Casa De Cuentos

Wow what a weekend, on our recent adventure we had a 6 boat charter and it was amazing. The wind was calm and everyone headed to the surf, and it was on. The bait was fliping and the birds were dive bombing. With the toss of a noisy croker and only a few seconds the fishing was on. I have never seen it so fast and furious we had thirty trout and nine reds in less than an hour. that was just my boat, everyone had a great day in our party alone we got 210 trout and 30 reds, it was crazy. You can check out the photos. Untill next time keep youre lines tight and tips up, Capt. Matt Stennett        

Well, If I had to be on any fishing trip to the coast, I would want to be Brady and the BMC Lumber group. Casa De Cuentos hosted them again this weekend, and again we filled the boats. On their last trip down, we inialated the reds, and this time we got the trout…97, to be exact. I have to give credit to my guides on this trip. It would be hard to put together a 4 boat group and have a better group. Tommy Ramzinsky, Todd Adams, Tim Reddon, and myself! Check the pictures out and you’ll see what I’m talking about.
To all the guys down with BMC this weekend, thanks for another great trip, we always love having ya’ll, and hope to see ya’ll soon.
Jeff S.

Well it has been a great week, the wind has finally laid down and the fishing has been exellent. Trout fishing is in full swing, with croaker getting at perfect size and piggies are starting to show up. Man am I excited.  I love piggies. They are my favorite bait for trout and reds. I used them on saturday and we had a fast bite. We caught 40 trout by 8:30am then we went for some reds. The day before I used croaker and we did well it was just a lil slower. In the same hole we caught 30 trout by 10:00am, not a bad day by any means but just the difference in bait caused a faster bite. The wind has been perfect, a light wind early and picking up in the afternoon but still not as bad as it has been. Untill next time Capt. Matt Stennett, and dont forget keep your lines tight and your tips up.       

First of all let me introduce myself i am the newest addition to this great lodge, Capt. Matt Stennett. The wind has been blowing all summer long but it has not affected the fishing. We had great luck just this weekend, the wind was cranking and we caught some nice reds and trout in the flats using croker and cut bait like mullet and pin perch. So dont think that if the weather is bad the fishing is. I have had some of my best days when most people stay at home. So if u have the kind of passion i do come on down and lets go fishing. Untill next time Capt Matt,  and remember keep ur lines tight and your tips up.        

Well if your looking for slick calm mornings and small waves you better find a pond to fish because we have battled heavy winds and chocolate water for weeks. As bad as that sounds though, you can’t get discouraged because fishing has been great. Our trout season is in full swing with the arrival of croakers, it is just a matter of finding somewhat decent water and having an anchor that will hold. Lately the deep shell has produced great trout numbers in pretty much all of the bays. If you can find any reefs with green water on them I would recomend trying them out. I have been catching the majority of my trout out off the reefs quite a ways, and not being so quick to pull anchor all the time. Yesterday we sat in spot for probably 30 minutes and only caught 2, then all of a sudden it was like someone turned to switch on. The water was trying to clean up and they started really feading. Sometimes when you catch one or two the others in the area will come to life and get agressive. This was the case yesterday.
My other advice is whether you fish everyday or once a year, make sure your safety gear is intact and functioning. I am usually the last one to worry about weather or danger, but my dad saved 6 people this weekend from drowning…2 in Copano on Sunday, and 4 kids today in Aransas. In both cases the life jackets were out of date and nearly cost the people their lives. Just be safe out there that’s all I can say. The winds are brutal and the waters are extremely rough right now!!!!!!
till next time, Jeff

First and foremost, let me say I appologize for the delay in getting new reports up. It has been a wild year with conventions and additions to the lodge, and we are finally ironed out and rolling on all four wheels comfortably. Please check in with us weekly for the fishing reports and feel free to email me @ jeff@casadecuentos.com any time with questions or comments.

Now to the fishing!

As you all probably know, spring and early summer produce some of our greatest trout days. We aren’t catching the 28 plus inchers quite as common as we were in late winter, but the quality and amount of trout right now is awesome. We have a bull tide which in the long run is going to help our trout going into summer. As the water warms steadily, I find myself fishing shallower and shallower targeting 4-6 lber’s over grass beds and pot wholes. Croaker are still extremely small and hard to fish so the lure fishermen are actually outfishing the bait guys. (that is those that are waiding) Topwaters, and bass assasins are my go-to baits right now for the big trout. I have also thrown suspending mirror lurrors recently and done well. We all expect to have an awesome trout year here in Rockport.

We look forward to seeing you on the water! till next time, Jeff Steckler

well 5 cases of shells, 4 dozen ruined decoys, and 1 cracked 454 head later… we are almost done with duck season. It has been an outstanding year. We’ve had lots of birds and lots of very great hunts, but like all great things it is coming to an end. It seems like just yesterday we were all waiting for those cold airboat rides at 5 in the morning. Now I would be happy to sweat a little bit on a hot fishing trip. Casa de cuentos “went out with a bang”, if you will, recording over 1200 birds this year, and countless memorable stories in between.
If you missed our duck season we hope that you’ll come join us soon for a fishing trip. With winter really rolling in, the reds are stacking up in the holes and the big trout are snapping on artificial. If you are serious about catching fish, especially on lures, NOW IS THE TIME!!! We expect to have a kick-a$$ winter run, so make some time and come on down.

hope to see you soon… jeff s

A fly fisherman’s nightmare right???

WRONG!!!!!! I have to admit, this past monday when I woke up around 7 expecting to see morning sun rays i was pretty dissapointed. It was windy, foggy, and starting to drizzle. As we sat a the local taco house for breakfast, i informed longtime fly fisherman and exceptional songwriter/singer Radney Foster, that i was not super confident that we would have a good fishing day. I told him how i thought it would be really tough to cast in the wind, much less see the reds with so little light. Like a true sportsman though, Radney said we could only try, and what ever might happen would be good enough.

We arrived at the dock mid morning and comensed our venture into the vast fog and mist that blanketed aransas bay. Up the intracoastal and across to the matagorda shoreline we went. Our first stop was a stretch of shoreline with skattered shell and grass up very close to the bank. No sooner than i shut the motor down and began climbing up on the poling platform i happened to see a massive explosion of panicing mullet and pissed off red about 100 yards down the shore. Suddenly that gloomy feeling that i’d had in my stomach the entire ride up there dissapeared. With that one ferocious blowup that i had just witnessed, i felt like we had a chance to land a few reds dispite the conditions.

Within minutes we were kicking up mudballs, and casting at wakes in front of the boat. It was hard to tell what was a red and what was a mullet with so little visability but we were on a mission. After about 30 minutes of spooking reds and not having many opportunities, we began realizing that we needed to concentrate on shattering bait next to the shoreline and not just wakes. What we noticed was that everywhere we saw little shrimp jumping in the grass up in front of the boat, there would be a red in the area… but by the time we got to that spot he would spook from the boat. With that in mind Radney would cast at showering bait and we were more successful. We had two nice reds hooked up, but we weren’t able to land them. One actually straightened a hook on us.
And then came the creeks. We moved into creek that twisted around and drained into a large lake on the island. I almost always see fish in that particular spot so i approached it very slow. With a new green clouser minnow on, we drifted up onto the flat. Calm and quiet turned to complete mayham in a matter of seconds. Radney hooked into to several nice 18 inchers, and landed them with no sweat…. and then came the big “dog” of the flat. A beautiful 27 in red came cruising in front of us in about ankle deep water. Making a perfect cast, Radney laid the minnow right on his nose and twitched it. Initially, the red spooked, but soon turned into a ball of red fury. Darting across the flat trying to relocate that annoying little fly that had crossed his path and not got eaten. We’ll guess what?? He found that fly after all! That’s right, one minute the red is darting away, and the next he’s locked up in a full blown tug of war with Radney’s rod and reel. (one which i might add only has several pounds of drag). The red put up one heck of a fight, but in the end was no match for the outstanding angling skills on the other end. He was a beauty too, 8+ lbs, and measuring close to 28 inches.

We land several more nice slot reds that day, and had a heck of time doing it. I guess the moral of the story is: No matter what the conditions, anything can be done. We landed at least a dozen reds that day , on fly let me remind you, when we shouldn’t have been able to see our way up the channel.
I want to personally thank Radney Foster for his company on the boat and at CasaDeCuentos over the weekend. He is a wonderful fisherman but more importantly a pleasure to be around. We look forward to having him back soon..

Till next time…. thanks for reading jeff steckler

Thats right, its duck season again in Rockport, Texas, and as usual it was a bad week for the birds.

This past Wednesday and Thursday, Casa De Cuentos entertained Mark Winston Kirk and several other friends for their first ever South Texas duck hunt. I can’t say that the sky was completely blacked out with ducks, but over two hunts we shot close to 40 birds, which to me was pretty exceptional considering the hawaii like warm weather and lack of wind/and clouds.

Like most opening weeks here in Rockport, we had a fairly steady flow of birds moving in and out of the salt marsh. It was a great experience for our first time coastal hunters seeing as how our bag consisted of a wide variety of birds. We killed 7 different species including Pintails, Wigeon, Model Ducks, Teal, Redheads, Blue Bills, and the occasionally unlucky coot that just wouldn’t leave our spread. The real highlight of the trip was getting to see Marks dogs in action. He brought down 2 of his master hunters for the trip and boy were they awesome. On several occasions, we had birds land wounded 400 and 500 yards out and immediately disappear into the salt grass. Usually it would be a long shot to recover a duck at this distance, but Marks dogs made short work of the task. With a sharp whistle, and the directional point of one hand, he could guide them to the exact spot.

We greatly enjoyed the company of Mark during his stay at the lodge, and hope to have him back soon.

On a side note: I for one, was also extremely pleased to meet both of his dogs, seeing as how they saved me several miles of trenching through the marsh after birds.
till next time,,, jeff s