Launched at safe late on the Econfina River and fished a creek first thing as we felt that the water hadn't warmed up quite enough to look for fish over mud. Saw nothing in the first creek
. Fished it all the way back and didn't even see a mullet. The water was very stained and we believed this had something to do with it so we made the decision to head back towards Aucilla. We pulled up to our first spot and quickly Nina put a 18" fish in the boat. Skunk was now off, and pretty early, so I was feeling a bit better. We continued to fish this spot and began to see more and more trout as the Sun got higher and higher. We followed this particular school of trout around for another hour and a half plucking our 5 fish stringer from this school. All fish were caught on suspending "jerk" baits fished very slowly in about a foot and a half to two feet of water over mud bottom.Now that we had our five. It was time to search for both a big trout and a red. Off to spot two. We arrived and set down. We were again fishing in about a foot of water. We saw some large trout in the 24 to 26" range sunning but couldn't get them to eat. At around noon, we decided to head back to our last destination that was right around a bend only to see a solo fisherman in a similar jon boat heading right back into the exact creek we wanted to fish
. As he moved by us, I noticed some nervous water begin to push directly toward us. It was slick calm, this was definitely a large school of reds. "This is our shot babe!" They move right into casting distance and we both fired out, leading them by about 10ft. "Fish on!" I hooked up instantly as the school went bonkers. Nina had a blow up on topwater but missed, and my fish quickly came unhooked. We sat and waited for them to settle down, and ended up with a few more followers, but no takers. Ol boy ended up moving out of our creek after all the commotion with the redfish ended and we had about 45mins to fish it before we had to boogy. It's now 1:30 and we have not had our fish. Time to leave. "Let's give it another 5mins, Nina, we have decent fish, but not the winning stringer." She agrees reluctantly as she at least wants to get on the board and not show up late to the weigh in.
"Fish on!" The beauty comes out of the water instantly thrashing. Nina nets the fish like the pro she is and with a quick measure we have our fish over 20"s. We scramble to get the boat situated and screamed out of the creek with fingers crossed. We made the haul back to Econfina, loaded up and high tailed it to Keaton.
It was a great tournament, weather, and turnout. We placed 2nd and were thrilled, especially Nina who has really grabbed this tournament thing by the horns.
She loves it! 