Five Bite Cigar

12.29.11

Lake Jackson

Air: 60's
Water: High 50's

Hunter wanted to go back bass fishing before he headed back to Charleston.  We decided to go back to Lake Jackson to attempt another outing like our last one there.

We knew it would be tougher with the bluebird skies that greeted us in the morning.

We tried power fishing the hay mounds that we caught them on a week ago, but to not avail.  We proceed to the north west side of the lake and found some old lilly pad stick ups.

We were needing some bites, so I picked up ol' reliable.  A nice dry cigar I had brought from the house.  I have learned from fishing past tournaments that if the bite was slow, the only way to get it going was to fire up a big stinky.

Sure enough the cigar magic began.  

I caught a pike and had a bass miss my chatter bait.  We slowed down and started casting Zoom Ultra Vibe worms.

I finally slowed it down enough that the bites started to come regular.
This cigar was worth five bites that equaled a couple of three pounders and another pike.

The rest of the day I picked up bass pretty regular sprinkled with some pike in between.

Our count was around 8 bass, a bunch of break offs (not happy with my new 50 lb. test braid) and 3 pike.

Hunter requested I not post his catch for reasons that only we know.  Hint (I had one of those days, and he didn't).

We released two more to a secret pond.  Here are the release pictures, as we hope to create our own bass honey hole.

Joining his friends

Going into a nice clear lake

Still VERY frisky

Granny and Her Fish

12.27.11

My Mom is down spending a few months in her new digs at Bayside Villas.
After much prodding she finally got down to the nice dock that is part of the community.
I told her the only reason to be on the Forgotten Coast is to fish and drink beer.
You can tell by her grins that she is finally getting the idea.

Santa Delivers Sand Trout On Christmas Eve

12.24.11

Tide: Incoming to High

Christmas Eve brought Hunter, Doug and I together for a trip out to the Ochlockonee River mouth.

We headed over to Chaires Creek with two dozen shrimp and some gulp and tried to duplicate the good fishing adventure we had the last trip out.  But, as usual, it is tough to duplicate the previous trip if the tide isn't working the same as the last time.  This time the tide came in late and just kind of hovered at high.  We used up a bunch of shrimp feeding little fellas on the bottom.  I did manage to put one keeper speckled sea trout in the box.

So, as the wind layed and the tide slackened, we headed over to fish in front of the 24 marker and try for sand trout.  The river rushes through there so hard, most of the time we don't fish it.  But, the conditions were right to drop 3/8 oz. jig heads tipped with gulp shrimp down to the bottom.  We were quickly on the sand trout where the bottom came from 28 feet up to 20 feet.

These were some of the nicest sand trout we have caught.  Hunter got us going with this one which was one of the smaller ones we caught.  (except for Doug, who caught some about the size of his gulp.)

The size of the mouth on these guys show they can eat about anything you drop down.

Doug started whacking them too.

As the sun set we were thinking of the times gone by and the presents we used to get at Christmas.  They included old cotton insulated underwear, green hunting boots that accelerated your freezing feet and blue jeans that seamed to be always frozen down by your shoes.

Here at the Forgotten Coast, that time was way behind us!

Lake Jackson Winter Solstice Bassin'

12.22.10

Lake Jackson

Water: WAAAAYYYY Down

Wind: raging out of the south

Temp: 70's

Hunter and I wanted to do some bassin' on the first day of winter.  It just felt like it, warm, humid wind howling, foggy.  Yep, that's winter.

I heard from my friend that they were catching some nice bass IF you could get your boat in at Lake Jackson.  We took a chance, and after some maneuvering around the boat ramp, we got the tin Nan in the lake.

We just put the trolling motor down and started slingin' and bringing' a Chatterbait, a Zoom Ultra Vibe and a Skinny Dipper throughout the weeds and coots on Lake Jackson.

Soon Hunter said he missed one and then I got in the action with a jack pike on the Chatterbait.

Then Hunter caught a nice little bass and then followed up with this nice fish.

We caught a few more smaller bass and then I connected on this 2 and half pounder.

The bite was consistent in the wind and fog.  I missed a really nice fish on the chatter bait and then set the hook on this really nice fish, tipping the scales at 5 1/2 lbs.

Hunter stabbed another bass and the sun broke out and the bite tailed.

After some creative boat loading skills, we headed home happy bassers.

New Tune!

12.21.11

Hey, I've added a new fishing tune for your viewing/listening pleasure.
Click on the tune to the right of my posts and see what you think of Taj!!

Chaires Creek Whackfest

12.20.11

Tide: Outgoing

Well Hunter is home for the Holidays and, as is the case when he arrives, we start catching fish.

We decided on an afternoon trip over to Chaires Creek.  After receiving some fishing advice (thanks Taff) we launched at Mashes Sands and eased over to Chaires.

The mouth of the creek was covered with oysterman plying their trade.  I learned today they can make a little over $200 a day raking the oysters.  A lot of hard work, but pretty good paycheck over a week's time.

We slid past them and started anchoring up around the creek's oyster bars.

It didn't take long until we had a small trout.

  We started moving up and down the creek.  We hit an oyster bar back in the creek and caught a 4-5 puppy redfish.

After the oysterman started clearing out we eased back towards there oyster bars and the trout and flounder started biting pretty good.

Nancy was on fire with her shrimp draggin'.

Hunter and Nancy doubled up on a flounder and a trout.

We put three nice keeper trout in the box.  I was also in on the action throwing a white gulp shrimp on a jig head.  I was fishing where ever they would let me cast.  We landed well over a dozen trout.

Hunter and Nancy were down to their last shrimp as we were preparing to leave.

They finished with this real nice flounder and trout.

We headed back to the hill with panko fish fry sandwiches waiting for us after the boat clean up and fish cleaning session.

Nancy Dials Them Up At Rotary Reef

12.6.11

Tide last of incoming and first of outgoing
Water Temp: high sixties

We took the Nan Z out for a run as the seas quieted finally.

Decided to got out to Rotary Reef for a quick trip.

The fish were biting as soon as we anchored up and dropped down.

The Black Sea bass were biting on every cast.  We kept a few for dinner and just enjoyed hooking them on light tackle.

Nancy was fishing under the boat wearing out the sea bass with shrimp.  She dropped down with some cut bait and soon I heard her drag screaming.
She brought up a beautiful over slot Redfish.

28" Redfish

We decided to give trolling a try.  The last couple of years we have done well dragging stretch 25's around the rocks.  We caught nothing trolling east, but each pass westbound had Nancy pulling in another gag.  All of these were right at 22 inches which would be a keeper if we were allowed to put them in the icebox.  But, the federal government have different ideas, and all were released.

We headed back in to Mashes Sands and stopped between the 7 and 8 marker and caught some sand trout and croakers to finish up a fish catching day!

So This is Catching and Not Fishing!

12.2.11

Tide:  Out going

My neighbor Taff said he would take me fishing in his home waters around Spring Creek when I could get in the boat.

I saw him earlier in the week and told him I was boat ready after fishing over Thanksgiving and not feeling too bad.

We went out Friday morning and as we approached the creek after a 15 minute boat ride, birds dropping down and feeding everywhere.

Its always a good sign that the birds have found the buffet open.

As we worked our way back into the creek by various maneuvers, we finally reached our first hole on a cool morning.

As I reached down to get my rod ready I realized my bail was broken on my Shimano.

So as I was rerigging my other rod, Taff put a whoopin' on the fish.  Three keeper reds, a pup and a sheepshead in five straight casts.  He looked at me and said, "We aint' fish in' today we're catching'!"

Man, was he right with that statement.

After I got my gear assembled again, we hit the next hole and I got some action as we brought aboard a few more keeper reds and probably 5 more pups.

We then went to the very back of the creek to the last hole.

We fished there for at least an hour, and caught well over 20 keeper reds and at least 30 pups.  I have never seen this before.  EVERY cast was a bite and we had many doubles and lines crossed.

We were tallying how many spots each red had.  Taff was winning with a five spot red until I caught a seven spot red.  Crummy picture below.

We finally decided to quit catching and run around and show me the sites of Spring Creek.

I watched as Taff pulled up to oyster bars to grab some treats.

Check out the size of the oysters he grabs!

This tour included the viewing of the 12 boils in Spring Creek, two alligators and a few small trout along the way.

Wow, this is what you call fishing (catching) paradise!

I couldn't ask for a better trip and a more educational trip than I received today.

Thanks Taff!