July 14th, 2012

This is my favorite part of every fishing trip:

After catching a slam last weekend, my hopes were high to repeat this weekend. Kelly and I wasted no time and paddled out to the same spot as last weekend. We had a more favorable tide than last weekend, but less favorable wind conditions.

Early on I caught a couple of trout on topwater to get the skunk off, then settled in near snook island to seek out some mullet schools. The mullet schools were difficult to find due to the chop on the water, but I eventually found one and went to work on it. There was a gamefish nearby working the school with me, but I wasn't able to hook up.

I glanced over to Kelly, who was fishing over by snook island. He waved me over and I paddled up in stealth mode. He whispered across that he had jumped a snook and that there was a lot of activity in the area. My first cast I had a small snook take a swipe at my topwater, but no hookup.

We continued to fish the area for about thirty minutes, with several topwater blow-ups each, but no connection. The likely culprits were undersized redfish.

After that we worked the east end of the area without a hook up. Kelly had a close-up experience with a large gamefish chasing mullet clear of the water, but no luck in catching him.

We doubled back to the point near snook island and worked a big mullet school. I was able to catch another trout and a barely legal redfish, and Kelly hooked up with another trout.

So far we had been fishing entirely alone, but at that point, another kayaker paddled up within 30-40 yards of us and anchored up. It seemed like a break in code to me -- there was miles of water out there with not a boat to be seen, and he essentially anchored up next to us. To add insult to injury, within 5 minutes he hooked up with a big redfish. Disgusted, Kelly and I moved back to the other side of snook island.

As I was paddling in, I made a cast and my topwater got crushed by a snook. My drag was too loose, so I went to tighten it down before he headed to the mangroves. The loose drag did me in when the snook made a nice jump and threw the hook. @%#$^!

Just missed that back-to-back slam.

A few minutes later a big blue crab swam by and I took a chop at him with my paddle and took off a claw. I used the claw meat to catch a few pinfish, and Kelly and I put the pinfish to work under a popping cork. A short time later Kelly caught a big ladyfish, and we cut up the ladyfish for some redfish bait and settled in. Kelly brought out a bottle of Stone Vertical Epic '04 to pass the time, and from then on out, all we caught was a buzz.

Sunday, July 8th, 2012

Kelly and I had an unusually smooth transition from pick-up to coffee to launch. We were on the water by 6:15am in anticipation of a 6:45am sunrise. We tried a couple of quick shots along the way, but mostly focused on paddling to our new spot, "Carrabas." 

We paddled until we found a few mullet schools, then started casting. I was throwing my SheDog early on, and after a few blow-ups, hooked up with a 20" trout. Kelly picked up a trout along the way as well.

We fished the mullet schools pretty hard until they dispersed into smaller groups, then started blind casting around the activity.  I worked a spot to the east while Kelly fished a spot to the west. I was able to hook up with a ladyfish on topwater, but the area I was in was too weedy, so I paddled over to Kelly's spot. He said he had caught a nice red in the area he was in, and was in the process of cutting up a big pinfish he had caught on his Spook.

I started pitching a gold spoon in the same area, and a few casts later got a big hit and hooked up with a nice red. He tried to drag me toward a piling out in the channel, but I tightened down my drag and used a free hand to paddle backwards away from the obstacle. Soon I had the red boatside.

A short time later, Kelly caught a big old stinky catfish on his cut bait. After freshening the bait, he got a big tug and had a solid fight on. A few minutes later he had a true slobberknocker of a redfish in his hands, a 28" behemoth.

At that point we decided to move, as we were running out of water at Carrabas. On our way to the channel I saw some commotion and threw my badonk-a-donk topwater toward it. The lure got slammed and a fish jumped out of the water. On the second jump I knew I had a snook on the line, and jumped out of my kayak to finish the fight. A few moments later I had the snook and hand and had completed my first every saltwater slam. It was a long time coming...

We finished the afternoon on Bunce's pass throwing everything we had at some bait schools. Kelly and I both picked up a trout or two and Kelly tried to pick up one of the bonnethead sharks cruising around, but by then it was 90 something degrees and it was time to get off the water.

We were due to have an epic day, and today proved to be the one. Great weather, wind, and a decent tide produced a good bite. I've the the fishing bug something fierce now.