BigBendFishing.Net

3/31/2007 - St. Joe Bay

5:30pm launched at the Stump Hole
My buddy and I launched our brand new Tarpon 140's for their maiden voyage...we were stoked. Pretty slow out there, one trout (12") was caught on a Gulp under a CT in a 6' deep channel on the edge of the flats. One Red (18") was caught in the flats on a Gulp under a CT. It was low tide...we probably should have concentrated more on the guts.

4/1/2007
9:30am launched at the Stump Hole
Paddled out into the middle of the flats and started chucking a white Super Spook with a red head. 2nd cast....a grenade went off....Landed a monster gator trout (20+). My buddy was fishing a mirror lure twitch bait, and 2minutes later pulled in another nice speck (20"). We thought we were hitting a feeding frenzy...but then everything shut down. For the next 2 hours we split time between the guts and flats....threw the box at 'em......nothing. On the paddle back to the launch I landed one more trout with a mirror lure "catch 2000"....he was about 15". All in all a pretty slow morning......probably need to get out on the water a lot earlier to catch the top water bite. If we don't get too plowed tonight, we hope to be out there just before sun-up.

WTG...glad to see the TW is turning on

Two more weeks. Then it will go off. Nice report, thanks.

Monday - Stump Hole

9:30am - Got another late start (too much red wine at dinner)...probably missed out on some good top water action. Started out by cruising the flats, chucking top water, Gulps, and stick baits......Nothing to be found. A few tenacious pin fish hooked up on my Spook....the Spook was larger than the fish.

10:45am - moved into a deep channel and started catching trout immediately. My buddy and I combined for around 30 trout in just over 1 hour. Most of the trout were "shorties" (8"-12") but there were a couple nice ones too (15"-20"). The action was fast and furious....good stuff. The majority of the trout were caught on Gulps on a 1/4 oz jig head....a few were caught on jerk bait. Also landed a door mat which soaked me pretty good as I was taking the hook out of his mouth.

12:00am - started floating the channel back to the launch. The Gulps were getting beat up pretty good with the pins. Just as we were about to go in, my Gulp found a rouge-red hangin on the edge of the channel.....nothing huge, but a good time.

Things seem to be heating up quite a bit. Hoping to get out early tomorrow to see if the top water bite is turned on......the only problem is that there is a cooler full of ice-cold beers on the back porch....and they ain't gonna drink themselves.

Cheers

Sounds like you're havin a good time.

4/3/2007 - Stump Hole

7:00am Finally got up early enough to get on some top water action. Started in the flat throwing king-size chug bugs. Right off the bat my buddy missed a hook up by a big red. My chug got exploded on by a gator trout. The TW bite was on! Just a few minutes later I landed a red on a white Spook with a red head....not too big, but a fun fight. Right after that it looked like a cinder block dropped from the sky as another gator trout took my Spook. Good stuff. My 8:30am the TW bite was done and we headed into the guts.
Again we got into a ton on smaller specks (8"-12"). We were catching them almost every other cast on jerk baits and Gulps on a 1/4oz jig head. We probably caught around 30 or so before we decided to start targeting larger fish. We began drifting the guts...nuthin'. On our way back to the car I was throwing a Gulp along the edge of the guts and hooked up with a decent size cobia. My first. Pretty strange looking fish. Also landed another door mat. St. Joe Bay en fuego.

Hoping to get out even earlier tomorrow to get more of the top water bite....and try and beat the arriving cold front.

Cheers

pomfretj wrote:On our way back to the car I was throwing a Gulp along the edge of the guts and hooked up with a decent size cobia.

This might be a dumb question as I have never fished from a kayak,
Do you really want to put a cobia in one? I've landed one or two in flats and bay boats and they (the boats) got awful small awful quick with that Mr. Brown Suit tearing everything to hell.

I would not want to put one in mine. Even when their showing belly-up, they have plenty of fight left.

Nice post It sounds you enjoyed a few days of good fishing

We've been having a blast! Sucks that I only get to fish down here once a year. We're pretty jealous of you local guys.

Mr. Brownsuit is a new one to me.....pretty funny. Luckily my Mr. Brownsuit today was only about 16" and did'nt cause too much havoc in the yak.

Wednesday report coming soon.......

Ask DBPlug about putting a cobia in the boat.

Sounds like fun and some late nights

Wednesday - Stump Hole

Got out at 6:00am hoping to catch some moonlight top water action. Started in the flats chucking a King size Chug Bug and Spook. We each missed a couple hook ups and then I finally got a nice red (25+). My buddy didn't catch anything so he moved over to the honey hole and started catching trout by the dozen and one red that was smaller than the red sticker on the side of his kayak....most were shorties with a few bigger ones mixed in. I joined him for a while....but after about 15 or so it becomes kinda boring. We then set out for a long drift along the guts.....the wind started howling and we called it a day. Taking Thursday off to see if we can get on the shark bite.

cheers