Yarborough Pass Report (5/20/06)

I went down to Corpus Friday afternoon to fish with my cousin. We set out for Yarborough Pass which is located about 15 miles south of PINS entrance. I took the kayak down to Corpus but left it at his house since the winds were a good 20 to 25 knots and there was little doubt it was going to let up. I took the 7wt fly rod and a casting rod but never pulled the fly rod out unfortunetly.

We got to the pass entrance and checked it out before going full throttle through it to avoid getting stuck in the sand. Good thing we checked because there was a horse trailer stuck in the pass. It had a small Jon boat in it along with two 55 gallon drums loaded up with water! It was being pulled by a duelly diesel dodge ram but the hitch was too high. Eventually they were digging it out with shovels and winching it. After about an hour and a half they finally got it out so we went through. My cousin's Z71 4x4 went through the pass without a problem.

We made a hasty camp in order to set out a sail line for the evening. We got out there just as it was getting dark. We ended up with four trout from 19" to 26" and one nice black drum. The fish were caught on soft plastic eels at the dropoff past the grass line. A friend of my cousin's ended up with several larger trout up to 28" and one slot red.

It was pretty much a slow night. By 11pm the bite seemed to have really ended though my cousin's friend ended up with another nice trout around 24" after midnight.

The next day we pretty much grilled meat, swapped lies and had a good time. There were some ranchers with a large camp there with several teenage boys and small boys that were fishing and running around all day. We did a little wade fishin on the flats for a while with topwaters but no luck. Most of the fishing parties there fished for hours with a couple of reds to show for it.

We were particularly impressed with a 9 or 10 year-old cowboy kid that never stopped. That kid was a hardcore fisherman. He finally hooked a good red as we watched. That was pretty cool.

That evening we ended up catching a couple of more fish. I caught a nice keeper black drum on a clear soft plastic minnow with blue flecks that I had found on the shore! Want not waste not.

We left around 2am Sunday morning. It was not the most productive trip but it was still lots of fun. The flats had clear water with lots of grass. There were some spots though loaded with rays so it required an eye out for them.