by John Kumiski
“Don’t give up on that fish. As soon as he slows down, cast to him again.” Capt. Chuck Naiser was trying to make me unlearn what years of fishing in the Mosquito Lagoon had taught me. In the Lagoon, you get one shot, and it had better count. In the sprawling Aransas Bay system of Texas’s coastal bend, you can throw to the fish eight or ten times, until you make a good cast and the fish eat.
The redfish here have two of my favorite features in a fish, hungry and stupid. They lack size, averaging about 25 inches or so, but they make up for that in numbers. In three days of fishing out of Rockport, two with Naiser and one with Capt. Chris Fortin, Ken Shannon and I caught at least 40 redfish. All were caught on fly, and most were sight fished in spite of having heavy overcast and fog for half the time. Sight fishing is always more difficult when the visibility is poor.
Seven bay systems make up the complex of waterways on this part of the Texas coast. I thought we had a lot of water in the Indian River Lagoon system, but this system dwarfs it. Additionally, Rockport is a small town, a lovely place, but there’s a lot of empty space in most directions. The nearest big town is Corpus Christi, and even that is considerably smaller than the metro Orlando area. They have lots of water, loads of fish, and a relatively small human population. The fishing pressure is light, the fish unsophisticated.
Naiser prefers an eight-weight outfit with a floating line. He uses a short leader by my standards, seven feet long or so. His favorite two flies are a chartreuse and white Clouser Minnow and a tan Borski Slider, both in number four. Ken and I used a variety of flies- a black Redfish Worm, a Son of Clouser, a Mosquito Lagoon Special, and a couple of others. Generally, it didn’t matter. If you got it in front of the fish they usually ate it.
We fished from Chuck’s Curlew skiff, built in San Antonio. I’d never seen one before. It looked like a cross between a Texas scooter and a Florida flats skiff, and ran and floated in about five inches of water. It was beautifully finished, made a superb fishing platform, was easy to pole. It’s hard to imagine a better vessel for the type of fishing Naiser does.
Most of our fishing was done in the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. Salt marsh surrounds the shallow waters for miles, and we saw all kinds of wildlife there, including several species of ducks, roseate spoonbills, feral hogs, the usual herons and egrets, and several endangered whooping cranes.
Chuck took us into a narrow creek in what had to be the highlight of our fishing here. The bottom was literally carpeted with redfish. I caught five fish in six casts while blind casting, and seldom made more than five casts without a bite. The fog was thick and we could only see about 100 yards in any direction. The cries of cranes and herons floated across the marsh, and the entire scene was like being in an impressionistic painting
We stayed at the Laguna Reef Hotel in Rockport. We didn’t catch any fish there, but they have a dock which extends about 300 yards into the bay. It has bright lights which attract all kinds of fish after the sun sets. We watched schools of roe mullet gracefully wheel and pirouette, and the occasional redfish or gator trout come cruising through the circle of lights. Contact them at 800.248.1057, www.lagunareef.com.
Rockport exudes charm. Art galleries, some fine restaurants, and a maritime museum give the visitor something to do should the weather turn sour. The Chamber of Commerce can be reached at 800.242.0071, http://rockport-fulton.org/
Capt. Chuck Naiser can be reached at 361.729.9314, www.chucknaiser.com. Chuck specializes in fly fishing for redfish, and is widely acknowledged as one of the best guides in Texas.
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This article was written by John Kumiski of John Kumiski Outdoors and Travel. Contact him at his website www.johnkumiski.com or via email at john@spottedtail.com. Copyright 2007 John Kumiski.
John Kumiski 's most recent fishing guidebooks are How and Where to Catch Redfish in the Indian River Lagoon System (Argonaut Publishing Company), and Fishing Florida's Space Coast (Argonaut Publishing Company).
John Kumiski's newest book is Redfish on the Fly- A Comprehensive Guide.
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