02-05 June 2010, Panama City Florida On the 1st of June, I set out on the road and pointed the truck and rig 10hrs Southeast. I left the house at 10pm in hopes for still being able to catch what was left of the early morning bite. Finally reached the launch at Bonita Bay on Tyndall AFB by 0845L, and as I was walking my tackle bag down to the boat, I forgot that a skitterwalk was hanging from it and impaled myself with one of the hooks. Luckily, the hook went in and came back out and I was able to pinch down the barb and pull it right back through. Its a good thing I carry a little first aid kit, and I was able to clean it up right there on the spot. If this was a sign of what was to come this week, then we would be screwed. Shortly after, I was taking a spook jr off the rod and a little too much tension caused the hook to fling towards the tip and hook me in the finger. Awesome!
Since I was riding solo on this day because fellow Shallow Minded angler Adam Turner was offshore killing some endangered red snapper. I cranked up the stealth and proceeded to check my old fishing holes that produces so well for me in the past. After doing a water temp check, the water was reading a hot 83F and the bay was showing little signs of life around my usual stops. I continued to put time on the trolling motor and kept an eagle eye out for fish with no luck. Just before I decided to pick up and run to another spot, I seen some bait pop just off the bank and I maneuvered for closer look. Bingo! a nice upper slot fish making his way down the bank, a solo rider but a fish none the less. I make the presentation, he turns on it and just as I start to get the feeling of a hook up, its like the fish knew I was there and he was messing around with me. He quickly turned away and swam away right next to the boat as if he was mocking me. I guess Louisiana has gotten me spoiled because that same fish here in LA would have clobbered it, and if he missed still would have came back and ate it again. I worked the bank for another 100 or so yards with no other fish found and decided this spot was a wash.
I made a short 10-15 min East to hit up another area that has produced in the past. I got up on the platform and went to work. Poling around in 90F weather was exhausting especially if you are not seeing no fish. It was a frustrating day to say the least as once I began to see fish they would spook and had absolutely no shot at catching them. I decided to call it quits at 02pm with a big fat ZERO! Day 2, Adam Turner and I woke up to the sun still down and birds beginning to chirp. Signs of a good day? Maybe... We get everything with boat settled and made our way to our favorite morning stop for some Monster and breakfast burrito's (Pier 98). Just one problem, just as we were about to hit Hwy 98, I guess my running lights on my trailer went out and a Cedar Grove officer decided to pull me over. He let me off with a warning told me I needed to get it fix ASAP for the next time I will get a ticket (in his big man voice). Now 15-20 mins behind schedule we make it to the launch on Tyndall AFB that leads into Crooked Island Sound. Our plan was to hit some top water areas that have been really kind to us in the past and where we consistently seen fish. Were on the trolling motor and start working our baits, boom-crash-slam was the common noise coming off near the baits as a mixture of trout and reds were hitting lures and throwing it out of the water no takers but a few 18" trout. We made our way into a shallow grass flat and began poling around, as I was switching baits Adam was on the stick and called out a few tailing reds. We took our times getting positioned and getting baits ready as we eased up. Adam was first to make the presentation with a weedless rigged GULP! shrimp and the fish snubbed it. I was quick to pitch in with a gold spoon and again he snubbed it and spooked. It was near perfect presentations and the fish weren't eating our baits. The fish left us on the flat and we decided to try some deeper water spots to see if the fish was seeking refuge in cooler water. This next spot quickly produced for us but it wasn't the targeted species we were looking for. We continued to catch flounder after flounder, trout after trout and this persisted for an hour or 2. It was good to break up the lack of catching fish and getting our lines pulled on but again it was frustrating not catching fish.
We decided to pick up the boat and re-launch the boat on the backside of shell island. Again we were focusing on deep water and trying to jig up some fish. Adam was first to hook up, this fish is pulling drag and upon first inspection it was our targeted species. As I went for the net, I noticed this drum had stripes???? Oh man, wait this is a black drum! We let the fish go and eased back into position. TAP TAP TAP, the lines is beginning to tighten, FISH ON! This is a nice fish, he is hugging the bottom and giving head shakes, Adam quickly calls out lady fish but being the optimistic person that I am, I called out redfish in which he was. After a short stand off he was boat side and Adam did a great job in helping land the fish. Got him on the check it stick and he measure 28". Not the size we were wanting but a great start. We worked the area for a little bit longer to see if he had some friends hanging around with him but all we could produce after that was flounder.
Friday was not any better, we continued to see fish and again not one fish was eager to bite our offerings. We were on the water at 05am and off the water by 11am, with nothing but trout to show. I used this time to clean and prep the boat for Saturday and to take the trailer in for some work. I got ready around 04pm for the Capt's meeting and ventured there as Brandon was still driving in from South Florida. I checked our team in and was able to draw boat #15 and bought some raffle tickets for both Brandon and I. I ended up winning two gifts at the raffle with them being the two spools of braid and a $100 Cabela's gift card.Tournament day, Brandon and I left Adam's house at 0 dark thirty and made our way towards the Navy Base to launch as we knew we would have the launch all to ourselves. We began to idle out into the bay and got up on plane and that's when it all began. Low oil alarm went off and we had to idle 2 miles to the launch site at St. Andrews Marina. Upon getting to the dock we surveyed for kinked lines as we had just refilled our oil tank the day prior. We couldn't find out what was wrong and they began launching the boats. We are on our way and boat is limping, we didnt get no more than 50 yards from the launch site and the alarm is going off again. There was a shallow flat near by that I decided to power-pole down on to see if we could come up with a temporary fix. We noticed down the way that a bunch of guys were loaded their boat up to go offshore. We idled over and ask if they could spare just a few ounces of oil for us to get on our way. The Capt told me that he paid $40 for the gallon of oil and wasn't going to give us just a few ounces but would have to buy the gallon from them for $40. We quickly said NO! and thought "What would McGyver do?" we decided to cut open a water bottle and dry out the inside. We used the bottom half to catch oil from the tank and the other half as a funnel to put into the oil tank in the engine. It worked and we are on our way, but it was a good 30-45 mins past prime time for this spot, and the fish just didnt cooperate with was. Again it was one of those days where we caught everything but targeted species. We caught a multitude of trout ranging from 15-22", until we hit a spot that new shallow minded member Mike Harris keyed me on. We focused in on docks and thoroughly dissected them head to toe and managed to pull two fish off of it, that eventually was our weigh-in fish. We got them on the boca scale and it accurately showed us with 8lbs of fish. We ended up with a little more 8.28lbs. It was a tough day for all anglers and not quite was Panama City is used to producing, but we were pleased to not goose egg in the tough conditions. I got to finally meet in person a friend that helped me out in the past Jim Chalkley and look forward to getting a few lines wet with him in the future. Congrats to Bruce Lindhiem and Fred for yet another win on the tour. They caught just two keepers on the day, and they were the right fish. Congrats again guys. Team Shallow Minded ended up finishing 21st in this tournament out of 44 boats. Its okay we will get them in two weeks if the Empire Tournament is ran. Team Shallow Minded' best wishes goes out to all those impacted by the oil spill down there in South Louisiana.
Pole Benda (Anthony Fountain)
Team Shallow Minded (www.teamshallowminded.com)
St. Croix rods Pro-Staff
06-11-2010, 09:51 AM
IFA Panama City June 5th
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