SGI 5/14

[flatsbroke22]

My girlfriend and I drove down to the island Friday with my new to me kayak in tow. This would be my first attempt at kayaking in the gulf. Had plans of fishing only the bay side since I'm a beginner. Arrived around 2:00 Fri. to a pretty choppy bay so we didn't bother launching with hopes of good weather Sat. morning. We woke up to a breezy NE wind so I decided to launch in the state park at the boys camp hoping the wind would be blocked some. By the time we fished up behind goose isl. the wind had laid down but the fish were not biting. Fished all the way around the isl. with nothing to show but four nice size sail cats. It was almost flat calm so I decided to troll a redfin while going out to deeper water and managed two 18" trout. I was excited to finally put some slime on the yak! We drifted a while longer and I had one other good trout come unbuttoned by the boat. We went in for lunch with plans to go back out that afternoon. Well of course the wind picked up again and never laid down. It was strong out of the west so I decided it best to put in on the dirt ramp by the bridge about an hour and a half before sundown in hopes of picking up a red or two. Luck would have it that my girlfriend landed her first trout in the yak, a 16' keeper and a few minutes later she caught her first redfish ever! A nice 25"er.She was ecstatic and I was just as proud for her. This was just her third trip flats fishing with me. All in all a great first kayaking adventure.

[Harmsway]

Keeper for sure.

[DixieReb]

Great job. We filmed a bunch of big reds and drum feeding in that area next to the new boat ramp, lots of rocks there. Yours must be a 2-man yak.

[flatsbroke22]

Yes it's a tandem.

[Can'tCatchAnything]

What kind of yak is that? Hobie? Looks like it has a ton of space.

Nice fish! I never kayaked around SGI but plan on it.

I kayaked Bottoms Rd and Hickory Mound this last weekend; first time out at HM. Caught several redfish, no keepers, in the creeks on way out to flats at HM. 17 and 19.5 in trouts in flats before wind chased me off. Definitely recommend checking out HM if you've never been.

[flatsbroke22]

Yes it's a Hobie Outfitter Tandem. This was my first trip and I planed on using it more in the creeks during winter cause I also have a boat. I did really enjoy how peaceful the kayak was and my girlfriend loves it too. So I may be using it more often than expected.

[luceror]

That's a great initiation fr her(the red)!!