My neighbor invited me to go fishing today. So we left early (for us) around 9:00am. We headed down to Walton. I got my girlfriend to pose with my new reel when I came home- here she is:
(Click to enlarge)
Fishing Report: 5-17-15, 9:30 AM Walton Road. Tide high and incoming; wind 15-20 mph out of Southeast.
The wind was really blowing, even this early in the morning. We cast our way out to the sandbar and fished the deep side. Surprisingly, no one was out on the water today- yet. The waves were almost 2 foot and relentless. We cast into the wind with jigs rigged with paddletail DOA swimbaits.
I cast a couple times before my neighbor got there and about the third cast I hit some weeds, when I pulled through I had a fish on. At first I though I had weeds on my line but as it came closer, the fish took off for the shallow water and came unhooked. "I would have liked to seen that one," I said. The fish tore the tail of my plastic paddletail so I quickly re-baited.
I fished North for 50 yards and then back. My neighbor was heading South. I got a hit and it missed then a second later I got another hit- fish on!!! Whatever it was it was a good fish and it pulled drag half-way in then pulled drag twice before I could see it- a 3 lb Jack. The Jack circled around and pulled drag one more time before I lifted him out of the water by the leader- what a chunk!
My neighbor was far South and almost to the third weedbed. I started after him then a few cast later I got a hard strike as I pulled the jig near the surface. A nice Jack grabbed it and splashed on the surface before heading down to the bottom. This one was about half as big but still put up a fight. I unhooked him and headed for the third weedbed.
By now my neighbor was going shallow to fish the first pier. I fished the third weedbed - nothing. "Where were the trout?" I thought, "this was bad, maybe it was that the tide was almost high and the waves were pounding." I had been catching them best at low tide.
My neighbor caught a nice snook off the South side of the pier then went shallow away from the pier. I went down to pier and skipped my jig under the pier several times on the deep end- nothing. it was almost 4 foot deep by the pier and I got closer and made a couple casts shallow. Boom!!! Snook on!
This snook decided to go away form the pier and I was going away from it too as fast as possible. She jumped twice, not big, about 3 1/2 pounds, but feisty. I pulled her further away from the pier and gently swung her up, she splashed and went back around one more time before I could lip her and unhook my jighead. I yelled to my neighbor but he was headed for the 2nd pier which was short and never good. I went back to the pier and since it's long fished the bottom. I had a gentle hit then stopped the jig and jiggled it- wham another snook! This fish was bigger over 5 lbs and it too jumped completely out of the water. I headed out from the pier so did the fish- at first. Then it went back toward the pier. I put some pressure to keep the fish away but she would have nothing to do wit hit- my line popped- at least the leader broke. Snook are very strong at first and I should have retied after catching the Jack.
I was out of jig-heads so I borrowed one from my neighbor. He had caught another snook and lost one off the 3rd pier. Both were about 3-4 lbs and nice fish. When i went under the 3rd pier I cast shallow along the pilings, fish on! I headed out from the pier but no need to worry this was a small snook and I had no trouble with him.
We made it to the next pier and both off us got hung up on it, so we didn't really get a chance to fish it. No fish on the next pier either but after we went under it my neighbor hook a nice snook, which was a little bigger (small slot) and he landed it and unhooked it. We went all the way to the long pier and except for one strike had no action. My neighbor caught a nice snook near the base of the long pier and we headed back. I went out to the sandbar and casted shallow and he fished the shoreline again.
There was a girl in a bikini sunbathing on the 5th pier and I was casting around it. She sat up and looked at me. I told he not to worry, if I caught her I'd throw her back!! She said, "You'll never catch me wading in there!!" She was afraid of sharks or whatever looms beneath the surface. We talked for a minute, she was from Iowa and was going back home soon. I was born in Iowa and have a place on the Mississippi-- it's a small world. I wasn't trying to catch any "ladyfish" so I said "bye" and move on to fish the end of the next pier. After getting back to the 3rd pier I headed out deep to catch trout. My neighbor had stopped to get some gravel/sand out of his shoe.
After five minutes I got a trout bite and set the hook. Trout on!!! as usually she came up to the surface and shook her head and I got her back down by keeping my rod tip down and reeling hard. This was a longer than average fish around 18" but it wasn't heavy. She wasn't hooked well and I got her off in a sec and she went swimming away.
We fished a few more minutes and I felt a trout, I set the hook and again the fish came up - this time tho she came off and I was with out a trout! My neighbor was trying to catch one, he was troutless and had been so the last 4 or 5 trips while I had caught some every time. We tried to get him a trout but it was not use. They weren't biting. We got off the water after 12:30- we had fished 3 hours, the tide was going out now but still high and the waves were still pounding.
My neighbor was "Mr. Snook" and he caught 5 or 6 and maybe lost one. I caught three snook and had the biggest one break my line--I also caught 2 Jack and 1 trout while losing 1 trout. A great day on the water!!!
Richard
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