Steinhatchee 4/26 - 4/27
Posted: April 28th, 2014, 9:44 pm
Fished south of the river both days, Saturday had two tournaments running so lots of company on the water.
Fished almost at Pepperfish water was stained but could see bottom at 5' started in 5' and I caught 22" trout on a Badonk-a-Donk, and my wife caught another 22" on live shrimp. I mainly threw a pearl jerk bait on a jig and kept two more 19" trout along with a number of 15" - 17" trout that we released, no shorts. Most of the trout were caught in 4' - 5' range but one of the 19" was in the grass line at high tide. Also picked up two rat reds at 16" each. Bite slacked off shortly after high tide moved back closer to the river and water turned black, no visibility at all, literally could not see pearl bait at 6". Switched over to a black jerk bait and caught a nice jack that ran me around the boat before I could turn him.
Sunday we were on the water at 6:30 had to wait out a heavy fog at the entrance to the channel, fished the spoil bars without a hit. Ran out slow and alert as fog was still heavy but very few boats around. Fished same area but headed in close to some rock piles a little too early spent next 45 minutes hung up on a rock waiting for tide then sheared my TM pin so eased out with the admiral on the bow on rock lookout. Had a few blowups on topwater while waiting but no takers.
Water was dead flat calm, bite was very slow and mainly shorts until around 11:30 when I boated 6 - 8 trout in the 15" - 16" range again between 4' - 5', kept one final 18" trout to finish out a mess and released everything else. Pearl jerk bait outperformed everything including pearl gulp shrimp. Ran in at WOT to get out of the room on time, like glass out there.
Water temps from 73 - 77.
Looks like more rain coming this week...
Fished almost at Pepperfish water was stained but could see bottom at 5' started in 5' and I caught 22" trout on a Badonk-a-Donk, and my wife caught another 22" on live shrimp. I mainly threw a pearl jerk bait on a jig and kept two more 19" trout along with a number of 15" - 17" trout that we released, no shorts. Most of the trout were caught in 4' - 5' range but one of the 19" was in the grass line at high tide. Also picked up two rat reds at 16" each. Bite slacked off shortly after high tide moved back closer to the river and water turned black, no visibility at all, literally could not see pearl bait at 6". Switched over to a black jerk bait and caught a nice jack that ran me around the boat before I could turn him.
Sunday we were on the water at 6:30 had to wait out a heavy fog at the entrance to the channel, fished the spoil bars without a hit. Ran out slow and alert as fog was still heavy but very few boats around. Fished same area but headed in close to some rock piles a little too early spent next 45 minutes hung up on a rock waiting for tide then sheared my TM pin so eased out with the admiral on the bow on rock lookout. Had a few blowups on topwater while waiting but no takers.
Water was dead flat calm, bite was very slow and mainly shorts until around 11:30 when I boated 6 - 8 trout in the 15" - 16" range again between 4' - 5', kept one final 18" trout to finish out a mess and released everything else. Pearl jerk bait outperformed everything including pearl gulp shrimp. Ran in at WOT to get out of the room on time, like glass out there.
Water temps from 73 - 77.
Looks like more rain coming this week...
