Took a trip with my neighbor Saturday morning. Left Thomasville at 5am, but with the drive down, picking up the boat, getting ice and bait, weren't in the water until about 8am. Set up a drift from Turkey Point pushing towards Lanark. Started in 6-7' and drifted through water to 3' and all in between. First drift the bite was fast. CTs hardly had time to attempt to float before being pulled down. Thankfully, we weren't able to get live shrimp, because almost every cast a pinfish would bump the white gulps several times before a trout would make a move, and we'd have been rebaiting or baitless for the trout bite with shrimp. Had about 15 fish on the first pass, 5 or 6 in the boat. Many caught were 14". Big fish was just shy of 21", average of the limit was around 17-18". Bite stopped in 8', so we made another pass. Bite was slower then, as high tide was almost on us, but we manage a couple more keepers. Caught and released 4 Spanish, several were nice sized (not a fish for me), a nice bluefish, and several ladyfish.
Spent the afternoon trolling for grouper to 17 miles out, in 30-55' of water. No luck. A couple of strikes that didn't net out. Guys we talked to that caught them did so before high tide, and their bite stopped then.
Heading back in we tried the trout again on the shallow shoal north and east of Dog Island. Rounded off the catch there, and headed home. Great day on the water. Beautiful clear water. Did notice how the wildfire smoke really cut down on visibility. Couldn't see Dog Island from Turkey Point, and lost sight of land much sooner than usual heading offshore.
