Friday, December 16, 2011

Number 7 and 8 on a Fly Rod

I had a free day to fish before a weekend of "work" fishing so I launched The Anglers Mark this morning at Atlantic Seafood and ran up to Jolley River to, "Get away from it all"!  The sun was just up, it was cool, but comfortable with a sweatshirt, and there was very little breeze.  The tide had been coming in for a couple of  hours but the oysters were still showing so I started easing along the bank tossing a jig and shrimp to the oysters.  I worked a good 75 yards of bank and had no bites!  What's with that?  My next stop was at some pilings on the outside of Tiger Island and again, no bites.  I moved in to behind Tiger Island and began trolling against the incoming tide, fishing in and around the downed logs and tree stumps and...FISH ON!  I picked up a slow biting, but hard fighting Redfish.  After my second hookup I dropped the anchor and began to catch Redfish after Redfish and was having so much fun that I switched to a fly rod and after a few casts and strips, had a hookup.  I went back and forth between the spinning rod and the fly rod.  A few of the Reds were in the smaller range of the Slot but most were 16"-17".  My next stop was on the outside of Tiger where I anchored and fished some flooded oyster beds with live shrimp under a float.  I wasn't there long before the float disappeared and I had my first Trout of the day.  The Trout were plentiful and I probably could have stayed there for a couple of hours catching 12"-14" Trout but I was hoping for a few a little bigger.  My final stop was at Temptation Cove which was like glass with the light breeze coming out of the south blocked by a land mass.  I tossed one float rig over near the marsh grass and one out behind the boat over some oyster beds and soon found it was difficult to man both rods!  The Reds were up near the grass and each time I got my bait up close the float would soon began to start moving sideways then disappear and ...Big Fish On!  The drag ripped out and a couple of times I could see the grass moving as the big Red tried to escape but I worked them in and netted them.  Out behind the the boat, Trout were biting and this time I had a few get over the 15" mark which was kinda nice.  A disabled military veteran neighbor had hinted about wanting some fresh fish so after the day was done I dropped him off a fillet of Redfish and some Trout fillets.  What a great day to be out on the water!

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