Can We Make It 3 in a Row?

Luke and I returned again this morning at 6:00 a..m. (1st sunlight) to fish the saltmarsh shallows for reds and specks in the Native kayak.  We did not do as good as the previous days - we caught a total of 10 trout and 4 redfish.  Luke pretty much smoked me catching all the keeper fish (4 trout and 1 red).  We had a great time though.

More Redfish & Speck Madness

Luke and I went to the same spot as the yesterday where I cashed in on the monster redfish bonaza (behind conch Island off Hwy 30A) and fished from the kayak.  We started with chug-bugs and zara spooks and located a spot with lots of bait fish activity and a school of mullet - lots of good surface activity.  Right away Luke hooked into a monster speckled trout and fought it all the way to the boat and it got off.  I estimate it was between 6 and 7 lbs - just the biggest speck I've ever laid eyes on. We were sick.  As the day progressed we caught a few more smaller trout and moved around looking for the reds.  I caught a keeper redfish (~3 lbs) on a zara spook but things were somewhat slow for an hour or so until we returned to the main channel section immediately behind Conch Island - still in about 2' of water.  We began picking up a few fish, and then it began...2 hours of the most exciting fishing of my life!  Over the course of about 2 hours we caught 25 reds and trout with the best being an 8 lb redfish.  Luke redeemed his earlier heartbreak by boating a 5 lb gator trout.  The biggest trout any of us have ever boated. It was a completely incredible day - probably the best day of my life, and I got to share it with my son...Wow!

Redfishin' St. Joe Bay in the Native

At sun up (~6:00 a.m.) I entered St. Joseph Bay in Port St. Joe, FL behind Conch Island and fished the very shallow (~2') marsh grass in my Native Kayak. At ~8:00 I caught a 27" (~8 lb) redfish on a weightless rigged Gulp natural colored shrimp. I then found a spot at ~9:00 a.m. (low tide was at 9:13 a.m.) where there appeared to be some flow through a necked down portion of grass. I noticed mullet, baitfish and feeding fish. I threw a chug-bug near the bait fish and a monster redfish blew up on it. As I was fighting the fish he was pulling my kayak into the spot and since i didn't want to spook the fish I began grabbing grass with one had and holding the rod with the other, and consequently I lost the fish. The very net cast the exact same thing happened - another bruiser lost! Then I stuck my paddle into the soft mucky bottom and tied off to it. The third cast... a monster crushed the chug-bug again. His initial run squealed off 30 to 40 yards of Power Pro, but I fought him back for the next 5 minutes and got him all the way to the boat. I got a great look at the fish - I estimate he weighed between 15 - 20 lbs. The largest redfish I had ever seen. As he was about 10 feet from the boat he got off. UGH! The very next cast I hooked another nice red and brought him all the way to the boat only to lose him as well. I was absolutely dying at this point. I've never had so much adrenaline running through my veins. I realized that since I was so low to the water that my angle of fight must have been bad and got worse the closer I got the fish to the kayak. I realized I needed to stand up, but to keep from spooking the fish I had to stay crouched down behind the marsh grass. At this point I realized I needed my Mossy Oak Marsh Grass camo pattern. The next cast I boated a really nice keeper redfish (~4 lbs). For the next 1&1/2 hours every cast was either a monster blow-up, hook and fight and lose, or boat a beautiful bruiser redfish. I caught ~20 redfish from 3 to 8 lbs, keeping two 27" fish. It was the most incredible 2 hours of fishing I have ever experienced!

Cape San Blas Shark Fishin'

Kimberly, Luke, Karoline, Alex Hartley and I went down to Cape San Blas, FL for a few days to join Scott and William's families on vacation.  One night I took the kids to the beach to shark fish.  Here's a nice black tip that Will caught.

St. Joe Bay Bouy Tripletails

While down at Cape San Blas with Scott and William's families - I was mooching out a short vacation with a few of my kids - I took Luke and Will out in the bay to try our hand at catching some tripletails.  I had talked with guys at the local Half Hitch Tackle Shop in Port St. Joe and they told me just what to do.  Head out to the large bouys in the bay with a Gulp shrimp on a 1/4 oz. lead head about 3' under a poppin' cork and throw right up next to the bouy.  The triple tail like to come up and lay on their sides in around the bouys, picking off small shrimp and bait fish that gather around the anchor chains.  Well we did just that.  I rigged up my Shimano Stradic 8000 with 50 lb test Power Pro, a poppin' cork, 50 lb test Ande flourocarbon leader, a red 1/4 ounce lead head and a Gulp shrimp (natural color).  Right off the bat I caught a beautiful 8 lb tripletail.  We tried several more times, and several more bouys, but never got another taker.  I filleted up our catch - even enjoyed a bit of it raw! - very tasty.  We fried it up with some fresh flounder that evening and really enjoyed some of finest table fare the good Lord ever provided.