Rain GO Away
As of last week, the trout started to cooperate
after the big rains of last month. I have had some real nice trout on float
rigs with shrimp. It seems like I have had to wade through a good many
small fish before the larger ones eat my shrimp but there does seem to be
some nice fish around. I have been fishing from the jetties to the downtown
area and concentrating on the deeper drops. Now you would ask "what is a
trout drop"?
A trout drop is a place with moving water. These
drops also have water deeper than the surrounding area.
When I say deeper than the surrounding area. This
can be a foot or two or up to several feet. Without giving you "X" marks the
spot, these areas are places that you will have to locate on your own. When
I started fishing this area, I used my recorder to find these spots. I drove
over spots that looked like the bottom should drop down and pay close
attention to the display on the recorder "fish finder". Look for places
that have a radical drop. The picture below will be characteristic of the
river or ICW.
This type of bottom is what you will find in area
like the ICW or in the river. From the shoreline the bottom falls off as you
get out away from the bank and there are many areas like this all up and
down the ICW and there are also many places in the river like this. Once
again, if you do not already know where these places are you will need to
use your recorder to find them. Just drive along slow enough to get a good
picture from your unit and pay attention to the screen. This is the way that
most of us have found these spots and with a little effort you can also find
places for you to catch the big ones.
Around docks and bridges are other good places to
find these trout. A dock or bridge provides a current break and when most of
the bridges were built, some of the rubbles was dumped in around the piles.
The picture below is more common of what the bottom would look like around
these bridge and dock piles.
Now for your bait presentation.
Most of the time, your bait needs to be just off
of the bottom, say within a few inches to a couple of feet from the bottom.
Try to set up so your drift will allow you to send your bait right down by
the hole or structure. When your cork is drifting back, you can thumb your
spool to slow down the drift and by doing this your bait will come up off
the bottom to avoid getting hung up on the bottom.
What I mean by this is, when you slow the cork's
drift down by placing your thumb on the spool the friction from the moving
water pushes the leader line up.
If you use your recorder and the information in
this report you should be able to find some spots that you can call your
own.
I usually anchor my boat up current from these
spots and drift my float rig to them. Be on your toes as you are not going
to feel the bite. When the fish grabs the shrimp, the cork will go down and
this can happen in the blink of an eye so WATCH YOUR CORK.
Now for some local action:
A few flounder are stating to move in and they
can be captured by using a Jaw Jacker jig head with and assortment of baits.
Try a shrimp, mud minnow, finger mullet, small mullet fillets, Exude soft
plastics, Sea Striker grubs or the trout float rig. I like rock piles, and
dock piles.
The redfish are still in the inlets. most of them
are in the slot and can be taken on poggies, lady fish, crab, clams or
shrimp fished on the bottom.
The first sign on lady fish moved in last week
and what a fun time they are. They will eat almost anything in your box,
jump, leap, make screaming runs and poots all over you if you are not
careful. They are a lot of fun to catch on both conventional and fly
tackle. Look for the birds.
The ocean is still producing real good numbers of
king mackerel, taken on live baits or trolling spoons and planers.
Remember moms and dads, spend some time with your
sons and daughters and they will not be out causing problems on Friday and
Saturday nights but will be in bed waiting to go with you the next day.
