Finally got my sea legs back under me after my last trip to Crystal River. Jeez, recovery is getting harder.
As we pulled into Mashes Sands and were depositing the Nan into the river, I looked up and realized I couldn't see across the river to Bald Pt. We pulled out and let a passing rain cover us up at the ramp.
We got to see the hot August sun rise over the trees while we were waiting and then got to see a beautiful rainbow present itself over the river after the rain had passed.
I had heard that a fisherman had caught some tarpon above the bridge trolling. Since we haven't fished there to any degree, we decided that we would fish for some reds on the high tide in the grass at the mouth of Mini Chaires and Little Chaires Creek. Then go above the bridge and try this trolling thing. My Dad would be proud! He was the trolling king! Nancy bagged a nice puppy red and I caught a non keeper trout. Nancy has become a true believer of the New Penny Gulp. My trout ate the Chartreuse/White Gulp Jerk Shad. Sounds dirty don't it?
I started to rig up the trolling rods and Nancy suddenly yelled "I got one" with a grunt thrown in. She managed to get the trophy sail cat. Check out the whiskers on this brute!
After removing the slime from the line, we headed up above the bridge to troll. I had my rod slammed down once and Nancy had a quick hit on her Yozuri minnow, but nothing hooked up. I got to finally smoke a fine cigar my Mom got me for Doug's Bday party last week. It was a good one but didn't produce any catches. We did get to mingle with a family of dolphin that had found a nice pod of bait to munch on.
As the sun was getting higher and hotter we finished off the trip fishing the oyster bar in the mouth of the Ochlockonee River with good success.
I landed two nice reds on the new penny Gulp shrimp. One was this 20" keeper and the other one was trying to be a keeper.
Headed to the hill I noticed quite a few shrimp in the ramp cut. Only 4 rods to work on after this trip. The joys of saltwater fishing!
