Big Fish Update

Update to post last week.

Cheryl caught plenty of these monsters while looking over her shoulder for "the man".

She learned the term "tourist rig" and used it to her advantage.

My crack photography crew just got me this picture.

PompaNO, Trout Yes

4.19 and 4.20

We went and tried our luck at Pompano fishing.
You need to catch sand fleas first.  Not the gnat kind, but the mole crab kind.  I called my local sand flea experts and they told us where to go out on Alligator Point to gather them.
Well, the wind was blowing so hard that we couldn't get near the stretch of beach where they live.
Proving again, if we have to use something other than plastic, we won't catch any fish since we can't catch any bait.  Not local enough I guess.

We headed out to Dog Island and fished the east side of it and the west side of St. George island.
We had no luck except for ladyfish.  They kept the poop flying all day.

Nancy did catch a trout, but that was about it.

It was a very nice day out though.

Hunter had to leave on Friday, so we got up and hit the oyster bars at the OR mouth.

We put in a dead low tide.  The water temp was in the mid seventies.

We decided to hit the clam bar first since the water wasn't moving.  Hunter caught a nice trout pretty quick on his Zman bait Swimmerz in pearl white.

He really ate it as you can see by the picture.

As is the case when you catch one early, it was a long time between bites as we moved around the flat waiting for the water to move.

We fished the outer bars with no luck, slid in a fished the middle bars and stuck a trout, and the water really started to move.  We headed out to to the pole I have been catching trout on and they were there in the swift water

Hunter connected on his largest trout ever.  This 23 inch 4 and 1/2 lb. trout hit his white gulp shrimp about the time it hit the water.

The next cast he caught a 3 lb. trout.  I caught a nice flounder there too. He came home with us for a flounder bake he was invited to.

The water muddied after a while, so we slid back to the back bars to try and catch a redfish, but again they are hiding from us this year.

Hunter had to get back to catch a plane, so we loaded the Nan up and headed back to the house with another satisfying fishing trip with Hunter, the tarpon manget.

Tarpon Magnet Back In Town

4.17,2012

Water:  75 deg.

Wind: South

Hunter and I hit the water around noon today.  Hunter was itching to get after them and catch up on his tan.

The wind was blowing  pretty hard from the south and we quickly determined that the mouth of the OR was too rough for us.  We decided to head over to Carrabelle to fish in front of the river and slide down towards Lanark.  It was pretty choppy there also, but we managed to fish just by taking our time and eliminate water coming over the bow.

We tried banging the bank just east of the river with no luck on a nice high tide.

We eased around to the mouth of the river and had one good blow up on the badond a donk, but no hook ups.

We fished west of the river mouth and caught a couple keeper trout and some ladys, but just enough to keep us interested.

The wind layed a little and we headed down towards the abandoned motel where Cheryl had caught a couple little trout last week.

As we fished the little grass patch, I managed a trout.  Hunter was casting one way and me another.

Suddenly it sounded like Hunter had fell in and I got splashed in my back.

Hunter had a tarpon come up and eat his Zman Swimmerz about 15 feet from the boat.  The splash on me was from the fish wetting me down.  Hunter said he would have liked to have a picture of his face as the big tarpon came up and ate his swim bait.  Hunter did what you are supposed to do, he set up on the beast, but 15 lb. flouro leader material doesn't stand up well against a 150 lb. fish.  The tarpon swam away with a hook in his mouth and left us a good story to tell.  It's April and we had a tarpon hook up, so it may be a good tarpon year.

We slid further east down the bar and the fishing heated up with me catching a nice 20" trout on top and Hunter landing a 19" trout that ate his second Swimmerz.

Another day in the life of the Tarpon Magnet, Hunter.

Tough Week

4.16.12

Wind has been blowing pretty good this past week.
It blew hard enough Saturday that the Redtrout tournament was called off due to small craft advisory being posted early Saturday morning.
Too bad, Doug came up to fish it with me, so he had to go home with no earnings.
We fished the lake and caught a bunch of bass though.
I practiced all week and could only find a few trout in the mouth of the OR.

I caught a bunch of three pounders like this one on Thursday, also caught one that was 4 lbs. on a jerk bait.
We tried fishing at Lanark and Piney, but just couldn't make it happen.
I don't know where to catch a red.
Cheryl came down and caught her some small trout and I took our neighbor out, Mario, and he caught some ladyfish.  So they had something tighten their lines anyway.
Hunter is coming in today for a few days, so we usually spank them when he shows up.
Now, if the wind will let us fish.

ZERO

4.4.12

Incoming Tide

Water: 75 deg.

Water looked like crap with green moss clinging to every bait.

I caught zero fish at the mouth of OR.  Unless you count two pooping ladyfish.

GEEZ!