Did not have any charter so my neighbor CJ and I hit the water looking for trout but would just be happy catching some fish. We left the dock at 7:00. We ran down river only to find nothing at the first location. I moved across the bay and the water was a bit better so I set up on a point that the bait usually moves around. I showed CJ a method I have for fishing market shrimp on the bottom. It was an instant fish catching adventure.



We went through a lot of rat reds before we put our first fish a sheepshead in the box. There were a lot of redfish several we measured but each one came in between 14 and 3/4 and just under 16 inches. All of these fish were fat and healthy looking.



We had to throw back over 60 short redfish before we had a limit of redfish. It was only 10:00 but CJ had caught enough fish in the short time we were there. We also found some sting rays and hardheads to pull on the line. It was a very active 2 1/2 hours of fishing.



Another day was very rough but we decided to go for some state snapper and some amberjack. Not a bad move but definitely not a good choice. It was hard to fish under those conditions and in Jason's case he held on very well most of the day. Thanks for all the chum Jason.



His daughter started off getting a big vermillion snapper.



After she caught this she felt a bit queasy so she sat it out for a bit. Seeing it was so rough it was easier to use a belt to fight the fish. I only had one butt ball on board. We managed some nice 10 to 14 pound red snapper but we could not get through them to get to the amberjack.



I attempted to get to another rig that holds amberjack but before we got there I turned the boat around and headed in. Even if we got there we could not begin to fish and 2 of the 3 were already in search of land.



Yesterday I went scouting alone. I left out of Empire around 7:00 and found the birds in Bay Adams almost at once. All the trout were smaller than legal size. The sail cats were also there eating the shrimp as well. I was using Vu DU shrimp and all the fish were depositing actual shrimp on my deck when I got them in. There were some white trout also in the mix. All of these small trout were feeding well and very fat.



Just before noon I stopped at Joshua's for an iced tea. I met John Boy and his brother Mike. I gave them the few keeper trout, 1 redfish about 20 inches, and a nice flounder.

After that I decided to go over to the east side and check things out. That was my mistake for the day. The water was very dirty and I had to go about 10 miles north just to find anything close to clean. The other factor to disappoint me was the tide had peaked and nothing was moving. Not even a breeze. A fog started to move in but I still had about 2 miles Visibility. At that time the flying teeth come out and started biting the heck out of me. Out came the bug spray. Going that far I decide to hit several places before going back across the river. I picked up a flounder at one place but the sail cats and hard heads drove me from there. I pushed on farther and found some bait at the edge of an island I poled down and began to play the area. I soon had an 18 inch redfish. As I was looking around I saw something moving the water out in the open. I cast to it and hook up at once. It dove down and held the bottom as a sail cat would but as I slung it in the boat I had a beautiful 21 inch trout. I put one more in the boat and fought and lost a very large redfish after about a 8 to 10 minute fight. I saw it twice. My guess was 40 to 45 inches. Do not how I would have landed it alone if I got it to the boat.

Came in when I saw 2 small storms coming together.



A long but relaxing day on the water. Only had a few to clean. Just enough for a good meal.



Life is Good!

Fishing is not a matter of life or death. It's more important than that.

CAPT HOOP -- OUR FREEDOM

Awesome post!