MIXED BAG

3-25-2011. Today's fishermen caught a mixed bag of 10 trout, 4 black drum and 2 redfish plus a lot of throwbacks.

MORE TROUT

My fishermen today were ages 13 and 15. After a little instruction and a little practice they were casting like experienced fishermen. In 4 hours they caught 11 trout, drifting with popping corks.

SPECKLED TROUT

3-17-2011--Picture of proud twelve year old with 27" redfish is from yesterday not today.

Today was trout day. My group of three caught 18 nice trout from 15 to 20 inches. We used live shrimp under a popping cork while drifting. The fish were scattered but at the end of the day we had a nice box of fish. There were lots of 14 1/2" fish; in fact, we probably caught 2 to 4 smaller fish for every keeper. So the catching was constant even if the keepers weren't.

TOUGH DAY

3-9-2011--When we left the dock this morning the wind speed was about 20 MPH. Soon it was gusting around 30 or more. Except for a couple of spurts, fishing was slow all day. On our second stop we picked up several keepers along with some small fish. On the last stop of the day we picked up several more keepers and a lot of small fish. In between these two events we probably moved at least a dozen times while catching short fish, sting rays and hardheads. The good news is the black drum we caught were sizeable fish. We ended the day with 11 keepers, including 8 drum, 1 trout, 1 red and 1 whiting.

HIGH WATER

3-8-2011--After being low for weeks on end the water has come up over a foot. We had been saying we needed the water to come back in. Well, it did, but somehow the fish got lost. I wanted to pre-fish today because I have a charter tomorrow. I took 2 friends using artifical lures and we caught several reds but only one was a keeper. Tomorrow we will be using shrimp so I still expect to catch reds and drum. A strong north wind is expected early tomorrow morning. That will probably push water out of the bay and lower the tide level again.

If anyone is looking for a boat motor I have one at a very reasonable price. I'm ordering a new motor and need to sell the one I have. It's a 2010, Mercury 250 PRO XS, 20" shaft with 280 hours on it. I'm asking $13,995 OBO.

SKINNY FISH

3-7-2011--I guided a Nilgai hunt over the weekend for a change of pace from fishing. The four hunters took 3 good bulls and one cow. My highlight, other than finding the Nilgai, was dispatching a large snake with a machete. I've been hearing stories about rattlesnakes that fail to give any warning rattle when people or dogs get close. This one didn't rattle even when I used the end of the machete to brush aside the grass over it so I could see where to hit it. It did rattle between my first and second blows with the machete.

I'm back to fishing tomorrow so I'll have a report by tomorrow evening.

BLACK DRUM RULE

3-3-2011--We started today trying to catch speckled trout on mid-bay reefs since the wind is down. After three hours of no bites we gave that up and went for reds and black drum. My 4 fishermen limited with 20 black drum in addition to 3 reds. The average size of the drum was much larger than normal.

I don't know where all the sting rays are coming from. We caught several today. Monday, was even worse when my 2 fishermen caught 10 to 12 sting rays along with limits of black drum. It seems that everywhere we find black drum and reds the sting rays are right there with them. If the hook is showing in the sting ray's mouth I can get it out with a hard head flipper but if the hook is buried I just cut the line.

The best bite this last week has been after 11 AM.