Econfina 8-4-08
Posted: August 5th, 2008, 7:22 am
I had to get on the water after a long weekend of knot fishing. I made my way down to Econfina and made the paddle out to find the water a little choppy. Right off the bat a big school of Menhaden got chased past my boat like a cascading rain. Fish were overlapping one after another as they flew past me. I made a cast and got a hit on topwater and lost it after a brief fight. I made my way out on the flats and came across more of the same action and lost yet another fish after a longer fight. After the wind died down I could hear those Menhaden cascading across the water in every direction as far as the eye could see. Hundreds of schools with thousands of fish were being ambushed in the high tide. I started chasing pods, making cast, and getting hookups but losing the fish. One I lost was definitely a Spanish because it severed the line instantly. I finally got one to stay on longer than 30 seconds and it was starting to wear down when a big swirl carried him and my topwater bait away. This repeated several times. Most likely a shark that ate him and he was most likely a Jack. I did pull in a few Trout up to 22 inches and one smallish Redfish, but I never got one of those elusive fish to the boat and can only guess that they were Jacks, but was unable to boat one because of all the sharks. I did have several big hits (Hit as in running into my kayak) on the side of my kayak. One actually jolted the side of my yak because it hit so hard. Probably a shark or a hurried mullet. It was a fantastic time chasing those bait pods on the outgoing tide, and it was hard to leave them biting as the sun made its way down. But as I was leaving a small fish jumped in front of the boat, and I swear it sounded like it farted. Lots of alligators on the paddle in too. Great time and wish I had been in a boat.
Sounds like you had plenty of action around to make to time pass by way to fast.
