Keaton Beach May 23-26

Post by **CSMarine** » May 27th, 2003, 8:41 am

I'll start by saying, hope everyone did better than I did. I left Keaton Beach ramp at 7:00 am. on Friday fishing alone. Water temp was 74 degrees. Wind was dead calm. About three hours left on rising tide. Ran South from last channel marker to Big Grassy. Started off throwing grubs under thunders in 3 foot of crystal clear water. Bait fish and Mullet were everywhere. At one point in, 2 foot of water I trolled with my Riptide right into the middle of one of the largest school of Mullet I've seen in a long time. I trolled along with them casting into them watching something hungry crashing into them. Dreams of bigs Reds took hold. Turned out to be two 4 foot sharks feeding on the mullet. Quite an experience though. Got my heart pumping. Moved into an area about 3-4 foot deep with lots of sandy holes 5-6 foot deep. Changed over to my cut pin fish rig on the bottom. Shortly after the first bait hit the water, a 23 inch trout nabbed it.

The bite was extremly slow after that one. I managed 4 good keepers by 1:00 pm. Fished hard in 3-6 foot water till 4:00 pm without a keeper to finish my limit. Didn't matter, this day goes down as great self therapy.

Saturday, second day. Left landing at 8:30 am. Tons of boats as expected. Hoped to miss the rush, but I didn't. Had a tough time catching pinfish. Went back to the 3 foot water to start. Wind was dead calm. Water temp was 78 degrees. Almost a repeat of the the first day. Caught 4 keepers with one over 20 inches, then could not get another keeper till 5:00 pm. when I gave up. Still a great day to be on the water. Trout for supper at the camper that night.

Sunday, third day. Left the landing at 8:30 am. Hardly anyone at the landing. Water temp 80 degrees. Ran 10 miles to my starting place. Very hard to catch Pinfish. Fished in 3-6 foot water with no keepers at 1:00 pm. Fired up and headed to 8-10 foot. Threw the Pinfish rig out on bottom and right away a 22 inch trout took it. I figured I was in the right spot. Rigged up a live Pinfish under a thunder to drag. Began catching babies with a ever now and then keeper till I got to 4 again. With maybe 40 throw backs. A couple very decent trout pulled off before I could net them. One papa Cobia that would estimate at 50 lbs did two tail stands and broke a 30lb wire leader and was gone. Then "They" moved in. The SHARKS. Could not fish for them. Everywhere I moved they were there. Some small some as large as 4 foot. Tearing up all my rigs. I finally gave up and went in about 5:00 pm. Lots of pulling and catching that day, with only 4 keepers at the end of the day.
Overall only 12 keeper Trout for three days. But one of the finest three days I've had on the water in a while.

Post by **Chalk** » May 27th, 2003, 8:51 am

Three days in paradise...Way to go..Did the wind pick late over there Friday....it started howling about 5:30 or so, Friday.

Post by **CSMarine** » May 27th, 2003, 9:12 am

Chalk. It picked up some, but not to the "Howling" point. I was off the water at 4:00 pm, so I didn't notice it as much.

Post by **DixieReb** » May 28th, 2003, 9:06 pm

CS MARINE,
How deep did you fish on most of your last trip? We are going to keaton on friday and wondered if you could give us some pointers. Have the fish really gone out deeper now? Some of the reports say 4-5 ft. and others say 6-9 ft. That just seems like a wide range to cover. I guess they are not bunched up too well or guys wouldn't have to ride so much to find fish.
Anyway, wish us luck. Three of us will fish til we get good and tired of it and then head for some shade.

thanks, o'l reb.

dstockwell · Post by **dstockwell** » May 29th, 2003, 6:40 am

Three days, sounds good for sure.

Post by **CSMarine** » May 29th, 2003, 7:58 am

Hey Jessie, How was Andersonville? In answer to how deep I was. I started out shallow 3-4 feet on Friday. I caught trout, but the bite was far between. Ended the third day in deep water. My suggestion would be to run South past the birdrack to Piney Point. Try close to the point first and catch plenty of pinfish, small for live, large for cut tail rigs in bottom. Drift to the south side of the point. There are some sandy holes that hold fish. Then move straight out from the point to 9-10 foot. Live pinfish (small 2"-2 1/2") under a CT. and pin fish tail on the bottom. If thier not there, work your way back in till you find them.

Post by **DixieReb** » June 1st, 2003, 8:32 pm

CS,
We went to Keaton on Friday. We tried over around Piney Pt. and only got 2 short trout and 1 short bass. We got over there about 9am, maybe too late to fish that spot.The bite just wasn't there. Left there and went over toward Adans Beach, found some water 5' deep and not too grassy on top.Dad and Neva got 5 big keepers under ct rigs and baby pinfish.That was all we got- about 2;30 wind got up too strong and we decided to go.Anyway, a nice day on the water even in all the wind. Caught just about any trashfish you can imagine, lots of hardheads out there.

Post by **CSMarine** » June 2nd, 2003, 7:42 am

Hey Jessie, How deep were you off Piney Point? You have to fish deep there. Didn't catch any on grubs? My lot is about 1 mile from Adams Beach through the woods.