Well, once again this week I only managed to run 2 of my 4 scheduled trips. A snowed in Atlanta kept my friend Andy Mount from getting here on time, and unexpected schedule changes kept my old fishing buddy Dr. John Hitt from keeping his date. John may have missed some great trout fishing, as it really busted loose on Wednesday, the day before we were to fish.
I'll tell ya! This month has been schedule change after schedule change, trying to get my anglers a descent day to be on the water. My Captain's Log looks like the evacuation plan for the Titanic! I can't even follow all the arrows at this point!
The week began on Monday with David Reeve and his good friend Egon, of Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. We had already been schedule juggling trying to nail down a descent weather day with a descent tide, and moved them from Sunday to Monday when my friend Andy Mount couldn't get here because Atlanta was snowed in. It was cold. But, at least it wasn't blowing like hell!
We discussed strategy at the dock and David and Egon agreed that we could just try to find something that would bite. It didn't matter what it was. This was in the face of the miserable fishing reports that were circulating. Everyone was struggling to catch anything.
With that decision, we headed up the river to see if the ever present ladyfish at Shell Point would be ever present. Well, in a word; they weren't. OK. That's two words. And, after working them hard we caught only two ladyfish. The fish were there, all right. They just weren't interested in eating. We finally accepted our defeat, and moved on.
We headed up into the Sound looking for probably the only fish that we had a reasonable chance of catching; trout. The boys fished their butts off, and we had fun, but only caught two or three trout, all 14 ½ inches. After fishing numerous holes, we decided to try for some inshore grouper, but they weren't playing either. And, finally, we tried to find a redfish, but there was just nothing doing!
By this time our own appetites were flaring, and we headed to the Waterfront Restaurant for a fabulous lunch. I guess it's a good thing there isn't another species superior to us humans that tries to catch us by luring us to a hook with food. All they'd have to do is put something from the Waterfront on the hook, and I'd be on the stringer!
We only had four or five fish for our efforts, but still it had been a great day with David and Egon. Proof once again that it just ain't all about the catchin'!
The wind forecast for Tuesday was more than my old friend Chris Sanders and his uncle Don Metz cared to deal with, and we put our trip off until Wednesday, in hopes of catching better conditions. It gusted to 25 MPH Tuesday, but we caught a break on Wednesday. Actually, we waited until Wednesday morning to make the call. The forecast was just so iffy. But, finally we made the decision to go, and boy were we glad we did before the day was over.
I met Chris and his Uncle Don at the Waterfront Restaurant at 9 AM. The wind had been dead calm since sunrise, and by 9 there was just a slight breeze firing. We headed up into the Sound to the area of Regla Island, and went to work on a large pothole, looking for trout. Chris had bought a bunch of beautiful hand-picked shrimp, and I had all manner of lures. I tied on two Cotee jigs and fitted them with DOA C.A.L. Scented lures in green, and rigged a popping cork for the live shrimp. We went to work.
To my utter amazement, we were on a trout bite almost immediately. Hallelujah The fish were finally going to eat. Chris and Don were catching trout on almost every cast, and when they didn't they were still getting hits. I was bringing up the rear. We caught trout after trout, and began building our stock of keepers in the well full of shrimp. We were fishing a very large hole, and when the bite slacked off, I moved up the length of a cast, and we were back in the fish. We kept on catching and adding to our creel until we were finally limited out on trout! At this point we'd caught somewhere between 50 to 60 trout, and had 12 keepers in the well. We couldn't keep any more, and decided to turn our attention to redfish.
I began our search by running several flats, all of which usually have schools of redfish on them. I didn't see a fish! Redfish, that is! There were Brazillions of mullet! I opted to sneak quietly into one of my favorite redfish haunts and put out a couple of ladyfish steaks in hopes of tricking a redfish or two into eating. But, it was not to be. It had not been to be for a while. I suggested we go to lunch, and then try another spot or two for redfish afterward, when the water would be considerably higher.
Chris and I had been trying off and on to get together for oysters for several years, but schedules had gotten in the way. We hit the Waterfront, and of course ordered oysters right off the bat. We had a great lunch and great conversation, and were finally ready to go back out. It had already been a great day of fishing, catching, laughing, and carrying on. But, we wanted to try to put a redfish into the well.
We headed to an area that virtually always has redfish present. I tied on silver, gold, and red spoons with rattle chambers. We went to work. And, we beat the water to a froth. We think we had some hits, but sometimes it's hard to tell when they don't actually take. After fishing a large area of flats, we finally called it quits. Don had a time commitment to meet.
I can't tell you how much fun Chris, Don, and I had, and how many times we said we were so glad we'd decided to go instead of scrubbing the trip. We had been blessed with great weather and great fishing, topped with great camaraderie that makes for a perfect day on the water!
