Pre Springtime Inshore Slam on Blackwater.
Went out yesterday with a buddy of mine to do a little scouting and to see what we could hook up. Checked the tides for Blackwater and decided to hit the water at 7am. It turned out to be perfect conditions for a morning fishing trip. Started out looking for stripers with no luck. As we were heading down river I spotted some bait busting on a bank, so we slowed, lowered the Minn Kota, and started working lures along the bank. We were using Berkley Gulp 5" jerk-shad in Mango Ripple and 3" Shrimp White/Chartreuse on a ¼ oz jig head. We pulled out 4 nice specks right off the bat, and then it slowed, so we pulled up the Minn Kota and moved on. This was a scouting trip, so after we hooked a few fish in an area, we moved on to scout out new areas. I wanted to check out an area that I felt would hold some reds, and as soon as we reached it, we managed to pull 6 reds out. Moved to another bank where we spotted some activity nearby, and had two very good strikes from stripers, but no hookups.
We were bummed about missing the hookups with the stripers as we moved around to a few more areas of Blackwater Bay. We found some areas holding good specks, and some that weren't. We hit an area I've not hit in about a year and a half, and caught a nice 2.5 lb flounder. I was stoked; I had my slam. We fished this area a bit longer and pulled out 4 more trout. Again we picked up and moved on. We could have stayed at some of these locations and wore ourselves out on catching fish, but this was a scouting trip about finding new areas holding fish and figuring out why the fish are staging up in these areas. That way when I go back either with clients or fun fishing I should have a more productive day on the water. After a bit, we headed back up river and spotted some activity on the surface and tossed out a Gulp on a ¼ oz jig and hooked up a whopper 41-inch red close to or over 20lbs. I was using 10-pound ultra braid and it was game on; after a good 15-minute battle and two times around the boat, I had him in the net. What a great day on, even though the sun didn't come out till we left, and it was much cooler than the weatherman said it was going to be, it still turned out to be a great day on the water.
Till the next adventure.
Tight Lines.
Capt. John
Mega-Bite Inshore Charters
www.megabiteinshore.com
850-341-9816
