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!

Badonk A Donk At Work

3.29.12

Water: 72 deg.

Tide: incoming

Water a little dirty

Wanting to see a little different scenery we headed down to Lanark.  Looking for some reds on a spoon, but that didn't happen.

We fished west of Lanark Boat Club all along 98.  Nothing happening there, so we decided to do a little exploring.

We hit a deep slot between sand bars and found a few small trout that wanted some jerk baits.  Then the Spaniards came in.  They were nice ones liked the Zoom Fat Alberts, they must look like the bait they were chasing.

We continued west and found a pretty flat at the mouth of Carrabelle and the badonk a donk went to work.  This one measured 23 inches and weighed four pounds and put up a heck of a fight in the shallow water.

A few casts later a fatter, shorter trout wanted the donk.  Again, she put on quite a battle as there was no where to go but up or sideways in the shallow water.  Although shorter, this one was much fatter and also pulled down the scale to 4 pounds.

We continued west, but were unable to catch any big ones, but did manage to catch another 5-6 keeper trout.

All in all a very nice morning on the water, but I wish they didn't charge $10 to put in at the Lanark Boat Basin.  Heck, that is a gallon of gas I could be burning!

Slow and Methodic

3.26.12

Water: 72 deg.

Tide:  Low to incoming

Nancy and I decided to give it a try after the wind blew hard for a week.  We were hoping to duplicate the catches Willie and I put together a week earlier

We were hitting dead low tide and found the conditions to be tougher than Willie and I's fish slaughter.

We hit our favorite spots, white bar, trade winds bar and had nothing to show for our repeated casts.  Not even a bite.

We went out to the outer bar, which has been good to us on low tide and again nothing.

Eased back into the middle bar.  Fished back and forth until we found the trout in the quick running water on the front of the bar.  I caught 9-10 here on jerk baits and gulp.  Rolled a half dozen more.  The best one was 19".

The tide finally died and the lady fish moved in.

We dedcided, since the wind layed, we would hit the clam bar.  All we could raise was a solitary bluefish.

We went back in and fished the flounder bar.

The oyster men were working the bars in the morning. I thought I had snagged a nice cluster of oysters when to my surprise I saw the biggest flounder I have ever caught coming to the boat with a Rage Shrimp in it's mouth.

I measured 18 1/2" and will eat good tonight with crab stuffing.

Five Pounder! Five Pounder! Five Pounder!

3.18.12

Tide: dead low to incoming

Water: 72 degrees

Willie wanted to hit the water again after finishing up the tile work at our home.

We were hoping to duplicate the trout slaughter we had a couple of days ago.  Little did we know the fishing would be even better.

We headed to the white oyster bar in the OR about an hour after sunrise.  The fog was thick as we launched but eased after we hit the water.

The water was very still as we arrived right at low tide.  We worked our way around the bar throwing top waters.  Willie was casting his red head white body top dog using a very deliberate twitch and stop action.

One long stop was all this gator could tolerate.  With a loud attack on his top dog while it was sitting motionless, the trout kamikazied his bait and the fight was on.  Willie kept saying "oh my god, this is a gator" over and over.

Well, when it hit the net there was no doubt it was a gator.  It pulled my boga grip down to a little over five pounds.  It was the largest trout ever brought to the Nan since we have lived here.

We couldn't coax another fish off the bar, so we slid across the river to an oyster bar I have had good luck on in the spring.

I was wanting to catch a nice red.  I was pitching a Rage shrimp into the shallow bar as the water started to turn and head up river.  The bite started off quickly and didn't stop for a half hour.  Cast after cast brought a bunch of pup reds and three keeper reds to the boat.

This nice red weighed 5 1/4 lb. on the boga.

As the red bite was winding down, we decided to head back to the white bar and see if the incoming tide had positioned the fish on the back side of the bar.

We were quickly rewarded as the Rage shrimp brought two more nice trout on board.  One was almost 20" and this one was a 3 3/4 lb. 20" plus trout.

As the rushing incoming tide made fishing much more difficult, we headed out to the clam bar to see if we could play with the spaniards to finish up our morning trip.

They didn't disappoint, as my first cast with a spoon brought the biggest Spanish I have ever caught boat side.  Again, the boga grip was brought into action, as this fish pulled down to a little over 5 pounds.

Willie added another spanish and a blue to the box.

Our stomachs started growling and our backs were sore so we headed in.

Willie sautéed up one of the trout one of the trout for our shore lunch.

It was a good ending for a day of 5 pounder! 5 pounder! 5 pounder!