Big Winds, Big Bites! St Simons Island 9/26 & 9/27

Despite the wind, I had the privilege to fish with some really great people who fish with me often. And of course after consulting the tide charts, moon, stars, almanacs and a series of

soothsayers, mystics, gypsies and fortune tellers we decided that Sept 26^th and 27^th were gonna be magical. I guess we should have consulted Mother Nature, as she decided wind was the word of the day(s). That was OK though, because not even Mother Nature could stop Chris or Pete on Thursday, or Roy and Amanda on Friday (I actually tried to talk Roy into another day!).

On Thursday, Chris had a slam in mind. After previous trips with nice reds, trout and flounder, we had yet to catch all three on the same day to rack up the elusive slam. Chris and Pete not only got the slam they got 6 of them and change! We started the morning with live shrimp for the reds, Gulp! for the flounder, and D.O.A shrimp for the specks. These guys did an amazing job of hitting the spots as it seemed that at each spot the fish were holding in an area as small as a garbage can lid.

Friday I was on the verge of postponing with winds forecast at 20-25 but Roy and Amanda were ready to go no matter what the conditions. Roy and Amanda, like many anglers we all know, can catch fish in a mud puddle…and today was no different. Again, the fish were in small pockets and Roy and Amanda bore down despite the blow. The ticket today was popping corks, slip floats, and jig heads fished with both live shrimp and D.O.A. ¼ oz. shrimp.

The water the past few days was amazingly clear (finally) despite the winds…I guess it’s true…you won’t know unless you go!

by Tim Cutting

 

Genuine Doormat

I had a large time in the marsh today with two really accomplished anglers, newlyweds Kristen and Brent. Brent and Kristen are regulars on the rocky Flint River and have yanked quite a few nice “shoalies”   (shoal bass). They were more than ready for our run and gun slam quest. Our mission was to do a real marsh sampler of redfish, trout, flounder and grab a big shark behind the shrimp boats. Live shrimp are not so lively right now due to the fresh hot water that’s been running thru the estuary, but make fine offerings for the multitude of lady fish, croakers, spots, whiting, grunts, pinfish and snappers that are thriving in the river right now. Our first stop was full of small fish but Kristen did manage a nice trout out of the mix. We made a run to skinny water and Brent’s first cast yielded a nice lower slot red and his second cast a nice black drum. We weeded thru some more small fish before heading out to the beach. After a few drifts we had one good shark come off before Kristen fought a pretty a pretty good one to the boat. With 3 of 4 outta the way we had just enough time to hit the sacred flounder lair. The flounder bite was a little tough but we ended up with 5 pretty good ones including a genuine doormat!  Good job guys grinding it out today, I had a blast!

 

by Tim Cutting