Since dove season opened up in two more Saturdays, Bill Priddy and I had gone up to our McCulloch County hunting lease to check out the prospects. A lot of birds were flying around, prospects looked good and we even took along our fishing rods. Our objectives this early morning were to see how many doves came into water in the big, two acre, stock tank along Highway 190 and to see if we could catch some bass out of the tank where we hadn’t fished before.

There was a heavy growth of mesquite trees around the perimeter of the stock tank meaning it was an old one, but neither we, nor the rancher, knew if it had ever been stocked before. Bill’s first cast put all of this behind us, he was using a silver, Rebel, a small plug with a suggestive, wiggle, that a fish hit almost as soon as it hit the water. After a spirited battle, Bill slid the almost three, pound, bass on to the sandy, bank. Unhooking it, we admired his catch as he released it, sliding it back into the water. Our question about stocking was answered!

In the next fifteen minutes, using my trusty Piggy Boat, pictured at left, I hadn’t had a strike, while Bill had one more. Knawing doubt crept into my mind, Should I change to a Rebel?

At the same time, in my peripheral vision, I noticed movement to my left. Turning toward the movement, along came this brightly colored snake, a big one, almost five foot long, dark, red bands, with black, yellow and black rings. First thing that came to my mind was the old saying “Red and yellow kills a fellow. Red and black is safe for Jack.” Letting it slide on past, I thought it was some kind of a king snake, but later after consulting some “herp” books I determined it was a Mexican milk snake. I dug up this picture of one from Wikipedia.

Piggy Boats, “safety pin” spinners, are great for stock tanks and small lakes, over the years I’ve had super luck using them, so, I thought, No changing for me. More casts, no hits, as Bill plugged away, out scoring me with his Rebel. Casting down, parallel to the bank, about two feet out from the shore, my Piggy Boat stopped. These plugs, with the hooks installed properly, are virtually weedless and thinking I was fouled on some unseen, underwater obstruction, pulled on the object until the reel clicked as the drag paid out, but this wasn’t a “foul up”, it was a fish!

The fish headed away from the shore for deep water, taking line, more like a redfish, then it came to the surface clearing the water and I saw it was a big, big bass. More runs, more jumps, the splashes attracting Bill as he walked over to me, but I was winning this “fight” and soon I slipped the big, bass up onto the bank. Lipping it, unhooking the plug from the corner of its mouth, I held it up for us to admire. He had a Deliar in his pocket and we weighed the bass, eight pounds, twelve ounces, not a twelve pounder, my personal best, Bill was with me when I caught that one too, see my August 6, 2007 post, [“A Really Big Bass”], but still, this one was a nice one too!

Keeping on fishing, we didn’t notice any doves coming into this tank and as the morning heated up, still no doves, the bass stopping too. It turned out, the doves weren’t watering at this tank, but we found two more that afternoon that they were using and had wonderful shooting, two weeks later.

Continuing to fish in this tank and catching some nice ones, it appears that we answered the question though, that the tank had been stocked once before!

Driving home that afternoon in the mid August heat, I had decided that a quick fishing trip was in order and it was time to try something a little different. Why not try to catch a redfish or two on my trusty old yellow, Piggy Boat, pictured below? It worked so well on bass, why wouldn’t it work just as well on reds?

The fishing trip was a real easy task since Layla and I had recently moved out of northwest Houston, down to our “canal” house in Bayou Vista. We made this move in the spring of 1996.

The multiple canals in our subdivision fed into a main canal that flowed into Highlands Bayou that then, one half mile down, emptied into West Galveston Bay at Jones Lake. All of the canals had good water movement so, based on the wind direction, I envisioned starting at the top of the main canal and using my trolling motor, just ease on down until I hit the bayou.

My boat was in its sling behind my house, no need for bait, so all I had to do was grab my rod and spinning reel, a new combo that I had just purchased, a Quantum 4000 reel packed with eight pound line, hooked on to a Shakespeare, seven foot, medium action rod. This was my favorite for bass, but little did I know about the excitement I would have with the reds!

Launching my boat, electric motoring down to the main canal and casting the Piggy Boat into the grass along the side, I began my retrieve. Nine or ten casts, nothing, then bam! A solid strike and the fish, unknown, but probably, from the strike, a good sized, red headed down the canal towards the bayou. On the light stuff, the fish ran for a good fifty yards, then headed for the bottom, the main canal is ten to twelve foot deep and I could feel the fish trying to rub the plug out of its jaw. That didn’t work so it took off again. This run wasn’t as long, so I knew I was winning the fight. It wallowed near the top and I saw that it was a nice, red, a seven or eight pounder. A circle of the boat, a few more “wallows”, I slid the net under it and admired the redfish for a moment, before releasing it.

More casts toward the grass lined side of the canal and another bam! Same song, second verse, but this red was only a five pounder, but, before I released it, it put up a whale of a fight! I was about half way down the main canal, two reds to my credit, when I had another big strike. This one ran down the canal, then hugged the bottom, again trying to rub the plug loose. Another long run, these fish are really fun on this light stuff, more “wallows” like it was trying to clear the water and I saw that it was a bigger red that the first one. Finally slipping the net under it, I weighed this one, nine pounds and a good one to end this last second trip on.

My theory was proven, I had caught and released three, big reds on a yellow, Piggy Boat, a known fresh water “killer”. Cranking up the big motor, I creped, a 5 MPH limit on boats in the canals, back to our house. Since it was almost dark Layla was waiting outside for me and when I told her of the great fishing in the canal and the three big reds I had caught and released, her only comment was, “Grilled redfish would’ve been good tonight!”