East Bay Friday evening
Posted: April 22nd, 2006, 11:56 am
Why God made Fridays:
At 4 p.m. my wife called and said she and my son were out in the boat. So I put everything on my desk in the "do-it-Monday" pile and headed for home to change into swim trunks and a T-shirt.
I met them at the Callaway boat ramp a little after 5. My son left us, to go out and celebrate his birthday with his buddies.
We headed to a redfishy-looking spot where she had lost two of them right after sunrise a couple of weeks ago.
We figured it was worth a try on high tide at dusk.
We cut the motor, drifted toward shore and soon had a visitor: an antique prop plane of some sort, visiting for Tyndall's air show this weekend. The pilot flew in just above the treetops to check us out and responded to a wave with a waggle of his wings. Later, as it got dark, several planes over Tyndall did a trick with their exhaust that made it look like fireworks in the sky.
We tried some of the usuals: a popping cork with a live shrimp, a Banana Boat surface lure and a gold spoon. Also as usual, I threw a bottom rig out toward the bay. It's my "just see what happens" rig. It turned out that was the trick.
I caught the first redfish, 22 inches. So she turned away from shore, cast and caught one the exact same size with the popping cork. Then as we drifted over the mouth of an inlet, I hooked something huge that splashed the surface and shook out the hook.
I realized later it was a trout -- because I caught another that measured 25 inches. That's my personal best. At a shade over 5 pounds, it matched the citation trout she caught at the Outer Banks several years ago. Our household is in balance again.
By then we were hooking up on every cast. But it was dark, we were hungry and we knew it would be tricky getting that V-hull out of 1-foot water. I had to get out and push the boat what seemed like halfway back to Callaway before the water got deep enough to lower the motor. I realized we need a push pole if we're going to do this kind of Friday night fishing.
This is a longish report for not all that many fish. But for us it was somethin' special. Naturallly we didn't take the camera. Y'all will just have to accept it under the Fisherman's Code of Honor
At 4 p.m. my wife called and said she and my son were out in the boat. So I put everything on my desk in the "do-it-Monday" pile and headed for home to change into swim trunks and a T-shirt.
I met them at the Callaway boat ramp a little after 5. My son left us, to go out and celebrate his birthday with his buddies.
We headed to a redfishy-looking spot where she had lost two of them right after sunrise a couple of weeks ago.
We figured it was worth a try on high tide at dusk.We cut the motor, drifted toward shore and soon had a visitor: an antique prop plane of some sort, visiting for Tyndall's air show this weekend. The pilot flew in just above the treetops to check us out and responded to a wave with a waggle of his wings. Later, as it got dark, several planes over Tyndall did a trick with their exhaust that made it look like fireworks in the sky.
We tried some of the usuals: a popping cork with a live shrimp, a Banana Boat surface lure and a gold spoon. Also as usual, I threw a bottom rig out toward the bay. It's my "just see what happens" rig. It turned out that was the trick.
I caught the first redfish, 22 inches. So she turned away from shore, cast and caught one the exact same size with the popping cork. Then as we drifted over the mouth of an inlet, I hooked something huge that splashed the surface and shook out the hook.
I realized later it was a trout -- because I caught another that measured 25 inches. That's my personal best. At a shade over 5 pounds, it matched the citation trout she caught at the Outer Banks several years ago. Our household is in balance again.
By then we were hooking up on every cast. But it was dark, we were hungry and we knew it would be tricky getting that V-hull out of 1-foot water. I had to get out and push the boat what seemed like halfway back to Callaway before the water got deep enough to lower the motor. I realized we need a push pole if we're going to do this kind of Friday night fishing.
This is a longish report for not all that many fish. But for us it was somethin' special. Naturallly we didn't take the camera. Y'all will just have to accept it under the Fisherman's Code of Honor
...You seen the 32 inch one at the Capts Table, saw it this afternoon, huge trout....Good report... 