Posted: Wed Dec 26, 2018 1:41 pm Post subject: Twas the Pompano Before Christmas 12/23 and 12/24
With the pompano season about to begin it's annual winter nap, I made sure I made the most of what little windows were left. Sunday looked to be a bit too windy with 2 to 4 foot seas predicted with occasional 5 footers thrown in. Luckily the winds had died overnight and it was amazingly calm given the wave forecast. The tides were extremely low even for our late start at 10:15am, which made for excellent driving. I ran into Kevin around the Baby Nash spot in Big Shell but the water was still muddy and weedy from the pavement until about the 30 mile mark. Daughter Shawne, who was in town for Christmas, joined me for what we hoped would be a Festivus Miracle. Armed with a good variety of fishbites and shrimp we headed south to just north of the wreck of the Nicaragua. But first stopped to check out this buck playing in the dunes.
The water had cleared somewhat in the 30's but was perfect in the upper 40's and near the 51mm. It was still a full moon so I really wasn't expecting much of a bite until later in the afternoon. Unfortunately I was right and we got one tiny pompano and a few whiting and began the trek back north as the tide, and a cold front would be greeting us sooner or later.
I wanted to be no further south than the 30 mile area around 4pm so I could assess the tide safely for the trip north back through Big Shell. We stopped at a nice spot around the 38 and finally bagged our first nice pompano of the day at around 3pm.
I told Shawne the bite was just starting but it would likely be short-lived as I looked north to see the approaching front moving in a little faster than cat's feet.
And it brought strong NE wind, higher tides and the end to our fishing. This video should say Festivus Front but oh well pompano on the brain!
That was it for the day but we did run into Kevin and Becky who were toughing it out in what was now becoming the wade gut under their parked trucks at Baby Nash's Undisclosed Secret Fishing Hole.
It was rough but an hour later by the time we made it back to the pavement the winds had subsided by about 50% and there looked to be some hope for one last pompano window on Christmas Eve!
Up Next Christmas Eve
After some serious planning what with young folks wild party schedules the "plan" "wink","wink" was to head south at 8:30am with Shawne, Becky, and Kimberly in tow.
I woke up several times in anticipation of another fine day. The prognosis didn't look great so I didn't know how the rest of my more "partying" crew had fared for the night. We gathered up our group and managed to head out loaded to the gills( with fishing gear! ) by 9:30am or so and out to the beach. Again with a predicted late bite the not so early start was ok. We found the beach surprisingly calm though still dirty at the start. It was even dirtier with more weed farther south than Saturday. But oh was it worth the extra miles south.
On the way we saw some old familiar friends and reintroduced them to Shawne and showed them to Kimberly for the first time.
The entrance to the back road, the wrecks at the 36.???, the 39, Miss Piggy and the wreck of the Miss Lillian behind the dunes. And our old friend the Nicaragua.
The bite started out slowly but as the afternoon wore on it was steady with about 10 solid keepers and a few grander whiting. It was warm and we only saw two other groups that day. One pickup drove up from the south and Marilyn and Jarod introduced themselves to Shawne and Kimberly having recognized them from a previous pomp expedition that was posted on Corpusfishing.com.
Kimberly reels in a keeper pomp and small whiting.
Not realizing she was no longer hosting the debutant party from the night before she proudly curtsied to the pompano in these designer waders!
Note the lack of people on a beautiful Christmas Eve.
The tide inevitably rose and we were greeted with a long four wheel drive ride back to civilization near the 19 mile mark. It was a great two days of fishing that we will always remember! _________________ Like Corpusfishing.com on Facebook!
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