The trip was to fish for three days in Galveston Bay for Redfish. Mission accomplished. It was also a chance for 4 guys to see if we really get along or not. Mission accomplished. We do.
Jeff Martin and I flew from Phoenix to Houston on November 3, while Rick Allen and John Strayer flew in on November 4. Each team of two had hired a guide for three days, starting November 5.
All trips have “issues” and this one was no different. Most of the problems encountered were logistical, for example; my 2 piece 10’ 7wt. Scott rod didn’t arrive in Houston on the same flight as I did. It was kind of a hassle to get Southwest to track it down for me, but eventually the proper forms were filled out and it was delivered to our hotel later that same night. Not too bad.
Then I had reserved a rental car and on the paperwork the pickup location was listed as “EZ”. Nobody at Houston Hobby knew what that was. We waited for a shuttle with those letters on it, but after 30 minutes I figured it wasn’t going to show. So I tried calling a company named EZ Car Rental (the rental company was not listed on my paperwork). The person that answered could barely speak English and spoke very softly. It was very noisy at the curb, so I had no chance of actually hearing or understanding what it was they were saying. We opted to rent from Budget instead. This turned out to be a good thing, since the cost was actually less than EZ!
We found a nearby Motel 6 and booked a room. The first room had a small refrigerator that leaked water all over the floor, so we requested another room. The new room card did not unlock the door. I went to the lobby and got replacement cards. Those didn’t work either. Next, the manager sent maintenance up and it turns out the door handle had to be lifted rather than pushed down in order to open! Who knew? Once we entered, the room was nice enough but had an odd aroma about it. We decided we’d had enough drama, and elected to stay.
Fast forward to late the next day when we met the other two guys in this adventure, Rick Allen and John Strayer. Rick flew in from Phoenix to Houston Hobby and rented a car. John flew in from Michigan but arrived at George Bush International on the other side of Houston. So, Rick had to drive from Hobby to GBI and then all the way to Galveston.
We met our two guides at the same location the next morning at 6:30am. In the process of putting my rod away for the trip out to the selected fishing location, I broke the tip off the rod. I used a rod provided by the guide the rest of that day, but the next two days I used my back up rod; a 9’ 8wt. Sage Z-Axis with a Tibor Everglades reel. Yup, that’s my backup redfish rod.
I caught one fish that first day. Jeff caught none. Rick and John did no better. John caught one. All of us got skunked day 2. I hooked 2 fish our last day and landed only one of them. Here are photos of the 2 fish
Both guides said that the conditions were pretty tough: way off color. We had a very hard time spotting fish. By the time we saw them, the boat was right on top of them and they spooked rather easily. They told us that it had to do with unusually high tides washing silt into the water and warmer than normal air and water temperatures.
Fly fishing for redfish is not easy in the best of conditions. These conditions were considerably less than ideal. It’s a lot of money to spend to not catch fish and I’m not sure any of the other 3 guys will want to do it again. I won’t give up that easily. I just will watch tides and weather a bit closer from now on.