BIG BLACK DRUM AND SHEEPSHEAD

2-22-2012--Another beautiful day on the water once the fog cleared enough to see it. Had a couple from Iowa who were new to bay fishing. Their lifelong fishing experiences gave them the skills needed to land the big fish we encountered. They came through like professionals.

Started on structure in deep water hoping to catch trout and sheepshead. At least the sheesphead cooperated and readily bit the shrimp we were offering. They boxed limits of large sheepshead plus two trout before we moved to the deep channel holding oversize black drum.

The lady landed a 44 inch black drum that was too heavy to hold for pictures. Her partner followed with a 40 inch black drum that was also very heavy. Both fish were released in good shape and quickly swam to the bottom. I use stout rods and heavy line to keep from wearing the black out so they are not to exhausted to swim back to the bottom. They broke off one large black drum, probably due to a worn place in the line and had another one that just didn't get hooked. The black drum bite was slow due to very little moving tide. I think there are plenty of them in the channel to make catching fast with a good moving tide.

My new boat should be ready toward the end of March but if you come after that time you won't notice much difference since it is very much like the current boat.

TROUT AND FLOUNDER

2-20-2011--Fishing has been good most of the winter but only a few of us got to enjoy it because it seems most prospective customers were busy with hunting, football, holidays, etc. That's past now and the weather is beautiful so the calls are coming in. I've had 5 requests to fish in just the last 2 days. If you want to pick your days to fish with a guide during spring break or the summer it would be prudent to call now because most guides are booking up.

Today I took another guide with me and we waded with artifical lures. I needed to keep some fish for an upcomming fish fry but at noon we had nothing in the box. We moved to a shoreline reef and got 5 nice trout before the bite slowed. Next we moved to a back lake drain with moving water. There the fish really turned on. We kept 17 trout up to 23 and 1/2 inches and 4 flounder. We lost 3 flounder at our hands that appeared to be in the 20 inch range. The hands down bait of choice was Gulp jerk shad in fire tiger.

Last Friday I had a newlywed couple on their honeymoon. That's what I call getting started off right. We used live shrimp. They caught a good box of fish to take back to Michigan including trout, black drum, redfish and giant sheepshead.

I've sold my boat but get to keep it until the new 24' Haynie Cat boat arrives in late March. The new boat is very much just like the one I sold but I just like having new stuff.