Laguna Madre - South Padre Island

I took a trip down to South Padre Island for the weekend with my family and a bunch of friends. Eric Chandler booked us a guide trip on the Laguna Madre. Two boats, 6 people with two expienced fisherman (myself and my buddy) with 3 of my buddies relatives that rarely fish and one close friend. We kept 19 keeper specs, and a 25 inch redfish.

I lit up the trout with Berkley jerk shad on a jig head. Color didn't seem to matter, but some colors worked better than others. White with a pink stripe on the back got the most action, but we ran out and had to fish other colors. I personally caught 30 plus fish using jerk shad, mostly spec trout. My catch included 4 pinfish(perch), 3 skip jacks (18", 22", 24"), one snook that jumped off at the net, the guide estimated to be 24 to 26" and 10 keeper spec trout with the largest being 21 1/2". Fun trip... for me anyway. Some of the other guys on the trip didn't fair as well since they stuck to fishing live shrimp on a popping cork. The rest of the guys caught an average of 5 trout apiece that were mostly under size and had the big one that got away story to take home. The redfish hit a white/blue back Berkley jerk shad on a 1/4 oz jig head. The big trout I caught definately put up the same fight you'd get from a big bass only without the jumping. The skip jack are like mini tarpon, they make runs and then jump while wiggle like crazy, fun stuff.

The Fishing Crew

The Fish

Eric with a nice redfish!

Me with a nice trout!