BigBendFishing.Net

Spent four days fishing out of Keaton Beach with my good friend Bil G from PN. We've made this annual trip for 3 years now and it's one I really enjoy. Peng and Tim joined us on days 1 and 2, so we double teamed em for a while.

Fishing was not as red hot this year as it has been in years past but the company and the time on the water more than made up for it. Day one we experienced some pretty good fishing, topped off with a 24" trout.
Peng picked up a nice trout on a top water when the wind died down, and as he described it, it was cool. I landed a plug on top of something in 3' of water that left a the mud stirred up for a 6' diameter, not sure what it was, but it was large. We fished some pretty clear water from just south of the channel all the way down to grassy island. We had a pretty good bite going on the rising tide, other than that the fish were pretty scattered.

Day two we decided to explore things to the north of the channel. As others have indicated the water to the north is pretty stained and the high winds we experienced on days two and three didn't help. We did manage to pick up a number of good trout, mostly fishing pin fish, 4" gulp shrimp (new penny), and a variety of plugs. BTW, whoever indicated the new bite-a-bait fighter in candy corn was a fish catching machine wasn't kidden. Only problem is it's a lady fish catching machine. I must have caught 20 lady fish on that plug. Bil ended the day with a nice spanish on a catch 2000 mirro lure.


Day three was very windy, we rocked and rolled most of the day. I was determined to try to get some reds so we drifted some oyster bars late in the rising tide. Bil picked up two nice slot reds, both on copper spoons.

I was throwin a spinner with no takers.

Day four was probably the slowest for us. We tried 3.5-5.5' depths for a good part of the day. I eventually got frustrated with that and moved out to 8.5. We promptly laid into several trout, again with the 4" gulp shrimp. I usually don't catch too many keeper trout on the gulps (gulp size I call them), but it seamed with the larger gulps we picked up some larger trout. A couple in the 19-22" range.

It was a great trip. Water temps ranged from 69 up to 76. Conditions were a bit rough due to the high winds, but the beauty of inshore is you can almost always find somewhere to fish.

Sorry for the delay. I've been fighting with 'myfishingpictures' web site to get my pics up. I guess I'll find another host.

Sounds like a fun time was had by all. Way to hang in there!!

Good company.......Some fishes.......Can't beat that Next time try to post your pics on http://www.forumpictureprocessor.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; There is a direct link to this forum

Heck of a couple of days.
Fishing is pretty good North of the channel. I like just south of the coffee water or the other side of it.

That's pretty much the water color we were looking for (transition between stained and clear). Typically I've done better in the more stained water, but lately I guess it's become too stained. I wouldn't guess that would move the fish, but their probably having a more difficult time finding the lure. The transition area has moved quite far south, probably as far as Dekkle Beach. We also had good luck in clear water, although I imagine it would be more difficult on clear days.