Bad Timing
Posted: March 31st, 2005, 2:40 pm
Last year for Spring Break, we rented a house at St. George for the week with some friends. Well, my family was able to spend time down there but due to some unfortunate work issues, I was never able to make it down. 
And, wouldn't ya know it, they slayed the fish -- lots of big sheepies and pompano caught at the cut along with trout and reds caught in the bay. This year, we made the same plans and I made sure I would get down for at least a few days. Made it down Wednesday afternoon (last week). Thursday morning we had beautiful weather for a ride out to Sikes Cut. Unfortunately, the sheepshead and pompanos hadn't made it there yet. We did manage to catch 5 sheepshead on live shrimp but the action was very slow. Folks fishing from shore seemed to be having about the same luck, catching them on a slow but steady basis. At least it was a great weather day and our boys had a lot of fun when we beached the boats on Little St. George and they had a chance to climb and slide on the big sand dune.
Thursday night the storms arrived and lasted into Friday morning. When the rain let up, we drove to the East End to give that a try. It had been years since I had been to the East End and I didn't realize how expensive it has become -- $5 per vehicle plus $6 per person.
Anyway, we managed to avoid getting swamped in the pools of water on the road and made it to the end. Fished for quite a while and didn't catch a dern thing. A few other folks there had caught rays and cats but nothing decent. Rumor was that pompano were being caught but only early in the morning.
The evening before we had wandered over to the ramp (well, it's sort of like a ramp) on the island and saw a couple of "local" folks pulling out with a load of trout -- we counted 13 in the boat and there were more in the cooler. Of the ones we saw, 6 were at least 20 inches or better. The guys were nice enough to tell us where and how they had caught their fish. So, Friday afternoon we headed to the oyster bars to try for some trout. The weather had been clearing up but, as soon as we got to the spot, the fog rolled in thick. That's when I learned that my friend's boat did not have a radio or GPS and that niether his compass or depthfinder worked. Lesson learned (check out boat before going for a ride)! We had to wait until dark for the shore lights to come on so we could find our way back. Somehow we made it back with only a couple of unplanned stops on some sand bars. We were lucky -- it was one of those classic cases of "we were only going out a little ways" that could have turned into a big problem.
Saturday the weather wasn't quite as bad but still too nasty to put the boats in. We fished from shore with live shrimps around some oyster bars and managed a few reds (1 keeper) and trout (4 keepers).
I guess last year the water had warmed up earlier so there was more fishing action. This year things just quite didn't work out as planned.
And, wouldn't ya know it, they slayed the fish -- lots of big sheepies and pompano caught at the cut along with trout and reds caught in the bay. This year, we made the same plans and I made sure I would get down for at least a few days. Made it down Wednesday afternoon (last week). Thursday morning we had beautiful weather for a ride out to Sikes Cut. Unfortunately, the sheepshead and pompanos hadn't made it there yet. We did manage to catch 5 sheepshead on live shrimp but the action was very slow. Folks fishing from shore seemed to be having about the same luck, catching them on a slow but steady basis. At least it was a great weather day and our boys had a lot of fun when we beached the boats on Little St. George and they had a chance to climb and slide on the big sand dune.Thursday night the storms arrived and lasted into Friday morning. When the rain let up, we drove to the East End to give that a try. It had been years since I had been to the East End and I didn't realize how expensive it has become -- $5 per vehicle plus $6 per person.
Anyway, we managed to avoid getting swamped in the pools of water on the road and made it to the end. Fished for quite a while and didn't catch a dern thing. A few other folks there had caught rays and cats but nothing decent. Rumor was that pompano were being caught but only early in the morning.The evening before we had wandered over to the ramp (well, it's sort of like a ramp) on the island and saw a couple of "local" folks pulling out with a load of trout -- we counted 13 in the boat and there were more in the cooler. Of the ones we saw, 6 were at least 20 inches or better. The guys were nice enough to tell us where and how they had caught their fish. So, Friday afternoon we headed to the oyster bars to try for some trout. The weather had been clearing up but, as soon as we got to the spot, the fog rolled in thick. That's when I learned that my friend's boat did not have a radio or GPS and that niether his compass or depthfinder worked. Lesson learned (check out boat before going for a ride)! We had to wait until dark for the shore lights to come on so we could find our way back. Somehow we made it back with only a couple of unplanned stops on some sand bars. We were lucky -- it was one of those classic cases of "we were only going out a little ways" that could have turned into a big problem.
Saturday the weather wasn't quite as bad but still too nasty to put the boats in. We fished from shore with live shrimps around some oyster bars and managed a few reds (1 keeper) and trout (4 keepers).
I guess last year the water had warmed up earlier so there was more fishing action. This year things just quite didn't work out as planned.
