I had the misfor.....err...pleasure to draw our esteemed President Mike Scibelli for the tourney. Like Chalk said we all met at JBT and exchanged pleasantries and gameplans for the day. I knew exactly where I wanted to go and pretty much what I wanted to do. And after scoping out what baits one of the Taylor boys was buying for the day, I decided to follow suit and buy some too.
Mike and I struck off in the "Wet Jet" from the lighthouse before daylight and made it to our spot east of Grey Mare before anyone else since we could fly across the rock garden at low tide instead of going around it.
I started throwing topwater but it was a little too grassy. Mike started with a jig. I switched over to one of the newly bought baits, an Exude jerk bait rigged Texas style. It didn't take long before I was catching fish. 1 good keeper right at 19 and a just short red that I just knew was a big fish.
The water was moving good and a nice breeze was helping to blow all the floating grass out. Good thing, because I picked up a skitter walk and got 2 nice fish 19, 19.5. I had told Mike that if we could get 2 good keepers before the low tide at 8:15, that we would be ahead of the game. We had 3 good tournament fish and I was happy.
When the tide finally stopped our drift changed and slowed but the fish continued to bite the soft jerkbaits and topwater well. Well they bit for me anyway. Mike was having a little "trouble" throughout the day that he blamed on lack of fishing.
I called Chalk and told him about our success and he said he was on his way. I continued to wear out the trout on the jerkbaits but I could hear the incessant barking of Pogo the fish finding dog that was on the Taylor/Trent boat about 200 yards away. I knew we had to produce a good kicker fish.
With 9 keepers in the box we left our hole and went to a creek to try to find a big fish. After about an hour it was obvious that the creek was not going to produce so Mike suggested we go try one of his spot out in deeper water. Off we went and as we slowed I couldn't help but notice we were the only boat within a good 2 miles. I started to think Mike was a little sunbaked but my concerns we quickly dispelled when the first cast of my CT was rewarded with a nice 17" trout. 2 casts later and I released an 18 incher. Mike could not buy a bite and I was getting bit on every cast it seemed. I gave him one of the glow grubs I was using and I continued to put on a trout catching clinic with Mike watching in awe. Finally I mentioned I was using a pink jighead. As Mike was retying I caught another 3 trout in three casts. Finally Mike was ready and our first casts together produced a double hookup. Another double hookup and then Mike has a fish hit his about 20 feet from the boat. I see the fish and it is a good one. A quick fight and I scoop up the fish just as the jig flies out of his mouth. 20.5 inches and fat! A round of high 5's and we were on our way to the hill. Back at JBT for a cold one by 2:15. What a day!
We kept 10 fish from 16-20.5 inches and probably threw back another 2 man limit of good 17-18 inchers, not to mention the 15 inchers that we threw back and didn't measure. Over all we probably caught 75 trout during the day. It was the best stringer I've put in the boat all year. Our top 5 fish weighed 11.15 pounds and was good enough for first place.
Thanks Mike for a great day on the water. Thanks to Jumptrout for another well run tournament and cookout. Thanks to Scott at JBT for the food and beverages provided.
Pics will be up later this week.
St. Marks 9-17-2005 NFGFC Tournament
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St. Marks 9-17-2005 NFGFC Tournament
Last edited by Tom Keels on September 19th, 2005, 6:51 am, edited 2 times in total.
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