I had a day & a half to pre-fish and I covered a whole lot of territory. My sit-in Pungo is quick and comfortable to fish all day but its not designed for much distance. I need to get around to fish the biggest I could of Flounder, Trout, and Redfish. Winners for the largest would of each win on kayak and another would go the biggest slam of all three. Pre-banter was guessing that it would take 60+ to win the slam. There were 105 kayakers from as far as Va.
Day One
I had a half-day Thur and I found Trout and Redfish but no Flounder. The trout and reds were average (about 20”) but there were plenty of them so with another full day to fish I was feeling decent.
Day Two
Friday was dedicated to finding the Flounder. I never target them but I knew channel edges with bull minnows were the strategy in fall but with everything else in the grass now I decided to float bull minnows on long leader a jig to keep the bait down. I was faithful to that plan for two hours and the bull minnows caught all of nothing. Meanwhile I was throwing my white plastics and trying to keep them down. That picked up a fair number of trout but none over twenty. It also produced a 12 and a 14 inch flounder. It was slow going but at least I had a spot that could produce one to add to a slam.
I moved on to hunt for bigger reds and trout. I paddled what felt like 10 miles and didn’t accomplish much, except for finding out where they weren’t. That does help but isn’t much for confidence. I finished the day on a spot I tried earlier and picked up 2 trout to 21”. I quit that quick to save for first light the next day. That just ain’t right.
Hunt decent fish all day, wore out, finally find them, have to leave.
Day Three, Tourament
First light, first cast, a 21 inch trout. Third cast, 24 inches of trout. The official number was 23.875. I wasn’t likely to top that. Somebody else might, but it was a great slam fish. I cast 3 more times and had no takers. Time to move on. Love that tournament fishing.
Flounders next. No bull minnows. White plastic, 1/8oz white jig. A few small trout and then a 14” Flounder. That’s a great slam fish around here. It’s not quite 8:30am so I try to catch a bigger flounder. Twenty minutes later and up comes one that’s 18+. Somebody else might, but I ain’t gonna top that. Time for Redfish. 8:30am, I have 42” and the rest of the day to hunt. An upper slot fish would put me near 70”. Ain’t nobody topping that. Feeling good I went to where I found them Thursday. Over the next 5 hours I caught 12-15 redfish. They were all 18-20 inches. I kept catching them so I never could convince myself to leave. Ended up with 62 inches. ¾’s shy of the winning total for the slam. But my Trout won top honors and earned me a Wilderness Systems Tarpon 160i. It looked great beside my little Pungo. Word is that my Flounder was right at the top too, but you could only win one prize.
A special Thanks goes out to Suber. That's 2 for 2.
