The plan was to go back to the creek where we found so many reds the week before, but this time armed only with flyrods. Notta. We knew the tides were substantially different, but the winds were also high. Though we saw some reds working edges of spartina grass, we couldn't get the flies there without spooking them. We were scheduled to meet the ladies and Matt's 3 year old boy at Riverside around 11:30, so we knew our hours of fishing were limited. I always carry a couple heavier rods on my side rod holders (they are the only rods short enough to fit in the holders that the bass fisherman before installed). Recognizing that the fly fishing was a bust, we caught some pins and headed to an area pointed to me by a local cobia expert during Thursday's meeting. Thank you sir, you didn't tell me it was your hog trout location as well.
Saw CC while catching the pins, I'm guessing he was wondering what the heck we were doing in that much water.
Upon arrival we tossed out some pins and proceeded to take a beating. I don't if they were sharks, macks or something else, but these fish bit through 50# florocarbon like it was string cheese. After retying a couple times we ran up river to meet the crew. While grabbing some food the rain started to fall. We tried to go up both the Wakulla and St. Marks to get Dylan a little boat time; however, thunder was cracking and it was time to take the families back to the hill. At least Matt was around to back the trailer, b/c this time the ramp was a little more chaotic.
Saturday Katie and I took a couple of friends to try some scalloping. Again at about 7:30 we were the only folks around Shield's. We ran out near Grey Mare and tried 3-4 different depths and locations reaping a total of probably a dozen scallops. Scalloping is hard work when you're finding them, overwhelming when you're not. I tied up some rigs for everybody and tried for some shallow water trout. We caught a few decent fish but nothing really impressive. I decided we would give some more pinfish a chance at the cobia hole. We'll no cobia (we didn't implement the full plan as it was layed out for me at the meeting either), but Pete managed his first shark and Jenn caught a 24" trout.
We had at least one other trout try and eat a pin (I saw the big yellow stomach role under the pin) and missed a couple other nice hits. Our 8-10 baitfish didn't last a total of 10 mintues. After that we headed to the bird rack to see if we knew anyone. Sure enough we did, and we spent the rest of the afternoon swimming with Boo and talking with friends.
Not a lot of fishing, but a great weekend to be on the water.
