Just About the Time You Think Yo

Water is warming, bait schools are starting to show and you would think, you could work the same baits and patterns as years past and all would be the same. BUT no, the same baits and patterns are not like years past and the fishing has a monkey in the wrench.

I have been fishing these waters for many years and up to a couple of years ago, I could pretty much tell you what day certain species were going to be at a certain spot and which bait to catch them on. But since the hurricanes of two years ago, things are not the same. Right after the canes, we had species here that should not have been here during that time of the year and species that should have been here were not. Now, this year species that should be here now are few and far between and species that shouldn't be here now are here and in pretty good numbers.

Take flounder for example. Flounder usually do not show up here until mid May but here it is a month early and we are catching good numbers of these tasty flat fish. Don't get me wrong, I could never complain about catching flounder and probably will never will.

Black Drum that should have been here last month are just now starting to show up in any numbers and where these fish should be they are not. One day you will catch them in places they have frequented for years and the next, you will have to look all over for them.

So, what do you do? You can keep trying the proven spots and methods or you can drop back and go with the flow, as I tell my wife. Going with the flow is sometimes a good thing as you will try new spots and methods that sometimes pay off big.

Here is one example of dropping back. Last week, I went out in search of a species that every year since I could remember has been on a clam bed in the middle of the river. These fish have been on this spot each and every year since the beginning of time or close to then. I got to the spot, sent out my anchor, baited up and sent out about 4 outfits, expecting to slam dunk some black drum.

Well, about thirty minutes went by and no drum. Not only no drum but no anything else either. About now I an starting to second guess myself and wonder if I have messed up with relation to the date they should be on this spot. The older you get the more your memory starts to slip and I was thinking, just maybe I was here early. About thirty minutes more passed and still no bites, have I messed up? I stayed about ten more minutes with still NO BITES before I tooted the horn twice and hollered up, "LINES UP".

Since the fish were not where they should be, I tried to remember all of the places that in years past I had found that looked like they should hold fish but did not. After racking my brain, I remembered a spot that I found some years back that looked real good on my Humminbird color scope but after fishing it a few times with no results, I sort of put it way back in the memory bank. As I remember, this spot was hard bottom with some light natural growth and after sending a lead with down to sort of get a feel, it had some clams or oysters or something that felt like rough jagged bottom. Now if I could remember exactly where this spot was. I found this spot many years ago before I had a gps on the boat and I tried to triangulate this spot based on landmarks on the shore.

Well, we headed that way and luck must have been with me as I found it after only about five minutes of searching. I now have this stored as a memory waypoint on my gps.

I got my anchor put down and the boat slid back right on the spot on only the first try. My color Humminbird showed a nice hard bottom with what looked like fishies just off of the bottom. It cant be, I managed to find something on this spot that has never produced even a toad fish, could I be that lucky? I quickly sent down all four rigs and before I could get a cold drink opened, I was hooked up. This was a nice fish and a good tugger as line peeled off of the spool. Up to the surface came a nice eight pound drum and in the net it went. Before I could get the Daiichi Circle Wide 5/0 out of it's mouth, I was hooked up on one of the other outfits. Now this is more like it. This action went one for the next hour, with a total of thirteen nice drum and one big sheepshead.

Oh, Yeah, there is a moral to this story. Just about the time you think you have them figured out, they throw a monkey in the wrench. I now have a new spot that I thought was a non-productive spot.

My outfit consisted of a Pflueger Contender filled with 40 pound test Power Pro with a 30 pound test Cajun Red leader, a 4 ounce egg sinker, a 50 pound test Sea Striker barrel swivel, a Daiichi 5/0 Circle Wide hook and for bait, a fresh clam. I fished this on the bottom, put the rods in rod holders on the boat, sat back and waited for the circle wide to do its job. When the fish picks up the clam and moves off, it feels the hook and runs harder, resulting in the hook buried in the side of it's mouth. TIP. When using circle style hooks, DO NOT rare back and set the hook. Either just turn the handle of leave the rod in the rod holder and let the fish set the hook.

Try a surface lure or one the can be fished just under the surface. MirrOlure has come out with some new stuff since last year. So far I have done well with their new MirrO Minnow. It cast a mile, and looks great in the water. I also like the Sea Striker Trout Killer or the Exude RT Slug rigged with an X-Point 5/0 worm hook. You can fish this weedless in the grass or from the surface to about seven or eight feet down. On these lures I usually get the strike after I have twitched it and it is falling, so be ready to set the hook.

I had a chance to go to Little River Georgia Plantation for some largemouth fishing last week and wow did we have a great time. Check out this 10 pounder that SLAM DUNKED a spinner bait.

How about this picture of James Roney in the water and Tommy Langdo, laughing so hard he is about to tear up. What is he doing in the water, I thought you were supposed to be fishing from inside of the boat.