And I'm glad he does. Because he's one of my "solo" customers. Just him, no one else. And I run no clock, we just go, fishing.
Well today the wind blew like hell and back. 20 knots out of the south it gusted. Front passing through, of course. Rain behind it.
It was one tough day! I had monster plans to attack a spot that's been giving up some healthy Trout. But all Dave pulled out of there was a 20" Redfish and a few Spanish Mackerel. Yep, Spanish on the float-rig. One made it to the fish box, the other ate the hook off his line at boat side. And the current for a statistically no tide height day sure was blasting. Maybe it was the south west winds pushing on the water.
Dave caught a few Jack Crevalles and one bigger one maybe 6 pounds or so that pulled really nice. Dave also wants me to fish along with him. I usually suppress the urge. Because I want him to have all the chances. But at the same time he doesn't have to wrench my arm to badly to get a rod in my hands, and a float-rig drifting behind the boat....I can do that.
At about our 10 spot, and 20th re-anchor, Dave and I tried an area a friend pulled three healthy Trout out of earlier.......Because it was out of the wind. That's all really. Wasn't expecting to catch much. It was a dive bombing barometer, windy, cloudy and we were just plain working our tails off, with not any bites because of it all.
So after multiple attempts to put my 26 and a half foot Big Metal boat into a small notch in the bank, and stay anchored with no scope on the anchor line. We work and work the area. Deep, shallow, casting and casting since there was wind......but no current. Thank God, Dave can cast okay. If I had my druthers, we wouldn't be casting at all! It does nothing but cause tangles, beats up your shrimp, and of course when we have to cast it's always into the wind! But here, we really had too.
My float finally goes slamming under water. Ahhhhh...Nice fattie Trout. 20 incher! Finally, TARGETED SPECIES! Then 5 minutes later, my Float goes under in a hurry again. Another Trout. It boils and head shakes across the surface. I do what it takes to keep the fish on. And Dave kindly nets another one for me, its a 24 incher.
Can I tell ya' I was feeling like a real ass!
I wanted Dave to catch these. I know I'm a "ringer", but come on. My J-O-B, is to get one of these on Dave's hook. But he wants me to keep on fishing. It did feel good. These were the only two real bites I've had since we left this morning.
I kick back for a moment, and let Dave get in there. While re-anchoring and positioning the boat over and over again as we drift off the spot.
Dave catches a few small Jacks, looses a few shrimp, ya know the drill......
I pick up my rod again, make a cast into where I caught the other two trout. My float goes down, I see a fish do a big boil on the surface. It pulls really hard, "It's a Trout!" Dave says, "bigger than the last one??" I reply, "hell yeah, this is a super STUD!"
The fish throbs my rod tip, comes up and then goes down, pulls drag, and now we see it. It's a damn monster!
I tell Dave, "this has to be the biggest Trout I have ever caught!" But it isn't caught 100% yet.
I'm playing this fish with kid gloves. No pulling, just working it. Closer and closer to the waiting net. The fine tuned drag on my reel works it's magic. I've hooked fish like this several times before, I know the drill, they can get off the hook in a milli-second if just one thing goes wrong.
I lost a monster Trout last Sunday, that pulled off the hook at boat side.
Dave gets her in the net. And it's the Trout that I have fished 20 years for. Finally in the boat. I've caught, or helped catch probably 5,000 Trout? I dare to even do the math. And this was her. She's the one!!
I drop her on the Boga Grip scale.....I see 10 pounds! My hands start shaking. It was the fattest Speckled Trout I have ever held. The girth on her was almost here length. FAT, FAT, FAT.
(28+ inches and had a 18+ inch GIRTH! That photo of course, doesn't do it justice.)
Finally, at only took 5,000 Trout and 20 years to get in the club.
We try some more, to get Dave a Trout too. But the current goes all wacky, the winds has us laying funny now. We move and adjust. Still nothing. So we go to head in and here comes the rain. Forrest Gump "BIG RAIN".....I can hardly see down the river it's raining so hard. But miraculously, we get back to the boat ramp, and it stopped. I clean up the fish, (keep my trophy in the cooler for over night observation) say good by to Dave as he heads back to Ponte Vedra with a nice sack of fillets for supper. Make some calls to friends. And then hit the "club house" the Mayport China Buffet for dinner at 5:30pm with Trout Crazy D.O.A. Rob, to hash over the days events.
Wheww...what a day.
Here's the rest of the Trout Photos from today: http://www.captdaves.com/Catch1.htm
C'COM.....LET'S GO CATCH US SOME MORE FATTIES!
THE TIME OF THE YEAR IS NOW.
reminder: check out my 2 passenger, special rate charters. See the link on the top of the side bar, for details. SAVE $$
BTW...I see folks out there using my "find", the Salmon Stalker floats which are the cats ass compared to anything BillyBob can make. And here's another reccomendation. Shimano Curado 300-DSV reel.....Oh what a joy these babies are to fish with.
For years, I've noticed the Texas Speck hunters using low profile reels, with FAST retrieve speeds for inshore fishing. Now I know why. But they are proud of them too, at a mere $250 a piece.
And wait till you see the custom "Big Metal" themed, custom Trout rods I'm having built to my exact specifications. You'll need to have your jaw strapped shut! I'll have no worries of having my "jetty shadow's" copying me out there, using a rod like mine. That's for sure!
