I ran a trip for Ron Price of Fish Intimidator. He had 6 boats running, 5 of them went out of Venice and I decided to go out of Empire. There were storms around the mouth of the river. Our first stop gave us two flounder. We moved another 5 miles more looking for cleaner water. Tried an Island with nothing happening. Moved into some more solid shore structure and found a keeper redfish along with some shorts. This was on his first cast and it was his PB redfish.



One of the boats that went out of Venice stopped at one place and had caught about 100 redfish keeping only 20 and releasing all the rest. He was heading in at 9:30 after wearing out the guys he had. Our morning went like this with a keeper fish at each stop and just enough shorts to keep us there for a while. It was already noon and I only had 3 flounder and 4 redfish in the box. I wanted to go some place else but this area was the only area that had clean water. The water movement was slight but the bait was all around. I moved another 500 yards or so into a drain. I could see some current and told the guys to cast to that current line. One of them hooks a nice redfish. That gives us 5 for the day. As he is battling his catch the other one gets a fish on. This one turns out to be a keeper trout about 16 inches. We now have the Venice trifecta. Both fish were caught dead shrimp on the bottom. They continue fishing and I pick up a Vu Du shrimp under a cork. I make one cast and get a tap but do not get the fish. That was a definite trout bite. I have them change to popping corks and we proceed to have a solid hour of trout fishing. It was about 4 shorts to one keeper but at least we were into some fishing action in this heat. As the bite slowed down I noticed a redfish tailing about 200 feet up into the drain.

With all this fast action I did not notice the storm moving closer and it had blocked our run around a distant point to get back. We had been seeing lightning and watching storms around all morning. At this point I was hoping to stay just to the edge of it. We had no choice but to stay here for a while.

I eased up to where the redfish was finning. As I approached the place the fish was easing down the banks edge coming toward me. I was using the trolling motor remote and had a rod in my hand. The fish got too close and I was about to spook it so I casted just in front of it before I ran it over. The fish hits the cork as it hits the water but missed the bait. I twitch the bait and think the fish took it. I set the pole down with the bail open and put down the power pole with one remote and stop the trolling motor with the other remote, Now I pick up the pole again and see my cork moving slowly down the bank. I made the comment "I got him" and set the hook. There was a bit more activity just above us and within easy casting distance. The guys started hooking up to some very nice reds on almost every cast and within 20 minutes we put our limit of 15 reds in the box. We even had double fish on twice ending with this beauty.



You can see the storm getting close but it was now off the point I had to run around. I still had to make a very large loop to clear the one near us. A bolt of lightning hit nearby with an instant loud thunder at the same time. One of the guys made a comment and I told him "If you can hear the thunder you are good". As we were on the way in I saw some good water in a cut so I mad a quick stop and we put 3 more flounder in the boat. It was a slow morning but ended up being a long productive day.



Sorry for lack of pictures but these guys were only interested in fishing and when they got a good one they went right back for more.

Life is Good!

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

CAPT HOOP -- OUR FREEDOM

Solid post with some AWESOME fish. Good job.