REDFISH LIKE THE NORTH WIND

11-27-2012--My guests today are from Canada, so the 25-30 MPH north wind didn't faze them, but it apparently kept the local fishers off the water.  We put in at the public launch near Hampton's since Conn Brown is closed.  There was not another boat trailer in the parking lot.  There was one small trailer in the lot next to Hampton's.  We only saw two other boats on the water.

We started with shrimp on the edge of a channel where the water falls off a large flat. Right away they had two mid slot reds on, so I thought we had hit the jackpot.  As soon as the hooks were back in the water another red was on but it turned out to be a quarter inch short.  Successive bites were all small reds or hardheads.  We moved four times but were only rewarded with small reds and hardheads.  The fifth move put us back in fish.  About 45 minutes later and  after 3 1/2 hours total fishing time, they had to quit and get back to work.  We ended up with 4 reds, one trout and 2 black drum.  Not bad for two people on a short half day trip.

TRUMPED BY DUCK HUNTERS

11-24-12.  Cold North wind to start today.  First place we went, duck hunters had set up camp.  I couldn't tell if they had built a new blind where none had been or were using some kind of portable blind.  Anyway, they messed up my sure fire plan A for the day.  We put the boat back on the trailer and moved to another launch for a good day of catching reds and black drum.

BIG REDFISH

11-23-2012--Today's guest told me when he booked the trip he had never caught an over sized redfish and wanted to get one, so we started the trip with only big redfish in mind.  He got his wish fairly quickly, after a lengthy tug of war, when he landed a 43 inch red.  We moved several times but couldn't coax another red into biting.  Toward the end of our fishing day we made a move to slot size redfish territory and were rewarded with some keeper size reds, black drum and sheepshead.     

THREE GENERATIONS

11-21-2012--Had three generations today with the youngest being eleven.  The plan was to get something to pull the line for the eleven year old.  I don't know how many small trout, reds and black drum they caught but it was a lot.  They kept 13 trout, 3 reds and four black drum which are shown in the picture.

WATER STILL HIGH

11-16-2012--Mixed bag with a half day trip.  Black drum, redfish, sheepshead and trout were all caught on shrimp both live and dead.

BLACK DRUM AND REDFISH

11-13-2012--Winds were still strong today but not as severe as yesterday.  Tides still very high in spite of the north winds.  I'm not used to fishing high water during strong cold fronts but that's what we had to deal with today.  The first stop, I tried one of my favorite cold front locations but didn't get a bite.  Next stop I got it right and the drum were on.  After catching 10 drum we moved because they still needed 5 redfish for their limits.  They ended up with their 6 redfish and released 13 drum in the process.  The drum, of course, wanted shrimp but the redfish only wanted  mullet.

REDFISH ON GULP

11-12-2012--Two fishermen both limited on redfish using gulp jerk shad.  With north wind cranking at 30+ MPH trout were really not an option although they did catch one trout.

BLACK DRUM IN MOVING WATER

11-4-2012--Today's fishermen could only fish 2 and 1/2 hours so we had to make every minute count.  We got on the water at 10:00  and had to be back at the dock at 12:30.  About 10:30 a very light north wind started blowing.  It was just enough to push some water out of back lake areas.  I took the boat as far as it could float into a back lake drain and anchored up.  Reds were all undersized but keeper black drum were plentiful.  They caught the legal limit of 10 keepers, released 4 of the smaller ones and kept 6 for dinner.  The light north wind died about 30 minutes before we had to quit so the fishing slowed at the end.  It was good to have a better day than yesterday when I was embarrassed at the dock by having only two keeper fish.