Econfina 04-16-10
Posted: April 19th, 2010, 10:28 am
Last year, I was given several gal’s of mixed gas along with a few bottles of 2 cycle oil by a coworker (turns out to be “Old Biker”) who had upgraded the outboard on his boat to a 4 cycle. I had promised him that I’d take him flats fishing in appreciation of his generosity. The stars finally came into alignment for us between two sets of “work, wives, and weather” on Friday. I had checked the weather and it was looking really good for Friday so we started putting things in order for a trip.
Just to make sure the trip had at least one good aspect to it, our first stop was for breakfast at Savanna’s (
)
I was still having some trouble deciding whether to head to Econfina or Saint Marks
so while we were having some pancakes, we were able to decide that Econfina would be the destination since my guest had never been there. We managed to get on the water around 8:30 and conditions were beautiful.
Old Biker with a handful of Econfina…
The water is still very stained and the surface temp starting out was 67-68 degrees. There were a few vehicles at the park but no more that a dozen or so and my guest had no trouble at all backing me in and then finding a place to park.
From the mouth of the river, we headed East and set up our first drift somewhere South of Cabbage Creek. With the tide still going out and the wind out of the East, our drift was parallel with the shoreline. My guest was asking questions regarding the “how to’s” and I was trying to give him the best advice I could but he didn’t need much. Old Biker has a good bit of experience with fishing for Bass and it didn’t take long for him to start working the CT and also just swimming the soft plastic’s barely off the bottom.
It wasn’t more than a few minutes before he was hooked up with a very nice 22-23 inch trout. He began grinning and indicating that “hey… this is fun!”
Because of our relatively late start, we just managed to catch the tail end of the morning, pre low tide bite and it slowed down quite a bit although we would pick up one every now and then. Dick was having a good bit of success with a 3 inch white gulp as well as a “sea shad” soft plastic. I was drag’n a 4 inch white gulp under a CT which had worked well for me at Keaton a few weeks ago but didn’t seem to be the ticket on this trip. I also kept throwing top water, suspended hard baits, and floating divers with no joy. Dick kept drag’n em to the boat and I kept net’n em for him. The bite turned back on for us about 45 minutes before high tide and I even managed to catch a couple.
We actually had legal fish #10 in the boat but after considering all the fun Dick was having, we turned it loose since it was just legal. That was a good move for me because I was still throw’n that stink’n topwater and finally at the end of a cast had a nice fish blow up on it and we were both able to see the fish strike (but miss!
). I waited for the mullet colored mirror lure to float to the surface and settle down, then began working it again to the boat. About half way it got struck again and may have been the same fish but to me it looked smaller but you guys know how that goes ( 
) . Anyway, this time the fish got a face full of hooks and boy he didn’t like that at all. After a brief but exciting skirmish my partner put him in the net and we finished the day.
It was around 3pm and we headed back to the ramp. The water temp reached 72 at one point but I never found any water that was not very stained (probably cause there ain’t any!) We release 4 or 5 shorts and Dick, had one real nice trout to the boat when it made a hard turn and took off parting his line at the leader. We had one hard head and one sail cat so they’re back. One big difference I noted from my Keaton report was that all the trout caught had huge fingers of eggs close to being ready for spawn. Most of the fish really took the hook deep and were feeding very aggressive. Old Biker is a pleasure to have on board and if you ever have a chance to fish with him you’ll be glad that you did.
Just to make sure the trip had at least one good aspect to it, our first stop was for breakfast at Savanna’s (
) I was still having some trouble deciding whether to head to Econfina or Saint Marks
so while we were having some pancakes, we were able to decide that Econfina would be the destination since my guest had never been there. We managed to get on the water around 8:30 and conditions were beautiful.Old Biker with a handful of Econfina…
The water is still very stained and the surface temp starting out was 67-68 degrees. There were a few vehicles at the park but no more that a dozen or so and my guest had no trouble at all backing me in and then finding a place to park.
From the mouth of the river, we headed East and set up our first drift somewhere South of Cabbage Creek. With the tide still going out and the wind out of the East, our drift was parallel with the shoreline. My guest was asking questions regarding the “how to’s” and I was trying to give him the best advice I could but he didn’t need much. Old Biker has a good bit of experience with fishing for Bass and it didn’t take long for him to start working the CT and also just swimming the soft plastic’s barely off the bottom.
It wasn’t more than a few minutes before he was hooked up with a very nice 22-23 inch trout. He began grinning and indicating that “hey… this is fun!”
Because of our relatively late start, we just managed to catch the tail end of the morning, pre low tide bite and it slowed down quite a bit although we would pick up one every now and then. Dick was having a good bit of success with a 3 inch white gulp as well as a “sea shad” soft plastic. I was drag’n a 4 inch white gulp under a CT which had worked well for me at Keaton a few weeks ago but didn’t seem to be the ticket on this trip. I also kept throwing top water, suspended hard baits, and floating divers with no joy. Dick kept drag’n em to the boat and I kept net’n em for him. The bite turned back on for us about 45 minutes before high tide and I even managed to catch a couple.
We actually had legal fish #10 in the boat but after considering all the fun Dick was having, we turned it loose since it was just legal. That was a good move for me because I was still throw’n that stink’n topwater and finally at the end of a cast had a nice fish blow up on it and we were both able to see the fish strike (but miss!
). I waited for the mullet colored mirror lure to float to the surface and settle down, then began working it again to the boat. About half way it got struck again and may have been the same fish but to me it looked smaller but you guys know how that goes ( ) . Anyway, this time the fish got a face full of hooks and boy he didn’t like that at all. After a brief but exciting skirmish my partner put him in the net and we finished the day. It was around 3pm and we headed back to the ramp. The water temp reached 72 at one point but I never found any water that was not very stained (probably cause there ain’t any!) We release 4 or 5 shorts and Dick, had one real nice trout to the boat when it made a hard turn and took off parting his line at the leader. We had one hard head and one sail cat so they’re back. One big difference I noted from my Keaton report was that all the trout caught had huge fingers of eggs close to being ready for spawn. Most of the fish really took the hook deep and were feeding very aggressive. Old Biker is a pleasure to have on board and if you ever have a chance to fish with him you’ll be glad that you did.
SEMPER FI
