Econfina River 03-24-2002

Post by **Tom Keels** » March 25th, 2002, 9:34 am

Started the morning by dragging the Keywest off a sand bar in 39Â° temps because of a tide that was several hours late. Wet and cold and stiff east wind did not bode well. Went to the #2 bird rack started with jigs, put a 16" fish in the boat, then nothing for an hour.

Ran in 2 miles fished a jig/cajun thunder, 18 1/2" fish. Then nothing for an hour.

Ran in another mile. Started with yozuri, put a 16 1/2 inch fish in the boat and watched several other fish come up and look at or just mouthe the bait. Sonny missed a big fish on a chug bug. Tide finally coming in good we wanted to try for a red.

Got to the shoreline with 2 feet of water. I fished a spoon with a chart twin curly tail, Sonny fishing with jig. No sooner did we get there, Sonny hooked up with a big trout. 21 1/2" in the boat. We eased in front of a small creek and cast. I hooked up with a fish that I am sure was my biggest ever. This trout came out of the water shaking his head like a bass and spit the spoon. No doubt this fish was 6-7 pounds. Quick throw back in and I hook up again as does Sonny. I can see Sonny's fish is over 20" as is mine. I get mine to the boat, 22 1/2", but Sonny lost his. I told him no matter because we would have had to throw it back anyway. Sonny threw back in and was hooked up again, this time with a puppy red.

We continued to work down the bank and seeing the some of the biggest trout I've ever seen sunning themselves in the shallow water. Every fish we spooked looked to be 3 pounds or better with some in the true "gator" status. Funny thing is everyone and their brother was going to Rock Island, while we had the place pretty much to ourselves.

After a couple more misses Sonny puts a nice 18" flounder in the boat. We decide that we have plenty of fish and would like to get home at a decent hour. We left the water at 1:00 pm.

Total tally:

5 trout 16", 16 1/2", 18 1/2", 21 1/2", 22 1/2"
1 18" Flounder

_________________
Tom Keels
Owner, Webmaster
BigBendFishing.Net

Bailey · Post by **Bailey** » March 25th, 2002, 12:04 pm

Great report. Depending on the weather, I may have to sneak out there this week.

Bailey

Post by **Will_Fish_4_Food** » March 25th, 2002, 4:03 pm

Gator trout huh? You did better than me. I caught a few keeper trout out of St. Marks, and way too many Spanish Mackeral! Grubs and spoons worked for me, I couldn't catch pinnfish in 8ft of water.

Post by **Cranfield** » March 25th, 2002, 5:02 pm

Good report Tom,

You did very well for an East wind day.

That is the one wind that can stop me going fishing. I have had too many "blanks" when the winds in the East.

Post by **Tom Keels** » March 25th, 2002, 6:10 pm

Will Fish,

You can never catch too many Spanish Mackeral. I would catch them till my arm fell off.

Jere Firth · Post by **Jere Firth** » March 25th, 2002, 8:05 pm

Tom...sounds like you got them trout and reds all figured out...What a great report and the fishing can't much better then what you had......

Jere

Post by **Tom Keels** » March 25th, 2002, 10:11 pm

I must be a great writer then.

Actually the day was fairly slow except for about 5 minutes there.