Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Twitch Baits Slowly Along The Bottom


Early November '08 Fishing Report

Although the winds have been stronger than we like several days this past week proved to be better than weather conditions would have suggested. Fishing in the north Indian River was a bit hit or miss, but the hitting was grand Wednesday and Thursday!

Monday Pete and Linda of London, England (thanks Capt Tom) joined me for a bit of bait soaking. We fished a little south of Parish Park where I did well a couple of weeks back. Pete quickly caught a lower slot red before the light winds turned up their volume to full blast. It became necessary to move to a more sheltered locale where only catfish seemed to live. More moving brought similar results and we decided to cut our full day to a half and lick our wounds.

Wednesday, Mike (CustomRod) was onboard for an attempt at sight-fishing. While conditions were not conducive for this we had no trouble finding plenty of action. We spotted several schools of fish appearing to be upper-slot reds on the west shore of the north IRL. In fact they turned out to be black drum and ounce my slow acting mind figured this out and Mike tied on a DOA shrimp is only took 1 well placed cast to hear the drag scream! Mike also caught 4 reds while blind casting to nervous bait pods and I managed 1 red over 10 pounds doing the same from the platform. The reds all ate soft plastic twitch baits worked SLOWLY along the bottom…

Thursday my Londoner’s were back for more and they went home with great big smiles. It will always amaze me how different a day or two can make in the world of fishing even though conditions are virtually the same. Still fishing the north IRL as we did the day before I could not find the blackies, but we had plenty of action on redfish. Like our first trip, soaking cut mullet was the order of the day and spending 15 minutes at a spot and moving if no results were had was the game plan. I’m happy to report this plan was picture perfect and of the 6 reds Pete and Linda caught only 2 were in the slot the other 4 were 8+ to 13+ pounds. We only had 1 spot were we caught 2 reds before the catfish forced us to move. I’m sure we caught at least 3 dozen catfish and it didn’t seem to bother these folks in the least! As a note, the reds were NOT hammering the mullet. Once a bite was detected, opening the bail and letting them mouth the bait for a few (15-20) seconds resulted in more hook-ups Making a final stop near the ramp Pete hauls in a near 7 pound trout and Linda does battle with a sting ray with a 30 inch wing span at a place we call “Last Chance”!

Friday I was joined by Dr. Bill and at his request we fish from Oak Hill. Finding fish around 3 Islands, Bill quickly boated an undersized red on an Exude Dart. Switching to a Skitterwalk he then hooks a MONSTER trout that tangles the plug into the grass and comes un- buttoned. So ends our bite for the day. We find more fish around Middle Island, but they wanted nothing to do with us, our plastics, our mullet or our live shrimp!

Posted on 12 Nov 2008 by Capt. Mark

Captain Mark Wright
cell - 321-302-3474
home - 321-264-3474
e-mail: CaptMarkWright@earthlink.net

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