I had a trip today, and although I was a little hesitant at first, because of the cold, what a great day on the water! It had been a while since I had a client on the boat due to the cold weather, rain, and wind we’ve had over the past 9 weeks.

I knew the bite would be good on today’s trip, because I have been out scouting my spots to see where the fish were and to also see how good the bite was. I wanted to check to see if the muddy water had pushed the fish out into the gulf to cleaner water. I had found that some fish had been pushed out, but a lot were still around including white trout and a good amount of redfish. So I was not too surprised when my client, Sue, pulled in a nice 27” Redfish! Well, maybe I was a little surprised; it sure was a beauty! I drifted a few spots along the bridge and was marking good fish, but on one drift I marked the mother lode, so I set anchor, and we just slayed them for 3 hours straight. Somewhere in the three hours, Roy’s drag starting singing an old familiar tune, and I knew it was another red. This was turning out to be good start to my spring trips even though we were about 10 degrees below normal temperatures for the day. We stayed pretty warm by working the fish, and by noon, it had actually gotten warm enough to remove our heavy jackets. With more white trout than you could count and two good slot reds to seal the deal, Roy and Sue were two happy Hoosiers. I enjoyed meeting them and when I found out they were from my old Indiana stomping grounds, it made the day a little more special. I always enjoy showing people from up north how good our fishing is in the Panhandle.

Bait Check
Today I was tossing 3/4oz jigs; with Berkley Gulp’s 4” Shrimp. A few times I put on a 5” Berkley Gulp Jerk Shad. Colors were mixed today, some New Penny, and some Nuclear Chicken both in the 4” shrimp and Jerk Shads.
Stay tuned for the next report on or around March 6th
Tight Lines.
Capt. John