Keaton Beach 02-11-15
Posted: February 12th, 2015, 12:35 pm
Fellow BBF member Good Tidings and I decided we need some time out of the office so despite less than great tide movement and solunar predictions we decided a bad day fishing still beats a good day at the office.
Given the tides and temps we chose to have a late morning launch so stopped at the Perry Huddle House for some coffee and breakfast to start out right! Headed out to Keaton Beach and launched at the Sea Hag KB marina. Only one other truck parked on the road so we knew there would be plenty of peace and quiet on the water. A very nice young lady was running the marina store, she also lifted the boat and got our shrimp. I expressed a little surprise that she was doing everything by herself which I think she took as concern that she might drop the boat
She quickly assured me that she had been lifting boats for the past two years and I assured her I was not at all concerned with her not knowing how to operate the lift... what I forgot to mention was that it wasn't my boat 
She was very careful with the boat and got us in the water with no issues at all
Around 11:00 AM we headed north between Adams Beach and Spring Warrior and found lots of bars uncovered at low tide. Water temps started about 52 and never got above 54.5 despite the clear skies and sunshine. With the 1.7' tide movement, a nice bay boat and high tide at 5:55PM we decided to stay out of the creeks and work the bars as we wanted to be back home for church and really didn't want to try and drag a Pathfinder out of a creek or take a boat nap
Water was clear to slightly stained probably due to proximity to the small creeks and recent rain in the area, during the ride out of the channel and further offshore the water was very clear. Trying to avoid purchasing a new lower unit we stopped in about 3' of water and fished our way in on the TM, not surprisingly we got no bites on the "flats". No bait activity or surface action as we approached the bars other than the occasional jumping mullet.
We tossed about everything we had in the tackle bag and eventually as the tide started moving through the cuts between the bars we managed to snag a nice lower slot redfish on a white Bomber pre-rigged shrimp(basically a DoA knockoff) that was drifting down a cut along side the bar. He inhaled it like he hadn't eaten in a week so we thought things were getting ready to fire up but never got another bite. We even tried anchoring up and chumming with cut up live shrimp but the fish just didn't seem to be there.
We headed in about 4:30 and despite not much "catchin" it was still way better than being at work. Hopefully the weather will start to change patterns soon and things will get a bit more consistent.
Given the tides and temps we chose to have a late morning launch so stopped at the Perry Huddle House for some coffee and breakfast to start out right! Headed out to Keaton Beach and launched at the Sea Hag KB marina. Only one other truck parked on the road so we knew there would be plenty of peace and quiet on the water. A very nice young lady was running the marina store, she also lifted the boat and got our shrimp. I expressed a little surprise that she was doing everything by herself which I think she took as concern that she might drop the boat
She quickly assured me that she had been lifting boats for the past two years and I assured her I was not at all concerned with her not knowing how to operate the lift... what I forgot to mention was that it wasn't my boat She was very careful with the boat and got us in the water with no issues at all
Around 11:00 AM we headed north between Adams Beach and Spring Warrior and found lots of bars uncovered at low tide. Water temps started about 52 and never got above 54.5 despite the clear skies and sunshine. With the 1.7' tide movement, a nice bay boat and high tide at 5:55PM we decided to stay out of the creeks and work the bars as we wanted to be back home for church and really didn't want to try and drag a Pathfinder out of a creek or take a boat nap
Water was clear to slightly stained probably due to proximity to the small creeks and recent rain in the area, during the ride out of the channel and further offshore the water was very clear. Trying to avoid purchasing a new lower unit we stopped in about 3' of water and fished our way in on the TM, not surprisingly we got no bites on the "flats". No bait activity or surface action as we approached the bars other than the occasional jumping mullet.
We tossed about everything we had in the tackle bag and eventually as the tide started moving through the cuts between the bars we managed to snag a nice lower slot redfish on a white Bomber pre-rigged shrimp(basically a DoA knockoff) that was drifting down a cut along side the bar. He inhaled it like he hadn't eaten in a week so we thought things were getting ready to fire up but never got another bite. We even tried anchoring up and chumming with cut up live shrimp but the fish just didn't seem to be there.
We headed in about 4:30 and despite not much "catchin" it was still way better than being at work. Hopefully the weather will start to change patterns soon and things will get a bit more consistent.
