Tall Trout Order! SSI Fishing Report 12/23/12

Got sent out of the house with orders to bring back dinner. Step on the boat and nearly break my neck on pure ice. The fish acted a little frozen as well. But, as the tide slowed down and dropped out I began to pick off a few. I dragged a “baby ubershad” in pumpkin shad from “Excite” baits, a Slayer inc. paddle tail in “ Houdini”, and what is becoming my favorite DOA shrimp: Watermelon/Halo. I fished the same stretch of deep creek bend, back and forth for close to 3 hours. No short fish today, and even a nice bonus red! My second order was to be back by 12….12:05 counts doesn’t it?

Great Trout Bite Continues

After finding a few specks Tuesday, I felt pretty good about getting back on the water with Bob on Wednesday. Bob has been fishing with me since we first started, and is no stranger to the marsh. Bob has fished the Brunswick River system for quite some time and knows how good the fishing can be around St Simons Island. We got on some trout pretty quick, and even though we had quite a few unintentional quick releases and misses we were off to a good start. Stop number 2 and 3 didn’t produce, so we jumped on the trolling motor and began to pick some solid fish, including a few real nice trout and a redfish crashing the party. That’s the way it is with Bob it seems. He knows when the stars and moon line up…more importantly is that lucky rabbits foot I can’t get him to give me. Thanks Bob, you certainly bring the mojo and good times with you every time out!

 

Great Bite in the Blow…SSI Fishing Report 12/18/12

The wind was absolutely honkin’ out of the northwest…but the fish didn’t seem to mind. All fish caught on the watermelon/halo DOA shrimp and a few off the old faithful Bomber Long A (suspending). The water has already cleaned up a bit and was still at 60 degrees. Gotta feeling there is going to be some fish caught these next few weeks!

 

Funny Out Takes & Bloopers

I have been trying to put together some "how to's" on knots, rigs, lures, and other fishing related stuff. Figured we'd provide some entertainment for the wintery windy days. But thanks to great weather, great fishing and a lot of trips(thank you!) and fairly full calender of trips coming up( thanks to many of you again!) things have been hectic. Well here are a couple of "EPIC FAILS" as Sarah says. The kids think these are pretty funny due to some akward narration and a fish relieving itself during the longer video. As the kids say "we are not laughing at you, but with you".

 

 

Big Trout...

…and a gazillion little fellers too. I had a pretty solid plan for hitting the marsh with Lawton and Tom. Lawton and Tom are both avid blue water fisherman and have fished the marsh plenty as well. But back to the “plan”. Plan “A” worked pretty well on the rising tide as we picked off some nice trout up river on top of the mudflats. Plan ”B”-- head to the sound and wear out the trout on some clean falling water. We were met with wind and dirty water. No problem, head south back to some clean water. The water here was as clean and emerald green as I had ever seen it. (Even with the moon). We fished 8 or 10 drops with plenty of shorts but only a few keepers. Now I was scrambling. Run back up river and get on bigger fish! Three stops, great bite…all shorts. With the water dropping out, and nearing the end, we switched it up and went deep. Although the bites weren’t as frequent, the quality certainly was. We mixed it with live shrimp, DOA’s, and Gulps. Even had a few nice sheepshead and black drum join the party. We ended up with a nice mess of fish…but Lawton and Tom certainly earned it! Thanks guys, it was a blast as usual!

 

St Simons Island Fishing Still Hot

Eddie (roperdoc), Josh and Michael headed east from Athens to hit the marsh again. The timing couldn’t have been better. Except for low slack tide, which seemed to last forever, the bite was good all day. The outgoing tide produced the best bite, but the incoming brought bigger fish and oddly enough, a pile of reds. The outgoing tide was a good indication of how healthy and strong the trout population is as we had trout from 6” to 16”. (It was a little discouraging at first as we weeded threw a ton of shorts).  At one point the doc went 5 for 5 on one small hump for the reds. The trout that were with the reds were absolute chunks including a true gator roperdoc caught that we all thought was another good red. We caught fish shallow on the popping corks with DOA shrimp and liveys. We also got bit good in 6 -12 ft with the slip floats and live shrimp. Water was clean and green! These guys are great anglers and a blast to fish with. Thanks guys for another great day in the river!

 

St Simons Island Trout Bite Still Strong!

Gotta give a shout out to William and Tim for helping me figure out some low water stuff Monday. Michelle and I checked out yesterday with more low water and less winds. Michelle dragged an 1/8 jig with a molting Gulp! shrimp and I pulled a DOA 3" shrimp (#368), with an extra 1/32 weight crimped on. Slow hops in 6-12 ft of water was the trick. For the second trip in a row, Michelle got bigger and more. Back on the hill cleaning a couple of limits by 11:00 a.m. My family is in town and looking for some fried fish...guess they better thank Michelle. Happy Thanksgiving all you Marshrats!!

Goliath Grouper in the Creeks!

Got a call over the weekend from my good buddy William, who fishes with us regularly. First, I gotta tell you this guy is hard core and fishes pretty much the entire eastern seaboard…and flat out puts them in the boat. When I told William and his good friend Tim (another fish slayer) that it looked like 20-25 knots for Monday am, and a big honkin’ tide pouring in, he hit me with those words I love to echo: “You won’t know, if you don’t go”. How could I back out? (But Will’s like me and will fish in a hurricane) Well, despite weeding through some serious wind and short fish, as usual these guys started picking them off and ended up with a nice mess of fish.  As soon as the water rose, it turned dirty and  the bite slowed as well.  One of the highlights of the day was a Goliath Grouper that was hiding on one of our redfish rock piles.  We snapped a few pics and William put her back so we can catch her when she gets up to 100 lbs.

As usual I had an awesome time fishing with William and Tim. These guys are the type that know the next fish is a cast away and stay fun and focused.

William, a million thanks, you guys figured out a nice pattern that worked great for Michelle and I today!

 

Attention Flounder Pounders!

The T-Shirts are in! I need all of you flounder pounders (you know who you are) who fished with us this year to PM me so I can get your info and get your shirts to you. Its been a great year for the flatties, 350 and counting!

 

 

Fishing Chronicles with Roperdoc and Josh

Was fortunate to fish with another one of GON’s (Georgia Outdoor News) finest (Roperdoc) and his son Josh last Friday.  First I have to tell you that Eddie (Roperdoc) is a world class outdoorsman, and was just as fun to listen to as to fish with. Some of you know of his expertise as a veterinarian, but his knowledge doesn’t end there.  As I munched on the Doc’s deer jerky, (and other culinary fishing foods), I got to listen to some great hunting and fishing stories and the nuances of pursuing different species.  Doc also has a first class son, who by the way did some serious damage and gave Pop a run for his money, including big fish. While we piled up some fish, the bite was a little tough.  Eddie and Josh worked pretty hard to get bit.  Live shrimp, DOA shrimp, paddletails, and mud minnows all caught their share.  At times the “bite window” was only 2 foot wide and these guys put it there time after time.  It was one of those days we stayed on the trolling motor all day,  and never reached in the anchor locker.  Although we really hadn’t planned on flounder fishing, we chunked some plastics in the flattie stuff and knocked off three pretty quick before heading to the hill.  Eddie and Josh, aside from being excellent anglers, are what the outdoors and having a big time are all about! Thanks guys for a super day on the water!

They Bit Pretty Hard Today...

I guess the fish were pretty hungry after the last few days of big water and big wind. Even though a pretty good west wind was blowing, Victor, Charlie, Tim, and George thumped ‘em pretty good. It was a Chinese fire drill, with doubles, triples, and even quadruple hook ups…but those are the problems we like! Thanks guys, I had a huge time!

 

Mixed Bag In The Blow

When Jim and I headed out we were a little nervous about the wind. I thought our worst fears were about to come true, when slowly but surely we started picking off fish.  A couple of trout here, a few flounder there and on it went.  Few more stops in the back of the creeks yielded some slot reds and a nice black drum.  Checked a wind- blown shell bar and some nice trout, slot and over sized reds showed up.  Jim pretty much put the hammer down and entered the land of a thousand casts…into the wind.  When we got back to the dock I was kind of surprised to see the nice mess of fish Jim had piled up, including a couple of real nice slams. There is going to be some fine eating back in West Virginia! Thanks Jim, I had a blast!

New Flounder Pounder...

We added a new member to the Flounder Pounder club this week…but it didn’t come easy, as the wind was on us pretty good this week! Barry came down from the Carolina’s to see if some of our flattie techniques could be applied to the Carolina coast, where Barry fishes quite often. As we stared at the flag blowing stiff that morning, Barry had no inclination of cancelling and said “I’ve fished in worse”. We stood toe to toe all morning in that blow, and Barry pretty much put it on me with big fish and the aggregate. Barry definitely earned his t-shirt, and I have a feeling those fine eating flat fish of the Carolina Low Country are about to get pounded!

 

Fall Bite Is On!

Had a great day on the marsh with Chris last year, and Chris brought the mojo with him again this year. Last year Chris plucked some nice reds out of the grass on some nearly nine foot tides. This year we did a complete 180 and fished the low. Chris is an accomplished bass fisherman, so I threw down the gauntlet, and the challenge was on…all artificial! We pretty much stayed with the Bomber Long A all day and caught a few really nice trout, a few lower slots, and a mess of shorts. I knocked one of the “really” nice trout off Chris’s Bomber. (BH) I tried to knock a big flounder off his Bomber as well…but finally got it landed. We wanted to finish strong on the flatties but the wind had other ideas. Chris changed up the finesse jigging to a cross current swimming retrieve and dang if he didn’t figure them out!  We weeded thru some short flatties and ended up with 5 good ones. Back to the mojo, Chris’s “technique”, put us at a respectable 305 flatties for the year. I think that earns him a “flounder pounder” t-shirt! And a special thanks for that bottle of 1800!

 

 

Last Singles Slam

Today was the last day Michelle was able to get on the water before she surgically implants the ring in my nose next Friday (jk Baby, I am incredibly lucky to be marrying you). Michelle put a tall order on the plate, wanting to catch just one nice slam. First stop, Michelle whacks a couple of specks with a trusty Long A. Next stop for the Red. We had to beat off a couple sharks, but Michelle ended up with a beast on about her third cast. With two of three out of the way, it was on to the flatties. They have been finicky, but not today. We got on a real good Flounder bite, including one Michelle caught that you could wipe your feet on. My Baby rocks. The next time we fish together, it will be Mr. & Mrs. Capt. Tim Cutting...has a nice (nose) ring, doesn't it. I think this poor butterfly got tired of fighting the breeze, and rested on my head & shoulders for about 10 minutes...good luck I think.