No I'm not 30 although I wish I was. But I am still counting! Today I needed a calculator or Jim Bohrer to count my trout. If I stayed in the last spot where I caught 14 trout- I'd still be there- and I'd still be counting!!! They were biting when I left!!!
It rained this morning and it looked kinda ify but I went fishing anyway. Turned out to be a great day, no rain, just some heavy wind and waves.
Fishing report 6-3-15 10:00am Walton Scrub- to Walton over 3 1/2 hours of fishing- woah! Tide incoming, then later outgoing. Wind Northeast to southeast to East overcast with some sun later. Water very clear. CAL 1/8 jig with DOA paddlebait.
It was by all accounts a strange day. The weather was gr8- it never rained but everything else made no sense. I went out from Walton Scrub, the water was fairly deep shallow but I went deep to catch trout. Nothing was going on at all for 20 minutes and I was wondering where the fish were. I was getting ready to move when I hooked my first trout:
"Well, I caught one," I thought, "this is going to be a slow day." I decided I'd need to move South until I found some fish. I looked over my shoulder back at Walton Scrub. A guy crawled down the bank with a bucket. He waded around the shallow water, got out, put the bucket down and left. He never came back. The bucket was still there when I got off the water.
I went into "the dead zone" (an area of unproductive water South of Walton Scrub), and had no luck. I would have to raise a fish from "the dead zone," like I'd done the last two days. Sure enough before I got to the 4 white posts, I got a tap, hook-set, fish on! This trout stayed down and was around 20" but I never got to measure it because my camera decided to not work. I tried to get a pic three times and finally the fish had enough and flipped off. Haha!! Serves me right !! I put my camera away in my backpack- I guess the battery was low- but it didn't work.
Two bites- two fish, but only two bites. I went into the always productive 3rd weedbed. It wasn't productive-- at first! I finally caught a nice 17" trout after missing one deep. "3 trout, 4 bites." I saw guy in a small boat with a small engine and trolling motor come into the shallows. The wind blew him towards the first white pier where I was "out deep." He was using his trolling motor and a cast net to catch bait. He blew right into the first white pier, put his hand on the dock to keep from bumping it and threw his net. I wasn't going to fish that pier now!!
I moved South to the spot just South of the third pier. The guy in the boat kept going to the third pier!!! He went under it and on to the fourth pier. Finally, he cast his net and caught some bait. He pulled up his trolling motor, started his motor and off he went across the Lagoon headed Northeast.
I missed a trout deep, and kept moving South. Then I found them. The trout were shallow and almost all small but they were hungry. I had a total of 3 before I got there and when I left there to fish shallow for snook I had 16. This doesn't count the ones I missed or jumped off!! Only a few of those were 15" but it was fun for awhile. While I was fishing a V-shaped boat came motoring from the South in three feet of water with the engine tilted to prevent it from hitting mud and weeds. Two scuba divers with tanks and fins dangled their legs of the front. When they got to the white pier one of them jumped off and started swimming under the water- it's only two foot deep there!!!?! What was she thinking- and. . . there's weeds everywhere!!?? After a minute she stood up and they pulled her back on the boat and drove off. Another of the day's mysteries!!?!
It was time to catch a snook!! I switched to a "Cal Shad" color (green with glitter) paddletail and cast around the shallow piers (4th and 5th piers)- nothing. I headed across the flat weedy area in front of the mangroves a good spot. With the wind to my back I made long casts near the shore and pulled the jig over the weeds. It would have worked except for one thing- the snook weren't there or if they were, they weren't biting!!! The water was so clear you could see them- and I didn't see anything- but there were a lot of weeds so they could have been down in the weeds but I don't think so.
Before I got to the six pier I had a hard strike by the white pilings of a fallen pier and the fish leaped from the water- lady fish!! It jumped 5 times and pulled drag before I could unhook it, this was a big one (over 2 1/2 pounds). I went out to the sixth pier and had one strike under the pier- probably a small snook - I could see the fish flash-- it wasn't big. I then went out to the fourth weedbed and switched to an "electric chicken" colored paddletail. I got a strike that pulled my bait tail off. Then I looked at the last pier, the best pier at Walton- "Should I stay or should I go." I looked at my jig and my line, my line was getting torn up- "Should I retie?? I can always just play the fish more," I thought.
I went shallow for snook and worked down to the last pier- not a hit. I switched colors to opaque glitter, a better snook color. The sun was now out and it seemed like it was dead high (slack) tide. I made it to the pier and stayed 60 feet out and cast to the pilings. I made 20 casts but the 21st was awesome- whammmm, huge strike!!! Big snook on!!!
My line took off going 60 mph straight east, I felt the weight of the fish and backed off a little so it wouldn't bust my line- a second or two later my jig popped out. Four seconds of excitement. My heart was pumping. "Why didn't I retie??!!?? Who knows if it mattered or if I could keep the big snook from heading back under the pier and breaking me off anyway. I'll never know."
I was bummed and cast some more around the pier but got nothing so I went deep. It's shallower off the end of the pier than the middle!! I started casting my way back North. The tide was going out now and the wind was now out of the Southeast. When I got back near Walton Rd. I got a strike. I cast again and caught a small trout- number 17. I went a little farther North and it got shallower. I got a strike near my rod-tip when I pulled my jig out of the water.
I cast deep, trout on, it came up and shook the lure off, missed that fish! I pulled my paddletail in fast to check my bait- trout on!!! Another trout took it while I was reeling in!! I pulled it in and shook it off. I cast again tap, hook-set miss, tap trout on!! The trout were everywhere- they were as far as I could cast deep and as close as 12 feet from my rod tip. Most of them were 25 feet out and when I cast I'd slow down when I got to 25 feet out. I caught seven small trout then a nice keeper.
Two guys climbed down the bank with bobbers and were throwing "the deadly combo." They saw me catching fish after fish and headed North. I was still counting, finally I got to 29 trout. Catching one more should be easy. Cast out, tap hookset fish on, fish off. He threw it when he came up. Cast shallower- a little trout grabbed it when it hit- and flew in the air on the hookset and flew off the hook. 5 casts later I got number thirty, a keeper sized slot- I was done. I had gone through 4 DOA glitter baits and was down to a stub of pearl white, about 2 inches long. I headed back.
I talked to the two guys which were now three guys fishing past the 6th pier. They were fishing on top of the sandbar!! Clearly they had no clue. I asked them what they were fishing for, one guy said, "Snook, trout and redfish." I told then to go back to where I was and catch some trout, but get off the sandbar." I went around them and threw a couple cast here and there. I was tired, walked along the sandbar casting, and got off the water.
My totals: 30 trout (and still counting) and one lady fish. And... one giant snook that got away!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment