TROUT DAY

5-31-2011--The wind was considerably less today. It was still a little rough for the outside windward beaches but we could fish most of the bay. We started with an excellent trout bite, getting 16 nice fish on the first anchor before 7:30 AM. It took us until 10:00 to get the 14 more for a total of 30 for three fishermen. We then fished for reds but they were all 19 and a half inches long. One of our fishermen did catch a 26 1/2 inch trout on cut perch while we were fishing for reds. I had him return it to the water since we already had 30 trout. I really don't like to keep large trout, anyway, unless they are to be mounted. The redfish pictures with this report are from recent redfish trips while it was too windy to fish most trout waters. The wind is predicted to be down for the next several days. That will be a very welcome scenario.

REDS SAVE THE DAY

5-22-2011--Trout have been tough to come by the last few days but I'm still convinced that there are a lot of trout in the bays. The winds have been so strong that we couldn't fish the outside shorelines or middle bay reefs. Thank goodness for redfish. Since my last report we haven't limited on trout but have limited twice on redfish. The one day I spent too much time trying for trout on a protected shoreline, we ended the day with zero keepers. Today with two young boys and their parents we managed to catch 8 reds and 2 trout. We first tried fishing outside Traylor Island but the wind was just too much and the bite too slow. We switched to reds in the flats and the bite was good until all of a sudden about 11 AM the reds quit and the hardheads took over. We fished for a couple more hours moving several times but caught no more keepers. Cut menhaden is still the bait of choice for reds but it takes a lot of it to feed the perch between redfish bites.

GREAT TROUT FISHING

5-16-2011--What a great day for trout fishing. The last three days had been mediocre for me with 18 trout being the best of the three days. Today, changed all that. Only had one guest today and we waded in an entirely different area than I had fished lately. We stated with croaker and then switched to artificial lures which proved very effective. To my surprise top water lures worked but soft plastics didn't draw much attention. We completed his limit of 10 trout by 7:30 AM and kept 9 in case we deep hooked one that needed to be kept later. We did catch and release until 1:00 PM and caught well over 100 keeper trout of which over 25 were more than 20 inches in length. We only caught a handful of throw backs all day. The trout ranged up in size to 24 1/2 inches. My guest had on a huge trout that he was already considering having mounted when the end hook on his skitterwalk pulled loose right at his landing net. The trout of a lifetime could have come today but we weren't that lucky. Tomorrow we are taking his wife and fishing out of the boat closer to home.

MAY TROUT

5-6-2011--Trout are everywhere. Some areas only hold small trout but many places are holding 2-4 pound trout. My last report showed a great day on trout for Monday. Tuesday I didn't have a charter but took a relative back to the same places we fished Monday but we started late and quit at noon which was exactly between the minor and and major feeding times. The bait, birds and dolphin were all gone and so were the fish. I found out later that other people caught redfish that morning but we only tried for trout with very little success. Wednesday, with three fishermen I moved to a different area and found lots of trout. We kept three limits and released several while wading with Norton sand ells. Thursday with four fishermen doing all catch and release the fishing was fantastic. At 7:50 AM I caught my 10th trout and all the others were doing about as well. One of our fishermen used top water lures and caught trout that averaged even larger in size. Another in our party tired of trout, moved back to the more shallow water and quickly caught three redfish. Today (Friday) I had a couple for half a day. We fished the same areas with shrimp and a popping cork but the trout weren't as plentiful and the average size was smaller. We caught lots of skip jacks and undersize trout and several keeper trout. I didn't count them but probably had about 10 keepers at the end of the half day charter. This whole week when we kept and cleaned fish I noticed that most stomachs were empty. Some had small bait fish such as perch, minnows and croaker but none had shrimp in them. Three of the local bait stands got their first croaker today. Hopefully, I will be able to get croaker for my next charter on Sunday. If not I may spend most of the day fishing for reds with menhaden.

TROUT TIME AGAIN

5-2-2011--North wind this morning. So cool that we had to go back to using waders. It still felt cool even with a good jacket and chest waders. Used only artificial lures (Norton sand ells and bass assassins) for 30 trout - three fisherman's limits. Trout were heavy fish and averaged much larger than we normally encounter. Looks like we are in for a great spring and summer of trout fishing. The wind had been so strong out of the south and east the last several days that I hadn't even tried to fish for trout. This morning's north wind was only about half the velocity of the recent south winds so that enabled us to fish for trout and luckily I had fishermen who were willing to wade the shorelines.

WINDY DAYS

5-1-2011--Had four good fishermen today. We didn't lose a single redfish due to error. The only fish lost was, I believe, a shark that cut the line. The winds were cranking so strong that I had to use my regular anchor plus the push pole along with the power pole to hold the boat in place. Even with all that the anchor slipped three times. It took dedicated fishermen to want to be out on the water today. Fishing was slow but we persevered and managed to get 9 redfish and one nice trout. We tried perch and mullet but the fish only wanted menhaden. We might have done better if our menhaden had been more fresh. I've been unable to catch menhaden the past two days so the bait is now 3 days old.