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St. Jerome's Creek, 10/10
I couldn't get away to join everyone at CHSP (sorry, I missed it), but I was able to get out Sunday afternoon/evening. I had puppy drum on my mind, and it was tough choosing between PLO and St. Jerome's, but I opted for St. Jerome's because I haven't been there in a while, and a keeper redfish was caught there recently.
I chatted with Mike for a bit, and he said there have been breakers not far from the creek mouth lately. So my plan was to fish the mouth hard for reds and specks, then take advantage of the evening topwater bite.
I fished from about 2:45 to 7:45, which was from max flood to early ebb. I started off working likely redfish spots near the mouth using chartreuse Gulp grubs, Joe's salt and pepper shad tail bass assassin on a gold spinner arm, and an opening night shad tail assassin. I worked each area over with each lure, but the only thing I caught was a 2" spot I foul hooked. At least the skunk was off.
I jigged a bucktail Gulp combo for flounder and had two big hits on the first two drops, but the fish came unbuttoned both times. I think it might've been the same fish. Anyway, I couldn't find it again, I didn't have any more hits, so I headed out toward the spot Mike suggested around 5. There were tons of menhaden at the creek mouth, and I trolled a shallow Bomber through there with no hits. I switched to a #15 Tony spoon and headed to the spot without any luck.
I forgot to ask Mike how deep the fish were breaking, so I sat around a while in 7-10ft, then headed out toward 20 while trolling the spoon. I ate my dinner at the 20ft line and waited. I started working my way back to the creek, and I saw breakers back in shallow water. There were several boats there, and the breakers didn't stay long. I sprinted back, and they popped up right in front of me but disappeared after 1 cast.
It was getting to be close to 6, so I started trolling the Bomber minnow back toward the creek. As I got almost to the house with the red roof, my rod doubled over so hard I thought I hit a crab pot. I looked over my shoulder and saw a horizontally-oriented striper levitate vertically out of the water with a mighty splash and roll around on the surface a couple times before diving.
I thought that was really weird. As I got it to the boat, I saw that I had foul hooked it perfectly in the side. It probably didn't even strike at the lure. I guess that's a benefit of sharp hooks. Anyway, it was 21":
There were lots of boats around the red-roofed house and the creek mouth. I worked my way back and forth and had a knock down in the really turbulent water at the creek mouth, but it didn't stick. There were too many boats there for my liking, so I headed back to where I caught the first one. There was a nice sunset, though.
Fish were starting to feed on the surface, and I hooked a fat one in the low to mid 20s on my popper/bucktail combo, but it got away when I tried to horse it in the boat.
I had two fish strike at the popper instead of the fly, which hasn't happened before. I finally got another keeper, which was 22":
I called it a night when it got dark a little while later. Depending on where I was, the water temperature was 68-69*.
Having a GPS is really cool. I covered 10.3 miles, had a top speed of 5.9mph sprinting into the current, and cruised at 3.8mph (at the end of the night into the ebbing current in the creek) to 4.4mph. Going into the wind and waves, I was only about to maintain 3mph. Following my track back made navigating the creek much faster than usual, and I made it back to the ramp in about the same amount of time that it took me to get to the mouth. Even though I didn't catch any reds or specks, it was a pretty awesome outing.
I chatted with Mike for a bit, and he said there have been breakers not far from the creek mouth lately. So my plan was to fish the mouth hard for reds and specks, then take advantage of the evening topwater bite.
I fished from about 2:45 to 7:45, which was from max flood to early ebb. I started off working likely redfish spots near the mouth using chartreuse Gulp grubs, Joe's salt and pepper shad tail bass assassin on a gold spinner arm, and an opening night shad tail assassin. I worked each area over with each lure, but the only thing I caught was a 2" spot I foul hooked. At least the skunk was off.
I jigged a bucktail Gulp combo for flounder and had two big hits on the first two drops, but the fish came unbuttoned both times. I think it might've been the same fish. Anyway, I couldn't find it again, I didn't have any more hits, so I headed out toward the spot Mike suggested around 5. There were tons of menhaden at the creek mouth, and I trolled a shallow Bomber through there with no hits. I switched to a #15 Tony spoon and headed to the spot without any luck.
I forgot to ask Mike how deep the fish were breaking, so I sat around a while in 7-10ft, then headed out toward 20 while trolling the spoon. I ate my dinner at the 20ft line and waited. I started working my way back to the creek, and I saw breakers back in shallow water. There were several boats there, and the breakers didn't stay long. I sprinted back, and they popped up right in front of me but disappeared after 1 cast.
It was getting to be close to 6, so I started trolling the Bomber minnow back toward the creek. As I got almost to the house with the red roof, my rod doubled over so hard I thought I hit a crab pot. I looked over my shoulder and saw a horizontally-oriented striper levitate vertically out of the water with a mighty splash and roll around on the surface a couple times before diving.
I thought that was really weird. As I got it to the boat, I saw that I had foul hooked it perfectly in the side. It probably didn't even strike at the lure. I guess that's a benefit of sharp hooks. Anyway, it was 21":There were lots of boats around the red-roofed house and the creek mouth. I worked my way back and forth and had a knock down in the really turbulent water at the creek mouth, but it didn't stick. There were too many boats there for my liking, so I headed back to where I caught the first one. There was a nice sunset, though.
Fish were starting to feed on the surface, and I hooked a fat one in the low to mid 20s on my popper/bucktail combo, but it got away when I tried to horse it in the boat.
I had two fish strike at the popper instead of the fly, which hasn't happened before. I finally got another keeper, which was 22":I called it a night when it got dark a little while later. Depending on where I was, the water temperature was 68-69*.
Having a GPS is really cool. I covered 10.3 miles, had a top speed of 5.9mph sprinting into the current, and cruised at 3.8mph (at the end of the night into the ebbing current in the creek) to 4.4mph. Going into the wind and waves, I was only about to maintain 3mph. Following my track back made navigating the creek much faster than usual, and I made it back to the ramp in about the same amount of time that it took me to get to the mouth. Even though I didn't catch any reds or specks, it was a pretty awesome outing.
Time to go to Dicks and stock up.
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