Shell Point Paddling 5-26

[WolfeMan]

My friend Mike and I headed out this morning and put out from the beach at Shell Point at sunrise + 20 minutes or so. Rather than headed right to chase reds on the oysters we pretty much paddled straight out to the grass flats. We keyed on spotty bottom and depth changes and pretty much started seeing trout activity right away. I got a few short strikes on top water but no hook-ups. I changed over to a soft plastic under a cork and that was all it took to turn on the fireworks.

We caught fish for pretty much 2 straight hours. The bite slowed down eventually so we drifted to deeper water and started catching them again. I landed 3 big keepers and 2 average sized ones plus 20 or so shorts and 1 catfish. Mike had a couple big keepers too and a few 16 inchers. His 2 biggest fish both self-released kayak-side before he could get a hand on them. It didn't seem to matter what color we threw, they ate nuclear chicken, white, grey, brown, and chartreuse colored plastic shaped like minnows, shrimp, and even sand worms. Most fish came from under the cork but the biggest were in deeper water on cork-less jigs.

The most interesting part of the day came when Mike's line broke above his cork with a huge trout on. We shared an "are you kidding me?" moment and a couple minutes later he says "there's my fish!"....and sure enough!, 20 yards away, there was his cork slowly gliding across the surface. We stalked up on it and tried some amaure fish rodeo. I went right, he went right, and the fish made a break for the gap between us. We both made valiant lunges for the cork but he went deep like Jaws and never re-surfaced! I had the harpoon gun loaded ready to tag him with another barrel but never got a shot!

We also saw a few different tarpon rolling in the channel and some awesome aerial displays by some good sized Spanish Mackerel and a couple slow and graceful sea turtles.

I'll post some pics later. Getting some family time this afternoon. All in all, it was a spectacular morning!

[charlie tuna]

Sounds like a great trip - bring on the pictures !

[skitterwalk]

Next time hook the bobber with a lure with trebles. I saw one randomly floating once and landed it like that. Nice report. Thanks!

[WolfeMan]

Yeah Skit, I had that thought about 5 seconds late. lol

[mjsigns]

[tallykenj]

Nice

[SS-342]

A good fishing day and also a great story. Thanks for sharing.

[WolfeMan]

The pics aren't great - but here's what I've got.

Sunrise never disappoints.



I caught about 20-25 this size.



The camera angle is misleading, this one was about as big as my arm and I had to hold it way out away from the boat to get a picture of it.

[big bend gyrene]

Way to get out on 'em, WolfeMan.

By the way, God got around to punishing me for picking on you over the broken-hook cobia trip last year. Went alone Friday and hooked a beast while drifting. All I could do to get it to the boat, and on the fifth attempt to bring it aboard... yep... broken hook.

[Salty Gator]

Was it a gamakatsu hook?

[big bend gyrene]

Was it a gamakatsu hook?

Salty Gator, if memory serves WolfeMan's was a gamakatsu and it broke simply from stress... mine was actually a med. sized jig head (not Al's, but instead Al's whip-it eel on another brand's jig, and can't even fully blame the jig as my attempt to get the cobia aboard was pretty violent and am almost certain had thick metal (gaff) hitting thinner metal (hook). Even with the largest of fish, when I have multiple people on board I prefer using a boga grip... but alone I tried using a longer gaff. Should have taken a swift body shot but was hopeful I had it wearing down enough to lip hook it. No excuses as I've caught enough to know better.

[WolfeMan]

Yeah, that broken hook was a real bummer - but I recall keeping a smile on my face through the ordeal. I'll have another opportunity sooner or later...

[Salty Gator]

I'm not sure why, but it seems that whenever someone has a hook break it is a gamakatsu. I lost a nice cobe to a broken gama, and have been fishing owner ever since. No problems w owners so far.

[Harmsway]

[Aquamaholic]

Wolfeman,

Had something kinda like that happen a few weeks ago. I tied on brand new Zara spook (with rattles) on the first cast a blue inhales it as it hits the water and cuts the line. That joker stayed within 50 yards of my boat for about an hour. I would hear him bust baits on the surface and shake the rattles ( I think it was taunting me). I finally got some steel leader and another top water plug and attempted to catch him, after catching 10 of his buddies I gave up.

I think I would have rather lost the lure to a Trout


Thanks for the report.