Flounder Still on Fire 8-19-11

Had Garrett from West Georgia in for a little inshore fishing yesterday.  Garrett does a lot of trout and bass fishing in his neck of the woods, and said he'd preferred to go all artificial (twist my rubber arm!).  We jigged a few deep spots and came up with four real good Trout and half a dozen shorts.  With the water rising, but clean and green, we decided to skip the Redfish portion of the day and go drag around some plastics for some meat.  As you all are pretty well aware by now, the Flounder bite has been pretty strong, so that's the direction we headed.  It was a little challenging for Garrett at first, but once he dialed it in and related it to worming for large mouth, it all came together.  Called it quits after 18 Flatties (8 were shorts) and headed to the dock with 10 good ones including a couple real slabs!  It is an absolute blast to see anglers try new techniques and start stickin fish.  Thanks Garrett-awesome day!

St Simons Slammin' 8-18-11

Headed out with Jeff (inshore31525) for a half day of scouting and deep structure jigging.  We caught half a dozen trout, including four chunky ones.  Popped the corks on some shells and scraped out a pretty nice red.  Ran over to flounder country and caught a dozen.  Most of them were short, so Jeff reached into his bag of tricks and pulled out an extra large 6" white soft plastic grub.  He then shot a little Pro-Cure to it and proceeded to yank out the nicest flattie of the day.  Chalk another one up for "big bait, big fish".  Did manage four nice keeper flatties when all was said and done.  Thanks Jeff, I had a big time.

A (Kids) Picture(s) is Worth a Thousand Words...

...featuring Steve-o, 'Action' Jackson, Logan the Moganman and 'Call Me Butter Because I'm on a Roll" Cole. 

Something Old, Something New...

Something borrowed, something BROWN!  Scouted some new stuff today, and fished some old.  Man, was the water filthy!  I had one small window at the top of the incoming that I planned to Flounder fish, but got a good blow-up on a topwater and got side tracked.  So I ended up chasing Trout around some flooded grass with a couple more blow ups, but only one hook up.  Switched it up, ended up with one on a spook, one on a fluke and one on a juke (lip diver).  Ran over to the Flounder hole, and even though it was pretty filthy, managed to get eight and fumbled one keeper over the side.  Three were dinks, four are dinner.  All artificial today and back at the hill around noon.  Fishing can be tough with the combination of full moon and hot weather, but they've got to eat sometime!

Dang its Hot! SSI Fishing Report 8-6-11

Michelle, Daniel and I headed out to do some scouting today in some pretty steamy, windless conditions.  Michelle & I went to chunkin artificials, while the one-handed little man cane poled a minnow.  Next thing I know, little man has me and Michelle down 4 to nothing!  Dan one-hands a Hammerhead, Sharpnose, Ladyfish and Trout before either one of us even get on the board.  The temperature now feels like 110 with no wind, and Michelle starts to catch Trout.  She gets two solid keepers and a nice 19 incher, and I have yet to get on the board.  At this point Michelle starts to feel down right pukey from the heat, so leaving them biting we put the Scout in the wind fearing Michelle may be on the verge of a heat stroke.  A couple miles of wind and a few bottles of water, and Michelle is starting to feel better so we decide to make a long run to the hallowed Flounder grounds.  When we get there, mother nature plays one of her little tricks, and throws us some good wind-right on our favorite bank, but we stick it out anyway.  Michelle quickly sticks two Flounder, one is a pretty nice slab too.  By now Daniel and Michelle both have 5 good fish, and I've yet to set the hook on anything!  The fishing gods smiled at the end, as Michelle got one more and I ended up sticking three-including a nice fat one.  The water was still fairly dingy for some reason and all of Michelle's Trout came on the lip diver.  The Flounder all came on the Gulp! chartruese swimming mullet because I cannot find a 4" white swimming mullet within a 50 mile radius of Brunswick! All fish released today. Good luck out there, be safe and bring plenty of water! 

St Simons Island Fishing Report 8-5-11

Headed out with Zach for a half day fishing up around the Hampton.  Water temps were warmer than bathwater at 88 degrees, and dirty like convenience store coffee, not to mention a stifling 93 degrees by 9am with not a breeze stirring!  Zach and I fired everything in the box on a dead low tide that wouldn't seem to turn back in.  Finally as the water did turn back in, we started picking off rat Reds until Zach put the hook in a good keeper. 

Ran out to the beach to see what was happening, but the water was pretty dingy out there, although Zach stuck a pretty good fish that came unbuttoned.  Funny how you can drop a treble hook lure anywhere and have to cut the hooks off it to get it unsnagged, but put one in a good fish and it comes unglued!!!  With the tide turning in pretty quick, we beat up some Flounder holes and ended up with 4 flatties, including two nice ones.  Zach, I had a great time-good thing we had to get back by noon as it dang sure was a scorcher!  Thanks for hanging in there with me in the heat and picking off a few good ones!

St Simons Island Kids Fishing Trip 8-2-11

Had Alex and his crew Hannah, Ellie & the birthday boy Sammy out for a short run earlier this week. These guys made the trek from Indianapolis to enjoy a day on the water in the Golden Isles. Its pretty amazing to see the looks on the kids faces as they hear croakers croak, play toss with jelly balls, watch manta rays, catch a multitude of sharks and even a hook a Ray about the size of a car hood. I think I had about as much fun as the kids did on this one. Happy Birthday Sammy!

 

New Moon, Hot Days, Good Fishing 7/30, 7/31 & 8/1/11

Had a great time these past few days with some old friends and new ones too!  Fished Saturday with my good buddy Lawrence, his son Vincent & his Dad George.  This was one of the toughest days, although we got on a pretty good Flounder bite, caught a few decent Trout and the Shark bite held up as usual this time of year.  I'm sure many of you have caught a Bonnethead record and didn't even know it, as 24 lbs is at the top.  Well, George hooked one (on the lightest tackle of course) that pushed 30 lbs easily.  The biggest one I've ever seen!  Vincent was one of the most die-hard anglers I've had on the boat in a long time, and ended up catching quite a few fish through shear persistence and sweltering heat.  Thanks Lawrence & crew, I had an awesome time!

On Sunday, Peter & his son Jeremiah came down from Atlanta to explore the Jekyll area.  They will be on our coast for a few weeks, and have a boat to do some fishing.  These guys are avid fishermen, and fish all across the country and are big fans of artificials, like myself.  Ten year old Jeremiah is a child prodigy in the fishing arena.  This kid grabbed up the lip diver, as did Peter, and immediately got into fish.  This was one of the better Trout bites I've been on this summer, as these guys came just short of 15 keeper Trout.  These were all keepers, with the exception of one short fish, and inluded 3 just over 20".  The heat was so bad, and the bite so hot that Peter & Jeremiah both jumped into the river at noon.  Should've taken a picture of that!  Peter-good luck with Jeremiah's fishing addiction!  The kid's a natural!

Headed out today a little less than optimistic with extremely high tides, nearly 3" of rain last night and the water looking like chocolate milk.  We had Don and his sons Keith (who is about to be married this weekend) and Ken (a rising Junior at West Point, and pitcher on their Baseball team).  They were together for a boys weekend before Keith gets hitched and Ken heads back to school.  Amazingly enough the day started off pretty good as the corks went under for a quick Trout bite.  Trying to mix it up as best as possible we moved on to find the Flounder. Although Keith & Ken had been away from the rods & reels for a while, they picked it back up rather quickly as Dad, Keith & Ken all got a Flounder pretty quickly.  Keith & Ken went on to double up on Flounder right after that.  Headed out to the sound for a little Shark fishing and although some super-sized Rays showed up we did manage a few decent Blacktips and another big Bonnie.  Heading back to the Marina we made a few more casts with the corks and ran into the school of poor-man's tarpon (aka the Ladyfish) which was pretty cool as you know how balistic these fish can get.  Thanks Don, you've got two amazing sons to be very proud of!