Many, many years I have been preaching this. And it seems like this year, people have listened. Evidence that I have been booked for the whole week, except for Thanksgiving day.
Yes, the weather isn't always perfect. But FISHING isn't a perfect endevour. Especially, if the winds blowing and it's cold. Well, I say....."suck it up and let's go catch some GATORS!"
Or you can be like Tim and his son Steve that were aboard the Jettywolf on the #1 day of the entire year. THE DAY AFTER THANKSGIVING DAY.
We departed under skies that were lighting up, and SLICK CALM conditions.
After that, the bait stealer drove us crazy, and we only had enough LIVE shrimp for catching what was on the menu of the day, and that was TROUT!
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So off to the jetties we went....and it was a parking lot of sheepsheaders as usual. And if they only knew what was swimming under their boats. G-A-T-O-R, Trout!
As the tide poured eastward. The games began......
Our LIMIT was 18 Trout.....and none were throw-backs, and everyone was in the "sweetheart" catagory.
Trout up to 24 inches were not uncommon.
We finished up and had a three person limit of Trout, and our three Trout over 20" that were allowed. Loads of 18-19" fish, by 12:30pm. And also had one Sheepshead.
We decided not to push our luck. And end this glorious day on a high note. So we headed back to the dock. Finishing what I called an EPIC day. And I don't use that term loosely.
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11/24 - Could it happen again?????? YEP!
Had Ed & Ron aboard the Jettywolf.
Wasting no time up in the river, I headed straight for the Jetty rocks. But in the game of fishing around here. NO DAY is ever like the one before. Local anglers get used to that. You have to always be rigidly flexible!
We were WAY........to early on the spot. But because of what I saw yesterday with all the rock dabbers lined up, and it being a bit extra cool, with a NW wind blowing quite stiff. I knew I had my flexiblity challenged, for sure. But I was NOT going to deveate from my plan of attack.
Anchoring was a royal pain. Close to the rock we'd be too close, and would get sucked into the rocks. To far out, meant that the NW wind would blow us out too far. So before the tide really started to pour. I was a real cussing machine! If there's one thing that I'm totally sick of, is the tides around here......"been there, done that, got the T-shirt!"
I had to change anchors and use my 25 pounder and heavy chain to grab. My 26' boat isn't like a little 15 footer. With total comfort comes some anchoring issues.
The fish came rather slowly. Ed banged the first 15 at least......"he and his float became one." He had it down pat, and fast!
They weren't all big ones. And we did have a few smaller 14-3/4" Trout today. But most were 16 inches up to Ron's 24 incher.....as he said, "I'm waiting on the BIG ONE, and he wasn't kidding." He caught the largest of the day. And the heaviest, while hooking a Sea Turtle!
I helped out, working for that LIMIT OF 18 TROUT.......
We had to make a few moves around. Nothing was as EZ as it was yesterday. But we had our 3 person limit, and some throw-backs and one Turtle by 12:45pm.
At one time, we all drifted our floats behind the boat. 3 floats all heading away from the boat at the same time. All three floats went down at the same time, and we had a TRIPLE HEADER!
Now that doesn't happen all that often. But that quickly sealed the deal on having our limits in the fish box.
ANOTHER GREAT DAY WITH A GREAT CREW. WHEN WE'RE CATCHING FISH LIKE THIS. I WOULDN'T TRADE MY JOB FOR ANY OTHER.
next up:
11/25 - Two hour kids trip
11/29 - two adults, mid week
I'd be thinking real hard about getting your day booked for December.
