Kayaking through the front...

I remember saying to myself sometime this summer, "man it would be great to fish in the rain a little". Well, I've been getting my wish lately, and yesterday, a little unexpectedly .

Launching at the Big Slough of the Lighthouse Lakes with three great clients, the morning was beautiful and the winds were light. Everyone was very excited at the prospect of topwater fishing. As we were unloading the kayaks, a big, ominous cloud from the north got closer and closer. I whipped out my iPhone to check the radar.

A tiny, tiny band of rain might just graze us and as we all looked at the radar, we agreed, "no big deal". Nothing was forecast for the day, in any event, just a perfect SE 10-15mph....

It was at that point that a gigantic gust of cold north wind hit us, along with a wall of smoke that turned the morning sky dark brown. Smoke, perhaps from a controlled burn at the Aransas Wildlife Refuge?

Plans change....fish the conditions, so we ducked behind an island into a cove and began a down-wind, down-rain, wade. Super Spook Jr's in dark colors where our choice. During the height of the storm, when the conditions were the worst was when the fishing was the best. Working those topwaters with lots of action was the ticket, producing great redfish and trout strikes from below.

A heavy north wind blew all morning, but at lunch, it was calm and turning east. Taking a break from all that paddling (south of the boat), we enjoyed a great sandwich and some converation.

Just about the time we started to fish again, the north wind cranked up with a vengence and we found ourselves paddling straight back into the wind, back toward the boat. Fish feeding activity peaked during the storm, but totally shut down after it ended.