St. Marks 4/12---trout and spanish

[SHOWBOAT]

Searched hard for a fishing partner to no avail. Everybody was headed out of town, scared of the weather report or not around when I stopped by to talk to them.

Saturday morning things didn't look to bad at the house, so the dog and I headed for the lighthouse.

Launched around 7 and turned east right into a sloppy chop. Ran to an area where I had a caught several nice trout two weeks prior, and they hadn't moved an inch. Did a couple drifts in 2-4' of water (moving very quickly even with a drift sock out) and caught probably 40 trout up to 23". Kept an 18.5 and 19.5 for dinner. Tired of bouncing like a cork I headed shallower in search of reds. Worked about a half mile of shoreline but was moving so fast I couldn't even search with a spoon. Nothing.

By about noon the winds had picked up, Boo had already got some swimming in on the shallow flats, we had trout for dinner and I was ready to head in. As we headed out into enough water to run, it became apparant that the waves would not allow me to run very fast. Rather than fighting them I decided to break out a couple beers stowed under the deck and troll back hoping for some macks. I didn't have any mackeral trees or clark spoons, so I put out an x-rap and an old Gator treble hook spoon I happended to find in the bottom of a box. About five minutes after we start the x-rap gets hit; an 18" trout. I was a little shocked, but tossed him back and kept going.

About 5 minutes later the x-rap goes off again, this time feeling like a spanish. As soon as his first run stops the other rod goes off, and it isn't slowing down. The other rod being my 3000 Stradic that was low on line to start the day. Tried to horse in the first fish so I can attend to the Stradic, and I lost him as a result. I quit reeling, cuss, then the x-rap gets hit again while it's just sitting. I put it back in the rod holder to let the fish wear itself out since the Stradic is almost out of line. Pick up the stradic and put a thumb on the spool. Luckily the fish was running down wind, so the boat turned when I thumbed the spool and I started gaining a little line. About 10 minutes later I finally have the fish boatside...jack cravelle, 34" to the fork...crap, all that for a jack. Turn around to grab the first rod and realize not only did the fish (probably a spanish) get tangled in the prop when the boat turned, but it then managed to get away and take my x-rap with him. I spend the next 15 minutes laying against the motor cowling cutting PP out of the prop, and taking waves over the transom.

Boo and I batten down the hatches and make the rough run back in. I was very happy with the way the boat handled the sloppy water. We got wet, but that was the extent of it. Looked like some others were having a tougher time including one little boat that had washed up against shore between the lighthouse channel and the east river; looked like they were taking a pounding. A pontoon boat threw them a rope and pulled them back to the channel just I got close.

A fun day with the dog and some nice trout too. Looks like I'll be putting new line on a couple reels this week.

[Atticus]

Good going. It was tough out there on Saturday.

[bman]

SB-
Sounds like a good time with Boo.
Those Jacks put up a fun fight! Just enjoy...

[jsuber]

Sounds like fun, I spent the better part of the day in the office. Wish I could have went out. It looked good late in the day.

[culrich]

Good deal... I wish i would have gone late in the afternoon.

[Mook!]

Nice job Showboat. The morning and early afternoon was pretty rough in that wind. After that, the wind calmed down a little bit, but only because it rained so hard. We didn't get any really good keepers until after you left, and even then they were few and far between, so you done well in that tough stuff

[Good Times]

Great report SB. Thanks for sharing with us. I like the trolling for trout.

[Jumptrout51]

Good job.
Years ago(50) before baitcasters that would actually cast we did a lot of trolling for trout. No one fished in close. Everyone had heavy V-bottom wood boats, trim and tilt had not been invented, you had to stay 4 feet and deeper.
You would cut the tongue out of a old shoe, use the black dacron fishing line and sew it on the reel plate guide. That served as your drag and kept your thumb from blistering.
The only plugs we had to troll with were redhead white body mirrolure and clark spoons. A few years later they invented a couple other lures for trolling.
I hate trolling.

[Atticus]

Good job.
Years ago(50) before baitcasters that would actually cast we did a lot of trolling for trout. No one fished in close. Everyone had heavy V-bottom wood boats, trim and tilt had not been invented, you had to stay 4 feet and deeper.
You would cut the tongue out of a old shoe, use the black dacron fishing line and sew it on the reel plate guide. That served as your drag and kept your thumb from blistering.
The only plugs we had to troll with were redhead white body mirrolure and clark spoons. A few years later they invented a couple other lures for trolling.
I hate trolling.

Tell us the part about how you had to wrap the pull cord around the flywheel to start the engine every time...

[Bow'd Up]

Nice

[RD]

Good job.
Years ago(50) before baitcasters that would actually cast we did a lot of trolling for trout. No one fished in close. Everyone had heavy V-bottom wood boats, trim and tilt had not been invented, you had to stay 4 feet and deeper.
You would cut the tongue out of a old shoe, use the black dacron fishing line and sew it on the reel plate guide. That served as your drag and kept your thumb from blistering.
The only plugs we had to troll with were redhead white body mirrolure and clark spoons. A few years later they invented a couple other lures for trolling.
I hate trolling.

Tell us the part about how you had to wrap the pull cord around the flywheel to start the engine every time...

That was before outboards,they used sails to troll with

[Reel Cowboy]

Nice quickie SB.