October is one of my favorite months to fish on the Texas coast. Cooler air and water temperatures seem to invigorate one’s soul. The unbearable heat of summer has for the most part disappeared. The fish become more active with the cooler water temps and autumn breezes. One of my favorite things to do is fish under a harvest moon using my can lights to attract bait fish and speckled trout. Here is a pic from the Texas City Dike of that scenario.
On Wednesday night I decided to try something I have been wanting to do for quite a while. Instead of fishing with my can lights, I decided to fish the lights of the canal homes close to a friend’s beach house in my kayak. I checked the weather forecast, and the high easterly winds made me think twice about venturing out in an area I was not that familiar with. I had already set everything out and was ready to go if the winds layed down. I went to bed at 10 pm, and at 2 am my wife leaned over to see if I was still going. I checked the weather app, and the winds were less than 10 mph out of the south east. It was go time as I loaded up my kayak and gear. In less than an hour, I was paddling away from the boat ramp in search of trout feeding in the canal lights. My lure of choice was a Down South Lure in glow and chartreuse along with the white ice color DSL. I used a number 10 treble hook putting one hook through the head of the plastic lure. This allows the lure to float on the surface with two of the hooks balancing the lure underneath and exposed, making it look just like a glass minnow. If the fish want the lure under the surface, you just change to a size 8 treble hook, and you get a slow fall which can sometimes be the ticket to triggering a bite. Something about the tight wiggle of the tail when it is swimming makes it look exactly like a glass minnow. The scent in the lure is also highly effective for fooling Mr. Yellow Mouth. It did not take long before I saw trout feeding in a green light just ahead. On my first cast it was fish on. The explosion of a trout on your lure during the night seems to be magnified in the dark. Watching a fish approach your lure in a green light also magnifies your sense of anticipation. As I went from light to light down each canal, the same scenarios played out. Not all lights had a lot of fish in them, but most had at least a few. It was almost like going to a buffet deciding at which fish to throw my bait. I can tell you I caught a lot of trout that night but most were not big enough to keep. Thus the title of this article “Dink Fest”. I was not planning to keep any fish that night, so I was just enjoying the experience.
Right before sunrise I made a move to a lighted pier in the subdivision and found more feeding fish under the many overhead pier lights. These fish were busting glass minnows on the surface in every light on the pier. Once again they were all dinks. As the sun was coming up, I picked up a different rod with a minnow jerk bait on it. On my first cast, I caught the largest trout of the morning. It was about 18 inches long, and I put it back also.
It doesn’t matter to me the size of the fish I caught that night. I was just happy to get out in God’s great outdoors and experience the peace and quiet of an early morning fall on my kayak. God wants us to enjoy and experience all the things he created for us here on earth. Genesis 1:21 Take the time to get outdoors when all is quiet and reflect on all the good things God has done in your life.
Here is a video I made of that night. I hope you enjoy it. Remember to be respectful of the homeowners and the fact that you are fishing in their lights. If they don’t want you to fish there, be polite and move on to another one. This will preserve the ability for all of us to enjoy this style of fishing in the future.
God bless you!
Tim Lumpkin
Legacy-outdoors.net
YouTube: Legacy-outdoors
Instagram: @tlump10
Legacy Outdoors 