Lanark 20 September 2016

[Can'tCatchAnything]

I dropped the kayak in a bit east of Carrabelle off of 98. It was about 3 pm and the tide rising, winds from the southwest. My first time fishing the area so not knowing what to expect, I bring a baitcaster with a Yozuri minnow to troll, a medium 20lb spinner for corks, and a light 10lb spinner for a spoon. Floating grass not as bad as weeks prior, but bad enough to make trolling a yozuri minnow a headache. I opted to set up drift patterns parallel to the shore. I was doing a combination of deadsticking a popping cork/Vudu shrimp and throwing an AD weedless spoon, or vice versa. I would paddle 45 degrees into the wind and current, drift parallel to the shore back a bit, go a bit further out, repeat. Once I found the right depth (8 ft paddle just about disappeared under water) I got into some action. No love for the spoon, but the cork and shrimp was getting killed almost every other cast. Under and lower slot trout, ladyfish, some BIG sailcats, I've never had such success throwing plastics. After I went through the 2 Vudu shrimps (Man are they pricey!) I went to Gulp jerk shads and got less bites but bigger trout. Those Vudu shrimps work though, and I never even hit them with the pro-cure! Kept 1 17 inch trout for the stringer. Left the fish biting at the top of the high tide to beat the bugs back at the launch, luckily the wind held them off.

Still haven't caught a fish on the AD spoon, patiently persisting.

[silverking]

Good report, CCA. Don't lose faith in the AD spoon. They'll produce when the fish are around. Tried that area you fished Saturday and the floating grass was like curtains--vertical and thick. I couldn't buy a red and the rest of the tournament boats weren't overwhelmed with numbers either. Several boats made some marathon runs, a lot farther than I was able to in the skiff.

The trout were very aggressive, though. I stayed on 'em for 3 hours and caught all mine on a chrome Skitter Walk. Had some fun, explosive strikes. Always cool to watch when they knock the plug out of the water.

We're on the cusp of the fall season.

[Steve Stinson]

Have you had any trouble with the Vudu Shrimp melting in your tackle box? Mine melted for some reason and I had to throw them out. The rest of the soft plastic baits in the same box were fine.

[Can'tCatchAnything]

Thanks Capt, I'm excited to see how the upcoming weeks turn out.

Steve, the Vudu shrimp are made of TPE plastic and they'll melt when mixed with PVC plastics, they recommend separate storage. They didn't quite last as long as advertised, so I haven't had the dilemma of storing them yet. But at over $4 each, I'd be pretty ticked off to see a bunch of them melted.

[DixieReb]

Thanks, great report! Sounds like the fish are still pretty deep right now.

[silverking]

I was recording 81.6 degrees but caught my fish in 3.5 to 4 foot of water.