St, Marks - After Work Fishin again

[Mook!]

Went fishin again afgter work yesterday evening. Got in the water about 6:00. OAT was about 87 degrees at the time, water in high 70's to low 80's. Wasn't going to go but there was a massive amount of water moving out from 3-10pm so figured I'd give it a shot and hope to not get stuck.

I heard a couple of folks remarking at the tournament weigh-in about not having ever caught anything on the Nemire Spin Ripper. Thought about it for a second, and neither had I; but I've never actually used one. Always use the Red Rippers and they work, so never bothered. So I opened one of several I had in my bag of tackle and started chunking. Caught a short right away...another short...moved. First cast in shallower water (1 - 1.5 feet) in new area got some nice hits that I knew was something over 15". That turned into "Daaayum what ISSSS that?!?!?" about 50 feet from the boat I see a big dookie fish rolling...think great..this sucks...well I start to notice that the movement of my rod does not correspond to the movement of the fairly large dookie fish. Get it a little closer and can see the chartreuse reflections from the spin ripper moving around, not in the direction of the ladyfish...opposite direction, then moves out ahead of it... So long story short, a ladyfish had nailed it, spit it out its gills, and while fighting the ladyfish, a keeper trout hooked up on the lure. I caught two fish at once. I ended up losing them both at the side of the boat while desperately trying to get video to prove such. Ladyfish was I'd say 18-19 inches and the trout looked like 17-18ish.

Satisfied that I proved they do in fact work and work well, switched back to my favorite Zulus and Top Dog Jrs the rest of the evening. Got in to a shallow hole in the flat around 20:00 that looked like redfish and large trout in a barrel. I pulled out prolly the smallest trout in there at a little over 18" Caught a few more keepers on both the Zulu and Top Dog and called it a day...just in time. Skeg drug its way all the way back up the lighthouse pool but fortunately made it out of the water ok. Going to have to go back this evening as the tide will be similar.

All fish caught in 2 feet or less, mostly in the 1 foot range...had to push the boat around a little with the paddle here and there.

on the Zulu (Redfish MAgic - Blue Crab color)


Spin Ripper chart


Nother Spin Ripper chart (might be the same one - not sure but I caught a few this size when I first started using it)


Top Dog Jr Chartreuse

[fish on!!]

Good report. I won a couple of those spin rippers at the NFGFC meeting last week. Haven't had a chance to use them yet. Maybe this weekend.

[Sir reel]

Thanks for the report Mook A friend and I were talking about going after work yesterday as well but didn't. I may be mistaken but it seems like there was forcasted to be a strong negative tide around 7pm?? Did you have plenty of water to get back on the trailer?

[Mook!]

not at all Sir Reel. Truth be told I was standing in front of the console reaching over the windshield to steer through the lighthouse pool on the way in just to take weight off the rear. prop was just low enough for the intake to get water and the skeg was dragging mud. had to power it up the trailer and winch it the last couple inches. negative low was about 10pm at the lighthouse but there was almost plus 4 at 3pm and with the wind there was about 5 feet of movement. I got out at 9:15pm and the water was still rushing out. it was pretty navigable in my boat until about 8 when I had to use my own wake push to get on plane in the east flat. mind you I have a small light boat and was alone. It is a deep V with long shaft motor though so not the shallowest thing in he world with the motor in the water. if tide is an hour or so later tonight it should be good if you don't mind the monsoon winds, but all that water flowing around really hd them biting aggressivley and often. I wasted close to 30 minutes hunting a broke off top dog jr I never found and still managed keeper limit of trout and red in the little over an hour I had lines in the water. No monsters though...saw em...didn't catch em.

[Mook!]

wow FYI - just checked - today plus 4.34 at 15:22 and minus 0.99 at 22:59 so we got almost 5.5 feet moving today in 7 hours. last I saw wind is SSE about 10-17 so that might make the ramp slightly more usable. water will be rough but with the drift sock should be fishable. can't buy water flow like that so I'ma have to brave the wind this eve!

[Sir reel]

If I didn't have a commitment at Church this evening, I'd be beg'n for a ride Good luck...knock em out

[Bow'd Up]

Dang Mook, must be nice to get to fish after work. Glad ya got out and caught some

[Reel Cowboy]

Thanks for the report Mook!.
The lady fish and trout must have been pretty neat.