Wednesday: Put a new antenna on the boat and hook up all the electronics. Everything seems ok.
Thursday. Got the low down from Capt. Pat McGriff at the NFGFC meeting. Not sounding good. Cold weather, cold water, no fish. Called Birddog since he was already down and got pretty much the same answer. I was optimistic and discouraged at the same time. This wasn't your ordinary fishing trip for me. This was the first real flats trip for me in about 5 months. Rusty is not the word. I just don't have the "game" I once did. So, to hear folks were likely to struggle was not encouraging.
Friday. Got up early headed over to pick up Sonny and head out for Keaton. We arrive, check in to the motel, unload the car, launch the boat, park the trailer and get on the water about 9:30 just behind Bow'd Up. I wanted to check the new antenna so I called bow'd up who was in channel in front of us. No dice. When I hit the transmit button the radio shuts off. Then I notice the voltmeter on the GPS and FF and they are reading 9.7 volts. Something's not right and I have some rewiring to do later on.
We head out of the channel and go try Dog's Head. Nada. Big Grassy. Pretty but nothing. Piney Point, again pretty but nothing. Off we go north. Hit 2 places we've caught fish in the past. Good looking bottom, pinfish, but yet again nothing. By now we were at the top of the tide and we had not found any fish. Further north we go.
Got to the south of Spring warrior to a spot I had marked by looking at Google Earth and Mapsource as a potentially good spot. Water was a little deeper here than I thought we needed but the tide was high so I dismissed it. We started drifting and started seeing a few fish. Finally about 12:30 I caught a 14.5 inch trout. Finally a fish. We continued to drift in shallower and saw a few more fish. Left there and went even further north. Moved in towards a shoreline when I notice a familiar boat coming out. Idled over to Chalk and Tin Can and discussed with them just how crappy the fishing was. At that point we decided to head back to the motel for a nap and some thinking.
Folks started showing up and I started gathering intel. Seems it was feast or famine for nearly everyone. Either you were in fish or you weren't. One fact was present with all the folks catching fish. SHALLOW. Filed that nugged away for Saturday.
Enjoyed a fine feast of fish, hushpuppies, sausage, venison, etc with about 50 NFGFC members and friends. Here are some pics...
Layed my head down about 10 pm and was still a little worried about the next day.
Saturday. Awoke to a little fog, and warmer than expected conditions. I decided to not even get into the big trout or redfish pots knowing we had no chance at either. Got the boat loaded and got registered and we headed out. Had to get around some slowpokes in the channel so we could at least start fishing for no fish before everyone else.
Got close to the same place we saw fish on Friday to find less than 2 feet of water. Problem was we were almost 1 mile from the place I wanted to go. With no wind and no tide to speak of yet I put down the trolling motor and headed in as fast as she would go. About 30 minutes later we were fishing in amongst rocks and bars in 12" of water. We all go to fishing with 3 different baits. I have a gulp jerk shad rigged Ty Smith style, Jackson has a bite a bait jerk bait, and sonny is throwing a jig with gulp. About 2 minutes into fishing and I'm reeling in the first fish, a fat 19 incher. Still not much tide moving, we continue to work around, over and through the rockpiles with the trolling motor. Another hit, and another trout, this time a 22.5 inch beauty. I'm so happy. I told the team that our goal was 5 fish and nothing else. We had 2 and it was barely 9. We kept fishing hard and I was seeing fish everywhere. I picked up 2 more 18.5 inch fish and had 2 come unbuttoned. Trout in schools of 20-30 fish every hundred feet or so. They were very spooky in the shallow water. Finally about 10 the tide was kicking good and a south breeze kicked up a ripple on the water. Apparently that was what the fish needed to put them in an aggressive feeding mood . It started with a little red mashing Jackson's bait.
Sonny got a nice 22 inch red and Jackson and I both got a double on reds. We saw several schools of reds on this drift. We drifted right up to the bank and decided we needed to do it again.
Second drift and on my first cast I felt a thump. I set the hook and I see gills flare and a head shake begin. Then I see 10 to 12 HUGE trout move away from the commotion in all directions. This was a beast of a trout I had on. About 2 minutes of well played drag on the 10 pound mono was all it took. On the boat, and high fives all around, I just had to get a picture of the 25" sow.
We made several more drifts through the area but couldn't get away from the reds. Made the executive decision to move to the hole we caught fish a few years back and try to pick up a couple of slot fish off some offshore bars.
We start the drift, and I sit down and have a drink for the first time of the day. My back isn't what it used to be and it was barkin'. I put the boy on the front of the boat and let him run the show for a few.
About the time I contemplate fixing a sandwich the boy's drag starts screaming. A couple of minutes later I net Jackson's biggest trout ever, a solid 19.9 inch fish and our 4th slot fish.
We make another drift and Jackson upgrades another trout. This one a little over 19. You couldn't have slapped the grin off my face. My boy came through in the clutch and rounded out one of our biggest bags of trout ever.
It was now almost 2 and I figured we had done all we could hope to do and then some. The decision was made to head to ramp to beat the crowd, and enjoy the day. I was hopeful of a top 5, but knew we had stiff competition. I kept saying all day, all I want is 5 fish to weigh.
Back in the channel we met Showman and he had decided the same thing and figured he'd done all he could do. We discussed our fish and our day and both came to the same conclusion. We had a great time. That's what it's all about, right?
I took a few pictures of the weigh in.
We weighed in first and I was floored with a 13.7 lb weight. I walked the fish back to the boat, talked with a few folks and looked at some fish. I came back and asked Casey where we were, just knowing Trouttrent or Birddog had knocked us off. Hearing we were still in 1st, I started to think we might be in some money.
After all was said and done, we walked away with 1st place, The Seatow prize, and the Custom Detailing 2nd biggest trout prize, for a total of 425 bucks. We barely beat out Junior and Ashley, and they had a pig of a big trout. I would put odds on us at 100:1 starting the day, but in the end we are actually 3 wins out of 7 for Keaton Beach tournaments.
Congrats to all the winners and entrants. I think almost everyone caught fish on Saturday. We had some great food, a lot of fun and some fine fishing. If I could have stayed the rest of the week I would have.
Look forward to seeing ya'll at the next tourney 
