BigBendFishing.Net

A lesson I learned a long time ago concerning planning a fishing trip on the Gulf, is to never expect your float plan for the day to go off without a hitch. Expecting a fair day with lite winds and slight chop, my son Hard Knox, myself, and my oldest son woke before daylight at my house at Keaton to find almost gail force winds. We decided to try it anyway. We arrived at the public boat ramp to find only five other boat trailers in the parking lot. We should have taken that as a sign of things to come.
We planned to head north and try a few honey holes that usually hold a few Reds, then on to a few more that we always try for Trout. As we turned the corner at the fishing dock, we found 2 to 3 foot seas white capping, and winds howling. After running a couple of miles in Hard Knox's 17 foot Carolina Skiff, there was not a dry thread on us. I mean all the way down to my drawers. We gave up about half way into the run, dropped down off plane, and tried to fish.
Making a long stoy short, we fished until about 3:30 in the afternoon. We caught dozens of shorts on various baits. Had eight or nine cutoffs, lost another five or six large Trout at the boat, including the largest Spainish that I'd seen in years. Caught nine or ten good size sharks, and a couple dozen small sharks. Caught fish from two foot of water, all the way out to eleven foot of water. The wind never laid down, it got worse, and the waves just got bigger as the day went on.
We ended up with seven keeper Trout, two Blue Fish, one Spainish, two Sharks, one Rock Bass, three Porgys, and an assortment of grunts. The weather was a bust, but the company on the boat was great. Nice Fathers Day gift for ole Papa from two great sons. What more could a father ask for.

You made the best of it and caught a good mess of fish....that's a good day.

Do you eat those little grunts and pogies? We caught some and did not know you could.

Way to tough it out

Hey, CS! Glad yall got out and caught a few. That don't look bad, esp. with all the wind you had to deal with. I'd take a catch like that anyday!

Do you eat all those? Just curious.

Do we eat the Porgys? Yes, they are very good eating. Did we eat all those fish? Yes, we all love Shark on the grill at my house. My two sons and I divided the fish, the large ones, and the small grunts don't last long at any of our houses. Especially mine. My wife is from the Philippines, and knows a thousand ways to cook fish. When we have them, we eat fish three or four times a week.
If you eat Bream, you'll like the Porgys and the Grunts.

CSMarine wrote:Do we eat the Porgys? Yes, they are very good eating. Did we eat all those fish? Yes, we all love Shark on the grill at my house. My two sons and I divided the fish, the large ones, and the small grunts don't last long at any of our houses. Especially mine. My wife is from the Philippines, and knows a thousand ways to cook fish. When we have them, we eat fish three or four times a week.
If you eat Bream, you'll like the Porgys and the Grunts.

Great! I catch a lot more of them than I do trout.

A day early dude, looked like glass today!

Zload,
We planned to fish on Sunday, but my oldest son had to get back to Georgia for his Father's Day dinner. You've heard the saying "A day late and a dollar lost." The saying that seems to stick with me is "A day early and a chance lost." cause I'm never late, just too early sometimes. Like in this case. I had a feeling Sunday would be better.

Sounds like you made the best out of less than ideal conditions! So what times dinner again?

CSM,

I saw your quick report Saturday evening related to JT's weather report and thought I might be in for a rough day on Sunday, the weather girl in Jax indicated a shift in wind direction and I figured we could always hide behind something with the anticipated wind direction. Sorry you couldn't hang out for the beautiful weather on Sunday but y'all put them in the boat even in the tough weather!