Reggie and I launched at the fort. We started out a bit deep and found some small trout. The wind was just too much, and we weren't finding any quality fish. We decided to head in to much shallower water. Shortly after we set up a drift in about 2-3' of water I had a large trout (large in my eyes
) blow up on top water. But I lost it. I kept getting strikes, but most appeared to small fish. I did hook a 22" spanish on top water--in about 2' of water. At this point Capt. Reggie was working the fly rod. I had never seen anything like that before.
It would look like he casted the fly, but then the fly would be traveling directly back at us....then SNAP!, it was heading back away from us. I sure as heck couldn't figure it out....but the fly was landing in the water away from the boat, which is a good thing. It is certainly a skill to be mastered. And he certainly knows what he's doing. To my surprise, he hooked some trout and a rock bass on the fly rod--despite all the wind. Around 12, we had just one decent trout in the boat. So it wasn't looking great, and Reggie's arm was tired of casting the fly rod. He took a break, and then he rigged up one of my rod's "Ty Smith" style. It wasn't long and Reggie put a very nice trout in the boat. Then he took another rest, and was telling me about how much he loved Mirro-Lure's. I showed him what I had, and he got pretty excited when he saw one particular one. So he rigged it up, and WHAM!, another nice fish in the cooler....then he took another rest. We had three decent fish in the cooler, and since he was resting, I took the Mirro-Lure he was throwing and picked up a fourth fish.
It was getting late, and I was worried we might not make it back. We decided we'd do one more drift then high tail it back to the ramp. Reggie picked up a dried out Gulp new penny shrimp that had been sitting out all day, removed my jighead, and he replaced it with a hook. And yep, on about his third cast he's got a fish on. This one went just under 22."
We shot the photo and then ran back for the hill. We went through some rain in the channel, and then once we were in the river it let up. That's when my alarm started sounding. We stopped for a minute, and all looked fine....and it was "peeing." So I started it back up and got back on plane....then the alarm went off again. Started it again, alarm again, and not too much water coming out the peehole.
We moved out of the channel, called Sea Tow, and called it a day. It was about 3pm. About 15 minutes later RodBow and his partner came by. I didn't think they'd make the weigh in, but we sent our fish with 'em in case. Thanks for checking on us.
Next the thunder came, and so did the rain. I put up the bimini and we waited for Sea Tow....and prayed there wouldn't be any lightning.
It must be a tournament thing for me:
All in all it was a really good time on the water with Capt. Reggie!
This is in response to JT51's comments: With all due respect, and meaning no offense, I fish tournaments just like I do any time else out on the water = 
