Headed out today with D.O.A. Rob H. aboard the Jettywolf. The TV weather guessers said..."If you're gonna be outside, Tuesday is your day!" Yeah, it was nice.......NICE AND COLD!
Damn, I almost figured I could keep all the fleece in my truck this morning. But not really. Rob, even had to run back to his house and get his long johns on this morning, and grab a heavier jacket. That was okay. The New Moon tide was still flooding in, and we weren't in any big hurry. "We can fish till 6pm and it'll still be sunny, now.
The live shrimp today at the bait shop came in two flavors. West Coast and Free Range. I opted for the free range shrimp and man they were super fine. Big, sassy and ready to go.....go, get eaten!
I decided on trying a spot neither of us have been too in a while. And as it turned out. It was time for us to put on a whackin' & stackin hats! It was I.G. heaven......"when's the last time you read me saying INSTANTANEOUS GRATIFICATION?"
Trout, lots of Trout and all keepers (boxers) except for one 14 incher. Rob has his sneaky creek that he fishes and refers to it as his "wonderland". And this spot is mine. Only difference is, mine has been so on and off, for so long. I almost forgot about it. But the area was turned on today, that's for sure.
The day wore colder as we fished. And that 10 knots out of the North/Northeast forecasted. WASN'T. As the day got closer to noon, the windy it got and that meant even colder. For the last few hours of the day I was wearing a fisherman's best friend.....The hood on my Grundens Fishermans Jacket!
After boxing our limit of ten Speckled Trout up to 4 pounds. We moved on, and ran back to the "hub", and worked around the lil' jetties for no bites at all. I brought four, heavy duty meat mover Ugly Stik rods, and wanted to bottom fish the river or jetties at low tide. But the wind and the bone chilling temp. had us thinking....."let's just go back and just catch more TROUT, for fun." So we beat a path back to the original spot, the tide was dead low. No current at all. But that's okay, we sat through it and I still caught another 16 inch Trout. Then, as the tide turned and started to flood again, I adjusted and got back into another limit of Trout.....still only one short 14" Trout all day. Wow, that was unbeliveable.
It's been a long wait, for these fish. I was in Speck fishing heaven! Trout from 16 to 22 inches, throw in a few more 20 inchers, and I almost felt as if I was in some kind of Trout fishing dream land, compared to the last few months, on the St. Johns River. We tried for some Redbass on a "almost gimme spot" in the ICW. But no gimme's today. But we did get a few Sheephead bites, with several 'swing and misses' on hooking them on the float-rig. So variety wasn't the spice of life today. All we caught was TROUT!
That "throb-throb" of a head shaking speck on the good ole Ugly Stik 7'6" float-rig rods sure felt great! Rob, is one of the few people I know who enjoys just reeling fat Specks to the boat, like I do. No need for waiting around for that long knock down drag out battle of a monster fish, just lots of bites, reeling in fish, high fives, and do it all over again. Easy cleaning, with no bones, and great fried crispy. That's what makes those Trout so enjoyable to us, 12 months a year.
I'm so ate up with Trout fishing. I'd sell my house and move far away, just to get closer to even better Trout fishing, in a heart beat! Alot of people just don't understand that, but I call it passion. For some people it's Grouper to Marlin. Other's it's just Redfish and only Redfish. For Rob and I, it's BIG SPECKS.
SAY IT ISN'T SO!
OH YES......IT'S SO!
Next up: Thursday with the Hurt Group and possibly Saturday with the Roberts Group.
