4 July: First one at the boat ramp and watched the sunrise from outside the KB channel markers. Got to the first spot and saw mullet/bait everywhere. Didn't take long before I was hooked up with a no kidding 26 and 99/100" red. Had to measure it three times to ensure it was just shy of 27" before loading to the cooler. Water quit moving and the bite turned off. Tried some deeper water, but no joy. Went back to pick up the wife. When I got back to the marina, it was not the same place as I left. Wow, what a clustering of people, boats and vehicles. Glad I wasn't trying to use the ramp. Picked up wife and headed to a spot just west of the armada of boats scalloping. Tried our hand at it and not much to offer. Went back to fishing and picked up another nice red (23"), but nothing else. Decided to call it a day, but stopped to try one more spot for scallops.....bingo. Got 4 gallons in about an hour with the wife watching from the boat. Cleaned fish and scallops til 8:00.
5 July: 4th one to launch and again watched the sunrise from the water. Tried a spot just North from previous day and got some nice blow ups on topwater, but nothing in the boat. Again, water stopped moving and bite turned off. Went to deeper water (10') and picked up three keeper trout. Headed back in with incoming tide and picked up a nice 20" trout that fought like a bigger fish. Had some nice hits on the Catch 2000, but again, failed to hook up. Called it a day.
6 July: Decided to get the camper and boat squared away and ready to leave in place for whatever period of time they'll let me rent.
All in all a great weekend. Lots of boats, scallopers, etc. Man was it hot. Lots of floating grass. Can't wait until next trip.
Keaton Beach sunrise:
26-99/100" red
Catches of Day One:
First time cleaning scallops. Didn't take long to get the hang of it.
Picture of the lot we are renting
. I knocked a nice 23+ incher off his topwater plug one day like I didn't have a clue as to what I was doing.