4 DAY FISHING REPORT FOR MAY 13-16, 2004

I met Bill Greene, my long time fishing buddy, down at Captain Dude’s Oak Tree Camp for four days of speckled trout and redfishing. During this same weekend last year we had the best speckled trout day I’ve ever had (that is, the best day I’ve ever had without a guide and in my own boat) in American Bay, Bay Crab, and Black Bay. We promised each other that we would return at the same time this year and try to duplicate our success.

THURSDAY:

I store my boat in one of the boat sheds at Breton Sound Marina. We arrived at around 11:00 to pick up the boat. I opened the shed to find my fishing tackle scattered all across my boat. Apparently the Lagniappe Juice contained in Bayou Chub Minnows smells good to raccoons as well as fish. A coon had taken bites out of dozens and dozens of the minnows. The coon seemed to taste sample every color of chub that I own. I don’t know about trout, but the color raccoons seem to prefer is purple with a white tail. To show me his appreciation for feeding him the critter left a nice pile of raccoon feces right on my front casting deck. I no longer consider coons cute little animals. They are now down there with nutria on my list of despised pests. Needless to stay, I had to give the boat a bath before we could get on the water to fish.

We were able to put together a limit of nice eater size reds in a pond south of the marina on carolina-rigged minnow. We typically have a friendly wager on who catches the redfish with the most spots and who catches the largest speck. But the fish have to be caught on artificial lures. We were using live bait this trip because we wanted some meat, so we ended up not paying attention to the bet this trip. We didn’t take pictures like we should either. We were completely focused on filling the ice chest.

After we got our reds we went out into Lake Coquille and Lake Calebasse to try and catch some trout. We were able to catch six keepers here. That was working so well that we decided to change what we were doing and went down to Black Bay. Black Bay was full of river water so we quickly eliminated that location.

A limit of reds and six trout--not bad for the first afternoon out! At this point we were feeling confident about the fishing prospects for Friday.

Captain Dude has a nice cleaning station right at his dock. And the Oak Tree Camp had a clean propane grill in good condition. So it was easy for us to make a meal of redfish on the half shell. Nothing is better than fresh (real fresh!) fish.

FRIDAY:

We decided to target specks first on Friday and then go after redfish in the afternoon. Since Lake Coquille held fish Thursday, I made a typical over-analytical fisherman decision and decided to fish somewhere else. If I had a dollar for every time I have fixed a fishing pattern that isn’t broken I’d be a wealthy man.

We went to Halfmoon Pass Bay where I had had some luck weeks earlier. We fished the lee side of the bay and found a school of small trout. We caught them on DOAs under a cork. We were only able to squeak out a couple of keepers, but it was fun to get a strike every cast.

We then tried to find some bigger fish in Lake Eloi and Christmas Camp Lake. We fished some birds but mostly only caught Gafftops. Geez! They are fun to reel in the first time or two you catch them, but then unhooking those slimy critters gets old. We tried fishing shallow to avoid the gafftops. We tried corks…gafftops would kill it--and maul your DOA beyond repair. We tried burning double rigs just under the surface…double trouble with the gafftops. We tried changing colors hoping there was one that they didn’t like…nope. They’ll eat anything. My line was one long piece of slime after a while. Too bad I don’t eat them because we would have had a full box… a slimy box, but a full box nonetheless.

After trying a couple of other areas without success, we then decided to give up on trout and targeted redfish. The GPS indicated that the spot where we caught our redfish was 4 miles away as the crow flies. However, since my boat, an 18’ jon boat, could not cross any big water heading into the strong southeast wind, we had to ride about 15 miles to get to the spot. After the long run, we fished the same place, at the same time of day, with the same carolina rigged minnows that we used the day before to catch our limit. Results: one small redfish and a couple of hardheads.

Upon returning to the camp Captain Dude informed us that the four pounders were biting in Lake Coquille. That’s just the way fishing goes sometimes. Total results for the day: 6 trout, 1 redfish, 1 flounder.

For dinner Friday we fried trout and flounder. Delicious.

SATURDAY:

Determined not to make the same mistake twice, we woke up at the crack of down and arrived at Lake Coquille first thing in the morning. The birds were not up yet so we fished around islands. Caught one small speck. About the time the birds started working, we looked to the west and saw a big rain storm approaching. We decided that getting caught in that rain storm in the middle of a bay with my little boat would not be very much fun at all. We hauled back to the camp but did not make it in time. While crossing Hopedale Lagoon in the rain I almost hit that strange cord that is tied to stakes and crosses the lagoon. What is that thing anyway? It looks like somebody is trying to run Christmas lights way out in the marsh.

We returned to the camp to wait out the rain. We made some delicious fish po-boys and drank a fresh pot of coffee. We were revived and ready to go. We decided the rain was about to pass, loaded up the boat and got ready to go. About that time…Ka-boom!---more lighting and thunder. We reluctantly decided that we had better wait a little while longer before we went out in the middle of the water and held highly conductive graphite in the air.

While we waited we threw carolina rigged minnows off the dock. We caught two keeper specks, several throwbacks, several hardheads, several crabs (they would not let go of our minnows), a stingray, one lady’s purse, and a pair of men’s sunglasses. It was good beer drinking fishing and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a nice change to not have to fight the wind with the trolling motor and to just be able to relax. It brought back pleasant memories of fishing as a kid…except for the beer. I drank a cheaper brand of beer as a boy.

Finally the rain started to let up around five. We went back out, but stayed close in Lake Ameda just in case the lightning returned. We caught four redfish and two flounder in two hours fishing. Why am I spending gas money running and gunning all over the place when the fishing is so good right by the camp? Results for the day: 3 specks, 4 reds, 2 flounder. All fish but one were caught within a couple of miles of the camp.

For dinner Saturday night we had redfish on the half shell again. During dinner we discussed whether to fish or not Sunday morning. Bill had to drive all the way to Birmingham, which is quite a haul if you are tired from a day of fishing. So we decided that we would not fish Sunday.

SUNDAY

Slept in Sunday and didn’t wake up until 8:00. I grabbed a cup of coffee and walked out on the dock to see the boat tied up and ready to go. Looked in the water and saw brown spots on the foot of my outboard motor. They were shrimp! This hit me like jolt. I’m down here. The boat is in the water ready to go. I can’t believe I’m not going to go out. So I changed gears real quick and within thirty minutes I was off for a day of solo fishing.

While running to Breton Sound Marina the overheat alarm went off on my motor. I had picked up a bunny bread bag on my intake. After 15 minutes of rest the motor seemed to be fine and I was off again.

I was determined to catch trout under the birds. I rode all over the place looking for them. From Lake Robin to Lake Coquille to Lake Calebasse to Lake Athanasio to Lake Eloi to Christmas Camp Lake. The birds were very scattered. I rode over 80 miles in my little boat, which is quite a feat if you truly understood how poorly my boat handles rough water.

I ended up putting 13 keeper trout in the boat. To catch these I had to go through numerous throwbacks and gafftops. I would fish the double rig under the birds. When I would hook gafftops I would net them and not even bother to unhook them if the birds were working. I would just pick up another rod and start fishing with it until the frenzy slowed down.

The highlight of the day was when I was driving past a point and saw birds working. At first I thought that they were just roosting on the point the way you see them do on islands occasionally. But when I got closer I noticed that they were on the lee side of the point feeding. I crept up to them with the trolling motor and threw a top-dog there. The little fish were knocking the heck out of it but couldn’t get hooked. Finally some decent sized fish hooked up. That didn’t last long, but was definitely the highlight of the day. I love to catch fish on topwater!

I am looking forward to finding a time to fish again this summer. I have never fished the east side of the river in the summer and am wondering if I can find a pattern that will work out of my little boat. Until then…tight lines to all.