East Flats 4-22-14

[fishinfool]

I decided to take Mom out for a fishing day. We arrived at the lighthouse ramp at 6:30 and had it all to ourselves. The wind was forecast at 5mph but it was much closer to 10-12. With the high tide at 9:20, I decided to head toward the flat outside of Stoney Bayou.
We started a drift in 3' and 62°water temp, no luck. I moved out to 4' and it was on. Mom caught the first fish, a toad of a trout (18") on a Cajun Thunder with a 3" Glow Gulp and red 1/16" jig. I started with a top water but they were either not interested or the water was too choppy. I switched to a chartreuse (hot bone) thitchin rap and things picked up.
We made a couple of drifts in 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 fishing through the high tide. At 10:00 I wanted to try to find some reds, so we moved into the bayou. I was using a spoon and Mom a 5" nuke chicken jerk shad on weighted hook. We searched many fishy looking areas for about an hour and a half with no results. Heading back out I thought of a flat that has been productive in the past south of Palmetto Island. The magic depth seemed to be 3 1/2 to 4 feet of water. We landed a few more trout with a couple of shorts mixed in. There was a Blue fish caught(Mom) a Spanish(me), two more Spanish cut offs(me) 22 Trout of which at least half were keepers. My best of the day was an extremely upset 21" fat girl of a trout. All the fish were released as I still have a few fillets in the freezer.
The water temp maxed out at 68°. I expect if the weather trend keeps up the magic temp of 72° will be right around the corner. The water visibility was 2'-3' and darkly stained. The fish seemed to be in the clearer water areas. When we would drift through the murkier areas the bite would slow or stop.
All in all a great day on the water and I was glad to get Mom out to catch some fish.

[SS-342]

You had better be careful taking Mom out…..she's beat you fishing!

A very goos report and I enjoyed reading it. Thanks!

[2true]

Going today. Thanks for the report!!

[Harmsway]

Woohoo!

[Slough]

[Rolltide4]

Great report. Thanks for the update.


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[luceror]

good report! I fished Mashy sands yesterday. Started around oyster bars till high water,just a scattered short trt. Fished out to the flats on ebb tide, a few spanish and the occasional short trt. AS the ebb tide picked up so did the action. I was throwing a 3/8 jig/nuc chicken,. Bite lasted about an hr.and it was over for me. some nice trt 17-19" some spanish mixed in and I also picked up 3 flounder(2 were keepers). They were really hitting that jig hard!!
I havnt had much luck w the reds so far this spring. Have tried all my go to places not much action!! I caught a few a week ago on the bars off of bald pt. Nadas yesterday. Water was real dingy yesterday!

[Salty Gator]

Atta boy Jim, good on you for getting mom on the boat. I'm way overdue, need to get mine out on some fish. Thanks for the report

[onefishtwofish]

I had pretty similar results today in about the same waters. We found them at the border of the 60's and 70's. We moved in from outside with the tide and all trout were caught in 3.5 to 4.5. 70 degrees was the hot spot. On the darker areas, the temp got up to 72.7, but we had no love there as it was shallower. My son snagged a pinfish on a jig and he went on the hook. he produced a keeper trout in about 10 minutes (17"). We caught a bunch of ladyfish early on and a guy I had with me had not caught anything in the salt in a long time, so he was happy playing with them for a bit. We moved in just about high tide and picked up our keepers. We caught more 14 3/4 than any other size - simply because I announced I was keeping trout to everyone (which I very rarely do). It was not hot, but it was steady and the grease is gonna smell like fish.