Put in at 6:30 AM, no live shrimp to be had. Fished with frozen shrimp, artificials, and self-caught pinfish all day.
Motored overed towards Dog Head and the very first cast of the day: 14 7/8" trout on a dead shrimp.
It went downhill, more or less, from there... 7-8 shorts, numerous cutoffs on the pin fish, 1 small shark, 1 remora, half a dozen ladyfish, 1 bluefish and tons of pinfish on the dead shrimp. Dad did manage one keeper trout at 17".
The highlight of the day came out at 9 mile when I was floating a pinfish about 100 feet behind the boat. Noticed it kept coming to the top, trying to run away. About that time, it took off for Steihatchee. When the BIG shark-I'm guessing 125#, 6-7 feet, realized he had tasted steel, he went ballistic and reeled off half a dozen free jumps before finally spitting the hook. I never tried to set the hook, as he would have laughed, even at my Penn 5500 SS and 7' MH rod. Buddy, that was fun to watch!
Headed to the hill about 12:30. If you're looking for scallops, I don't know how there could be any left. LITERALLY, I bet there were 250 boats scalloping yesterday between the Keaton channel and Big Grassy.
All in all, not a bad day on the water with my Dad, but NOAA whiffed it early and it got HOT! Better than a day doing yard work, however.
Scott
