Fly Fishing for redfish with Drew Donaghue

We talk quite a bit about our Ambassador team and earlier this year we took this concept on the road to meet with our Ambassadors on their home turf. Our first stop was to Rockport, Texas to fish with soon-to-be-legendary fishing guide Drew Donaghue. 

Fishing on the Texas coast has been a part of Donaghue's life since he was a child. Based out of the Rockport area, he works out of his Chittum Laguna Madre skiff and is a local guide that has lived and fished this area his entire life.

 

We spent a few days fishing with Drew and here are five tips and takeaways I felt were valuable, noteworthy and in almost all cases, thoroughly entertaining. 

 

1)    The fishery is large and diverse – Rockport is surrounded by bays, with Aransas the largest and closest. At 16 miles long by six miles wide, there is wide diversity of fishing opportunities, but we were targeting redfish specifically.

2)    Take your time and relax.  The fish are here – when you do get in front of a cruising or tailing fish, relax, take a breath and take the time to make a great shot.

3)    Look for the electricity on the water.  A lot of people call it nervous water, but Drew thinks that “electric” is a better term.  I tend to agree.  Electric water typically means that one or more redfish are lurking beneath, rooting out shrimp or worms (depending on the time of the year). Electricity = Fish.

4)    Don’t be afraid to make a tight cast, especially if you are fishing to a larger school of redfish.  “When I say put it on their heads… I mean put it on their heads,” said Drew.  “When they are face down rooting around you’re not going to spook them.”

5)    Watch the bird activity – especially in certain key times of the year.  We visited in mid June when the conditions were tough, water clarity was off, and many of the fish we found were in large groups.  One indicator that would key us into those large groups were circling birds.  Pelicans, skimmers and gulls were seemingly everywhere.  “I tell my clients often… keep an eye on those birds,” said Drew while poling a skiff slowly across a large flat that was seemingly endless.  “I tell them ‘you can’t always trust the skimmers… but the gulls?  They don’t lie."

Stay tuned to see much more from our visit to TX, new and innovative products we tested, and much more from Drew Donaghue. 

 

To learn more about Drew and his fishing program you can visit his website HERE.