Hey yall!
I hope yall have been able to enjoy some fishing time this past weekend. The weather was amazing!
Last week I managed to make a very late trip with MECE to check some new grounds.
Previously I had sightcasted about 7 reds off the flats about 4 days before but the reds were gone with this high water and howling east winds. We treked on in search of fish and hit areas I hadnt tried before.
It doesnt happen often but I was completely outfished that morning. MECE was putting a hurt on the fish with live shrimp sitting under a cork.
This past saturday I got to fish in a tournament for Cody. The amount of support that showed up was pretty crazy. He has a lot of good friends down here by the coast. I also got to meet a few new faces and see some old ones.
Was great to chat was Tyler, Stan, and Sikes at the meeting. Good to put a face to the name (handle).
The game plan for the tourny was to just have fun. We hit the water around 10PM just to get set up and do a little flounder gigging ahead of time.
Reds were busting up but they were moving fast and I couldnt get a topwater to stick. Eventually we beached up and walked around with the gig. There were a TON of baby flatties but we did manage a couple up to 21".
Midnight comes around and I have yet to find any fish. The drum were all gone and the ones I did find were zombie mode. We made a ill advised loooong paddle and found them schooled up but it was too late so they wouldnt eat.
Morning comes around so I put up the bottom fishing rods and get ready to sight cast some reds. North wind was howling and it was making it a bit difficult to see the backs but a few of these guys decided to play.
I managed a limit but none of them were of any size so I never bothered with a photo for the tournament.
I left the reds to chase trout around and hit a gold mine of skipjacks. One skippy came in at 23" and I figured he would be a good one to turn in for the tournament. At this point it was already 9:30 and I had already given up on catching fish to enter. This skippy changed my mind.
Now the funny thing is that skipjacks were never on the list of fish I could enter. This whole time I thought I had a good fish but it never counted. All that aside it was the kick in the [censored] I needed to catch more.
I hit a few trout but nothing impressive biggest going 18" but I did lose a monster 28" at the yak. Skipjack jumped and tossed the lure and the big gal hit it while I took in the slack. Thought I still had a skippy until I tried to force it away from the anchor line and she came up and head shook the lure. Oh well..
Time is 11:15 and weigh in was coming up. I needed a few more fish to enter so I moved over to a spot I have never fished before.
It didnt take long for this 22"er to see the net.
I think they got mixed up at the tournament and counted my trout as 22". Either way I got to upgrade my trout a few minutes later to this 24" gal that ate a dead shrimp off the bottom.
The bite slowed and skippies moved in so I switched areas to try and pick off a drum. Around 12:45 I managed to finally get a drum and a bonus hard head to enter.
I booked it back to the boat ramp to try and make weigh in. When I got there I overheard about every excuse in the book from people loading up boats. "High tides came in" "Moon phase is all wrong" "Damn north winds" ...Every...excuse.. Apparently it was a tough day for most as only 16 people showed up to weigh in fish.
In the end I somehow managed to place second just a point behind first. Not bad for giving up and not catching a eligible fish until 11:30.
In the end I had a few flatties, 1 Drum, Limit of reds, and about 15+ slot trout to my name. I cant say enough about how awesome the fishing community is down here. I know everyone busted [censored] to get this thing going. The Islander Anglers had everyone out there helping with the weigh in and registration. You just cant beat the fellowship.
Till next Time
Life is good
-Tino