Great sight fishing on the flats today 9-29-11

Had Chris from the West Point area for a trip today and with 9' tides, walking the grass was definitely on the menu. Threw plastics on the edges for Trout while we waited for the tide to rise, but only could manage some short fish.  When we got to the flat, it took a while for the Reds to show-but when they did we had about 7 good fish all around us.  Chris got one good shot and the fish did not eat.  As quick as the tails appeared, they suddenly disappeared.  Plan B was to hit a flat that has been holding some large Sheepshead (5-10 pounders).  We pitched live shrimp at half a dozen good ones, which either ignored our offerings, or sped off as quick as the baits hit the water.  About that time, the tide started to turn out and I thought it was over.  Chris spotted a tail, and with one cast he was hooked up.  Snapped a pic and carried his dinner back to the boat.  As I turned back to the flat, Chris has now waded to a deeper little bowl and is now hooked up again.  I ended up making four trips back to the boat, as Chris kept stalkin and pickin off fish in the gin clear water--even though they were not tailing.  For about 20-30 minutes, Chris put on an absolute clinic.  As the tide fell out, with time running short, we checked several holes for Flounder and Trout, with nothing but dirty water to show for it.  At the last spot, with the shells starting to show, Chris caught fire again.  Caught six Trout and two more Reds on a DOA shrimp.  This day was as good as any 50-100 fish day, just to see Chris stalk those fish and hook up repeatedly.  Thanks Chris, sometimes the hunt is even better than the kill...

Had to throw Ollie a Red carcus.  Poor guy, these high tides are tough on him too...

A Slamily Affair 9-24-11

Speckled Trout

Our motley crew of Marshrats headed out for a few hours of fun fishing on Saturday.  Michelle & Daniel had Reds on their mind, so off we went.  Saw some real good fish, and probably worked on them a little too long, considering the Trout bite that has been going on.  After exhausting all of our artificial tricks, shrimp, mullet & crabs, we did muster up some shorts, a lower slot, an upper slot, and a nice over that Michelle caught.  Daniel hooked a nice trout just under 22" in what is typically one of our Redfish holes-go figure!  Next on the menu was Flounder, and although we got a couple shorts and a legal that I managed to drop in the water, somehow Trout invaded the flat fish banks-but heck we're not picky, so we kept throwing the white curly tails and picked off a couple chunky trout.  Sarah, our resident sunbather, even picked up a pole and busted a little flattie as well!  But that's Sarah-she thinks fishing is easy and a good tan and a good book are hard to come by.  We fished the last two of out, first two of in and back to the hill to filet a few fish and watch football.  Doesn't get any better than that!

Redfish

Flounder

Fishin in the Wind 9-23-11

Had Philip and Tony in for a little Trout, Red & Flounder hunt.  After doing a little scouting Thursday, I thought I had a pretty good plan--but darn if the wind didn't blow right on every spot that I thought was holding fish.  So now we're on a serious hunt, pecking away at anything we can find out of the wind.  Although the bite was not fast and furious, we picked off one or two at just about every stop.  Snuck a couple pogies in a deep hole to see if we could get a few big Reds.  Tony & Philip both landed back to back 30 and 31 inchers.  We headed out to the Flounder grounds, which I was certain would produce as we've been catching some pretty good ones as of late.  Although the bite was slow, we caught four including one pretty nice one and a couple of shorts.  Gotta tip my hat to these guys, as chunkin corks and light jigs in the wind was no easy task.  This was not these guys' first rodeo, and thanks to their perserverance working through wind and short fish, we did manage 14 good keepers for the box.  Thanks guys, I had a great time!

St Simons Island Fishing Report 9-22-11

Did a little scouting in some new spots on low water to see what I could find.  Pretty much just stayed on the trolling motor, beatin the banks.  The bite was not hot and heavy, but did manage a good mix of trout and reds.  The search and destroy mission consisted of plastics under the cork and jigs tipped with plastics or shrimp.  Decided to check  a few flounder holes on the way back in, and ended up with three keepers.  Two were dandies that I tried to knock off with the net, but somehow managed to get 'em in the boat.  Flounder were caught on the 4" pearl white Gulp swimming mullet. 

 

Little Man Dan Sight Fishes Beast 9-11-11

Dan and I escaped for a couple hours on Sunday for a little fun fishing in new areas.  We picked up half a dozen Trout and half a dozen small Reds with about half being lower slots and the rest shorts.  Thought we might look at the Flounder hole, but it was blown out pretty good, so we checked out another shell covered bank.  We still had the white grubs rigged, and were just running down the bank with the trolling motor.  The water was pretty muddy, but in one clear spot I thought I saw that bronze flash.  I told Daniel to pitch his jig in there, and he actually made a pretty good cast.  I thought I saw the line jump a little and a small boil, so I told Daniel to set the hook.  Nothing happened, and I couldn't even detect the resistance of the jig, so I screamed at Daniel to REEL, REEL, REEL, as I thought the fish might have connected and come right at the boat.  Sure enough, 5 feet from the boat the line came tight and nearly jerked Daniel in the water.  A couple good runs and one time around the boat and Daniel had the fish landed.  Its always fun to sight fish, but this was kinda special to see Daniel bust one--and a good one at that--32".  Now Daniel asks me everyday if we can go "looking" for Redfish!

St Simons Island Fishing Report 9-10-11

We had Brian & Amy from Columbia, SC down this weekend for a little inshore fishing.  The plan was, once again, to punch out Flounder, Trout and Redfish--in that order LOL  The breeze picked up a little bit, and made finesse fishing a little tricky, but we somehow punched out four Flounder--with two nice keepers.  We then moved on to Trout, staying with soft plastics.  We ran into a wall here with probably 5 drops and no fish, but the next 5 drops produced pretty well, although many Trout are still short.  With time running short, we went on a hunt for Redfish.  We checked four big fish holes and found nobody home.  It was obvious they weren't gonna come to us, so we jumped on the trolling motor and decided to start beating the banks.  Finally, pay dirt!  Brian & Amy doubled up to start it off, and we caught short and lower slot Reds for the next 15 minutes.  We through 8 keeper fish on the cleaning table.  Brian & Amy took their catch down to Catch 228 in Redfern Village, who cooked 'em up right.  I know I've said it before, but I gotta give a special thanks to Brian & Amy who hung in there and grinded out a good day on the marsh!  By last count, we fished nearly 20 different spots.  Good job on putting a slam together, crew!

Slam Quest, SSI Fishing Report 9-5-11

Had a tall order to fill for Josh and Mark on Labor Day.  Our mission was to catch the basic inshore slam-Trout, Redfish & Flounder.  Coming off a week's worth of 8 ft tides, and some blustery weather made for a little murky water and downright tough conditions.  We started off pitching shrimp and jigs in the back of small creeks and oyster bars in the river and found a handful of small Reds, including two slots.  Next on the agenda was the Trout.  With shrimp being the main forage, we switched over to the DOA shrimp and worked creek mouths and grassy points.  We scraped out 7 or 8, with a couple of good keepers in the mix.  Josh and Mark are both avid fishermen, and have fished the Louisiana Delta, most of the northern Gulf and several excellent bass and trout fisheries in North Georgia.  Without these guys skills, I don't think we'd have gotten this far in our Slam Quest.  Now for the Flounder, which I knew would be a guarantee...enter Mother Nature.  The wind and tide poured in on my favorite bank and turned it into a choppy, chocolate milk!  But we threaded on the trusty Gulp baits and went to pitchin in the mess.  We somehow eeked out 4 Flatties, including a couple decent keepers.  Slams completed!  I can honestly tell you this was one of the toughest days I've fished this year, and without Josh and Mark bearing down, we wouldn't have gotten it done.  Good luck guys at UGA-study hard, fish hard, and finally...pray for your dawgs...they're gonna need it!  Looking forward to fishing with you guys again, I had a blast.

Hampton River Fishing Report 9-3-11

Had Ted and his grandson Evan out this Saturday for some inshore fishing around the Hampton.  It was awesome to see Evan's enthusiasm, as this kid is a charter captain in the making!  Evan and Ted have fished the marshes of Georgia before, and Evan is very in tune with tides, structure and different types of presentations.  We fished hard with the water still fairly stained and a pretty good breeze blowin' in.  We ended up with 20 Trout, but could only manage 5 keepers-and good ones at that.  Evan caught a real nice spec at 22" and just over 3 lbs.  We headed up the river for some Flounder fishing, and although we hooked 8, we could only get two good keepers out of those.  Ted picked off a nice Red along the way to complete the slam.  Evan had mentioned several times that he would like to catch a shark...and a blacktip at that.  Ted and I were intent on table fare, so we explained that sharks were readily available and we could catch one in 5 minutes.  So with 5 minutes left in the trip, in honoring my promise to Evan, we made a last stop for a shark.  At this point Ted looked me in the eye and said "you told that boy you could get him a shark in 5 minutes"   :o   The fishing gods were happy that day, as the cut bait we set down got inhaled in less than two minutes...and sure enough it was a nice blacktip!  I have surely been blessed with some great anglers this year, and Ted and Evan were no exception.  Evan's smiles and 'get after' attitude made this trip an absolute blast!

Trout n Tailers 9-2-11

Got on a pretty good Trout bite this morning.  Caught 16, with only 4 or 5 keeps.  Went looking for tailers on the flood tide, and the first flat I came to had tails everywhere!  Dang Sheepshead again-you could walk right up to 'em and poke 'em.  Just as I was about to leave that flat, I noticed that distinct black spot.  It disappeared as quickly as it appeared, and went around a stand of bullrush grass.  As I went around the other side, three Sheepshead came swimming right at me.  The third one had a Redfish swimming with him.  I pitched a tube bait out and that little Red darted around the heads and inhaled it.  Checked another flat, and as I was about to leave with the tide about to turn down, tails started popping up.  Ended up gettin' one good one and totally blew two good chances.  Love chasing the tailers, but will be glad to see the lower tides and let the water clean up and the current back off a little.