Fish Catching Travel

Try some today – they work!

Keeping After It Pays Off

Shoedog finally made it down for a few days of fishing so the Gulf was the plan.  Then my buddy Chris sent me a text wanting to go, so off we went.

The weather forecast was for winds to 30mph so the plan was to head to the island and fish the Pringle shoreline.  It was rough as heck going across, but once we got there the water was a lot clearer than at POC and the wind was not to bad.  Before we started to wade there were lots of birds working so we hit a couple of bunches.  Other than a few small trout and a couple of ladyfish, there was not much happening.

Next it was down from Pringle near a cut we call Bikini Cut.   We all threw topwater first without success, and though we worked the cut hard only a couple of small trout and a small flounder came on plastics, so it was time for a move.

We headed down to the main cut leading into Pringle and tried both shallow and deep.  And again it was only a small trout or two on plastics.  Now at this point it would have been easy to give up, noon and no keepers.  The wind was blowing pretty good and there was just nothing happening.  So up anchor and down the shoreline a ways.  Turned out to be a good move.

We hoped out and the fish decided it was time to bite, and bite they did.

Like the guide at POC told me, you can’t catch black drum on lures.

The first keeper was a black drum on a MirrOLure twitch bait.  I just can not get over the guide telling us you can not catch them on lures.  If you read this you know we had 5 over 25 this spring in one day on plastics.  But I digress.

From about noon until 3 the fish bit.  Plastics was the ticket, and most of them were in maybe 2 foot of water.  I picked up the drum and one 19″ trout, plus a couple of shorts on the twitch bait and then Chris cornered some putting 5 on the stringer without moving.

Chris with the first bunch back at the boat.  That is what happens when a big shark goes completely nuts all around you.

I took this picture of Chris with both stringers when we had to make a quick run to the boat.  I thought I saw a tailing red when all of a sudden out comes some fins and a shark about 6 foot starts going nuts chasing fish.  He was close to both of us and completely in a frenzy.  So we both hoofed it to the boat to get the fish off the stringer.  That shark was hungry, and like alligators, I always give things that can eat me the benefit of the doubt.

Meanwhile Shoedog was up in a cut, and while he boated some small trout and had a couple of reds break his line, the better fish were out on the flat.  I think before it was over Chris caught 8 reds, they were really getting after it.  Then I got a big bite and caught an over.

This guy had to go back, just a little bit to big.

On 8lb test and my trout rod it was a great struggle, and Shoedog was close and did the netting honors.  Since by then we had plenty of reds back he went.  Reminded me I have never tagged an over.  I managed to put another good trout in the net, then Chris caught the trout below, which was well over 20″.  We kept fishing for awhile and finally called it a day.

The last four to the cooler, that was one nice trout.

It was great to have one of those sit on the cooler to close it days.  Both Chris and I had the POC slam, a red, a flounder, trout, and a drum.  He had his best success on a red and white paddle tail, I was using the Up North watermelon red paddle tail.  Shoedog caught fish, but by time he got over to us the big bite was over.

The fish were on a flat with grass patches, sand, and potholes.  When the reds were after it they were against the grass, and Chris sight fished a couple of them.  Then they moved out into a couple of feet of water with the trout.  It was easy to see what they were feeding on when Shoedog caught a croaker and a blue crab on plastics, the old find the bait, find the fish thing  It was a good bite for over 2 hours and once we found them there were all there.  The tide was high at 11 and they bit when the water started moving.

We are about to make pigs of our selves!

I am tired.  By time we got back, cleaned the stuff and the boat, cooked supper and showered, it is time to hit the sack.  Tomorrow it will be back at it again.  It will be rough again, the ride out today was rough, the ride back was worse.  But it all came together.  I am not sure how many we caught, or how many we kept, but it was one of those drag the cooler to the cleaning table days.   So keep stopping in and thanks for reading my stuff.

Good Luck and Tight Lines