December 4, 2011

Kelly and I met up at the Rally on 4th Street at around 6:15am, got our coffee and donut, and shot down the road to the 4th Street launch at the Howard Frankland.

Our goal today was to redeem ourselves at the Courtyard, and after loading up the yaks, we paddled out. The wind was not too bad to start, maybe 7-8mph, but within twenty minutes, it was over 10 and it would steadily increase throughout the day.We stopped a few times to throw the spook at our usual haunts, but we couldn't even muster a hit.

We finally paddled up on the Courtyard and after rounding the mangroves, got a respite from the wind. Kelly and I set up about 50 yards apart and started a slow drift as the incoming tide pushed us in. I alternated throwing a weedless DOA shad tail and my spook topwater. Kelly worked topwater exclusively.

I fanned casts out 360 degrees around me, just prospecting. After about 10 minutes, I got my first hit in the middle of the Courtyard. The fish missed the hit, but I kept at it and after a couple more blow-ups, finally connected with a nice 24" redfish. Interestingly, it had one spot on one side, and two on the other

At 24", he was right in the middle of the slot, so I put him in my cold bag and stashed him in the hatch of the yak. Kelly had paddled around to take the photo of my red, so I pointed him in the right direction and we both started throwing spooks in area where I had hooked up. A few casts later, I had a truly enormous redfish take my lure and run for the hills. I held on and got him turned, only to have the hook pull.

There was much cursing.

Kelly and I paddled over to another part of the Courtyard, but couldn't get a bite. The whole time there were pelicans diving back over where I had hooked up with the red, so we paddled back over, and in short time I caught a 20" beauty of a trout.

After a few more casts, we decided to paddle off to a new location that I will now call the Backyard. I'd been eying the spot on Google Earth for some time, and it didn't disappoint. I trolled the weedless DOA shad tail on the way in, and as I paused to throw my first topwater, I heard my rod bump around in the rod holder and the fight was on. To my surprise, I would pull in my second 20"+ trout of the day:

Kelly and I set up in the Backyard and started throwing topwater. The bites came fast and furious. I would soon pick up another 24" trout on topwater, and then another that was the biggest I've ever caught, a truly epic fish that unfortunately, I forgot to measure.

In the meantime, Kelly had at least a dozen blow ups on his spook without a single hook-up. I started making fun of him and eased up on my casting to get him in the zone. Just as his inability to hook-up bordered on the absurd, he finally got lit up by a 20"+ trout.

We would continue casting in the Backyard for another hour, and Kelly added three more gator trout and I added two. He topped off the session with a nice redfish around 27". Not included in that total were at least a half dozen big trout and reds that came unbuttoned after hooking up. Keep in mind that we were working the topwaters in a half-foot of chop, so imagine what might have happened in better conditions.

As we paddled back toward the launch, we both were just stunned by the quality of the trout that we had caught. To catch one gator trout can make your day. To catch ten or so between the two of us made our year.

We stopped in Steve's Hole on the way back where I caught three more under-slot trout on the DOA shad tail, then we finally got off the water.

Epic.