So my mission was to find a drop off where depth goes from 2-3 feet to 10 feet or deeper. Trout love to ambush in those areas. Had some spots I thought might fit the bill and went exploring and searching but none of them had a drop off-all too shallow. So went back to the reliable sheepshead spot and they were thick. Had some rod/reel and tackle issues otherwise I think I could’ve caught 10-12 of these.
Been a while but last Friday was just one of those days. Prolly caught 50 plus fish just an absolute blast. 7-8 slot reds and a bunch of good fighting dinks and trout
Dan Rankin and Will Wood are going to come speak at the 1/2/24 Chattooga TU meeting if you're interested.
I just renewed my membership to TU actually. I have to do a lot of traveling the 10 days prior, so I might not feel like leaving the house.
Probably made a poor decision going to a small stream when it was in the 20s,. No interest other than spooking a couple but I got some nice pictures at least.
Have had my fair share of getting skunked in the freezing cold. We always tell ourselves "Was good to get outside and out of the house" etc etc
A champagne bucket for a rod holder just showed up at our house. My wife asked me if I bought it. It's like a $120. I said no. She asked if I was sure that I didn't get drunk and order it and gave me the date. I said I think I'd remember if I got drunk on a Monday and ordered a champagne bucket for the boat. Probably someone gifted it to us. Although it does say it was billed to us.
Few things in kayak fishing are as rewarding as sight casting a slot red. Spent all day casting and couldn’t get them to chew. Early afternoon saw this one probably 10 feet from my bow and brought it right under its nose.
Got Simms Challenger bibs as well. I'm super pumped to try them in the cold and/or rain. Was worried I'd be too fat for the large but they fit well.
The wife thinks I’m crazy for fishing in the morning. It’s gonna be 34. I bet the wind chill on the water running 35 in the boat will be 20 degrees easily. I’m fired up to test out my bibbs and I want to find some fish. I think the cold is refreshing in a weird way.
see you out there homie. Prob gonna head to Gulfport harbor before daylight looking for some big girls up shallow
Good luck! Hear good things about the harbor. I might hit Graveline . Alternative plan is Davis Bayou
I thought about Graveline too. I bet fish will be down in those deep corners after the sun comes up. Cold weather should help. Good luck!
Lot of bait up in the bayou yesterday. I leave the sonar on a ton while fishing and saw this right around when I got into every cast redfish action. pockets the guys in the bait shop convinced me to do Fort Bayou . About 10 miles into it past the powerlines. It was very fishy just couldn’t locate the trout. Might be my new favorite winter time spot.
Awesome! I’ve never fished there as as I don’t see much of the central part of the state. Glad you. Checked it out, I want to explore more that way.
would like to again mention how nice the Echo rod tip section for $20 is compared to the old warranty exchange systems.
Rip rod tip. I've had to get 2 replaced. One time it broke somehow on the Davidson, another time my rod fell off the truck while I was stringing it up.
Also, the DNR presentation at the TU meeting last night was good. For the most part the wild trout populations were found to be strong in all of their sampling, except for 1 brook trout stream that's struggling. The brook trout they took out of Pigpen that they are using for brood stock are now over 12" long. Really goes to show how the poor environment impacts their size. The biggest they took out was < 8 inches.
I’ve got 2 stradics and a spheros in my inshore rotation. Picked this one up today to stay a little cheaper than the stradic. Now got 4 solid inshore reels
I've gotten addicted to bottom fishing with a knocker rig this winter. I don't know if I'll ever catch a ton of trout that way. I'm guessing they'd like more action and bouncing jigs off the bottom. But redfish and sheepshead love it.
I thought about clipping it back to the next eye. It was a 10' rod, so I have plenty of length still. that is good news on the sampling. there is a lot of development planned in the area, did they speak on any of that?
No. I looked at a Diawa rod yesterday and Duckett. What do you like better about FFP or Diawa vs Shimano? I think the Stradics are pretty smooth. I will say this : I have a shimano inshore rod and a piece of it broke loose and rattles around when casting and is super annoying. You wouldn't think that would happen on an expensive rod.
My dad got me a $250 gift card to my favorite fishing/tackle store as belated holiday present last night . Should I get inshore stuff or offshore? I have like 4 inshore rod/reels , 4 offshore spinning and 4 offshore conventional. I love inshore and offshore. I don't really need anything. But I'm going to get more rods and reels because that's what I love to do. Just don't know what to get at this point. For inshore I like to have different rods set up for different styles of fishing so you don't have to swamp out stuff, it's already rigged up. One popping cork, 1 jighead with grub plastic, 1 knocker rig, maybe 1 top water.
I like the ffp bc of their service and it’s good and light with a strong drag. Diawa sealed bearing is smoother than anything. But the drag isn’t as strong as the ffp. The new ffp supposed to be really nice. I have the Diawa ballistic both in the 1000 size and use them all the time.
Listing my boat for sale this week so I can get that money and put it on top of some new money for the next boat. I want something with twins so I feel safer when I'm 50+ miles out. Also the extra length and weight will be more secure when offshore fishing. My wife is bitching about the low gunnels of a bay boat and wanting a deep V hull. I will be sad to no longer be able to get skinny for inshore fishing. But I know some inshore spots where even a deep hull boat can fish. As long as you have 3 feet of water you can fish in most boats. If I had my druthers I'd get a hybrid boat with twins as the lower sides don't bother me. I found a guy selling a 2018 Sea Hunt Game Fish 27 with twin 250s low hours and crazy options (joystick, helm master, radar, outriggers , etc ) and trailer for $148,000 but he listed it as Sea Hunt Sailfish which isn't a thing. I messaged him to say dude you listed your boat wrong might want to fix it. He started messaging me asking if I wanted to buy it. Told him my top budget was $120k. He said he was going through a divorce and would sell it to me for $120k even though he has $190k into it. First off , it's nuts how much someone will come off the price. 2nd -that's a sick boat that will go 60+ mph and if I already had my boat sold I'd probably but that thing now.
Was a good day on a delayed harvest stream, but the high for the day was when I started at 7:30. And evidence of the high water mark and bank damage after we had 6" of rain in one day
Super vivid fishing dreams lately Must be the 15 inches of snow and minus 22 windchill driving me crazy
3 inches of rain yesterday brought a temperature spike to 70 today. With high waters I tried hunting for southern brook trout, but struck out.
Been about month since I got out after having a vasectomy and taking my kids to dr appointments during my day off but went out yesterday. Full moon, last of outgoing and first cf incoming. My least favorite ride and moon cycle. Still ended up getting the slam. Lost a damn stud who was peeling drag and then ran straight at me and just gone. Got the slam and nice slot red. About ten in total. Not bad My go pro died about year ago. Purchased a dji action cam and think I’m going to start doing some videos and uploading to YouTube if anyone is interested. Will be a work in progress for sure.