Topwater Aficionados

Brothers Andy and Terry Dillard love to fish and their favorite style is the use of topwater lures.  We arranged a backcountry trip and planned to meet at the Dee Dee Bartels boat ramp on the north end at 6:15am this morning.  It was a beautiful morning with no wind and the bright stars shining as we eased away from the ramp with our navigation lights on.  We crossed over to Tiger Island and fished a oyster bed/marsh grass outcrop, with the anglers tossing their lures in the dark.  Although the sun wasn't quite up we could see the outline of the marsh grass and here the topwaters "burp" through the water.  Every once in awhile we would hear something roll on the plug, but we had no takers.  The sun came up and the sand gnats came out for a while so we were rubbing on insect repellent for awhile.  At one point Terry pointed out a massive raccoon ambling along the marshy shore.  We fished around Tiger Island then moved up to Jolley River with the tide finally starting out.  Again, the guys had "spits" at the lures as they made pinpoint casts to fishy spots in the grass, but no takers!   However, these anglers were intent on fishing the topwaters and they "endeavored to persevere"!  We move up to Snook Creek, fished the mouth, then trolled up into the creek.  Terry broke the ice by making a perfect cast to the mouth of a runout.  He said the Trout struck just as the all-white Zara Spook hit the water, and Fish On!  We moved further up the creek and this time I was watching as Terry's lure landed at the mouth of another runout.  He let it pause for a couple of seconds and when he twitched it, BOOM!  Another Trout strike and the fish thrashed aggressively to free itself, but Terry played the keeper sized fish to the net.  We had a couple more fish up in the creek then we cranked up, came out, and ran around to the "Mother-of-All".  The tide was still up, making the spot less than desirable, so we trolled further up Jolley.  Andy got in on the action by expertly casting his all white Zara Spook to a runout that Terry had just vacated, and BOOM, fish on!  We caught a couple of more but as the sun got high the "spits" slowed, so we called it a day, another great one to be out on the water!