Ernie and I have talked over the last few months via emails. And he's a faithful blog reader.
And obviously read my last report when I said, "hell, just call me. I'll let ya know when it's a good day to go, if you're local" Of course, I meant weather wise. Because so many people even locals have no idea of what our weather is doing. But Ernie does, he's an avid fisherman! So when I said that, it sparked him to give me a call.
So at 10:30am, I finally got to meet him as we were heading out to do our best. Ernie uses the Float-rig as a LBA - "Land Based Angler" and fishes a lot up in the Ft. George area.
Now, I know that it was tougher fishing on Tuesday than it was on Sunday, even though I did have a nice big fattie on my 52M "winter ugly" MirrOlure. But, I had a friend that was out yesterday and he did well on the Redfish and had a 22 pounder on a float, even. But the trout were a tad slow. So I knew going in that it may not be a whirlwind day of floats going down.
But Ernie is a fisherman, I'm a fisherman......Key word: F-i-s-h, that's what we do. So why not go try. But reality was all too in our faces as we fished and fished, and waited and waited for the tide to turn and start to fall. And nothing!! A few bites, but damn it was DEAD!
Then all of a sudden Ernie was shocked back into the fishing world with a slam dunking, big fish. Just as we were talking about how dead it really was. The fish ran under the boat, around the bow, down the side. It was a 28" Redfish. From zero to a hero!! Ernie was up on me big time, all with one fish. As we worked the area together.
Alrighty....nice Red! And it seemed that the tide was starting to finally move too.
So we kept at it as I moved us around a bit and maneuvered us into better positions for our attack.
I my 12" bottom scope, I passed over a huge pile of what looked like Yellowmouth Trout out in deeper water. So I tried out deeper and caught, ONE! And that was it.
"If the eating machines of the inlet are not chewin', what the hell!"
But as we worked our float-rigs, we finally stuck it to a few Specks. The first one I caught on my "winter ugly" MirrOlure, but it was a small fish.
Then Ernie caught what I call a ocean size Trout. One of those solid and fat 18-19 inchers. No measuring needed. That's more like the fish I'm used to this time of year.
So, we're finally cookin'.....and boxed a few more jetty sized Trout. My favorite!
As you could see it was slick dead calm. A serious "bluebird" day. But I wouldn't blame the slow bite on that as much as maybe because just as we thought the current would run hard. It really wouldn't. My theories always are; If you don't have the proper water movement to move bait, then you don't get moving predators. But I wasn't about to give up on where a 7 and a 6 pound Trout just came from this week. Not until I gave it plenty of time.
It's funny how we're catching out there speck-less Speckled Trout. Many of the fish have no body spots, or very few.
Ernie said, "yep, I think this area is about speck-less and spot-less today" because, where were more Reds and where were more Trout?
It's a fine line we travel....We want super weather days. But super fish days aren't always super fish days. But when we have super fish and super weather days at the same time, it's a Monumental thing!!
And the ole saying is, that no one ever thinks about is "want more fish, that go fishing more often". So, I see those days. And as a reader you certainly can tell when they happen, because I'm so excited.
So we ended up moving on, to try another zip code. And that's when the pesky engine temp alarm went off again on my outboard, No biggy. It's a bad sensor, I'm sure. Because the buzzer has been going off so intermittently. So we ided and went slow from spot to spot and found that the current everywhere else was practically unfishable inside the inlet.
So we went a threw some jigs for those Black Drum. But never really had a bite.
Hmmm, I think Mother Ocean is trying to tell us something.
So we went to a spot where the tide and current ought to be right. And it was.
And we caught some Trout, but not an whoppers and 3 big Ringtailed Porgies, and finished up the rest of the shrimp in the livewell.
Today's totals were maybe 10-12 Trout, with 7 in the fish box, the 3 Ringtails and a released 28" Redfish....everything on the float, and live shrimp.
Not a killer day. But a beautiful one for sure.
And that dang sensor in the motor went off enough that I'm taking the boat on it tomorrow morning to Deonas Boat works in Yulee, to have that thing changed out. Just in time for the wind and rainy weather to come in to the area over the weekend.
Ernie and I are gonna go do it again this month. And I'm sure we'll do better. It was a good day, but could have been much better.
And BTW....that cider block anchor anchor????
I'm still using the same one and it works good.
Why the hell have I spent thousands on jetty
anchors that I cared too much about all these
years?
