Spent the week fishing Keaton Beach with my brother Larry and good friend Bil. Larry lives in MN and Bil in Pennsylvania/NC, so we don't get many opportunities to fish together. This is a trip Bil and I make each year and I was pumped to have my brother able to join us since he is newly retired. The plan requires considerable advance planning to merge all schedules, tide tables, etc, so we role the dice on the weather. Most years it works out, this near, not. Days one and two were pretty nice, but days three - five were pretty dicey. Storms started rolling through on Tuesday and didn't stop until we left Perry on Friday. Despite the weather we had a great time and got in some excellent fishing. We picked up lots of nice SST with some in the range of 23-24" and several around 20". Not the 26-27's we typically pick up this time of year, but considering the limitations we were under we were all happy. We also picked up an assortment of flounder, reds, lady's, etc.... Still not finding the reds we are used to this time of year, but again we really weren't in their typical areas. We caught fish on an assortment of plugs, plastics, gulps, and pin fish, with the live bait certainly picking up the most. Couldn't get a top water hit, but then there isn't much surface activity yet. A few ballyhoo, but very few. Water temps early in the week were 72-78, but by the end of the week they had dropped and stabilized around 72. We fished from 2.5-6', but had our best success in 3.5-4.5'. Our best bites occurred during major tide movements, some on the rise, some on the fall.
A few pics:
The week started well with sunshine and smiles.
Bil with a nice fish.
I stumbled on a few.
Larry and I with a double.
But the rain moved in and we spent a lot of time watching as the storm and lightning rolled by.
Overall it was a great trip and I appreciate the time we were able to spend together.
