Steinhatchee April 16-19

[flatfish]

Waited all winter for the annual spring trip. Made the trip from NC (600 miles) on Tuesday and then got ready for a few days of much needed fishing.

Wednesday 4/16. Much colder than predicted and the wind was howling but at least it was out of the east. We fished hard in the wind picking up a few trout here and there. Tide was moving well and we started to do better on the outgoing in the afternoon. Today we fished south around Fishermans Rest. At high tide we eased up in the shallows and worked some topwater plugs. I got distracted and stopped my retrieve for a minute and the explosion around the bait was impressive. I fought the very large red for about three minutes and he was going where he wanted to. When we saw him it was clear that he was outside the slot, so when he ran under my trim tabs and performed a self release, I was only sad that I would not have a chance to take a picture. Ended the day with about 8 trout, enough for dinner that night.

Thursday 4/17 Still cool with water temperature at 64. Fished south all the way to pepperfish. Worked both tides with fair success but still no limit catches. Wind much better this day, but cool. Ended the day with about 14 trout. (two boats fishing)

Friday 4/18 Got to lay off those sundown libations. Warmer today with S to SW winds. Water temp getting better and up to 65. Fished south around Tater Island area and this time we picked up some really nice trout with three above 22". Fished both boats in same area and got our limits but worked pretty hard to make it happen.

Saturday 4/19 Forgot all about my intentions to lay off the sundown libations. Ouch again. Windy and showing signs of rain with a SW stiff wind which made for a pretty sporty ride out of the channel. Fished the incoming tide through the transition. Two hours either side of high were pretty good. Started to rain a bit, but water temp up to 66-67. Caught our two boat limit in four hours in Tater Island area again. This was fun.

Fished combinations of live shrimp and gulps and pinfish and everything else you can think of. With the price of live shrimp in SH, I am going to cut down on my comsumption. $30 per 100 is too sporty for me.

Sunday 4/20 The ride back to NC. 10 hours and worth every mile.

Someone remind me how to post pictures and I will provide a few.

Flatfish

[Jumptrout51]

Most of us don't fish that far south. Glad you had a good time.

[bman]

Sounds like a good vacation... Glad you got to come down our way

Funny thing my wife is beggin for a trip to NC!

[tin can]

Glad ya had a good trip. That's a long way to drive to fish in bad weather.

[caseycook]

Sounds like it was fun!