My biggest trout ever, just shy of 30" and around 9 lbs:
This beauty was caught on 7-7-16 in the morning on on top water (Skitter-Walk) and measured around 30" and weight around 9 lbs --almost caught my ten pounder!!!
I'll give a couple fishing reports. As you may know the South Indian River Lagoon near Stuart had some toxic algae and I'm not wading in that area- which includes Walton Rd. Even though it's not as bad that far north. The St. Lucie River and all the way to the inlet has been green- green algae in the water, so until it cools down it's best to stay out of the water. Most of the problem is the dumping of toxic water from Lake Okeechobee by the Army Corp of Engineers (more on that later).
The beach has been good for snook, ladyfish and jack in the early mornings and evenings (6:30-8:00) and I've caught good number and one over slot snook (around 33") but, in general, the large females have not shown up yet.
Jim Bohrer has taken me out fishing about once a week and we've done well, we caught 88 trout one morning in June (I caught 47 that day) and 45 the last week in June but not many good sized fish. That changed yesterday when I caught six trout 23" or longer.
Fishing Report 7-7-17 Vero Beach Lagoon, north of 2nd Ft. Pierce bridge, Jim's boat. It very hot 81 in the morning and around 91 when we got off the water at 11:15 AM. Water temp around 84 with a breeze fro the southwest about 5-12 mph. overcast but mostly sunny. Low tide and outgoing to dead low. I fished skitter-walk (topwater) and a 1/8 oz Cal jig with sparkle 4" shad-tail plastic. Jim fished poppers and mirror-lure on top and 1/16 oz jig with a white plastic Berkley shrimp.
We went out from the launch and there was a boat near out spot, so we went around him and fished North. We were still in out best spot this summer. I threw my Skitterwalk out and the second cast the water erupted-- fish on, this was good fish. When I brought him across the weeds I yelled out, "Bluefish!" I wheeled him down to Jim unhooked him.
Jim was fishing a jig and I cast the skitterwalk as far as I could- one twitch, wham! the water sprayed in the air as a big trout missed my lure. Two twitches later- wham - fish on! This was a nice trout around 24" much bigger than the ones we caught the week before.
I hooked and released a slot trout two casts later when Jim finally had a hit. "Big one !!!" he yelled. His drag whirred. The fish swam at the boat then took off into open water. Jim had 100 yards of line pulled out and he yelled, "We're going to go after this one!" He automatically pulled up trolling motor and cranked the engine. "Must be a shark," he said as we followed it for 1/2 mile as it headed North towards the bridge. The fish slowed and Jim gained about 10 yards before it took off again. He cranked the engine and we went across toward an island. "that's twenty-six minutes already" Jim said. The fish wasn't even tired and Jim knew it. 'I'm going to put some pressure on it" he yelled and cut off the engine. He pulled the propeller up out of the water. "It'll pull the boat around," he explained. The fish pulled the boat about twenty feet before Jim's line went slack. He pulled the line in--the fish broke the hook!!!!
"At least my knots held," he said. I was glad we could finally get back to fishing for trout again. "That was a big fish," Jim said and speculated that it could have been a 30lb redfish. I guess we'll never know!
The guy that was fishing our spot had moved east and was a couple hundred yards away. I immediately got some awesome topwater strikes before landing a 19" trout. Then I cast shallow and had a big hit, water spraying everywhere- fish on! This fish was every bit as big as the 4-5pounder I landed earlier- I got it to the boat with Jim telling me to keep my rod tip down. He lipped the trout with his de-hooker and we took another picture of another big trout!!
While Jim was tying on a different topwater I hooked another big trout and it jumped completely out of the water twice before making its way to the boat. I pulled it around to Jim who didn't even look up, the 4 pound trout splashed against the boat and flipped off. On the next cast I caught and 18" trout and Jim helped me get the two treble hooks loose. Jim set the trolling motor heading North and I was casting in the shallower water. I got strike, then I left it sit, twitch and wham!!!
"Fish on!!" I yelled.
"Is it a big one?" Jim yelled back.
"Yes, bigger than the other ones!!!" I answered. I put my rod tip down to keep her from jumping.
"She's going under the boat" Jim yelled.
'Turn off the trolling motor" I yelled. I walked around the deck to the back of the boat. "This is monster!!" I yelled and then I pulled her up.
"Keep your rod tip in the water," he warned.
I kept her beside the boat for 10 seconds before Jim could lip her.
"Nice trout Buddy!" Jim said. He took several pictures and the fish was so long it barely fit in the picture. He measure her and she was over 29" and under 30. "Closer to 30" he said later. He weighed her and she was just under 9 pounds. What a fish!!!
Several minutes alter I landed another nice trout. We went by the our spot shallower and suddenly the water exploded around my Skitterwalk. Another huge trout grabbed by lured and with a tremendous splash of it's tail took off north. I set the hook and reared back- the fish pulled 10 yards of drag and just popped off. This was at lesat as big if nor bigger than the other one. I was shaking. I realized I put way too much pressure on that fish instead of letting it take line. I pulled back my Skitterwalk- the hook was bent, I lost a trophy trout.
We went to another spot but the trout weren't there I caught one small slot on a jig but that was it. We went North where Jim's friend had lost a big trout and fished the flat. Nothing. we caught a couple jack and made 5 passes with no trout. We hit another spot and nothing. Then I realized that Jim, the master, had not caught a trout. I'd only caught 11 but 5 of them were 23" or over so it by anyone's standards was a great day- especially with a 30" trout. We headed back to the honey-hole.
On my fist cast I got a vicious a strike on topwater and then near the boat a 19" trout slammed it and I got it over the boat side before it flipped off almost hitting the rail. Jim hooked a big fish on a popper but it was a 4 lb bluefish- he still didn't have a trout! I caught another 4-5 pound trout and we took another pic. I was hoping he'd catch a trout soon. Jim caught two more big bluefish. And I caught my last trout, nice slot, before Jim finally caught a slot-trout on his topwater.
It was getting hot and we made a pass in hte shallow water but I got just one strike before we headed in it was around 11:00 am. We'd fished about 4 hours.
My totals: 12 trout with 6 trout 23" or bigger and one almost 30"er (11 on topwater). I also caught 1 bluefish and 2 jack. A hot day on the water.
Jim's totals: 3 jack, 3 bluefish and 1 trout; most on topwater.
No comments:
Post a Comment