Carrabelle 07-25-09
Posted: July 25th, 2009, 6:44 pm
Ran West and setup on a flat I had never fished before near a point. I had just looked at it on the chart Friday night and it looked right so we ran over there. I was worried we were going to get skunked today. The wind was slick calm and the water was like a farm pond. No drift whatsoever. My partner and I were catching 16" trout on topwater and soft plastic jerk baits in about 4' of water. Noticed some mullet and some activity shallower so we started inching over with the Minn Kota. We get into about 2' of water with about 1' of grass on the bottom and my partner puts a nice 26" red in the boat with his Skitterwalk.
He has another redfish come off the hook after burying himself in the grass a few casts later. He is throwing a trout pattern Skitterwalk and I, after seeing him catch those reds, have started throwing an orange one. I put two 18" trout in the boat and he bags another mid-slot red. He has the hot hand with the redfish at this point and I have four trout: 16, 16, 18, 18.
We actually had a little bit of a drift going on the 'farm pond' by then and we started moving towards the point naturally. A big cloud had covered the morning sun making the light look right for topwater much later than usual.
Then my Skitterwalk gets slammed by what I think is a mid-slot redfish. Fight him all the way to the boat thinking its a 22" red and didn't know until the last second that it was a nice fat 24" trout.
My partner then had a fish absloutely SLAM his Skitterwalk. We thought it was going to be a blacktip but it turned out to be a nice little aggressive redfish.
The very next cast I can uncork with the orange Skitterwalk into the same hole yeilds a 21" trout.
We fished that hole out with the aid of the Power Pole and then started our very slow drift again just fan casting with the topwater plugs. It was almost 11AM at this point but the cloud cover was right and the results couldn't be argued with. I had a beautiful "V" shaped wake behind my orange Skitterwalk and I couldn't get a strike. The wake was so big my partner noticed it and stopped fishing to watch. I finally, out of desperation, just stopped the plug and let it sit there. A big boil was followed by the sound of Ande 12 singing through the eyelets. This decent redfish put up a hell of a fight.
By this time the sky to the West and North looked ominous. We checked the weather radar on the smartphones and hauled it back to Carrabelle to preserve life and limb. Left them biting which is a shame.
All real damage was done with the two Skitterwalks - trout pattern and orange. Only caught a couple 16" trout on white Exudes. Water was about 82* when we showed up. We started fishing at about 7:45 and headed to the hill around 11:15. Falling tide the whole time. Float grass wasn't that bad. Think I saw a BBF member's boat out there in the same neighborhood. Well see if he reports.
He has another redfish come off the hook after burying himself in the grass a few casts later. He is throwing a trout pattern Skitterwalk and I, after seeing him catch those reds, have started throwing an orange one. I put two 18" trout in the boat and he bags another mid-slot red. He has the hot hand with the redfish at this point and I have four trout: 16, 16, 18, 18.
We actually had a little bit of a drift going on the 'farm pond' by then and we started moving towards the point naturally. A big cloud had covered the morning sun making the light look right for topwater much later than usual.
Then my Skitterwalk gets slammed by what I think is a mid-slot redfish. Fight him all the way to the boat thinking its a 22" red and didn't know until the last second that it was a nice fat 24" trout.
My partner then had a fish absloutely SLAM his Skitterwalk. We thought it was going to be a blacktip but it turned out to be a nice little aggressive redfish.
The very next cast I can uncork with the orange Skitterwalk into the same hole yeilds a 21" trout.
We fished that hole out with the aid of the Power Pole and then started our very slow drift again just fan casting with the topwater plugs. It was almost 11AM at this point but the cloud cover was right and the results couldn't be argued with. I had a beautiful "V" shaped wake behind my orange Skitterwalk and I couldn't get a strike. The wake was so big my partner noticed it and stopped fishing to watch. I finally, out of desperation, just stopped the plug and let it sit there. A big boil was followed by the sound of Ande 12 singing through the eyelets. This decent redfish put up a hell of a fight.
By this time the sky to the West and North looked ominous. We checked the weather radar on the smartphones and hauled it back to Carrabelle to preserve life and limb. Left them biting which is a shame.
All real damage was done with the two Skitterwalks - trout pattern and orange. Only caught a couple 16" trout on white Exudes. Water was about 82* when we showed up. We started fishing at about 7:45 and headed to the hill around 11:15. Falling tide the whole time. Float grass wasn't that bad. Think I saw a BBF member's boat out there in the same neighborhood. Well see if he reports.
I sure wish you'd taken those pictures facing the other way. 
Then I'd know where to catch some nice redfish. 