Headed back down to the Big Lake on Friday in hopes for some early morning top water action. A few hiccups on the way down plus the boat ramp being pretty busy caused me to hit the water a little later than planned. My plan was to hit the water before the sun started to rise with top water baits and then when the sun was up, I wanted to get into the marsh and look for reds I could pitch to. Well by the time I got to spot #1 the wind had increased out of the south and the sun was pretty much out. So I still chucked my lures with no takers. With the sun fully up I decided to make the run behind west cove into the marsh. As I eased into the mouth of the marsh I cut the big engine to get onto the trolling motor. Once I deployed the trolling motor and hopped up onto my new casting platform, I heard the all to familiar sounds of reds crashing baits in the shallows. I surveyed the marsh looking for the next crash, when a closer look into the grass I seen a red crashing up onto some crabs. From there I eased on up where I would be upwind from the fish and within casting range, once I was in position I power-poled down and waited until the fish came out of the grass. It wasn't another minute or two is when he showed his back to me while crashing some finger mullet, I fired my GULP! shrimp at him and he quickly accepted my offering. After a short stand off he was boat side. Here is the fish. 25.5" and weighed a stout 6.89lbs. It was a perfect way to start the morning.
This trend continued through the early portions of the morning with fish blowing up crabs on the shoreline and me easing up to them and tricking them into eating some delicious GULP! Out of this particular marsh area I had boated 5 fish, all upper slot with one measuring 28" by 8am. With marsh fishing the action can be fast and furious so I had to use my time wisely and therefore only had pictures of this one while in there. Its by far easier when you have another person on the boat with you, instead of using the timer function all the time.
Shortly after I got on the phone and let my buddies know that I was on some good fish, the bite slowed down big time. No fish was crashing bait and the water dirtied up even more. I made my way out into west cove and worked a short stretch of shoreline on my way out towards the shipping channel. Again I was focusing near shore and watching for any signs of a fish. That is when seen this little tail pop up about 10ft in front of the boat and wave to me. I was completely caught off guard by this as I was taking in some nourishments and had no rods available to pitch at him. So I quickly power-poled down and waited for him. After all they say he is in there for a reason, he will come back. So I waited and waited, until I seen a bird working the shoreline, and sort of dancing. It caught my attention and a closer look revealed a red kind of messing with the bird as it was wading in about 5-6" of water. This was one of those moments where I had one of those nice cameras that could zoom to mars and back. It would have made a great picture. Anyways so needless to say, after the fascination I threw the fish a GULP! and he inhaled it. Here he is.
I threw the fish in the live well for my buddy Tom as he likes the smaller 20" reds for eating, and continued down the bank only catching a few more of rat reds and 2 flounder afterwards. I threw one back and kept the bigger of the two. Here it is:
The photo of the red was taken at another location to protect the small area I found that was holding some fish. Anyways, it was mid-day and the sun was beaming. I decided to make my way behind the weirs and into that portion of the marsh to sight fish again. I eased up into the North prong and proceeded to catch 3 more reds before I called it quits. There were no real size to the fish, and the biggest was about 21". The total fish caught was 11 reds and 3 flounder. My gear used as usual were St. Croix rods with Shimano Sustains/Stradics in 2500/3000 models reels. Berkley GULP! new penny shrimp and Nemire red ripper spoon in Chartreuse color. As I type this report today (Sunday) I am already planning my next trip back, tomorrow.
Brady be ready to put a hurting some on marsh reds! It will be fun brotha!
Anthony Fountain (Pole_benda)
St. Croix Rods Pro-Staff
Team Shallow Minded (www.teamshallowminded.com)
06-20-2010, 10:25 PM
18 Jun 2010 BL late report
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