BayGator threw a Gulp! shrimp on a flutter hook / jighead and I threw topwater and we stuck with this pretty much the whole day. We fished around rocks in less than 2' of water and had some success catching fish. Unfortunately none were worthy of weighing in for big fish.
The first red of the day was exciting though...BG had forgotten to tighten his drag and so when he locked up on the fish, the fish just kept on going. We thought we had on a tournament winner! About halfway to the boat, he realized what was up, tightened the drag and brought in a good one, but not a 27" like we both thought it was going to be.
We caught 13 redfish to 23" and 12 trout to 19.99". Our big five trout were 19.99", 19.5", 19.5", 19.25" and 19". It would've been a solid tournament stringer, we just couldn't find the big bite.
The adventure didn't start until the ride home though. Idling out about 3/4 of a mile offshore, I was in 3.5' of water going about 4 mph. BAM! I hit something hard and the motor cutoff. We both said cuss words and then trimmed the motor up...it looked fine - the prop was a little bent, but nothing other than that. We start it up and again go another 400 yards out and I go to hammer down and the boat wouldn't go above 3400 rpm's. Once it got to 3400 rpm's (which was 12 mph), it would jump back down to 3000 rpm's and then slowly rise up again. It was almost acting like when you have water in your gas tank and the motor's not getting enough fuel. I don't know, I'm not a mechanic.
BG and I limped home 15 miles going 8-12 mph...niiice. I had a great time fishing with BG, but it was a bummer to end the day like that. I guess I was long overdue though - the dragons bite back hard.
T - 54 , R - 43
Check your foot oil, might of damaged a seal, increased friction will bog motor down.
to the dragons.
