Dave, Tim and I went out this morning and fished our usual spot. We found lots of trout that seemed to have a real attitude, I've never seen them hit and fight that hard. Tim caught the first redfish at 32" and Dave got the biggest at 38", which is the record out there for us so far. I caught one small slot size red, and about a dozen or so trout.

38" Redfish

It's hot and it's fishing, but it's really not Hot Fishing. With the hotter weather now the fishing has actually started to get much more difficult. They are getting more spread out and not as easy to catch.

Went out this morning with Dave and his dad borrowing our canoa and I caught this one 23" trout first thing... then after that nothing but small trout and redfish all under 19 inches or so.

23" Trout

I'm getting ready for the tournament on Sunday so thought I'd take the day off from work and practice. I'm finding the hardest part of the whole ordeal is getting a decent picture of the fish on a measuring board. This is a requirement for the tournament and if I can't get it right it won't matter how big a fish I catch. I think the one today could have been over 31" if I would have got him on the board correctly.

I did catch some fish, so that's not the bad luck part. The bad luck started this morning when I got to the 'good' spot and the waves were breaking into the shoreline. The wind was gusting to 20mph, so that was out. I headed to a completely different spot that I never do well at, but at least it was sheltered from the wind. 2 hours of peddling and absolutely nothing was moving. I tucked up into the mangroves to eat some crackers and take a break, figuring the rest of the day was going to be like this. I heard a commotion behind me and not 50 feet away was a big blue tail sticking out of the water. I had to cast over my left shoulder and behind me, and accidentally hit him with the lure. It didn't seem to matter though cause he grabbed it and took off. I was already in a bad position, facing away from the fish, and to make matters I had loosened up my drag earlier while I let the bait set out on the bottom. Redfish don't usually make real fast runs, but with the drag set the way it was this one did. He was quickly taking all my line, and was about to wrap around a pole that was out off the shore, while I was still trying to get turned around to face him. I did everything I could but the wind was pushing me the other way. I'm sure the line wrapped across that pole, why it didn't break I'll never know. I did finally get pointed in the right direction, tightened the drag, and let the fish pull me out to deeper water. He wore himself out pretty quickly after that and I was able to get him in for some pictures.

The next fish had 2 or 3 friends with him... a bunch of commotion in the shallow water and and soon as my lure hit the middle of it the fish grabbed it and took off. Unfortunately this one might have been a little bit bigger, and was able to break the leader.

Then it started to rain, then my rain pants started to leak, then it really started to rain, then I dropped my new real in the water, arghh. Hopefully all the bad luck is over and I can go into Sunday with a fresh start.

Nice Redfish

30 and 1/2 Inches?

Getting ready for a big fishing tournament next weekend so working out our strategies. Caught about 10 of these guys this morning. Largest was 27". Dave lost one probably twice that size at the boat when his line snapped.

27" Redfish

Dave had to do some stuff with visiting family, and neither of the boys wanted to go, so I was on my own this morning. Headed out early thanks to our new outside alarm clock (noisiest bird in the neighborhood). I wasn't the first one out even at 6:30AM though, 2 or 3 others were there ahead of me. Started out casting to some bait fish and didn't get anything. Was getting a little worried, since this area is usually pretty quick to produce fish, so staked out and started trying different lures. Found one that worked, and just about wore myself out for the next hour or so. Caught 3 nice sized redfish and a whole bunch of trout. The biggest red was 25" and the other two were both 23"

25" Redfish

21" Trout

23" Redfish

Nasty forecast for today, so we were the only ones out early this morning. The fish didn't seem to mind the cold and wind though, as we had another epic day. Caught what has to be my biggest trout so far. We caught a bunch of really nice trout and a few good sized redfish that we brought home for dinner.

Everyone always comments on the spots on the tail of redfish, they can take on multiple forms, and some have a ton of them. This one has a spot in the shape of a guitar pick which I thought was pretty cool.

23" Spotted Sea Trout

23" Redfish

We fished in the rain and fog early Sunday morning and were well rewarded for braving the elements. Caught tons of trout, most in the 20-22" range which are BIG trout. Also found hundreds of tailing Black Drum that would not eat, but it was a treat just to find them. Now we just need to find a way to get them to bite.

Big Trout

Fished the No Motor Zone (NMZ) with the kayaks this morning. Wind forecast was dreadful, but out of the West so we thought we'd give it a shot. Caught a bunch of trout and one really nice redfish.

Derek and I took the new canoe out this evening for a test drive. Unfortunately it has a small defect so we are going to have to return it, hopefully they can get a replacement for it as it worked out very well. Now I'll be able to take one or 2 of the kids (or maybe even Lisa!) out fishing with me. Derek was the first to volunteer after doing so good paddling in the front seat tonight.

Mad River Passage 14