WOW! What a week we’ve had down here! It took a little bit of time for the water to clear up from TS Ernesto, but once that happened the shrimp and mullet reappeared in huge numbers and the drum were not far behind. August was hands down the best puppy drum month I have ever had, but September is shaping up to be EVEN BETTER.
I have some GREAT video of the last two weeks that I am in the process of editing – so expect to see it soon! Good footage of tailers and big schools of fish pushing wakes in the shallows
I started off the beginning of the month targeting tailers in the grass, and over a 9 day period we did very well – averaging seeing somewhere between 10-14 fish per charter. While fishing for tailers is not great catching – it is some of the most exciting fishing you can ever do. I have clients so hooked that they fish with me 1-2 times per month to get a shot at these guys. I only have a few tides left for ’06 – so book soon! (Sept 24 & 25, Oct 6, 8, 11 24 & 25). I cannot wait for October – with the trout coming to town the fishing is going to be INSANE!!!
After the tailing tides subsided a bit, we went back to targeting reds like i was in august – chasing HUGE SCHOOLS OF REDS BUSTING SHRIMP. Not has it been like the action I experienced in August – it’s been better. The schools of fish are larger, more numerous and just as agressive. I have some great footage of NCW’er DaveDownEast botching 3 or 4 opportunities casting to big schools! Priceless!
The baits of choice have been topdogs, DOA shrimp & of course spinnerbaits – we’ve had much better luck using white spinnerbaits in the cloudy water…so put the chartreuse ones away for now.
9/18 – This morning I took out good friend and regular client Dave (DaveDownEast) in search of some drummies. We tried a few trout holes early to no avail (give it a week or two – they’ll be here en mass) before hitting the drum spots. Well, it took a whole 2 minutes and we found a school of probably 100 fish pushing a wake down the shoreline, throwing shrimp out of the water. First cast – a 26″ redfish. After that, we saw a school of probably 200 fish coming down the bank. So I whipped out the video camera and started filming – and the talented Dave gets extremely camera shy and proceeds to botch every opportunity we try to film. It was priceless!! đŸ˜† đŸ˜† We found lots of fish in between camera takes and we almost couldn’t get away from the buggers – INCREDIBLE. We probably saw 10-15 schools of fish ranging from 10-150+ fish. INSANE.
9/17 – Took the day off (and what a beautiful one it was!) to take katie and her “girls” fishin’ and riding around. We had a lot of fun and did find a huge school of nice spanish mackerel, bluefish and ladyfish in the inlet. We managed a nice catch of 2lb+ spanish, some blues and Katie jumped off a big ladyfish casting a stingsilver. I ran into Chuck Laughridge while trolling for spaniards – I think he had a good laugh watching me trying to troll clarkspoons. đŸ˜‰
9/16 – Today I had the pleasure of fishin with Ted from Cleveland – we started off looking for tailers finding about 12, getting good shots at 5 or 6 with no takers. He was flabergasted though – most peoiple don’t realize how shallow these fish will go and how stalking them will make your heart pound,
After that we went over to the reds that I have zereod in to the minute and found them immeadiatly – busting huge schools of shrimp. After a few LDRs with big slot fish, Ted finally landed his first redfish – a gorgeous 22 incher. After that we picked away at them all evening until it was almost too dark to see, landing a good number of slots and a bunch of rats on spinnerbaits.
9/15 – Fished with my darling Katie this evening, again, in the rain. After olaying with a few tailers, we found the fish instantly – busting huge schools of shrimp. I landed the first fish on my second cast and katie followed a cast later. It was almost too easy – we boated 8 slot fish and several rats in less than 90 minutes. We watched schools of fish smack shrimp in and out of the grass the entire time.
9/14 – Cancelled my ocean trip today as it rained ALL DAY – and i simply couldnt stand it any longer. Come afternoon it was drizzling and the tide was perfect…and after a little persistant begging (well, after mopping the floors and doing many other chores) persuaded katie to come play with the drummies for a while. She gave in.
We started off baiting some creeks usign mullet and shrimp to see what we could come up with – gazillions of 10-12″ pups, lots of nice 1-3lb blackdrum, a surprising number of 11-14″ specks and a good number of ladyfish. After we quickly bored of that, we went to find the schools of drum.
It took about 5 minutes and we found them (*ahem* cue in) – busting huge schools of shrimp. Her first cast, slot fish. My first cast, slot fish. Etc Etc Etc – I lost count of all the reds we landed on spinnerbaits. Unfortunately, as it was pouring all afternoon, we only got 1 photo.
9-8 – 9-13 – more of the same. Big schools of fish, hungry fish – you name it. It’s been so easy that the days are almost starting to blend into one. Here are a few last photos…
9-6-9-11 TAILER REPORT – As I said above, we had great conditions and great succes targeting tailers this month. The rain from Ernesto led to some very high tides and interesting conditions. We averaged seeing 12-15 fish during a half-day. I currently have several good days open during the rest of the year – (Sept 24 & 25, Oct 6, 8, 11 24 & 25).
Watch for video later this week!
