We finally got to the Main Stay around 10:00 or so for a good night's sleep as dreams of suicidal trout and redfish danced in my head. But that may have been a product of the muscle relaxers.
Zack and I dunked the boat in at the public ramp at the gentlemanly hour of 9:00 and headed out to the bay. Our first stop was in the general area of Town Beach and we were greeted by large schools of bait busting the surface. We started the day throwing Super Spooks. We had a few boils and 1 large strike but came away without any line tucks. Away we went in search mode. Past Black Island as far as the Sea Chaser wanted to work the potholes and edges. We started seeing small bait in the water and tied on some weedless jerk baits and went to work. And work it was. But we did see a trout, it was just on BB's boat. Dang nice trout Heafus. We fished hard, to no avail, for a few hours and decided we needed to move again. Struck out across the bay (that place gets deep), caught a little spray across the bow and settled in for some more casting around Eagle Harbor. No such luck. We did find 3-4 keeper sized cobia roaming but just weren't interested in our baits enough to eat. We made a couple of more moves and tried to work the coast line back around to Pig Island. Ran by the Bass Boys and kept moving. Finally back where we started behind Black's and we started catching fish. A short trout here, a sail cat there. Then a few more short trout and some more sail cats. It weren't looking good. Zack ties on the gold spoon and proceeds to catch a 2" pinfish to drag behind the drift under a CT. A few more undesirables and back to where we saw the mullet that morning. Fished those sand bars for a little while and released an undersized redfish and saw several small groups (10 or less), we made an electronic note of the area and put it on the trailer just in time for some cold beers with the Taylors, BB and Cario Trout. A quick stop at Blue Water, a beer run and back to the hotel for a shower and a fish fry.
Christy and Ashley had been shopping all day (houses included) and were waiting on us at the pool.
Talked fishing and bsing at the fish fry with most everybody and called it a night rather early.
The alarm went off at 5:00 but the regular clock said it was 6:00 so I went into panic mode trying to get everybody up dressed and out the door. After checking every phone and watch we had, we decided we hadn't missed everything just yet.
We met up at Blue Water to check in and off we went. Dropped the boat in and at 6:30 made our run to the only place we saw trout. We got there and got everybody set up, Christy, Zack & I where throwing top water and I set Ashley up with a GULP! and a Cajun Thunder. She promptly casts about 10' from the boat sits down. Everybody else on the boat was casting their arms off and we hear "I think I got one!" and proceeds to land a 16 1/2" trout. A little knuckle bumping for there will be no skunk today. 10 minutes later she says, "I got another one!" and she did another 16" trout goes in the box. It's barely 7:30 and already had 2 in the boat, it was looking good.
I hooked a lady fish on a Super Spook that managed to get all three hooks in her. We got a few sail cats and that was it. Made move a little closer to the island where Zack and I caught some fish Friday and fished hard. Nothing. Moved again, nothing. And again nothing. We drifted over a deep sand hole and I boated a 14" flounder.
We hooked a lizard that would've won the Badcock & More Mystery fish but alas he came unhooked about 10' from the boat. We fished on and after being circled by some old dude from Florida so close I could hear them talking about their little yap dog we moved again. Nothing anywhere to be found. We listened to my brother in law complaining all morning about his stomach and it provided some relief for what was quickly turning into a frustrating day.
Zack and I decided to go back to where we saw reds the day before with high hopes of hooking a few. We got there and saw a few but they weren't bunched up anymore and were just cruising along. Zack got out for a little wading around and shortly there after Christy and Ashley followed him. Christy saw a big trout and was on the stalk but was outsmarted.
While I wasn't paying attention I let the boat run out of water and pushed her back out past the bar and trolling motored out further just to let it happen again.
Zack did catch crabs out there, so be careful.
At 2:00 we were hot, tired and ready for something to eat, so we called it knowing we'd done about as good as we were gonna do. Made it to Blue Water and Ashley weighed her fishes and everybody won something in the raffle and headed home.
Thank Casey and Pat, it was yet another well run tourney. And thanks again to all the sponsors.
