Hiked into the Chattooga mainly to try feeder streams for brook trout. DIdn't have a lot of success, saw a few, only caught one. Covered 10 miles today.
Are most of these shots in North Carolina billdozer? I've enjoyed them, as you probably can tell from my likes, just different scenery than California and the west.
A lot of them have been, but 3 of the last 4 were back here in SC now that water temps have dropped. But all in the Appalachian mountains, so similar either way.
I want to come fish with you. This is fantastic. Taking a buddy out for the first time next weekend with my now 2nd set of waders and boots.
I know we're kinda past the wader discussion but I got a pair of Magellan neoprene with rubber boots at Academy in the spring and love them when I've worn them. They get pretty warm obviously but they were nice for wading into the Little Missouri for white bass this spring.
Different kinda of success story. I met up with a guy who is Newish to kayak fishing. He was able to catch his personal best red “26.5” and he got his first inshore slam. Also gave him some pointers on artis and he caught his first flounders on artificials. He said I was the first guy willing to show him spots.
Only getting one would deflate most, but doing 10 miles and detaching is the point of everything. Love your posts man
Thanks. Yeah, I knew going into the day it would be a low count day since I was mainly exploring small streams to see if there were brook trout there. I still would have thought I would have a found a few more on the main river when I did fish there. I did hook a couple but they were bait fish size that flew through the air on the hook set.
Went out this morning for the first time since red tide got real bad. Totally devoid of life. No mullet, rays, pin fish, anything. Poled a long shoreline and saw nothing at all. Sad went out to a deeper flat and tried for an hour to just get a trout. Nothing
Saturday-3 foot or less offshore , 0% chance of rain, snapper season still open . Might be slick enough to get my bay boat to the deep water.
I wish I had something bigger than a 3/8 jighead yesterday. Wind was blowing its ass off, current was ripping. Could hardly feel the matrix shad in the water when jigging with soft plastics. Doubt the braided line helped either.
Did some accidental micro fishing at Tomahawk yesterday. Caught 2 about this size. Super windy day made casting pretty tough. Ended up switching to streamers towards the end just so I could cast easier. Love the new rod/reel that I bought from user High Cotton though. So much better than my old setup!
Fished some fall/winter spots this morning. It's still too damn hot Saw some nice redfish and snook but they didn't want to play. Caught a bunch of trout and a catfish on topwater hahaha Really could go for a cold morning negative tide
Catching those snapper was the furthest out I've ever taken my pathfinder. Probably 15-20 miles out. I bought cigar minnows, pogey, squid, and live shrimp to drop. Was awesome to use my new Shimano Trevala Rod with Shimano Tekota reel. Trailored my boat from Ocean Springs to Pascagoula. Pascagoula has an awesome pubic launch with tons of trailer spots right next to Ingalls shipyard. It's a straight shot south from Pascagoula past the barrier islands to the deeper water fish havens. Went to FH2 and fished a sunken vessel and a limestone pyramid. When we got to the coorindates I wanted to fish, were in about 55 feet of water and the simrad was marking fish like crazy. Deployed the trolling motor. Dropped our lines. Got mauled about 20 feet down. Felt lots of taps on the bait. That happened all day. 15 inch snapper were thick about 20 feet down. Had to get past them to get to the bigger snapper. The damndest thing kept happening with the trolling motor. It would beep after about 2-3 minutes and then cut off anchor/spot lock mode. I'm wondering if it doesn't have enough thrust for offshore chop/current. I'm not sure what the thrust numbers are. It's a minn kota riptide. When the trolling motor cut off, we'd immediately drift off the structure and have to cruise back to it. We just kept drifting over it and dropping. Ended up with four 16-17 inch red snapper and a 19-20 inch mangrove. Probably caught 10 juvenile snapper. Caught a random trigger fish. Was super fun. My buddy used that medium heavy ugly stick with the Penn Battle reel. He said it worked pretty well. But it wouldn't have been a fishing trip without a snafu on the way in. We were almost back and the engine alarm went off and went into auto low RPM mode and wouldn't let me go over like 2000 RPM. It was the oil alarm. I didn't have any oil on the boat. I meant to put more oil on the boat before the trip and forgot. Had to putt in the last few miles with the alarm going off constantly. But other than that and the trolling motor issue it was an awesome trip. Did an easy fishing bayou trip this morning solo in Graveline bayou. Fished matrix shads of various colors. Once again the white trout were thick on the bottom of the bayou channel. I didn't keep any of them. They were like 10 inches. Only caught one speck, and it was small. I did pick up a 14 inch flounder. All in all, another good fishing weekend.
Any of you guys watch bamabass on Youtube? He's building a five acre pond and I've been thoroughly enjoying watching the progress. https://www.youtube.com/c/BamaBassOfficial/videos
I'm in Johnson City this weekend. I'm about to head out to drink beer and catch trout. I have no idea where we're going but I am like a kid on Christmas morning. I know this is silly for most of you but I'm pumped.
I went spear fishing for the first time out of La Paz, did a terrible job taking photos but managed to spear a couple and had some fresh ceviche made and fish tacos. Supplemented with my ladies rod and reel catches we ate fish into the next day. Spoiler: Photos
Was a nice day on the water. Fishing was slow but I did catch this nice pompano. It fought like crazy and went on some nice runs ripping out line.
Broiled it with butter, lemon, s&p, parsley, touch of cayenne. Was better than speckled trout, redfish, or flounder. Ridiculously good . Filets were very clean and firm.
Yeah, it’s easily better than a speck (which I rarely keep tbh), and I’d take it over most any other inshore fish honestly. Sounds like you treated it well.
Specks are by far best for frying. They are pretty bland broiled or baked , super delicate and prone to falling apart, and just don't have that much flavor. They make one hell of a fried fish poboy though.
This front that is about to move through the gulf states is going to have it blowing its ass off for like 4 days straight. 20-25 knot winds tomorrow and 3-5 foot seas.
Fished Watauga and didn’t catch shit but it was amazing wading. Everyone we talked to said the fish weren’t biting. I’m talking everyone from bank folks to kayaks to boats. Everyone that came through said the exact same thing. They were hitting everywhere and I could see tons of rainbow. going back in the am after hitting the fly shop.