My neighbor, Jim, wanted to fish some top water this evening so we waited until 4:30 and rode out to Walton. Lots of fluffy white clouds and wind. Today was the day the big one got away!
Fishing Report 5-31-15, Walton Scrub, almost 5:00pm. Very windy from Southeast with 2-3 foot waves, low tide incoming. Hot day almost 89 but it was cooling off some, water temp around 80.
It was a crazy night of fishing at Walton. We got there around 5pm and Jim was going to throw some top-water when it got late. There were three guys fishing near our spot on the 2nd weed-bed with live bait. We headed South and went around them and started fishing at the four poles-- at the edge of what had been "the dead zone" this last week.
I was fishing 1/8 oz Cal-jig with a DOA paddletail and Jim was fishing 1/4 oz jig before he switched to top-water. We were close to the 3rd weed-bed and the waves were pounding us as we tried to get out deep since it was low tide.
Jim was shallower and swung around to middle of the weed-bed while I fished the North edge. I wasn't used to the lighter jig-head and missed the first trout bite. One cast later I lifted the bait and held it there, then wham, fish on. This was no dinky trout, it fought and stayed down until I got it to me. Then it burst into the air, woah!!! nice trout, I grabbed my camera and pulled it up:
I held it in the air for a quick close-up:
Two casts later I hooked another nice trout, pulled it in and shook it off. "That's 2," I yelled over to him. I caught another nice one about 17" on the next cast but it was deep hooked so I went over and borrowed Jim's pliers (mine fell in the Lagoon a couple days ago!!!) and worked the lure out. Jim got a strike and lost a trout on the way in.
I caught another trout deep and Jim also caught his first trout. That was 4 and 5 total (between both of us) in 10 minutes at the 3rd weed-bed. I proceeded to catch two more trout in just a few more casts. Here's the last one:
At one point I had 8 trout and Jim had 3, then he reached for his secret weapon, the "electric chicken" DOA paddletail. And sure enough, he found a spot just South of the 3rd pier and caught 7 trout there- woah!!!
Meanwhile I moved South to see what he was doing and I caught a small trout too. We were counting and we finally hit 20 trout. Then Jim put on a Zara Spook and went shallow to get a snook while I went back North and caught this trout:
Nice slot trout our 21st trout in the 3rd weed-bed.
Jim cast around the 3rd pier and I went shallow too and cast around the first pier- nothing. Jim walked along the sandbar and I went deep fishing North. I caught another trout (number 22) and a nice Jack before I passed the three guys fishing who said they "caught some trout on live shrimp." They were fishing in the "dead zone" but I didn't say anything. They were now fishing with live pintails for snook, not sure if they caught any.
I caught trout number 23 when I got to our spot in the 2nd weed-bed. It was a real leaper and skied several times in the air.
A couple casts later I heard Jim yelling from the sandbar. I could see his rod bent double. "Big snook," he yelled. He was casting shallow in the weeds with a topwater lure, a Zara Spook. The area inside the sandbar was just three feet deep. I headed towards him with my camera:
(Click to enlarge)
When I got close it was clear he had a monster snook, maybe not the size of "snookzilla," the 25+ snook I caught at Walton two weeks ago (see my post of 5-15-15), but it was big. And I'm sure as time passes it will reach legendary proportions.
I could see the water frothing and it reared its head briefly from the water. I was waded there as fast as I could without running. Just after I snapped the photo, the monster snook snapped his line. And so- that is the story (only true lies) of the big one that got away!!
I checked Jim's line-- it was frayed for 6 inches from where it broke!!! Snook have a very sharp gill-plate and sometimes it rubs the line and. . .you know the rest. What a fish, and what an evening at the Lagoon!
Our totals: 23 trout (Jim caught around 10 of those), 1 jack and. . . . .the snook that got away. A great day on the water!!!
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