Keaton Beach

[justcoastn]

Finally got out on the water this weekend. One of the guys from a sister property in Colorado was here helping with some tractor work and he had never been salt water fishing. Took him out at Keaton to try to get some trout for a fish fry. Made a short run to a spot I had marked last fall and on his first cast, he pulls in a 19 inch trout. Spoiled him right off the bat. We managed 9 keeper trout, but lost several more good fish. We also boated a surprising number of keeper bass. We only kept 5 but could have taken a bunch more. All were caught in 5 to 6 feet of water on the last two hours of the incoming tide. New penny gulp with a chartreuse tail was the ticket early but once the sun got high, straight new penny got the action. We also saw the biggest sea turtle I have ever seen in the gulf. I estimate it to be 5 or 6 feet across his shell. I know that sounds like a stretch, but he would have covered up the entire hood of my Ram 2500 and then some. He stayed right by the boat for about 10 minutes just following us. Never saw anything like that. It was a good day on the water and it will be an even better day tomorrow when we drop those filets in the fryer.

[DixieReb]

Great trip! I need some salt therapy. Which way did you fish, north or south?

[leonreno]

That may have been cruel thing to do, taking a Colorado man flats fishing, freshwater stream fishing will never seem enough now.