St. Andrews 04/20/08

Launched the Ghostrider into the bay at 0800 and headed off into the unknown. Fished here and there, found a few fish here and there…Played with some with the fly rod. Only got two leans by two reds with the fly. Should of known that I needed to put the flyrod up the first time I wrapped the line around the trolling motor. The second time I had take the prop of to untangle the mess . Nothing on conventional tackle as far as reds go. I did manage to catch several bluefish and a nice 24″ trout on a Bite-A-Bait Slimline.

The full moon and high tides had the reds more in the mood to sleep in the morning, I did see more activity in the afternoon. The further we get from the full moon the better the bite will get, you need to get out there and get after them.

Our IFA tournament will be a few weeks, we are really excited about this tournament. Look forward to the event and meeting everyone.

We would like to wish Ashley Mock and Junior Dice good luck with their FLW redfish tournament. Their event is a week before our tournament.  Hopefully they will not catch all the fish and leave us some, good luck guys.

Nice trout I caught on a Bite-A-Bait Slimline hard jerk bait.

Thanks for stopping by reading

St. Andrews Bay 04/13/08

Launched the Ghostrider and headed to the forty redfish spot. Decided to play around with my new depth finder for awhile. Marked a few things, saw some bait in close, so I decided to fish it out. Fishing along watching scads of mullet running up and down the bank. For some reason I look over my left shoulder and see this large red thing waving in the air. Then it disappeared. That couldn’t have been a red. It comes up again . I fan cast that area for nearly half an hour, but no red. I fished the forty redfish spot out and didn’t see a red or a trout, but plenty of mullet, not sure where my pet reds are, gonna have to find them.

Moved over to the “sheet” hole. Ran a red out of there …fished on down the bank and picked up three small reds.

Moved on down the bank and the wind is now pumping out of the south and there are nice rollers in the bay, near me. I see a red on the sand, it spooks, I’m trying to make a cast ahead of the fish…another red decides he wants the piece of metal with a hook….really nice fish, but it comes off.

Fish on down the bank and lock into a nice fatty, wrestled it into the net and it went 26 7/8 and 6.3 lbs.

Caught a few more fish and the waves were getting bigger by the second so I left them biting.

Caught 10 reds, missed a few others. Biting spoons and Bayou Buck baits.

If we can catch two like that on May 10th we should be in the running….I put it back, maybe it will bite again in a few weeks

Can’t wait til next time.

Pics from the trip:

Panama City IFA & FLW Redfish participants

Anyone competing in the IFA or FLW redfish events in Panama City can receive a discount on rooms at Grand Panama Beach Resort. You can receive 15% discount on nightly stays at Grand Panama Resorts – contact Jim Chalkley @ chalk03@gmail.com for more information or you can call Grand Panama Resorts direct at 1-866-687-1244. You have to mention my name to receive the discount.

Lanark 04/05/08

I crawled out of bed at 3:00 a.m. to make a two hour trek to Tallahassee for the NFGFC tournament. The forecast was for severe storms all day. I pulled up the radar on my phone as I pulled out of the driveway. The radar showed that there was a good chance we would get wet today.

I meet up with my NFGFC partner John Vickers and we headed off to Lanark to try and secure a decent bag of fish. We arrived at the ramp and launched the boat. The wind was coming in about 15 knots, so we were in no hurry to speed out into the slop.

We fished like mad men in the overcast and foggy weather. Managing a few trout on each drift through out the day. We keep fishing, waiting on the rain to show up at any minute.

I had received a few lures from Bite-A-Bait to try out. Myself as well many of my fishing buddies have been using Bite-A-Bait lures for a few years with great success on trout and redfish. When talking to Charles at Bite-A-Bait I told him that I had never seen his topwater line, The Top Walker. Charles was gracious enough to send me a few to try out. Well so far I have used the Top Walker on two different trips and have caught trout and redfish on the lure. I’m a believer in the Top Walker. If your interested in what Bite-A-Bait has in products click on this link to see their catalog – BigBendFishing.net.

Back to fishing – We continued to fish until 2:00 and had to goto the ramp to make it to the weigh in at Jerry’s Bait and Tackle. As we arrived at Jerry’s Bait and Tackle the rain finally showed up, but it held off until the weigh in and raffle items could be handed out.

Only three boats out of twenty three brought in a limit of trout. We were lucky enough to be one of the three and was rewarded with second place and big trout. John Wiley and Blake Rish won first place and big redfish. Ironically, we fished next to John and Blake all day. Michael Flowers and Bob Nichols came in third place.

Since that tournament I have been working on my boat a lot. I replaced my old depth finder with a Garmin 140. Also replaced the cockpit lights with some amber LED lights. With those few changes I found myself with several holes that needed filling, so I have been sanding a filling gelcoat holes this week. Luckily the weather has been either two windy or rainy to be out there fishing.

Our first IFA redfish tournament is May 10 less than a month a way. I have been scouting the bay like a mad man lately looking for some new spots to fish. I have locked a few new spots, but my old spots are so far better than the new. Hopefully the fish will be cooperative on tournament day.

Thanks for stopping by, if you have any questions or comments please let us know.