14 year old Brandon and I met up Friday morning and drove to Keaton. Got to the ramp around 7:45 and launched the boat successfully. We ran North towards the Spring Warrior area, but there wasn't any water. Just south of the Warrior, we found some nice spotty bottom in about 18" of water and stopped to fish it. I threw a topwater and Brandon was throwing the TSR Gulp! Edition. I had a big red blow up twice on my topwater, but he missed and so Brandon (the crafty veteran) threw behind be with the jerkbait and hooked up with the good red. It went 26.5".
We continued fishing and I caught a nice trout on the topwater in that same spotty bottom. The tide started coming in and so we made a major move north. We moved into some rocky bottom in that magic 18" depth and Brandon hooked up with something good...I thought it was a red, he insisted that it was a big trout. I said, "There's no way a trout can rip out drag like that." We got it close to the boat and saw it and he started to panic...it was a big one. We netted the beast and high fived. I think I was more nervous than he was...
We continued fishing the area letting the wind push us near the grassline and caught some really nice reds. The first red went 25". The second one was pushing 26".
We ended up catching five reds out of the spot and decided to leave the area in hopes of catching them the next day. Fished a few more places on the way home and took it to the hill around 3 p.m.
Trip Odometer: 31.3 miles
Final Tally:
Trout - 3 to 26"
Redfish - 5 to 26.5"
Saturday 3/22
Got signed up for the tournament and headed North...waaaaay North. We knew the Warrior area was going to be crowded so we just kept on going when everybody turned in that area. We knew that there wasn't going to be any water in the area we wanted to fish until after lunch, but we thought we might be able to catch some keepers on some offshore rockpiles.
Eased into the first spot, fished for a while and then KVD Jr. hooks a good one on the TSR Gulp! Edition right at 19.75".
We fished for another hour without any hits and at 10:30, Pat put our second keeper in the boat at 18.5". I got into the action at 10:40 on the topwater and the fish went 18". Brandon caught our fourth at 10:46. Then nothing for three hours until the water came in.
Around 2 p.m. we still only had four fish in the boat and we were starting to get worried. The bite had turned on around 1 p.m. the day before and so I knew it might get going an hour later on tournament day. I just wasn't sure if we'd have enough time to make it happen. At 2:05 Pat caught a nice 19" trout on a Corky and so we had our five fish limit which took some pressure off. Brandon then caught one that went 16" that we let go.
We still didn't have a kicker and so I tied on a Super Spook in hopes that a big one would hit it. Big fish, big bait right? At 2:20 (with ten minutes left until we said we'd have to leave), a good one hit almost at the boat. Thanks to a light drag and Brandon's netting and we had our kicker at 23".
We had 12.88 lbs at the weigh-in and were lucky enough to win first and big fish. It was a good day with some good friends. I know Brandon had a good time and that he's hooked...the only bad thing is that he expects to catch 26" trout every trip now.
Trip Odometer - 36.5 miles
Water Temp. 62-64 degrees
Final Tally: Trout - 7, all keepers to 23"
Redfish - 2 to 20"
T - 42 ; R - 30
