It was cold and windy at 8 am when Skeeter and I launched at Lanark. But since I've been couped up in an office Nashville for several months, we had to take advantage of the opportunity, for one last 'therapy' flats fishing trip before the year's end.
Water temp was 60-62 all day. Negative low tide at 7:30. We couldn't even navigate the bay from Lanark to FSU lab as the water was too low. I've never been out there with it so low before, so we headed back west and went around the west end, hit open water, headed east toward FSU lab. Waves were 1-2'. (Some therapy, right?) Wind 10-12 knots.
Fished for 3 1/2 hours, only 1 lizzard fish. Used fresh shrimp all day. I was getting ready to go home and thaw...
Wind died down at around 12:00 and the bite was on for about 1.5 hours. Caught about 20 shorts, and 7 keeper trout.
Nothing else, no pinfish, catfish, sharks etc... nothing but trout on shrimp (everything must have headed south already) Caught all these fish in about a 3-4 on 3 drifts. Water clarity was clear.When they decided to bite, the trout hit those shrimp very hard, and they were very aggressive. I would have thought they would have been more lathargic?
Headed home at 2:30. The water had calmed down quite a bit in the afternoon. Talked to a couple of boaters and no one had caught anything in the flats all day. I guess the fish gods smiled upon us.
Total for the day:
20+ short trout
7 keepers (2 at 20")
1 lizzard fish
1 3/4 lb pinfish
Enough keepers to take back to Nashville for my consulting buddies next week.
It was great to be back in Tally for the Holiday!
Dale Hollow
