Dr. Shrontz got started with a very nice trout
We took advantage of perfect conditions Friday and Saturday. We had very good catches both days with the best bite taking place around noon. We worked the birds early Friday and went through a lot of small trout before retreating to the flats. We boxed several nice trout on glow chartreuse and pumpkin tails before the wind completely died.
With the lake glassed over, we were able to idle through the mid-lake area looking for single birds or shrimp skipping across the surface. We found our best trout of the day there and Jay Miller put a big slot red in the box as well. The fish were still doing their thing when we left the lake.
Then he caught a sure enough big redfish!
Saturday, we skipped the bird chasing and went straight to the flats. The opening day of hunting season helped ease the pressure, but most of the folks that were on the water were chasing birds. Dr. Fred Bessell and Brian Bommer wanted to get Dr. Carl Shrontz a shot at a big fish or two so we passed on the gulls.
After a few small training trout and getting Dr. Carl comfortable with a spinning rig, he immediately put a four pound trout in the boat that hit a glow chartreuse Assassin. Brian followed suit with several nice trout fishing a Gulp Shrimp before we completed the first drift. We had some very good fish when we left he shallow flat, but the best was yet to come.
We ran to the same area that I fished with Eric Lyons and his group the day before and not only were the better trout back, but some big redfish as well. All it took was one shrimp or shad to break the surface and the bite was on. Most of the trout were in the three pound class, but the redfish were a little too big!
Brian and Dr. Bessell released both of these over sized reds.
We broke off two at the boat before we landed the first one. After putting a big slot red in the box, Dr. Carl battled a 36-inch 15-pounder for the better part of ten minutes. After taking a few quick pictures, he released the fish of the day. With little time left to fish, we ran to another flat on the way in to check it for the following day and it, too was covered up with redfish.
They were blowing holes in schools of mullet when we arrived and Dr. Fred hooked up with a 29-inch fish before I could get the troll motor down. While I was measuring his fish, Brian had another oversize red blow up all over a bone She Dog. When its good....its good! Dr. Carl eventually tagged out one over sized red to grill on the pit.
It has only been the last few days that we have been running into so many redfish. We had been catching a lot of rat reds, but the better fish are schooling right now. I tied on a Hoginar in the middle of all of that madness only long enough to boat an oversize fish and break off on the next fish. We did well enough with plastics, but it might have been scary had we switched to the Hoginar or a Trap.
Hopefully the predicted higher winds won't mess us up too badly this week. The water is in fantastic shape right now.
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