BigBendFishing.Net

I had a chance to leave work a little early on Wednesday afternoon . What better to do than squeeze in a few hours of fishing? Stopped by Jerry's around 3:30 and picked up a few shrimp. Pulled into the LH lot, which looked like a saturday afternoon--not a Wednesday (with at least 15 trailers)! Headed over to the west flats, which is where most boats seemed to be fishing. I picked up one sailcat and six trout--with the biggest being just over 18".

After about an hour and half, I decided to head to the east flats, just inside the first stake. I started in about 4-5' of water and only picked up one small bluefish. I realized that with the wind and incoming tide, this might be my chance to finally try and fish the shoreline for some reds, which is something I have been very apprehensive about doing--I'm just so afraid that I'm going to end up harming my boat since I'm fairly new to this whole fishing/boating sport--though I can't seem to get enough of it. At around 6 o'clock, when I moved in toward the shoreline, I noticed a boat heading into what I think is horns creek (it is the second major opening east of the lighthouse). So I decided to go west a little, toward the mouth of Big Cove. I could see mullet jumping along the shoreline. I tilted my motor up in about 2' of water and put my trolling motor down--but my trolling motor didn't respond. I just had it checked out (for this very reason), and I was told it was working fine , and my batteries had a full charge. Anyway, I decided to just let myself drift in with the water and cast as I drifted in. Next thing I knew I was going over a small bar, which the very bottom of my motor scraped . I pretty much panicked at this point (stumbling over rods and net trying to reach the tilt)--but once I drifted over it, I lowered my motor down just enough to get out of there.

Headed back out to 7'--between the bird rack and and the first stake--and caught a nice (and fairly fat) 19" trout, which is my biggest trout in a very long time. I fished there for another half hour with no luck before the sun went down and I headed back to the ramp.

All in all, a nice quick mid-week quick fishing trip (save the scare in front of big-cove). Now I just need to get my confidence back up (and my trolling motor running) to go look for some reds!

Glad you got out.

I have three young boys and decided when I bought my boat about a 18 months ago that I wasn't going to sweat the markings of a well used boat

To show for it the bottom of my motor has no paint left on it and my prop has a couple of small dings as does my gel coat but to get to the fish I figure its a small price to pay. My kids have MANY great memories already and I haven't regretted it yet....

Sounds like you got the trout thing down. You gonna ding your boat if you fish for reds around this part of the Gulf.
Good report.

Yep, sounds like Hornes Creek to me. Haven't done much there this year but its been great in past years. Hornes is mighty shallow I recommend Stoney Bayou. Much easier to get into and much deeper after you're in the creek. Plenty of reds there as well. Also plenty of rocks, just be careful and you won't have any trouble. Glad you caught a few.

Nice report

Like the others said, you're going to ding your boat on occassion. Just keep it at idle speed and watch where you're going when you know you're amongst rocks or if you don't know whether you are or not. A spotter on the bow will help tremendously.

Good trip. I managed to take all the paint off my skeg first trip with the new motor. Just go ahead and get it over with. I'm sure there's a few guys on here that will help ya

I would be glad to help ya.

if you ain't got a scraped up bottom on your boat, you are too far out-
just kidding - the bottom of mine looks like hell but that's what you get fishing around here... if you really wanna break it in and scrape it down head to Aucilla/Econfina way. Them spots will break it in right!