Headed to Keaton, How will rain effect trout and reds?

[Heath]

I will be heading to Keaton tomorrow. Only day i can get a chance to go for another week or so. Still in the Learning phase, I had alot of luck this past weekend in 6 feet of water north of channel. How will this rain that passed through effect the fish? what water levels should i aim for? i will be using live shrimp if available. any tips would be appreciated.

[zload]

I checked the 72 hour rain accumulation graphs and the general area only got between 1" - 2.5" until you get up to around Tallahassee so I wouldn't think the rain impact would be much of a problem. Live shrimp get pecked a lot by pinfish this time of the year, I tend to use more artificial shrimp or jerk baits in the summer. Nothing wrong with live shrimp in general, you can also use some squid or gulp chunks and small hooks to catch pinfish around the bird racks and pretty much anywhere on the grass flats or toss a net.

[2true]

Stay away from River mouths! lol

Perry got hammered with rain. I would stay away from muddy/silted water. All you will catch are catfish and sharks.

[SS-342]

It should be a good learning experience! Go everyday you can. I always learn something.

I look for slightly stained water no matter the deapth. I've been in four foot water and the bite stopped to find it again near in six foot water. Seems in deaper water it is best to fish on the bottom but not always. That is part of what makes fishing fun. Change! Change where you fish, how you fish, colors, methods, type of bait, speed, any or everything until you hit the right combination. White gulp shrimp with an ORANGE tail has worked good lately at Keaton. Buy a pack at Rocky's and try them.

An accumulations of experiences give you a better feel for what might work. Be encouraged by your good days, not discouraged by the bad ones. Remember, it is always good to be on the water!

Keep plugging along. One day someone will say, "You known that Heath, he is a good fisherman!"

....but, trout generally do not like real fresh water nor dirty water. However, I find stained water seems to work better for me than clear water. Good turtle grass bottoms works better than mud bottoms but that also depends on the time of year and fish activity of that moment. I've caught trout in the winter on pure mud bottoms!

Go when you get a chance and you'll get better and better.

Good luck, I know you'll have a good day regardless.

[Heath]

Thanks for Comments

Yesterday went very well. I have been having the best luck an hour or two before high tide and an hour or so after. Got on the water around noon yesterday. Caught quite a mixed cooler. Had piles of short trout and rock bass. But managed to take home 2 trout, 1 Spanish makeral , 3 rock bass, and A Cobia that hit the 33 inch mark! so overall, cooler full and solid day. The pin fish were destroying our live shrimp. Switched to gulp artificial and did a little better. Sort of a mixture of water depths.
Do any of you use small pinfish? i havent had any luck but ive been told to use those.

[DixieReb]

What a great report! Thanks. Yes, Heath, you can float a small pinfish under a popping cork and do well on trout this time of year.I like to get mine down just over the grass, so you might have to fish them deep.Unfortunately, the sharks like them as well, so you might have to wade through a lot of them also. But we usually keep a couple of 2-3 ft. sharks for the ice chest, so it's OK with me.

[jzimmer]

Look at my post from Tuesday and Wednesday from Keaton