BigBendFishing.Net

Slide the "Ghostrider" into the St. Andrews bay around 7:30 this morning with intentions to find some new fishing grounds and a trout or two....Tom Keels had come down for a dive certification and was going to rendezvous with me around 1300.

I headed west looking for some trout grounds and only found alot of sand and hardly no grass...I was near a creek I had never been in so I went to investigate....Had a small red follow my topwater lure at the mouth of the creek.....on into the creek had another red miss the topwater plug.....picked up a jig and fired it into the water and landed the first fish of the day a short trout...followed that with another trout and a short red, before leaving the creek.

I decided there wasn't much grass on the flats, so I need do some more prospecting....found a new creek near the ICW and commenced to checking it out.....Ended up hooking up with my first keeper red and hooked up with another red but it came unglued before I could get it to the boat...

First Keeper red of the day


I left that creek and started prospecting again....Stopped near another creek and immdiatley saw a few reds with some mullet....spooked a few reds in the creek....went back out to work the bank...Caught two trout on topwater, had two around 20" miss the plug and follow it to the boat....

Found another red that couldn't resist my topwater plug...


After seeing the two nice trout not commit to the topwater..I broke out the original Keaton Beach "Secret Weapon"....Knowing that the fish in this bay had never seen this delicacy and could live without it....

I had a few misses and follows....I ease up to a bank and fire the plug to the bank and twitch...twitch....bang....Feels like a very small trout or it doesn't know it hooked.....It would be the latter scenario.....Once I saw the trout....my knees started to get weak and I wanted to puddle like my dog does when she get excited ....I fight the fish around the boat a few times....I try to net it...nets to small ....fish on the outside of net hooks tangles in the net....I wrestle the beast over the gunnel and onto the boat floor.....As I am trying to unhook the monster..my phone rings....It's Tom....Stating he was on the way.....I probably sounded like a china man on crack, telling him I had a big fish in the boat...I put the fish on the board and it measured 26.5 flat tail measurement...My personal best trout...



Happy Chalk


I took the pictures and eased her over the side and let her go to make more babies...

I picked Tom up at the ramp and we headed back over to graceland

Tom had a short strike on topwater...I eased into another creek....Had a red come out the water to eat the "secret weapon"....Tom changed to CT as we left the creek and locked into his first red of the year...



Hell, I can't remember it all, it was an incredible day...

17 redfish to 24", My personal best trout 26.5", put 4 trout in the box...Redfish were eating everything, topwater, spinner bait, jigs, etc

Thanks for sharing the day with me Tom....




Tom made two casts and caught these two...





I'm beat.....Ready to go again though

That's sweet Chalk. You keep doing that and everybody on here will be knocking on your door soon begging for a ride. Glad you got to get out there Tom.

What a day.

Man, what a day. on the big sow trout. Thats a good'un for sure.

One question though, you don't have any spoons? You would have at least caught 18 reds with a spoon.

birddog wrote:.

One question though, you don't have any spoons? You would have at least caught 18 reds with a spoon.

I don't think the boy owns a spoon. He sure as hell won't fish with one. If he ever had one of them good reds near jerk the rod out of his hands, he'd own 100 spoons.

Didn't need no spoon...think they would of bit a boot today if you showed it to them...

Wow . . . that's all.

BTW I own four spoons

Chalk wrote:BTW I own four spoons

If you fish for reds over this way ya better buy 5 or 6 more. Those oyster bars and rocks love um.

Nice haul... on that trout!

Thanks Chalk for a wonderful way to spend an afternoon.

TC you would be jealous. All but one of my fish came on your personal favorite rig. CT with a 1 foot leader.

WOW - good deal for the modsquad!

Tom Keels wrote:TC you would be jealous. All but one of my fish came on your personal favorite rig. CT with a 1 foot leader.

I told you not to say that...we won't be able to get him to tie anything else on again

Few more highlights....I was working the bank throwing out to some sand pockets....Like a chameleon my left eye was watching the bank for mullet....the reds were following the mullet around....I cast out with the top water....my left catches a glimpse of red.....redfish...pick up a rod and pitch to the fish and it ate the spinner bait

If we had caught all the fish that swiped at our plugs we probably would of exceeded the 25 mark on redfish very easily…. Other than St. Joe last year with birddog it was my second best day red fishing and best trout

Good day ya had there Cappy. And, of course, T/K's company was a bonus. Congrats on that big trout.
Thanks for the report and pics.