) for a few days with a couple of good friends. had planned to head to louisiana as i did last year, but gas is so high there is no way you could justify what it would cost to drive down there pulling a boat. the fishing for the 4 days we were there was very very tough overall. we were able to catch lots of fish and have a good bit of action throughout the trip, but just as the past few trips, we had to work our tails off for the fish we caught. the best part of the trip was the fact that the weather for the enitre trip was absolutely fabulous. it was taking all day on the two days we were close to get a limit of trout. there are some really big trout in close right now. we caught several fish over 20 inches with one sow that was 24 inches and 4 lbs 4 oz.
sunday we left early and got down the usual noonish time for a long afternoon of fishing. we started out fishing for reds first thing and only caught a few. it was a very very slow bite and i knew we might be in trouble since i have been on the same area of reds for about 3 years now. fishing the rest of the day for trout and picked up a few, but you could tell all the boat traffic from the weekend tourney had really ran the fish out. we picked up a few here and there, but no schools of fish at all. you would catch one here and then catch another 30 minutes later.
monday was a little better. the fish had settled down, but we still had to work very very hard making a ton of casts and moving around a lot to find them. we ended up with 13 keepers after several mishaps with the net and lack of concentration with fished almost to the boat.
we only had 3 reds with one being a keeper. 
we did also catch some really nice fish over 20 inches.pics from the first two days
don't know why, but this one was hooked in the top of the head and bled like crazy. sorry for the goryness.
tuesday was a great day. it was one of the biggest if not the biggest tide of the entire spring and most of the summer. lots and lots of water way up in the grass. we had 6 flounder, a limit of trout including a 24 incher, a 22 incher, a 21 and a 20.5 incher and a black seabass. I can't believe i am telling this, but one of my buddies is a big catfisherman. i have heard from many folks that sail cats are pretty good to eat. he must have caught 50 hardheads throughout the day. finally he got two really big sails in and decided to try them. we cooked them on the grill and although hesitant at first, i finally gave in and they were surprisingly very very good. i know some of you guys will love that.
i could not believe i left my camera back at the dock from taking pics of the fish the night before, but you can see them in these shots. we did get some great shots of the fish on the water with my buddies camera. it was also one of the biggest bags of fish i have brought in. we only had 2 small ones and all the rest were over 17 inches.
yesterday we fished til 2 and it was really bad. we started out real shallow and close with topwater. only 3 little rises. the trout were scattered again and we had a few mishaps on fish at the boat. we ended up with 3 keepers including a 22 incher. also had a couple of nice flounder and a nice seabass. the black seabass were everywhere. there is no telling how many we caught over the 4 days, but almost all were really small. i am glad we left however, cause the wind was howling at 2. i can only imagine what it would have been like at the mouth of the rivers when all that water stated to come out against the wind on the outgoing. there were already 3 footers coming in the mouth when we left.
overall, a pretty decent couple of days of fishing, but nothing like years past for this same time of the year. as stated earlier however, the weather and company were terrific.
