When the water started to look skinny on the gulf side of the bar we headed over behind Smith Island to fish for trout. There we def found trout and many other things. 2nd cast over there I picked up a ladyfish that Chris ended up using for bait for most of the day. I stuck with a gulp jerk shad for most of the time. Chris caught the first trout at 15.5in on the cut ladyfish.
Then shortly after I picked up a 19in trout
And then I got another trout I think was 17in
Things started to change up when something much bigger than a trout took Chris's cut ladyfish
Chris ended up catching 3 sharks total behind Smith Island on the cut bait. I also hooked into something I have never caught before... a smooth butterfly ray. Caught him on the jerk shad as well. Would of held him up for a photo but had no clue that they are harmless to humans and lack a spine until I got home to look up what type of ray it was
When the trout bite slowed we started heading to the oyster bars. Tried working a oyster bar with no luck. Saw lots of big sheepshead all around the bar but unfortunately we had no shrimp to throw at them. After that we let the incoming tide float us over the oyster bar and fished the rest of the cut ladyfish on the bottom while drifting. That ended up a being a real fun end to the day because we caught about 8 or so sailcats. Man those thing can fight for their size. Even though they are far from a game fish, its always fun having a lot of line out and bringing something in. Here's one of the many we caught.
After we ran out of cut bait we headed in. All in all it was a great day. Caught lots of species, saw two sea turtles right next to the boat, saw dolphin, think I saw a tarpon, and it was perfect weather. Couldn't of asked for any more than that!
