Fishing With The Convicts and Hunter

1.7.11

Air: 60 deg.
Water: 66 in the boil, 54-52 in the river
Tide: incoming to high
Wind: Very windy

Fished with Hunter up the Ochlokonee River on Friday before he headed back to school.

We decided to put in at the State Park because the wind was raging outside and we knew we could kind of get out of it up there.

The tide was very, very low due to the strong NW wind, but we managed to get the Nan in the water.

Our plan was to go fish the boil in Bear Creek and then fish our way out as the evening came.  We attempted to enter the creek on the northside but the water was so low, that our entry was blocked by some downed trees.

So we headed downriver to come in from the southside.

We finally made it to the boil.  We had never fished the actual boil because someone was always there, but with the cold weather and wind, we only saw two other boats all day.

We had the boil to ourselves and the plan was to try and catch the convicts (sheepshead).  Hunter was the designated convict catcher.

He started missing the bait stealers immediately.  So, he switched over to a rod with braided line so he could feel the bite better.  That worked, and soon he brought two boat side.

We were running low on shrimp, so we decided to fish a few of the deeper holes in the bends of Bear Creek as we headed back to the ramp.

We pulled the boat up on the lee side of the bank and casted into a deep hole just south of the boil.

Hunter soon hooked up on a catfish.  Nice.  But, I changed things up and caught a nice red on a TriggerX.  He was positioned just off the drop in about 8 feet of water.

As the sun was getting pretty low in the sky, we decided to try one more hole.  It was about a quarter of a  mile down from the boil.

As we started casting, I missed a couple of fish and then it was on.

We caught 5 trout, and swung and missed on a bunch of others.  This one was the nicest.

We put on our jump suits and headed back up the river after enjoying a flyover of a big bald eagle.

We were real happy about our battle plan coming together on a blustery day on the Forgotten Coast.  

Hunter got home and started packing up for his last semester at Rhodes College.

I think he enjoyed the quiet.