60 Year Old Catches Sand Trout!

9.11.10
Temp. HOT!
Water Temp: 86
Winds: calm
Tide: Outgoing and fast

60 year old Nancy caught a sand trout today!

She caught this beauty on a Gulp white shrimp in the sand trout hole in front of Panacea Harbor.  Nancy also caught her usually assortment of pooping ladyfish and some smaller trout.

We headed out this morning on a very fast outgoing tide.  We put in at Panacea Harbor due to the very low tide expected around noon when we planned on coming back in.

We were greeted with a hot humid morning but a very pretty sunrise.  This pelican was getting ready for the hot day by checking us out as we headed to the fishing grounds.

I had heard that the reds were in Elmore Bay, so we decided to try it first and see if any were there.
The bait was everywhere and the tide was running fast out of the creeks.

I made a cast at the second creek we came to and heard the unmistakable sound of red taking my bonkadonk on top.  It was a nice 21" red.

After fishing the next creek with no results we headed out to the barrel.  Soon the bonkadonk was history as a shark came up and ate it.  After a spirited battle he won and I lost a lure that had caught a lot of fish this year.

I tied on another topwater lure I had purchased made by Bomber.  It was promptly swallowed up by a big red but he kept getting unbuttoned after repeated attacks.  Thrilling, but no fish.

We then headed out to Shell Pt. reef and caught 3 or 4 trout there.  I caught a 16" on a senko after seeing how to use them on trout the night before on the "Flats Class" tv show.  Sweet.

We headed over towards Piney Island to see if any tarpon were hanging around.  We got to the area where the water suddenly goes from 8 feet deep to 3 feet deep and saw some schooling ladyfish.  We threw in the mix and quickly hooked up on a nice trout on a red head/white body Yozuri flash minnow.  As I was bringing the fish to the boat a sudden HUGE explosion of water occurred.  There was a monster fish trying to eat the trout about half way back to the Nan.   I kept pulling it away (scared) an the fish kept attacking the hooked trout all the way to the boat.  Water from his attack was splashing in the boat.  I was afraid this monster may jump in the boat and knowing a fish over  100 lbs. flopping in the boat would be a mess, I was kind of relieved after he took the struggling trout from me.

Tarpon or Shark?  I don't know, but I didn't see the tell tale fin of a shark, so I'm thinking a huge tarpon.

Headed over to the sand trout hole where Nancy is shown with her birthday trout and soon saw some tarpon rolling there.  Decided to try and troll one up.  No luck, so we went back to the barrel for one more try on the low tide as the sun was now driving sweat into your eyeballs.

I caught 3 trout there on a gulp shrimp.

We headed to the hill, knowing that there are some monster fish in the lake!

Headed to Tally for Nancy's hot dog birthday dinner.

High Class!