Got down to the coast late thursday night and my family did the same. We decided to skip going out on the 4th because we were tired, very little tide, and the insane amount of boat traffic. I decided to get up early myself and hit a spot in the bay that always produces at least something and friday was no different. Got a 20inch black drum and 4 croakers.
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Saturday we got up early and since there was little tidal movement again we decided to go for redfish early and then give trout a try later in the day. We started in some cuts around the conservation camp in the marsh and the water was filthy and no luck. We ran further south and found cleaner water and a lake that looked promising. A mixture of one of the coolest and most frustrating things I've ever seen. There were redfish tailing everywhere. Only one problem: they wouldn't eat. We tried market shrimp, live shrimp, and swim baits. Keep in mind that we can see them. Nothing. I thought to try a topwater because we had tried everything else. I sight casted the big one and he immediately turned, rolled on, and hit the lure. No hookup. He immediately turned around and creaped at my dad's dead shrimp he had looked at previously and turned down and he slowly approached it and sucked it down. I'm taking partial credit because I think my topwater irritated him enough to eat a shrimp. We stayed working the banks of this lake sight fishing redfish and couldn't get another to eat. We saw at least 20. Not a complete loss, it's now marked on the GPS as "redfish lake". We'll be back again. Then stopped at a platform close by and I got a 20 inch redfish and we left for brush island after 10 minutes of nothing. Brush was slow and we got 2 trout and a ground mullet. Called it a day. A long slow day.
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Sunday we decided to make a short run to Cat Island since we had to get back to the metro in the afternoon. We fished some birds and there were trout under. Mostly white trout but we ended up with 31 trout in the box and only 6 were specks. A lot of throwbacks. Matrix shad midnight mullet was the ticket. Probably my favorite color and it doesn't seem to get the hype of some of the other colors. Not a banner day but it was fun. Just an example of how ferocious the speckled trout's little cousin is: I caught one that was about 9 inches and he had been bitten by something and his guts were hanging out. Think about that. His swim bladder was outside his body and he still nailed a swim bait like it didn't matter. (table shot is both days catch).
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All in all, another fun weekend on the coast. Great times and tight lines gentlemen.
