With the weatherman calling for temperatures in the mid 60's, bright sun, and no rain yesterday, I couldn't help but to spend the day on the water chasing some speckled trout and redfish. Got the boat loaded up a bit late around 9 am and hit the water with a load of live shrimp. Started at the Ocean Isle Bridge while we were waiting on the 4th member of the crew to get down to the boat. No bites there so we moved to the Shallotte River. Water was waaaay too fresh there----you could practically drink this water (I tried). Of course no bites there in the very short time we fished so moved back out to the waterway. Hit some local docks and finally connected on the first trout (a 19.5"er---about 2 lbs.) around 1pm. The bite was very short lived as I think we found the only lost trout in the waterway. Talked to a bunch of the guys fishing the Thanksgiving Trout Tournament out of the Ocean Isle Fishing Center and the common talk was that the fish bit good first thing in the morning then it was DONE. Took a break and dropped half of the crew off to do some clamming on the end of the island. Myself and my friend Natalie went back to the docks and fished the last bit of the falling tide while they were digging clams. Payed off nicely as she hooked up on her first ever trout within 5 minutes! Nice 2.5-3 pounder (21 inches) at that! Minutes later she was hooked up again with her first Black Drum! Floated a couple more shrimp in front of the dock, and BAM, I hook up again. Another 2-2.5 pound trout! Would have kept fishing but our friends called and had worn themselves out clamming and wanted us to come get them. They were pretty ticked off when I opened the fish bag and showed them what they missed! Ha ha! Went back and enjoyed an AWESOME oyster, clam, and trout supper----hard to beat it! Persistance was definately the key yesterday but it sure payed off!
I did hear later on that the bite was unbelievable at the Little River Jetties all day---wouldn't have made any difference to us since we didn't have a SC License and you couldn't get a parking spot down there either-----there were guys there at 5am jockeying for anchoring position! Lots of fish (upwards of 50-75+ fish per boat) with some VERY nice ones mixed in---6 and 7 pound fish! The tournament winner came from there as well.
Overall though, great day spent on the water with great friends and watching my friend Natalie catch her first trout and black drum really made it worthwhile!
Last edited by Jer; 11-26-2006 at 04:45 PM.
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