And when it did today, I could easily see that it was yet another wonderful looking day.
Since time is ticking away, and Feb. 1st will be here before I know it (when Speckled Trout close for harvest for 28 days) I decided to get everything ready for a 9:30am departure, for the JETTIES!
By 10:00 am the boat was in the water, the live local shrimp from B&M bait and tackle were kickin' in the livewell and I headed due EAST. As usual I had a spot in mind that I wanted to try. Since Carl and I were there yesterday and without much fanfare we left, it was only a 1 Trout spot. But, I was making a bee-line straight for it and no one was around, either.
I do many charters I call "instructional". And I do not know if I have beat this point home to some of the fisherman, I've taken. But should be evident, if they read these reports.
I often take a spot that I'm basically familiar with and fish it hard for several hours during a portion of the tide that seems proper for the area. Learn where every hang-up is, where every high rock is, which usually paints a picture in my mind of what the underwater scene looks like.
Float-rig fishing is perfect for learning an area. Because as you drift your rig back and forth all over an area, up to 100 feet behind the boat, you'll soon learn where the bites come from, where there's shallow spots, hang ups and current edges are. That's what I wanted to do more of today, at the location, I choose.
And I learned that "today", all I had to do is put my float in a certain spot, hit a high rock, go around it, and my float went down. I no sooner got anchored and had two fat 18-19 inch Specks in my first 6 drifts of my float. Then, the phone rang....It was my buddy Nick. I hadn't heard from him in awhile. He explained he was super sick and was now feeling better, in between busy with gigs out of town with his band RATHKELTAIR. I asked him if he wanted me to come get him and we could shoot the bull and fish, he said, "GREAT".
And between the time I pulled anchor to run back to the dock to meet him. I lost two more Trout, caught a small Redbass, and boxed 3 Trout and my limit was had.
It was now just 10:40 am. They were chewin, and I found the "nest". Every single Trout was 18-19 inchers. I was so excited, and with 5 Trout like these in the box in 40 minutes. I could have just gone home, and stood on the deck of an Aircraft Carrier and stated, MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. (A Bush, tactic) But I dragged up the anchor and ran back to the dock and picked up Nick.
I ran back the jetties and we anchored up on the exact same spot. I told Nick, "here ya go, get your 5, too." I explained exactly where the fish were and on Nick's second drift he had a nice fattie. I was gonna lay back, but could stand it. I had to get in there and rip another beautiful Speck from behind the high rock, 30 feet from the boat. So out the next 5, Nick caught two and I helped him out catching the last three for our now, measly 10 Speck limit.
No sense beating them up, so we left after the box had all the Trout we could keep. So we went hunting a Black Drum or two, so we moved and decided to pitch "Jig-N-Shrimp" combo meals at the jetty rocks. We pitched and pitched and only had a few small Seabass, that sure were cold feeling after pulling them off the bottom. And then I made a cast out and away from the jetty rocks and nailed a small Pup Black Drum, it was 15 inches, so in the box it went with the Trout.
"Targeted Species in the cooler!"
We kept fishing and it was just plain dead. We really had no action, but we kept trying and just having fun shooting the bull. The S.E. sea breeze started up and we decided to call it a day....a beautiful day!
I'm gonna stock up on tasty Specks all I can (weather permitting) until Jan. 31st. I eat fish no less than 4 nights a week. So back at the dock, I ran the fillet knife through the Drum and all 10 Trout "lickety split." That's why I love 'em. So much fun to catch, so easy to clean. Totally boneless, skinless, "back-strap" fillets, for the pan.
I just finished up having three fillets in a vegetable stir fry dish, that were just swimming a few hours ago. It don't get much better than that.
GET WHILE THE GETTING IS GOOD. THE WEATHER COULDN'T BE FINER, AND THE FISH COULDN'T GET ANY FRESHER. CALL TO CATCH YOURS TODAY!
