BigBendFishing.Net

Went to Econfina Sunday with Atticus to try out his new Hewes on some old fishing holes.
Left the ramp about 7 am low tide on the rise. Went to probably the best bar down there. Lots of bait. Not a bite.Left there to go to the best creek down there. On the way saw a lot if surface action. Idled up to it,Skitterwalk went airborne,backlash followed,lure sitting dead still in the water,large Blue smashes dormant Skitterwalk. No more Skitterwalk. All the while Atticus lands 2 nice Blues.Enough of that,on to the creek. Lots of fish crashing bait. No takers. Move on down to next creek. I asked Atticus how much water he drafts just floating."11 inches" is the answer. I think the bar he pulled us off of was only 10 inches underwater. That was OK. Gave me time to land a nice flounder. Over the rail NO NET. He said its on the list. Couple casts later Atticus puts a low end red in the boat. NO NET,NO GOLDEN RULE. On the list.Atticus said it looked plenty big to him,so into the livewell.It doesn't work either. On the repair list.
Tried in and out of a few more creeks with lots of bait activity. No dice.
Headed back to our first bar,saw lots of topwater commotion. Pulled alongside 2 bull sharks ravaging bait in 2 feet. They were half as long as the boat. Rods,fingers and toes stayed inside the boat. Made it back to the bar,no takers. In close agian to another creek. Nothing happening. Decided to go deep to some offshore trout holes. Five miles out the water cleared up real well. Lots and lots of bites. Small sharks,small trout,pinfish,pigfish,lizardfish,rockbass. Bust my ass. I was fishing from the bow. The bow is only 2 feet square.The waves were 2 feet high. The bow went up I went down. Into the floor flat on my back that is.Atticus slowed his retrieve and asked if I was hurt,or needed help up. Of course I don't need help up. I'm an OLD SALT I can take it. With that answer he resumed his normal retrieve and left me helpless in the bottom of the boat.Not wanting to appear sissylike I got up and started fishing again. This time from a sitting position. Actually kind of Indian style. That's when I found out there is a pedestal and seat ON THE LIST.
After a little more of this Atticus wants to know if it's OK to go to the Hill.Since it was his boat I gave him permission to leave.I also let him run his boat on the way back.Boy am I glad of that.We were about halfway up the river when the motor went from 35 mph to about 3 mph.Another thing for the list.
All in all it was a fun day and I didn't even have to back the trailer in to unload or load.

Great report!

I can sympathize and empathize...!

As my granddaughter Mimi told me after my recent "hook in thumb"
episode...."SOMETIMES FISHING HURTS!"

JT, Maybe good luck only works in your boats! Sounds like it's good you got back with any good sense at all...

I don't know if I would fish with a councelman or not....

Jumptrout51 wrote: All in all it was a fun day and I didn't even have to back the trailer in to unload or load.

Sounds like fun, fellas.

Atticus' list sounds as long as mine. We needed BD with his video camera on the boat. Hope the boat survived.

That river will be the end of may a boat and fisherman......

JT hope your back feels better soon.

Dang now that's a rough day. I don't know who to feel more sorry for...you taking the Nestle Plunge on to the floor of the boat, or all the stuff going wrong on Atticus' new boat.

At least, the boat can be fixed and will function well for years to come. The other old folks here know what I'm talking about.

Hey JT

After you have recooperated from your trip with Atticus you can go out on my boat - my list is even longer and guarantees an interesting day Maybe if you didn't win so many raffles all our lists would be shorter

So you lost your Skitterwalk to a blue - somehow that seems appropriate - seems I remember you chuckling when that happened to my brand new, never been fished, Skitterwalk

Glad you were not more seriously hurt though

Sea Gurl

Glad you had a good time

I had a great time.

I was going to give you a hand up but you said you were okay.

Its a surfboard with an engine.

One more thing - we had a big manatee swim right up to the trolling motor.

The boat sits in the shop as we speak. It was due in for a 10hr service anyway and I am on a business trip. I wrote the mechanics a letter and described everything that went wrong with the motor. Waiting on them to call me with their verdict.

JT. glad to hear you are healing up sum. I do know what it's like for an ole fisherman to fall in the boat. Hurts for a few weeks here.

As for fishing Eocn-tear-yer-boat-up-fina. Luke you are a brave man to launch in a low tide. Even if it's rising. I have not have the guts to do that yet. even though that is a great place to fish.

good luck with the 10 hour check. And let us know what was the problem with the livewell.

I don't think there are as many rocks over there as folks think there are. East of the tripod anyway on the flats. There are rocks in the river at low tide for sure. And West of the tripod for sure. But other than that and apart from winter low tides I have a theory that there aren't a ton of rocks out there.

I always bring plenty of beer so if I get stuck out there with my theory and no foot on the motor I can relax a little.

Atticus wrote:I don't think there are as many rocks over there as folks think there are. East of the tripod anyway on the flats. There are rocks in the river at low tide for sure. And West of the tripod for sure. But other than that and apart from winter low tides I have a theory that there aren't a ton of rocks out there.

I always bring plenty of beer so if I get stuck out there with my theory and no foot on the motor I can relax a little.

Atticus, you're correct. There ain't that many rocks over there. Plus, you now have a skinny water boat. You can run anywhere you want. However, I would suggest you keep your boat insurance paid up.