Had Don and Dave aboard the Jettywolf. Yeah, it was breezy straight out of the East. The sky was a deep red color as the sun came up, so I stayed away from the Jetties. And even though I initially had plans to head up to Nassua Souind. I decided not to gamble on it. The sound is just so wide open. And the last place I'd want to be on an East wind at 15 knots. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt, before.
I had allot of live shrimp, but still needed some baitfish for my second livewell. So before we got too serious, I stopped by a dock to get some live finger mullet. I tied off and Don and Dave yelled, "Is this what ya want??"
As I stood loading the castnet up, on the bow. Down the side of the boat swam a giant school of perfect sized Mullet! But of course I didn't have the net ready yet. "Damn! See, that's how it works. Ya always see them when you're not ready yet", I told Don and Dave.
But we got really lucky. Just as I had the net out of it's bag and ready, Don and Dave said, "Here they come again!" Another big school swam right down the side of the boat. I threw the net and we had all we needed.
I figured we'd try a creek spot with our perfect finger Mullet. Nothing! So we moved down the creek. The next spot I had the guys Float-rig fish. And as usual, while I was showing them what to do a huge fish came up to the surface in the shallow water and busted on the float. Paying no attention to the live shrimp attached.
Looked like a big Red. So, I was hopeful. As Don and Dave sent live shrimp down a shell bank. I pitched live mullet. They each caught a "pupper" Redbass, and I caught 3 "pupper" Reds on the mullet. Okay, this isn't nothing but the nursery. So we left.
The tide was flooding in good by now. And after Float-rigging a few more spots with no dcecent bites. I made a change.
It was time to slow this all down, and soak some Shrimp and Mullet. I could see, that today with the East wind and rising tide that this was gonna turn into a "marathon charter" day. If it was a bone chilling cold winter day , I'd be refering to this as a K.O.D. kinda day. (Kiss of death) But, as we fished the wind seemed to back off and it was really nice. It may have been just the location we were at. A bend in the river that seems to be a spot where the wind was blocked.
As the flood tide started to slow we picked off some decent fish, although the bites were slow. It was what we came for. Don got the first Redbass a perfect 27 incher. That was heading into the fish box after a photo.
Then Dave hitched into a Redbass that I thought might have been a monster Flounder. Because it swam to the boat, didn't do a whole bunch of drag screaming long runs, and then hung along side ther boat. Just out of sight. Or at least I was wishing it was a monster Flounder.....but it was a larger Redbass than Don's at 29 inches.
We switched back and forth between live shrimp and the finger Mullet. Maybe the shrimp would catch a nice Black Drum. But instead the guys got bit by Seabass, and Bankbass, whatever else that was small. Then, Don got a good bite. I was on the phone with a buddy who lives out in Texas. He reeled it up to the boat and that's when I saw it was a BIG Trout! Ohhhhhh, I didn't want Don to loose this fish. I know how easy a big Trout can come off the hook with the slightest slack line. I held my phone and netted the Trout. Bid farewell to my Texas buddy. And admired Don's bottom caught Trout.
It wasn't a bust'em up kind of day, by now means. But Don wanted to have his photo here on my blog, he said. So we accomplished that as you can see. So we ended up with 7 Redbass to 29", a small little Jack, a few Ladyfish, some bottom baitstealers and a 21 inch Speckled Trout. I'm sure it could have been alot worse, if we went all the way to Nassua Sound and sat rough swells coming in from the ocean and caught nothing but dinky fish.
I have a 4 passenger Friday charter of guys that I've had out numerous times years ago. I hope to hit the sound then, and have constant action with them. The last time they fished Nassua Sound with me it was late March and we had numerous Sheepshead, Whiting and Black Drum to 40 pounds in 6 feet of water during the spawning season up there.
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Interesting Mullet fishing articles:
http://www.floridasportsman.com/gear/G_0207_Weedless/
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