New Year's Day Good Luck?

1.1.14

I try and fish on New Years Day every year.  I am under the assumption that if you catch a fish you will have good luck for the rest of the year.

Can it be that I will have 3 times the good luck this year?

Bass number one.

 Bass number two was a very nice fish for our pond.  She was caught off my sister's lot.

Bass number three.  Third time was a charm, and I headed to the house on a rainy, drizzly, cool New Years Day.

Happy New Year to everyone who checks in on Fish Hard Panacea!

Grouper Biting? Nope

12.30.13

We wanted to run the Seacraft, so we headed out to the 3 mile hole and Rotary reef in the afternoon.

The seas were as calm as I have ever seen and our destinations were achieved quickly, as we motored to each hole at 40 mph.

We were catching small sea bass over and over, but no keepers.

Hunter texted us while we were fishing and said he had heard that the gags were in shallow.

I texted him back with this picture and asked, "does this look like a gag?"

It was a beautiful ride back in from Rotary.  I wish the seas could be like this all of the time!

Hunter Came Home and the Fish Bit (Of Course)

12.27.13

Hunter flew in with us after a visit with the in laws, out laws, dogs, cats, nieces, neighbors and the like in Silver Spring MD this Christmas.

We hit the Ochlockonee River while a meager tide was going out.  Not much current at all, but it didn't stop the speckled trout from biting.

We eased around the bars in front of Tradewinds and the fish were there is you worked hard enough.

I slid to the long bar up the river where the trout have been hanging for over a month and sure enough they were still home.  We caught 15 in a couple of hours and had at least that many get off as they were lightly striking the plugs and jigs we were throwing.

The lure of the day was the Mirrorlure Catch 2000 Jr. in gold with an orange belly.

Hunter scored on some nice trout with the reliable jig head and New Penny Gulp Shrimp.

With the clearing water the trout have regained their colors they had lost in the murky waters created by the heavy rains this summer.  As you can see, they are beautiful now.

We even doubled up on our catch.

We called it a day after a couple of hours fishing.  We let all of these go to be caught another day.

It was a good trip with my good luck fishing son!

Breaking In New Gear

12.4.13

My new gear that Santa was bringing me didn't arrive in time to get brutalized in Beaufort, but I did get out for a couple of hours Wednesday and christened both reels.

One is a Shimano Caenan bait caster that I can use to keep the pressure off my poor old fishing elbow.

I was throwing a Rapala twitching shad and this nice 20" trout nailed it.

The reel throws sweet and supposedly will withstand the saltwater environment, but time will tell if that is true.

I must have been really good this year, because Santa also got me this Stradic cl4+ spinning reel.

Wow!  Carbon fiber and light.  Again, hoping that it will take the pressure off my elbow.

It got broken in by a keeper trout that ate a new penny Gulp shrimp.  You can see the Gulp jig head peaking out of his mouth.

Caught one other trout on the jighead and called it a day after the huge incoming tide was trashing the water.

All of the fish went back to be caught another day!  That was their Christmas present.

Black Friday Beaufort Redfish Bonanza

11.29.13

I've been fishing a long time, but this trip to visit Hunter over Thanksgiving is in the epic category.

We drove down to Beaufort, SC early on Black Friday from Charleston.  It was cold, frost was on all the cars and rooftops so thick it looked like it had snowed.

We were meeting Hunter's buddies, Jeff and Brian.  They fish out of a 22' Nitro and know the area extremely well.

Brian said we were gonna try a stretch of bank that holds reds after the first cold spell.  We were to find out his was correct on that memory!

It was a stretch of hill that had 4 creeks running out of a island in the Broad River.

We hit the tides right as the bottom was falling out.  A brisk 15 minute run had me thinking I was happy I had on long johns and a jumpsuit.

We started banging the hill and started picking up reds and few trout.  The last creek was coming up, and when we arrived, the bite was on.

We caught many, many over slot reds with a bunch of double hook ups, 3 triple hook ups and an unbelievable quad hook up.

We figured we caught well over 40 over slot reds.

The fish were hitting all soft plastics rigged on a jig head.  Gulp shrimp, Gulp jerk bait, DOA shad, ZOOM Fat alberts were all getting smashed.

One of us would hook up and the rest would follow up with a cast behind the hooked fish and then hang on.

These fish in extremely shallow water put on quite a show as all the could do is swim sideways and pull like a freight train.

When the sun got up and the tide got low enough, we could see the tidal wave of fish running down the creek mouth.  The water would bow up as 20, 30, 50 fish schools would be cruising the oyster laden bank.

Hunter and I banged this double.  Hunter's fish had an odd spot up front.  These fish are more of a silver instead of gold like here on our coast.

Brian, Jeff and Hunter with one of the triples that came boat side in the morning.

Jeff caught a multi-spotted red.

Thanksgiving always have you thinking about family and friends.  This trip was a memory that will last forever for me, as it was shared with my son, Hunter, and his two good buddies and the great outdoors.

Another reason to give thanks on Thanksgiving!

The next post shows the quad hook up courtesy of Brian's Go Pro Hero Cam he had mounted on the T Top of his boat.  Hope you enjoy it!

Black Friday Sale 50% Off All Redfish

Good Evening Trip

11.23.13

Headed to the river before the big blow came in on Saturday evening.

The fish were biting again.

We stopped at Tropical Trader and picked up a few crabs with the idea of going under the bridge and trying to catch a big black drum.

But, as we headed up the river, the heavy incoming tide and the northeasterly winds were creating a dangerous chop of the old tin boat.  We swung it around and headed to the lee shore to get out of the wind.  It's always good to be very adaptable in the salt.

We hit the bar in front of Tradewinds and the reds were biting good on the swift tide.  They were banging a jighead tipped with gulp or a zoom fat albert.

Four came aboard and a big one broke off (as usual).

After that bite cooled we headed upriver to the bar that has been holding trout.  Sure enough on the first cast they proved they haven't moved as a nice keeper came aboard.

Four fish came to the boat as the sun set over the river.

I tried to get some to eat a topwater but they were just half hearted about it.  Maybe after this blow, next week I can get one to come eat off the top.  That will be gone soon with winter approaching.