BigBendFishing.Net

Been an extremely crazy work year due to moving our office, so it took me until Good Friday to finally get Marine's Dream wet.

Even had to work a few hours on Good Friday so didn't get out until noon. Met my old friend & fellow board member Sharkman at the Ecky ramp and off we went. Chop was just heavy enough for us to agree on making it a red-hunting day.

Went to spot # 1 to find someone fishing it. We stayed about 1/4 mile off it and were quite content doing so as we spooked a couple of big bull reds as we finished our initial approach. With the water crystal clear we saw a few more reds swim around the boat but all had lockjaw. Saw that the boat on spot #1 was pulling anchor and got excited we might move in and find a few reds home. Sadly the boat chose to head our way and went WOT the whole way. Oh well, with St. Marks closed we knew that traffic would be up and manners a bit down... so we start inching towards the spot 50 or so feet at a time, carefully fanning the area with spoons only to have two boats motor in on top of us with one stopping within casting distance. The only positive thing I can say is that they at least stayed a few yards to our rear but with the bite still proving slow, we decided to race off to spot # 2.

Spot # 2 was dead, so we raced off to spot # 3 hoping it would hold a flounder or two. Slow fished gigs on the bottom and... snot cats! By this point I'm thinking, "2011 ain't exactly starting out with a bang". Remembering the couple of bull reds we spooked at spot # 1 and with the sun starting to fall, Sharkman and I agreed a run to our starting point was in order.

What a difference a few hours and a bit of peace and quiet can make... quickly landed my first fish of 2011, a fat 7 pound slot red.
Sharkman and I then proceed to double up a number of times from a great school of cruising reds mixed with fish between 22" and 30". Reached double digits with Johnson gold spoons so Sharkman decided to change up to a skitterwalk for a bit of topwater fun. Within about a second of the skiiterwalk hitting the water, it gets SLAMMED by this 30" 10lb beauty...
Had to leave them biting to get home and clean our slot keepers but left super happy having FINALLY had the opportunity to see Econfina "bronze" reds again!
Now just waiting for a good calm day to kick off my 2011 cobia campaign!!!

Nice trip J. Go ahead and sign me up for the 2011 cobia campaign I'll even clean your boat for ya since you're such a busy guy these days

Tom, definitely will get you out for the cobia campaign!

As for cleaning the boat, I need it AND the truck cleaned... just afraid to have you do them as you're going to want to talk bad about me after you see how dirty I've let both get.

Great job guys, Hey John I want in, I'll even fish with that Tom guy, you just say the word!

Ranaman, can't wait to try and put you and Dolphinatic on the cobes! Did some homework on my past catches relative to moon phase/tides yesterday and have already made a list of target dates/locations. Will give you both a holler soon as I can confirm one of the dates looks like it will have weather that cooperates!