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A buddy and I got to the water at 1130 to a high and outgoing tide at Bottoms Rd.

We started in the creeks to try for reds. I threw a Spook Jr in the creeks, but it was fairly windy. We also threw some Gulp! Alive 3" shrimp in new penny on a popping cork and on a jig. We didn't get any bites in the creeks so we moved out to the southern end of Piney Island and drifted north. We made the drift a few times, with a few hits on the cork rig, but nothing hooked. I switched to a larger One-Knocker Spook and tried that for a bit, but nothing hit it.

After a second drift, we headed southeast of Piney Island. We went out a bit past the channel markers and started getting into some trout. We were fishing a cork with Gulp! shrimp, Spook topwater, bottom rigged Gulp! tipped with Fishbites bait, Texas rigged Fishbites bait (sand flea), and cut ladyfish. The popping cork rig barely buttoned a 16"trout, but the Texas rig with just the Fishbites just seemed to slay trout; I don't get it. The largest we caught was 23", with the rest all being slot trout. We caught 6 trout in a window of maybe 2 hours, 5 of which were caught on the same Texas rig pole. We should've converted another rod to the same rig but we were experimenting with variety. We were also throwing chartreuse Gulp! curly tails and those were getting destroyed, no hook-ups though.

Around 6 the tide was pretty low so we headed into the bays. I threw the Spook Jr, and there seemed to be a lot more interest in topwater by this time of day. Saw several strikes at the lure and even saw a fish chase and try for it a few times; no hook-ups though.

I noticed a lot of missed hook-ups for me. I may go to circle hooks next time. Or just stop trying to hard. Also first time using Fishbites bait. It feels silly using it, but the trout loved it, so I may just keep trying it.

Pics or it didn't happen.

it's good to see other people catching fish

Good report
Thanks

Nice mess but I must have lost a day. Isn't today the 14th lol.

late night reporting must've got to me. I'll see able editing the date.

Looks like you caught a case of Coors fish too

Good report.do u think it was pinfish destroying yr curly tail gulps?sounds like u had enough action to keep u going!Iv never heard of that type of bait u were catahin em on,what is it?

Pinfish were probably only slightly responsible for the destroyed Gulps. But there were definite fang marks going through them too, so I believe I was just missing trout hits. I just had the curly tails on a J hook under a cork.

Fishbites bait looks like taffy. It comes as a dry strip that dissolves scent and attractants into the water when wet. It's basically the dry material on a mesh support. Silliest thing ever, but the trout absolutely loved it. The Texas rig with a strip of fishbites on a circle hook outfished a popping cork with Gulp tipped with fishbites basically 5:1. In fact the fish weren't even touching the Gulp until I put a piece of fishbites on it.

It still feels silly to me and I'm not sure if I'm a believer yet, but it caught fish. I traditionally like to use live shrimp but there's been a shortage lately, so artificial was the way to go. We also caught more trout than we did catfish and ladyfish so that was also a first.

Good day, congrats! I doubt circle hooks will give you less missed fish on your tw. It's easy to see the blowup and try to prematurely set the hook. Wait until you actually feel the fish before you set the hook. Good luck

Nice catch "Can'tCatchAnything".....you certainly caught a nice mess in a tuff year. If you don't mind me asking, how much weight were you using with that texas? I seen a guy post on here lat year that wore out the trout also on a texas rig, but with cut pins instead of fishbites.

It was just a 1 oz weight.

Thanks for the advice too, SG.

Now that was a very good honest report! Thanks for telling it all. I've got to look for those fishbites and rig a rod Texas style.

Look what you started.

Thanks again for such a good report! Good job.

Hey, nice fish! Yea, fishbites are an excellent choice. Ive been using them the past year and would recommend them to anyone. The thing I like most about them (besides the fact that they catch fish) is the mesh interior that keeps the strips intact for along time, even after you pull in several feisty fish. Y'all should certainly give them a shot.

Nice work!

Bottoms Road ... where might this be?

I'm not familiar with that location.

Paved road on the left, right before you get to Panacea, coming from Tally