BIRDS OVER FISH

2-16-2010--Today the birds showed us the fish. Had 2 guests from my home state of Oklahoma today. We had frost last night so the air and water temperature were both cold but the sun came out bright and early. We left the dock at St Charles bay about 8 AM. I intended to head for a slough where the fish typically come when the water is falling and cold. My plan was to fish for black drum and red fish with dead shrimp so all the rods were rigged for that. On the way we saw a large group of white pelicans actively feeding. There were just as many brown pelicans diving in the same area. Although we couldn't see any fish or bait I just couldn't pass the active birds up. We rigged the rods for artificial gulp and drifted in. We immediately hooked up a red fish. The fish were following fast moving bait down the shoreline so we had to pull up and move farther down several times. Generally we were rewarded with 2 to 3 bites each time we got in front of the feeding birds. Before the half day charter was over we caught and released several reds since they did not want to keep any fish.

I had planned to fish for trout on Wednesday due to the expected warming conditions but just before we were planning to quit at noon my motor lost it's propeller. It's scheduled to be in the shop until the middle of next week.


Yesterday (Monday) I had another guest from Oklahoma but we waded with artifical baits in the mouth of a slough. We caught his limit in about 30 to 40 minutes and proceeded to release several more reds before going in.