Sunday, October 30, 2011

Location: 4^th Street

Tide: Outgoing

I was on the water by 7:15 this morning, and the first guy out. I couldn’t blame everyone for getting a later start, the wind was 15mph with gusts to 20mph, and it was a little over 60 degrees.

I fished two rods today, one with a Zara Spook and the other with a popping cork and circle hook for chucking live shrimp. My other pole is at the shop to have a guide replaced.

My first stop was at the south end of the Howard Frankland overpass. I anchored up in a spot where I could cast to the right at the rubble that runs along the seawall around the bridge, and to the left at a flat that always seems to be popping with action.

I alternated throwing shrimp and topwater, but it was the shrimp that performed best at first. On consecutive casts near the bridge, I caught a 15” trout, another 15” trout, a 15” redfish, and followed that up with a 16” flounder.

When that spot cooled off, I switched over to throwing at the flat, and caught twelve more trout on both shrimp and topwater, the largest going 18 inches. I might have continued catching them all day, but a dolphin came in and scattered the school, so I packed up and paddled off to the next spot.

Next stop was the westernmost point of the mangroves where a couple of creeks come in. I put my first cast right over a submerged oyster bar, and after a couple of pops, the cork went under and the line came tight on a real drag screaming fish. Five minutes later, I brought to hand my personal best redfish to date, a 24” one spot beauty. A manatee came by to see what all the commotion was, and hung out with me for about five minutes while I was fishing.

I kept at it in the same spot, and managed two more 15” trout, but overall the location was not what it was the last time Kelly and I were out, so I moved on.

The paddle was a bear getting back, waves crashing over the bow and the wind full in my face. I anchored up on the north side of the overpass and threw my topwater for awhile, but nothing doing. I tossed a few more shrimp and hooked up with another trout, but I wasn’t really feeling the spot, so I went back to the south side of the overpass to see if the trout were still around.

I anchored up and threw shrimp out over the flat. I brought in a 15” trout first, and then followed it up with a 20” gator trout that put up a hell of a fight. To my count, I was up to 19 trout on the day, so I decided I’d stick it out until I caught the twentieth. Instead, I caught six ladyfish. It was a bummer to not hit that 20 mark, but I didn’t have much to complain about at that point.

I was off the water at 1:00pm and there were still fish busting everywhere.

October 16, 2011

Location: 4^th Street

Tide: Outgoing

The wind was blowing hard out of the northeast this morning, averaging around 10mph with gusts to 15mph. For this reason, and because of a tide that wouldn’t have worked at Ft. Desoto, Kelly and I launched at 4^th Street this morning, just as the sky was starting to lighten.

We paddled out and set up our first spot just past the Howard Frankland. For most of the day, I threw my Spook Jr. and a popping cork with live shrimp. I’m not normally a big bait fisherman, but with the weather so bad, we decided to pick up a few dozen shrimp at I.C. Sharks before going out.

The first spot netted me a trout on topwater and a trout on shrimp. Kelly had paddled up further, and I caught up with him on the southern flat just outside of “The Cut.” I had a few hits there on shrimp, but no takers.

We spent the next hour on a full-out assault of The Cut. I anchored up in a good spot out of the wind and casted my popping cork and shrimp in and around a bunch of glass minnows that were raining on the surface. This technique picked me up another dink trout and a big grunt.

We started to drift out of the cut at that point, and Kelly finally got the skunk off his yak by hooking up with a ladyfish.

As we exited the cut, I drifted a shrimp off the back of the yak while throwing a topwater off the front. The typical walk-the-dog action wasn’t really enticing the fish today, so I tried to mix it up by really crashing the lure through the chop. On my first try with this new retrieve, I saw a big tail come out of the water right behind my lure, which was immediately followed with a crushing hit.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…

My drag was signing at the fish took off full speed in the opposite direction. I scrambled to get my other rod and bait bucket out of the water before the fish tangled up in it. After two more drag-burning runs, I got the fish close enough for a look, and was pretty sure it was a juvenile tarpon. Moments later, the fish gave up and I saw that it was a HUGE Spanish mackerel, the biggest I’ve ever seen.

I was looking at all those teeth and wondering how to get my lure back when the line suddenly went slack and my lure drifted to the surface. I looked at the hooks and saw they were all bent to hell, with one of them nearly straightened. I didn’t mind too much that I lost the fish—the fight was so good that the hero shot would have just been gravy.

We continued to drift the flat all the way down to our Tarpon hole, where we anchored up for a few casts. Nothing doing there, we paddled down to the westernmost end of the mangroves where a creek flows into the bay. There were a ton of fish in there, and Kelly and I lit up the dink trout, baby reds and ladyfish. I caught four ladyfish and two or three more trout. I only caught one red, maybe 15”, but it felt awesome to pull a red in.

It was past noon at that point, so we packed up paddled back to the launch. Not a bad day, considering the weather. I ended up with 5 trout, 4 ladyfish, a redfish and an epic Spanish Mack.

October 12, 2011

Location: Coffee Pot Bayou

Tide: Dead Low

I went out for an hour and a half tonight and hit spots down the seawall from the Vinoy Basin all the way to the pullout at Coffee Pot Bayou. I was throwing a Zara Spook Jr. the whole time, and didn't net a single hit.

The good news is that the snook were stacked up in Coffee Pot. I saw at least two per dock, and at the Crescent Lake outflow, watched two high school kids reel in three snook in a row under a green dock light. They were throwing silver dollar size greenbacks. A higher tide and a Yo-zuri Crystal Minnow, and I'll be in business.

All the snook I saw were between 20 and 24 inches, which is the first stock of juveniles coming back after the freeze two years ago. It's good to see the snook population coming back.

October 11, 2011

Location: Coffee Pot Bayou

Tide: Outgoing

Today I left work a little early so I could do a quick hit and run at the inlet of Coffee Pot Bayou. Reports from area captains had recently reported trout were moving in, so I wanted to do a little scouting along the seawall. Though my go-to topwater lure lately has been a Spook Jr., today I opted for a full-size She Dog in mullet color. The She Dog is my heaviest topwater lure, and I needed the weight to get the lure out over the flats to deeper water.

When I got out there, there were mullet busting everywhere and I had the seawall to myself. I started casting and on my third attempt, had a trout take the lure under. It was a sure set, and in moments, I brought the trout over the wall. A guy jogging by offered to take a few photos for me.

I continued down the wall, getting another four or five fish to hit the lure, but no more hook-sets. Thirty minutes later I was back in my car and on my way home, a smile on my face and trout slime on my hands.

October 2, 2011

Location: Ft. Desoto – Mullet Key

Tide: Outgoing

I hit the Rally at 6:15am for coffee and a doughnut, and then drove out to Ft. Desoto. For the second trip in a row, the primary deciding factor for my location for the day was WIND. After a week of nary a breeze, it was blowing 10-20mph as a cold front pushed through.

Though it’s a bit early in the season for 4^th street, I was temped to load up on some shrimp, find a calm spot, and fish the mangroves. The wind app on my phone showed the wind trending below 10mph, so I decided to head out to Mullet Key at the

Fort. I paddled out right at sunrise.

The waves were nil at the outset, but as I got into deeper water, they picked up. I finally anchored near the channel marker and the seas were about a foot—just at the edge of my comfort zone. I started throwing topwater and really chugging it hard through the waves, and right away jumped a ladyfish, and on the ensuing cast, another.

A few casts later, a larger fish came out of the water and really whacked my spook. I thought it might be a snook. My next cast to the same spot picked up an instant and aggressive strike. The fish stayed down and had a few headshakes, and I thought it was a big trout. I was a little surprised to see a big Spanish mackerel instead.

Knowing I was into the macks and ladyfish, I tied on a 1/2oz gotcha lure and started to fan out some casts. I quickly brought two ladyfish to the yak and another, smaller mack, as pictured here.

The bite died down after that as the wind picked up, and I decided to paddle back in to the north side of the key and try my luck. I threw a couple of topwaters around Conception Key (that’s what Google earth calls it) and then worked my way around the mangroves to a series of large potholes that I didn’t previously know were there. A couple of guys throwing shrimp under popping corks were lighting up the small trout, but I had nothing to show. I did get a lot of follows, but the fish weren’t committing to the bite.

After an hour the wind died down and I paddled back over to the channel to try my luck again at the marker. I trolled my Yo-Zuri crystal minnow on the way out and caught a ladyfish and perhaps a world record lizard fish, but nothing else.

By then the flat was nearly out of water so I paddled in fifty yards, anchored up my yak and hopped out to stalk the flats. Right away I saw a large fish working a sandy patch, so I started creeping my way over into casting distance. Then I saw a big grey dorsal fin pop out, and reversed my course. I don’t mess around with sharks.

I threw a weedless shad tail for a bit and had a legion of pinfish and needlefish chasing it around, but nothing big enough to get my attention.

By then it was 11:00am and I decided to throw in the towel. The flat was totally devoid of water at that point, so I tied my anchor rope around the front of my yak and walked it back a few hundred yards through the grass.

Overall, not an ideal trip, the wind and tide played the primary factor in my catch to cast ratio, but I had a lot of fun and got some good scouting in.