Ochlockonee Shoals Saturday
Posted: September 23rd, 2012, 10:24 am
My brother was in town visiting my mom, so we planned a trip for Saturday. Loaded the boat, launched at Shields and were rolling down the river a little after 7. Beautiful sunrise and a coolness to the air. With the dogwoods loaded with berries and monarch/yellow butterflies along the coast, that's a sure sign autumn is here.
Game plan was to hit the oyster bars near the mouth of the river in search of reds, but the water near West Pass was downright nasty. Visibility less than 3 feet, so we moved to the outer grass flats. Nothing doing there, either, so when the mackerel started pounding bait a little deeper, I tied on a couple casting spoons and we would motor into range of the erupting bait schools. They weren't thick, but we did have fun with them for awhile. Depths were 10 to 12 feet and floating grass wasn't too bad. Tide was falling. When the run-and-gun started waning, I made a decision to run out to Ochlockonee Shoals. Good move. We surfed through big swells on the way, stopping only to cast to a buoy for no-show cobia, but once we got on top of the shoal, it was on. Bite was constant and the trout were quality. We landed at least 20 and all but one were 17 to 20 inches and fat. We used DOA standard shrimp in white/pink tail (the top producer), holographic glitter and gold/glow. Towards the end I switched to a gold/glow CAL shad tail with a red 1/8-ounce jig head and they liked it also. Water clarity was nearly normal and there is a ton of bait/life out there. Water temperature was 78.8 degrees. I could see trout schooling over the sand potholes. Once the tide bottomed out and the temperature climbed, we ran all the way back in, gave Fin-esse a bubble bath and went home to watch the Braves whup up on the Phillies.
Great time with my brother. Wish now Rocky and I would have gone there during the STSO. But I'll be going back again this fall for sure.
Game plan was to hit the oyster bars near the mouth of the river in search of reds, but the water near West Pass was downright nasty. Visibility less than 3 feet, so we moved to the outer grass flats. Nothing doing there, either, so when the mackerel started pounding bait a little deeper, I tied on a couple casting spoons and we would motor into range of the erupting bait schools. They weren't thick, but we did have fun with them for awhile. Depths were 10 to 12 feet and floating grass wasn't too bad. Tide was falling. When the run-and-gun started waning, I made a decision to run out to Ochlockonee Shoals. Good move. We surfed through big swells on the way, stopping only to cast to a buoy for no-show cobia, but once we got on top of the shoal, it was on. Bite was constant and the trout were quality. We landed at least 20 and all but one were 17 to 20 inches and fat. We used DOA standard shrimp in white/pink tail (the top producer), holographic glitter and gold/glow. Towards the end I switched to a gold/glow CAL shad tail with a red 1/8-ounce jig head and they liked it also. Water clarity was nearly normal and there is a ton of bait/life out there. Water temperature was 78.8 degrees. I could see trout schooling over the sand potholes. Once the tide bottomed out and the temperature climbed, we ran all the way back in, gave Fin-esse a bubble bath and went home to watch the Braves whup up on the Phillies.
Great time with my brother. Wish now Rocky and I would have gone there during the STSO. But I'll be going back again this fall for sure.
