Destin Redfish-O-Rama: Day One

Fueling Up @ Dreamland on the Way to Dreamland!

 

One of several triples during the day



 

A Typical Bay Bruiser

Think of one of the most exhilirating experiences of your life...  All of us could probably generate a mental list of the top five to ten events of our lives.  For you, this may include your wedding day, the birth of a child, winning the lottery, being the first man to step on the moon (if you happen to be Neil Armstrong).  Well I'm about to take you on a journey down to Destin, Florida that ranks right up there with Apollo 11.  On last Thursday I headed south with two of the craziest fishing partners I have ever had the pleasure to accompany in a ocean vessel.  The lunar launch began at about 3:00 p.m. on Thursday after work when I met up with two great friends - Charlie Shields and Stuart Row.  Stuart, Charlie and I have been planning this trip now for about 2 months and have been looking forward to it with great eagerness.  As a matter of fact, from about 72 hours out Charlie was providing me and Stuart with periodic countdown departure time reports via text message.   Every time I go on a trip like this, the level of anticipation and expectation grows to almost incomprehensible heights in the days immediately preceeding departure date - so much so that the 9 hour drive to Florida is indistinguishable from when I was just a kid and Dad would take my brother Scott and me to the panhandle every spring to bass fish.  Two things matter most on trips like this...fishing & food!  So the first pit stop on the trip down centered around locating some top shelf bar-b-que with plenty of local ambiance - Dreamland in Birmingham!  This was my first time to Dreamland, and how appropriate since I was on my way to my own personal dreamland...Destin.  The restrauant had a great atmosphere with an a good SEC decor and a heavy leaning towards Bear Bryant and Alabama. This particular Dreamland sat right in the heart of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) campus.  We all thoroughly enjoyed the ribs, and pulled pork bar-b-que, and topped it all off with a healthy helping of banana pudding.  The intensity of the abdominal pain and outward pressure on my lower rib cage was directly proportional to the outstanding quality of the food at Dreamland.  After stuffing ourselves, the journey returned to I-65 South and thanks to Charlie's glorious shortcut to Andalusia we rolled into Destin about 11:30 p.m.  Along the way down, Stuart got a call from our guide Daniel Pike, owner of Inshore Angler Charters (http://www.inshoreanglercharters.com/home.php) who wanted to delay our departure time by a couple of hours because of forecasted high winds early in the morning.  We met Capt. Dan on Friday morning at about 8:45 a.m. along fisherman's wharf to begin the days adventure in a 24' Blazer Bay powered by a four stroke 225 Yamaha .  The weather could not have been any better if we had ordered it, beautiful blue sunny skies with a high in the low 80s.  We started off catching our bait, atlantic croakers (Micropogonias undulatus) using dual hook rigs baited with cut squid in Marler bayou.  In about 45 minutes we had about 30 croakers and were ready to get serious.  Our first spot was at the Destin bridge about three pylons to the east of the main channel, and we moved around anchoring the boat so that we could fish the various pylons of the bridge.  The most productive spot turned out to be one section to the east of the main passage way or as Charlie so fondly referred to it..."the left metal".  This hole produced a good number of high end slot reds, and a few over.  Capt. Dan also shared his secret deep hole with us which was west of the main passageway and further north just off Crab Island.  This hole also produced a good number of redfish, most of which were larger on average.  Capt. Dan said this is where he had caught most of his 40+ pound redfish, so we were more than glad to give it a fair shake.  Although it didn't cough up any 40 pounders it did produce more 8 to 15 pounders than these three good ole boys from East Tennessee ever dream of seeing.  The fishing day ended around 3:00 p.m. with us taking our fattest three 27"redfish to the 2010 Destin Rodeo for the weigh-in.  The rodeo rules require that all fish be gutted and then weighed,  our best redfish of the day was 7 pounds even which was good enough to take 1st place in the Bonus Awards Division (i.e. the big money division!).  Last year's winning redfish was 7.4 lbs, and this year the 1st place redfish in this divsion at the end of the month with take home $6000! So we were pretty good about our chances of at least placing one of the top three money spots.  Overall we wound up catching over 30 redfish all between 7 and 15 pounds.  It was one of the most amazing days of fishing I have ever experienced. 

 

Me, Miss Destin and our 1st Place Redfish



Clinch River Striper Fishin'

Today was an absolutely gorgeous day.  The weather is beginning to cool off more at night, and the humidity is lower during the days.  There's getting to be a really strong hint that fall is just around the corner.  So guess what that means?  Elliott has an ever increasing urge to take 1/2 day vacation and go fishing or hunting!  I chose to launch today at the Gallaher launch to concentrate on the upper end of the Clinch.  I got to the river at about 1:00 p.m. and was at the upper end of Jones Island with a bait tank full of perfect shad at 1:30.  Melton Hill was generating yet so I through out a shad on a float and put it on the Ambassadeur 7000 with 50 lb mono on the 8' St. Croix rod in the holder in the back of the G3, and fished with a bottom rig on the Shimano Stradic 8000 with 80 lb Power Pro and a 50 lb flourocarbon leader on the 7' Shimano Tallus Saltwater rod up front.  I slowly used the trolling motor and worked my way down the north shoreline of the island.  As I worked my way down the river I spooked up several pairs of wood ducks (Aix sponsa).  They are especially beautiful ducks, and very leery of any one coming close.  I kept count today and I saw just over 20 wood ducks in all today.   About 30 minutes into my float trip, the current began to pick up and I no longer had to use the trolling motor to move myself along.  My confidence always goes way up when I've got a little bit of current.  I particularly like to be on the river when the generation starts and conditions go from nothing to good flow.  I feel like this can sometimes turn things on for a number of reasons; current creates ambush points, current moves baitfish, it can drop the temperature, along with a variety of other reasons.  But... today it wasn't making a difference - no bites.  I had invited my good friend Charlie Shields to come with me today, but he had a couple of things on his plate and wasn't able to make it, but at about 3:00 he called and had miraculously cleared his schedule and was on his way to the ramp.  I think he might have a touch of the same addiction I have had since birth.  On the way down the river to pick Charlie up I noticed a bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) sitting on a log on a shallow flat (about at old Pickel Island).  I immediately slowed down pulled out the binoculars and watch him for a few minutes before he took to flight and his flight path took him back across in front of me with the sun at just the right angle highlighting all of his beautiful features; deep dark brown body, snow white head and tail, crisp yellow beak and feet.  I got an exceptionally close look at him - he probably came within 50 to 75 yards of me. As I fired the motor back up to head down to pick up Charlie, I hoped he would stay perched on the bluff overlooking the river for Charlie to see.  I got Charlie and we headed back up to Jones Island for another float.  This time Charlie used a float (free line) rig on my Shimano Stella 4000 with 15 lb Power Pro and a 15 lb flourocarbon leader, I continued to fish the bottom, and I left the 7000 Ambassadeur in the rod holder.  We floated about half way down the north side of the island and I hooked up a spunky 5 lb striper.  Little did I know this would turn out to be the only fish of the day.  At about 5:30 Charlie had to leave to go back to a work appointment, so I ran him back down to the ramp.  Along the way we spotted the bald eagle again and Charlie snapped a couple of pictures before he tired of our gawking at him and flew off.  After I dropped Charlie off I worked downstream from the Gallaher launch, and focused the last few hours of my day on hopefully finding some breaking fish pushing minnows up on the flats.  I stopped at 5 or 6 places along the way between the Hwy 58 bridge and Rick Klein's house only seeing an occasional rockfish break the surface.  When they did break they were very spread out and never stayed in the same spot long enough for me to capitalize.  Only at about 8:00 p.m. when there was only a hint of twilight left did I finally get into a school of fish.  I had one blow up on my redfin and another crushed a live free line minnow, but neither fish fully took the bait and so I did get a hook up.
I did have a beautiful V of Canada Geese (Branta canadensis) fly over me at dusk.  Again as earlier, the faint bit of remaining sunlight highlighted perfectly the best parts of these beautiful waterfowl making for a great nature scene.  On the ride back to the ramp I realized I've been seeing an increasing number of Great Egrets (Ardea alba).  There is a roosting island for the Great Egrets just downstream of Rairity Ridge on the opposite side of the river.  Each bird provides a unique viewing opportunity.  I really enjoy watch and learning of their ways, and how the Master created them to survive and thrive.
Thank you Lord for a great day out on the water, with a good friend, and for time alone to enjoy You and your creation.

Clinch River Stripers

Scott with a 15 lb Striper

Ian with a 9 lb Striper

Gourmet Rockfish - About as fresh as it gets!

Scott, Ian, and I fished the Clinch River this afternoon for stripers.  We launched at the Gallaher Rd. launch at about 3:30 p.m.  The first order of business was to get our bait.  So we went  into the first creek to the right as you go upstream from the launch.  The water temperature was in the low 60's.  We got a good number of 6 to 10" gizzard shad and headed up the river to Jones Island.  We started on the upper end of the island and within 10 minutes I landed a 5 lb striper, and Scott caught one about the same size.  At about 5:00 p.m. Scott hooked up the big fish of the day, a 15 lber (see picture above).  A little bit later good old Ian was chunkin' his favorite jig and got ahold of a really nice 9 lber (see pic above).  He is one of the luckiest guys I've ever been around. 
We fished another hour or so and it began to rain and lighting.  So, we headed back home, and as we got to the launch the rain started absolutely pouring out of the sky, and the wind was going crazy.  So I guess it was a good thing we decided to pack it up when we did.  The final fish count was Scott - 3, Ian - 1 and me- 1
The last picture is of Scott's 15 lber (or at least a piece of it) - I took it home and filleted it up and had some of it for dinner.  It was some of the best fish I believe I havc ever tasted, really firm, white and flaky.  I covered it in flour, salt, and pepper and  then added a little Chef Paul Prudome's Redfish Magic seasoning and then lightly fried it in olive oil. I had it with rice and it was literally some of the best fish I have ever put in my mouth

Striper Fishin' the Clinch

After Scott (my brother) listened to me talk about striper fishing all night long at the Kingston Football game on Friday night (by the way Kinston beat Scott Co. 21 to 12 - Go Jackets!) he decided to go with me on Saturday morning. Ethan and Ian joined us. We started by getting bait in Dead Man's cove (Young Creek)- nice 6 to 10" gizzard shad were abundant in this creek, so we loaded up with as many as the bait tank could hold and headed up to take a look at the area I had been catching fish in previous days on the ole' Lowrance. There were tons of baitfish and what looked to be good sized rockfish all over the drop from 10 to 30'. So we started fishing on the bottom, but didn't have any luck - occasionally we would see a nice striper break the surface but never got any to bite. We decided to make the long run up to Jones Island because I just felt sure we could find some fish up there in the early part of the day. We made the run of about 14 miles and by the time we got there TVA had started generating at Melton Hill Dam, so we had current - I always feel more confident when I'm fishing with a little current. Right away we started getting bites using bottom rigs and free lining. Scott and Ethan each lost one, I had several short strike my live bait, and then Ian hooked into a nice 10 pound striper. Just a little bit later, Ian hooked up with the big fish of the day - a 21 pounder - the biggest of his life. Needless to say he was psyched and so was I! I added one more 5 pounder to the stringer and shortly thereafter we ran out of bait. We went into Paw Paw Creek and I finally accumulated enough good bait to get back out on the river. Unfortunately it was getting a little later in the day (~12:30) and the bite seemed to turn off. Since we had a long run ahead of us and since I had to get back home to get ready for UT's first football game of the 2010 season, we decided to call it a day, and what a good one it was. Thank you Lord!

Striper Fishin’ the Clinch

I took Mike Walker and Adam Doughty up the Clinch this evening. Unlike the night before, I struggled a little bit to get the right size shad minnows – I couldn't seem to find them on the flat between the two bridges in town. There was an abundance of smaller gizzards and threadfins everywhere along the main channel in huge schools. I ended up getting good sized gizzards in Dead Man's cove. The first spot we went to was the spot I saw fish breaking across from the mouth of Clary Foote's place. Since we spent some extra time chasing bait fish, we arrived at the spot at the opportune time - ~7:15 p.m. Just as we arrived big stripers were breaking on the surface – I had Adam and Mike rigged up with poppin' corks (in essence free lining) and circle hooks – The first cast Adam had a fish on and lost it, next cast lost another fish, next cast he caught about a 1&1/2 lb smallmouth, next cast lost one. At this point my heart was beating out of my chest – Mike moves up to the front of the boat and gets hooked up and lands an 8lb striper. I hook up another 8lber – somewhere in all the chaos I think Mike and Adam each lost 3 or 4 more fish and then Adam caught about a 2&1/2 lb smallmouth. As is typical, the stripers seemed to move on so the bite slowed a bit.  We moved down river a mile or two and started seeing stripers break the surface on a flat - a couple of blow ups on a redfin but no fish in the boat.  We moved again a little further down stream to the flat with milfoil in front of Rick Klein's and saw more stripers breaking the surface.  I missed another fish blow up on the redfin and Mike missed on on a minnow - By this time it was good and dark and we all had to get home.  Man oh man, what could have been.  If we'd caught all the fish we had a chance at tonight you would have just finished reading a much different story - that's how it goes some times on the water.