Running Amuck

After hearing from 3-4 different people about stellar local reports, I decided to take the day off and try my luck on some cold speckled trout. I scouted on Google Maps for a launch the night before, but my buddy Jack beat me to it. At 9am we met at the end of some power lines ready for some trout action. There was one small problem...the water was about 150 feet away...through briers, brush, a steep hill, down a six foot drop, and into the marsh. After we hit the marsh we still had about 50' to the water. It was not fun. After crawling through marsh mud to the water, we were on our way!

The fishing started out very slow...except for the gizzard shad! They were everywhere. Nearly every cast for an hour we either snagged or bumped our lures on a gizzard shad. After fishing for about 2 hours without anything but snagged mud shad, we started to get slightly discouraged.

Thankfully, Jack landed a small trout and gave us hope. We threw mirrolures all morning without luck, so Jack decided to switch it up to a swimming super fluke jr. on a 1/16th oz. jig head. That lure ended up being what we caught all our trout on! The trick was to slow troll them...for whatever reason they just were not hitting very well on casted lures.

The bite was pretty steady from 2pm-5pm. We probably lost half the fish that hit, but that still was not bad considering I landed 15 trout and Jack landed 25!

21" Fighter

Around 2pm Jack landed his first citation of the year, a 24" stud of a trout. 

I was lagging behind Jack in numbers and size, but then I hooked a SOLID trout. I could tell by the strong drag pulls and the head shakes that it was a big trout, but I had no idea how big it was til I saw it flash on me. It was the kind of fish that makes you go from calm to scared $Hi!LESS instantly. I was so nervous that I had to remind myself to stay calm so I wouldn't lose her. It was the longest fight from a trout I've ever had and the closer it got to me the more nervous I got. She came next to the boat 2 or 3 times and each time she took off and pulled drag, but finally gave up after a while. The fight was nearly over, but if you've ever caught trout before, you'll know that they can come unbuttoned at the boat very easily. I went to grab it behind the head as I have to countless trout before, but she slipped right out of my hand because she was too fat to grip! On my second attempt I grabbed her under the belly and flopped it in the boat.

WOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

I knew it was easily the biggest trout of my life. I kept saying "I hope it goes 30 inches" and "I think it's 30 inches!"

BAM!!

30 inches on the button!!!!

Look at that beautiful huge tail!

After that trout, nothing mattered. I was so excited, I kept randomly pumping my fist and gritting my teeth, while muttering "YEAH!" for the next ten minutes at least.

Soon afterward, in nearly the same spot, I caught a 25" speckled trout that dwarfed the 20" trout I had in the boat, but still looked like a minnow compared to the 30 incher I released.

We left the fish biting around 5:30pm and hoped we would catch the tide high enough to keep out of the marsh mud...no such luck. We barely made it back to where we launched and when we did it was no easy task tromping through the mud to get to solid ground. At one point Jack was on all fours dragging his heavy Hobie behind him. I stepped in mud that made it up past my knee several times. It probably took us 20 minutes to walk/crawl/slide across 50 feet of mud and marsh grass before we got to the steep hill of briers and brush.

It was worth it!