Titusville 12/23

[FishWithChris]

Went out with a neighbor in a little 16' custom stern console. He told me not to worry about bringing any of my own gear or tackle. Ummm, yeah right. I came down dressed and ready, and he goes, "are you taking me out or am I taking you out? I may want to use your tackle!" Shared a laugh and off we went. We launched in Mims and headed up the river.

You know those clear days on the east and west flats that you can see straight down into the turtle grass, those very rare days? It was like that everywhere. I haven't fished those waters in years, and it was amazing to be back.

Air temp was around 48* and unsure of the water temp. We started off for some top-water action with trout and had no love, so we moved a little out, threw cut bait, mid-pups, catch2000s, jigs, twitch baits, cajuns, etc... nothing. He seemed confident in his "holes" but I was beginning to wonder if it was JT in disguise, pretending to show me the "real" holes.

I got into "St Marks West Flats" mode and got at the helm and motored around for a bit looking at the fish finder and scanning bottom, then popped up front and ran the trolling motor up to about 16"-12" of water, spotty bottom of sand and grass; water clear as glass. Boy do those Costas 580 green mirror lenses help out.

We saw no mullet running; even asked a guide out there if he had any luck; nothing.

Then it happened. I saw water being pushed around about 50 yards ahead. I powered the trolling motor to full speed for a few seconds and then cut it to push a forward casting drift. I sliced my catch off and tossed on an ADL weedless chartreuse spoon, no time for leader, straight to 20lb powerpro (oh noes). He said, "We don't really use a lot of spoons up here, good luck."

This is what it looked like I was casting to, but a bit further out:



They get about, yes, they, as in, A SCHOOL OVER OVER 50 REDS, and I chunked the spoon out and immediately hook up. 4 seconds and comes unbuttoned, a second later, BOOM! I have'm hooked and i just let her sit with drag low, turned the drag up and she took off. AHH! I"M HOOKED! My cheeks started to hurt as I couldn't stop grinning. She makes two laps around the boat and tries to get wrapped around the motor. I yell at my partner to just drop is *(&%&^$ rod and get the net. Get her up and boom! 27"s on the board... until we pinched the tail and measured just a tad over 27.5"



We fished another hour or two and pulled in several more upper and over slot reds. Great few hours on my home-town waters. We headed in a bit after 11 because the wind decided to pick up and made for a choppy ride back.

A lot of text to read, but I got excited typing her up!!!! Hoping to get out this afternoon and then back to Tally!

[SS-342]

Wow.....that was a good 'un!

[Jumptrout51]

All my holes payoff sooner or later.

[jsuber]

Sweet

[Tennessee]

I was there from 12/26 to 01/01 I got on some of the schools down there. I caught fish on top, fly rod, swim baits for trout and reds. Awsome place to fish. I stayed at Indian mound fish camp, accomodations were great. The fish are schooled up this time of year, if you find one you have found the honey hole from what I understand. Dolphin had our fish helmed in 6 inches to two foot of water. We caught fish to we got tired of catching fish. Great trip. Only problem with that place if you throw a rock you are going to hit a guide. I moved off several schools so they could make their money. Not much down there but fish. Had fun locating and catching fish never the less. Had to pull one guide several miles to launching point because motor proplems. Had a great time met lots of people.

[Reel Cowboy]

Capt. Mike Hakala would be proud to hear about another successful trip throwing Aqua Dream Spoons, especially in his back yard.

[Tennessee]

What does this spoon look like? Caught my first one on spoon.

[Reel Cowboy]

What does this spoon look like? Caught my first one on spoon.

http://www.aquadreamliving.com/

[FishWithChris]

[Reel Cowboy]

That's Capt. Mike's from years gone by.

[FishWithChris]

yup! Still my absolute favorite spoon to throw. I have the gold and pink weedless of his new generation spoons; but the one I posted was the first I grabbed out of my spoon box. It was sort of blind rigging while watching the school