Econfina 4/23 and 4/24 - Pete's first trip

[PinFishKing]

Myself and Frank Bradfield arrived late Friday at Econfina from Columbsu GA. Brought a good friend of mine with us - Pete - aka P-Jelly (long story). Hit the water around 3:30 PM Friday. Caught 9 keeper trout, 2 reds, 2 flounders and several Sail cats. Bait of choice was Gulp shrimp under cajun thunder. A couple of trout and Reds came from a live pinfish fished by me (imagine that). We stayed around 4 foot deep all afternoon. Came in around 8:00 just in time to meet "The Man" leaving Econfina ramp. Full check - everything - boat hatches, coolers, livewell, flares, whistle, life jackets, licenses, fish, etc. etc. Did not mind at all because the officer was a super nice guy. Boat checks are much better when you don't have to deal with Miss Attitudey Judy exhibiting a "you should whoop my arse right now because my daddy didn't" attitude.......Did I say that out loud?

Saturday was a different story. Pretty stout wind all day. Tried all depths from 5 foot to 1 foot. Caught 3 good keeper Reds in 1 to 2 foot. Caught 3 keeper trout in 3 to 4 foot with a few throw backs. Same baits we used Friday minus the pinfish. The PinFishKing could not score any live bait.......... I know, I am still confused.

Below are pictures of Jelly with his trout and Redfish.

P.S. This was Jelly's first fishing trip since he was 12 years old.

[Gulf Coast]

dude he got the death grip on that trout

[Harmsway]

That's called the chicken-chokin grip. Now we know how he got the name P-Jelly.

[robbankston]

Hey PinFish I'm a Columbus boy myself. Just moved away from there (again) a few years ago. Sounds like a good trip. He dang sure wasn't going to let that trout go.

[SS-342]

Hi PinFishKing:

Thanks for the good fishing report.

Yesterday, Monday, April 26th was our day to celebrate our 45 wedding anniversery. We took our 13' Gheenoe to the Econfina to scout the rocks. Low tide was early that morning (6:17 a.m.). By the time we left the farm, shopped at WalMart in Perry and arrived at the boat ramp the tide was half way back in.

We made it out to the first river on the right near a bouy marking a rock. We could see the gulf but the wind was blowing so hard we dare not risk going any farther. Fishing that arm a few hundred yards, coming back and crossing the river to the other side to fish that river was all we could stand. We had our lunch and headed back to calmer waters.

Thinking we could fish for red-bellies and finding we had left our bugs at home, we threw beetle spins and jigs. Catching nothing but underwater limbs, roots and trees we returned to the ramp to watch and talk with other fishermen coming in. By that time the trees were rocking.

Most caught a few trout and reds but didn't seem to be able to find much.

A crabber came in with over seven hundred pounds of Blue Crabs. We enjoyed talking with him and that was the high light of the day.

Leaving around five, we planned to eat at "Deals" but all the seafood houses were closed!

We struck out but had an enjoyable day.

God is good!

[Frank Bradfield]

Should have left Pete at home and took the girl !

[PinFishKing]

I saw Pete today. He still hasn't let go of his trout.

[waywardson]

Awesome trip! I am bringing my buddy who is active-duty military down to the Aucilla area in 2 weeks for some R&R. From the looks of things, we will be able to find something to put a hurtin' on his forearms!