Rob hooked and landed his first redfish.
NOW IT WAS MY TURN TO GET ON THE BOARD WITH A TEXAS REDFISH.
First, I have to explain what we learned from Jeff, and very clearly need to practice. There are tons of redfish, and I think you can expect to cast at a hundred or more in a day in Texas. However, these are the tips to catch more of them;
Don’t false cast. Make a powerful back cast, let the extra line you need slip through your hand on the back cast and let it rip. A false cast will spook most of the fish.
Don’t hesitate. The boat is moving and every second you wait to cast you are one second closer to that redfish realizing you are there. As Jeff constantly says, “Be fast.”
“Casts are free.” There are blind spots so don’t wait on the guide. If you see a redfish or even think you see one make the cast.
Cast past the fish so the fly has to cross its path. That seems obvious but we often had a tendency to want to cast it in front of the fish by a couple feet but since the fly landed right in front of the fish the first strip was already out of its path.
Like in all saltwater fishing, keep your rod tip down when stripping and when the fish eats. Texas Rob has been a bass fisherman all his life and has a pretty aggressive natural tendency to set the hook, mimicking Jimmy Houston on early morning ESPN TV.
We learned a lot of lessons, had tons of shots, lost a number of eats, but just before we left I finally put it together and made a good shot, even in the 20-25mph wind. We had been listening to some 90’s hip hop and this fish ate the second “Chronic” came on. Texas Rob called it, “You’re gonna get an eat on this song”. The redfish turned and ate the fly, ran straight in to the middle of the “lake” and in to my backing.
We landed the fish and I was pretty grateful for it.
I’ve had trips where we caught way more redfish. We had lots of shots, high wind, missed opportunities, learning moments, and other rationalizations for not catching more of them. However it was fun the whole time because we were seeing them the whole time. Jeff told us about the bull reds and the best time to catch them.
A 53” redfish in Texas. Now I for sure dream of Texas fly fishing, and a bull red has been added to the list.