St Marks West flats 9/17/05
Posted: September 19th, 2005, 9:08 pm
Left the lighthouse around 7:30 and started a drift in the west flats. I picked up a rod and reel I let a buddy use a few weeks back with a mirro lure top dog on it. So I throw it out and crash I get a hit right away. It took some drag out and actually pulled for a trout, but then the knot pulled. 
So my lesson for the day and I knew this before but, always check or retie your knots from the previous trip, and never trust sombody elses knot. We drifted a little ways and lo and behold there is my mirro - lure sticking up in the water, you could see the trout and it was definately a keeper. As soon as the boat got near he dissapeared in the grass. I switched to a CT and shrimp and managed a 16 inch keeper. My father in law threw a Chug-Bug most of the day and I switched back and forth between the shrimp and a chrome Top-Dog. I tried walking the dog and enjoyed it as the rod action is a little more fun that just chug-bugging, we caught fish off and on all morning mostly shorts though. I managed one more 20" trout on the topwater. The most excitement actually came when my father in law hooked into a 4' houndfish. That thing scared the crap out of me it came flying out of the water right near the boat. 
I didn't get a good look at what it was and didn't know what the heck he had on. You could see the fins sticking out of the water and every now and then the snout so I'm thinking looks like a Gar or Sailfish and that aint right. We finally got it to the boat and saw what it was. You always see those little needlefish out there but I have never seen anything like that this big. It put up a good fight to be so skinny and all. The wind really died about 10:30 or 11:00 and the flies got really bad. I've never seen so many flies out there and there was a swarm of dragon flies following us around. We made one last drift in front of Stoney Bayou and headed home. Made a few more adjustments to the motor and the boat is working great. I still need some seats and a trolling motor so I can chase the reds up the creeks. It was nice to use the fish box for the first time. Got checked by the man at the ramp, nice guy though he complimented the boat so that was ok. Saw a BBF sticker in the parking lot, think it was Chalk. White Ranger with a Ranger trailer.
Total for the Day:
2 keeper trout, 16" and 20"
16 shorts at 14 15/16 "
3 catfish
1 honking needlefish 42" ( houndfish)
So my lesson for the day and I knew this before but, always check or retie your knots from the previous trip, and never trust sombody elses knot. We drifted a little ways and lo and behold there is my mirro - lure sticking up in the water, you could see the trout and it was definately a keeper. As soon as the boat got near he dissapeared in the grass. I switched to a CT and shrimp and managed a 16 inch keeper. My father in law threw a Chug-Bug most of the day and I switched back and forth between the shrimp and a chrome Top-Dog. I tried walking the dog and enjoyed it as the rod action is a little more fun that just chug-bugging, we caught fish off and on all morning mostly shorts though. I managed one more 20" trout on the topwater. The most excitement actually came when my father in law hooked into a 4' houndfish. That thing scared the crap out of me it came flying out of the water right near the boat. I didn't get a good look at what it was and didn't know what the heck he had on. You could see the fins sticking out of the water and every now and then the snout so I'm thinking looks like a Gar or Sailfish and that aint right. We finally got it to the boat and saw what it was. You always see those little needlefish out there but I have never seen anything like that this big. It put up a good fight to be so skinny and all. The wind really died about 10:30 or 11:00 and the flies got really bad. I've never seen so many flies out there and there was a swarm of dragon flies following us around. We made one last drift in front of Stoney Bayou and headed home. Made a few more adjustments to the motor and the boat is working great. I still need some seats and a trolling motor so I can chase the reds up the creeks. It was nice to use the fish box for the first time. Got checked by the man at the ramp, nice guy though he complimented the boat so that was ok. Saw a BBF sticker in the parking lot, think it was Chalk. White Ranger with a Ranger trailer. Total for the Day:
2 keeper trout, 16" and 20"
16 shorts at 14 15/16 "
3 catfish
1 honking needlefish 42" ( houndfish)
on a decent day.