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.