Man I lucked out my first trip. Pulled over to Hackberry and went to Spicers. Asked the kid working which direction to head. He said he had no clue, maybe ask the guy gassing his boat up. I did and it worked out great. It was Capt Norman Rester with A speck charters. He said he was taking a friend that day and I could follow him down river to the reefs around the old steam engine, just don't get to close to him. Once down there, he was a few hundred yards south of the steam engine. I was about 40 yards from the steam engine. My first cast I bird nested, after messing with the knot a minute I grabbed my other pole. Cast right up next to the steam engine and after about 2 cranks on the reel, BOOM, it ended up being a huge trout. He noticed me net it in the boat and was hooping and hollering. Ended up fishing that area and a little south of there and got 22 trout my first trip. Made it back to Spicers and Capt Rester was cleaning fish. He asked what that first trout weighed and I told him I didn't have a scale. So we hauled it up there on his scale and about 7-8 hours after I caught it, it weighed in at 6.75 lbs. Not bad for my first fish in my new boat and first fish in Big Lake (it was late June). I've never caught anything close to that size again of course, and had some good days and bad days out there. I love the south end and West Cove. I echo what everyone is saying about a good guide, and recommend Capt Rester myself.
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