Best 2 hour fishing in a while

[capt hoop]

My friend Rob Buck (Mister Sea Tow) called me and asked if I was available. He had a good friend Ken Hatch and 2 of his 4 sons in from California and wanted to show them this area and what the fishing was like. For some reason they could not be down here until 9:30 or 10:00. Kind of late start but I just rolled with the punches. I had a plan.

We left the dock at 9:30 and made a 45 minute run. The fish have moved into the river so there were boats fishing everywhere. Even though it was a Monday and hunting season we did go past a lot of boats. As we ran down the river it looked like the bite was slow. I did not see too many rods bending. We were coming up on a low tide. I kind of wanted to stop and fish several times but I kept sticking with "Plan A". I did make a quick stop near my neighbor Clint to see how he was doing. He said the keeper reds were slow but all the rat reds were making for good action anyway. Running down a small canal I had to slow down for another guide fishing and having the same results. I let him know where I was heading and continued on. Once there I put the power pole down and we started fishing.

Our first fish was a Green Trout. This one of the few places in the country you can catch a large mouth bass and flounder, redfish, sheepshead, croaker, sting rays, speckled trout, etc. in the same place with the same bait.



Not much of a story here just a solid amount of fishing.



We had a steady bite right from the start.




There were some shorts but a good amount of keeper fish were wanting to get invited to have dinner with us.



If you look at all the pictures you will see we never moved from the first place.



After a half dozen fish I called in the guide I had passed in the canal. One of his first fish was a flounder. His boat can be seen in the background of this family photo.



After only 2 hours of this I was told that they wanted to make the Saints game so we had to head back soon. It was about 12:15.



On the way back I stopped by Clint and gave him the rest of my bait. He only had 5 keepers in the box at that time. He made a small move near the outside and quickly finished up. Our next stop was the marina.



It was a day I truly enjoyed. The fishing was great. The joking was a lot of fun. Great memories were made on this trip. You can see the brother on the right holding his "trophy" bass in the picture below.



Before we even took this picture there was brother to brother envy going on between Venice and California thanks to the electronics we have today. I know the other 2 brothers will be here the next time.

Life is Good!
Fishing is not a matter of life or death. It's more important than that.

CAPT HOOP -- OUR FREEDOM