St. Joe Bay 5/19-5/21/06
Posted: May 22nd, 2006, 5:14 pm
Fri.
Arrived at Presnells around 6:30 launched and headed west. Spent the better part of the morning drifting west of Blacks Island. Didn't find many trout. Hit all the "hotspots" elsewhere in the Bay during the early afternoon and only had 4 keepers that weighed 8.7 lbs. Also caught and threw back twice as many shorts. Tired of looking for the uncooperative trout I decided to chase the reds. Located a couple of scattered schools and was able to boat 5 to 24". Caught the trout on redfins and soft jerkbaits, the reds on topwater and soft jerkbaits.
Sat.
TinCan and I left Presnells around 6:30 headed west to try the areas I had caught a couple of keepers on Friday. We put in a lot of drifts and only had 2 trout over 20" and 1 16" trout to show for it. So we headed back east, then south, then north finally settling in on Chalk's favorite trout fishing grounds. We thankfully were able to pick up decent enough trout to finish out our tournament stringer as well as several more trout over 20". Back to Presnells for the weigh-in. Lady Luck smiled upon us and we were able to nail down the 3rd spot with 10 lbs. 2 ozs. A big thank you to TinCan for fishing the tourney with me. You pulled us through with that afternoon display of trout catching.
After the weigh-in I said goodbye and headed back out to chase a few reds. Found a nice school of about 400-500 and was able to drift them 3 times before they disappeared. Boated 6 and all were 30"s. Caught 'em on a soft jerkbait.
Sun
Sunday I was "feeling the burn" but I knew I had the trout figured out. I couldn't have been more wrong. Only landed 2 keepers, both under 20" as well as 10 or so throwbacks. Managed 2 more reds but even they didn't seem to want to cooperate. The tide was getting flatter all weekend and I'm sure that didn't help things much.
Can't wait til next time.
Arrived at Presnells around 6:30 launched and headed west. Spent the better part of the morning drifting west of Blacks Island. Didn't find many trout. Hit all the "hotspots" elsewhere in the Bay during the early afternoon and only had 4 keepers that weighed 8.7 lbs. Also caught and threw back twice as many shorts. Tired of looking for the uncooperative trout I decided to chase the reds. Located a couple of scattered schools and was able to boat 5 to 24". Caught the trout on redfins and soft jerkbaits, the reds on topwater and soft jerkbaits.
Sat.
TinCan and I left Presnells around 6:30 headed west to try the areas I had caught a couple of keepers on Friday. We put in a lot of drifts and only had 2 trout over 20" and 1 16" trout to show for it. So we headed back east, then south, then north finally settling in on Chalk's favorite trout fishing grounds. We thankfully were able to pick up decent enough trout to finish out our tournament stringer as well as several more trout over 20". Back to Presnells for the weigh-in. Lady Luck smiled upon us and we were able to nail down the 3rd spot with 10 lbs. 2 ozs. A big thank you to TinCan for fishing the tourney with me. You pulled us through with that afternoon display of trout catching.
After the weigh-in I said goodbye and headed back out to chase a few reds. Found a nice school of about 400-500 and was able to drift them 3 times before they disappeared. Boated 6 and all were 30"s. Caught 'em on a soft jerkbait.
Sun
Sunday I was "feeling the burn" but I knew I had the trout figured out. I couldn't have been more wrong. Only landed 2 keepers, both under 20" as well as 10 or so throwbacks. Managed 2 more reds but even they didn't seem to want to cooperate. The tide was getting flatter all weekend and I'm sure that didn't help things much.
Can't wait til next time.
