drumming

[somdsparky]

just got in from the river. got into a school of solid slots. landed 6 in 45 minutes up to 25", smallest ran 20". will post a better report after i clean a fish and get it on the table

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[Mark]

Impressive!

[Joker]

Do tell more!

[MetroMan]

Solid pups!

[somdsparky]

I launched from nan's cove around 1:30. I would have liked to get out earlier, but I had kid detail till momma got home. I discovered a spot that looked really fishy to me last week, but didn't have the time to really work the area then. So, I headed straight there out of the cove. Along the way there are quite a few docks and various riprap that I cast to without the slightest nibble. By the time I worked through them it was coming up on 2:30 and the tide was starting to pick up. This was my cue to beat feet, or arms in this case, up to the destination. I decided to keep a line in the water on the paddle there for shits and giggles. I've yet to have any real success trolling so I of course do it as much as possible trying to figure it out. I hadn't gotten 40 yards before drag was pulling. I grabbed my rod with my right hand as I clumsily maneuvered the kayak around with the left. I really thought I had snagged up and the moving yak was causing the drag to do it's thing. Then the yak is going against current and wind... now it's on. At this point I realize I've got a ray which I have gotten quite a bit of practice with this year. For the next 10 minutes I played the power grab game as we both took turns muscling the other around. I got the blasted thing up to the side of the yak and grabbed the leader as he absolutely drenched me and thumped the yak with his wings for several minutes. Eventually I gave up the idea of regaining my lure and brought out the knife. After rerigging and tossing it in I paddled for another 40-50 yards and another hookup. Again another ray. This happened twice more for a total of 4 cownose rays and one lost lure. I brought all four up to get my hand on the leader before declaring the battle over. I counted myself lucky that the last 3 were able to spit the hook while turned at the surface. I finally get to my spot and start casting into and past projecting grassy points. At one point I ended up spinning with the wind till I was facing straight out towards the river proper. Here I fortunately decided to blind cast about 20 yards out of the mouth of this little cove/creek. The lure never had a chance to touch bottom before I had a fish on that pullled about 50 yards of line right off the bat. Success. Knowing I had the red I was searching for, I happily played the game and had him to the boat in roughly 10 minutes. It was one hell of a fight and he definately was pulling harder than the reds i've caught to date. When I finally got him in the yak I realized why. nice solid 25" for dinner. I proceeded to replay this 5 more time getting back to roughly the same spot and casting into what I discovered was about a 10'x10' golden zone. One at 20", 2 at 21" and the last at 23". Damn that was fun. The bite just turned off out of nowhere. Tide was still coming in but no more fishies wanted to play. So I went up into the creek and got nothing but nibbles until I pulled up a 4"ish blue crab. As he attacked my plastic, I apparently snagged a leg. I realized this when he finally dropped off and I still had a leg on lol. I ended up on the other side of the creek with little happening over there either. I made the paddle back to the launch and was home by 6:15. broiled redfish for dinner was a great way to end the day
Sorry I only have a couple pics on the water. I'm trying to get better at snapping a photo before the release, but still don't think about it till after the fun has died down. here is the crab.0907131538.jpg

and this is the last puppy pulled in at 23"0907131516.jpg

[Fish]

Dang, looks like a solid amount of fun! Enjoyed the read =]

[sparky1423]

Great report sparky! Reds and speckled trout are my two goals for 2014...I have yet to target them.

[J.A. Veil]

Great job. It is a lot of fun to find the small zone, both spatially and temporally, that holds good fish. You were successful yesterday.

[dhawk]

Nice report I have yet to target red from a yak but you guys are making it hard not to plan a trip

[Goody]

Good job on catching those reds. Looks like you got a good workout with the rays.

[somdsparky]

john, that trip was actually three weeks ago. yesterday i only managed to pull one 22" out of an otherwise very slow day. Metroman and Fish came down in the afternoon to try to get on the reds but nothing was happening on that front. Both ended up getting into some dink rocks though. there was almost no tidal movement yesterday which really through a wrench in my strategy for that area. the one i did get was a loner in a honey hole.

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hopefully langston and steve will make it back down to try again

[MetroMan]

I'll definitely be coming back to fish with you. I had a good time trolling up the schoolie stripers. Surprisingly, that was the most productive time I've had trolling in my kayak...ever.

[Fish]

Me too.. I caught my first rock trolling.. On a top water lure..