Lady On The Flats

After I finished with the chores and some light bush hogging in the back area, I packed a few rods and headed out to sample the evening bite and get in some topwater fishing at East Gator Creek.

It was almost 7:00 pm when I drove past the culverts and the air temperature was still in the low 80s. 

There was a light breeze over the water and except for one guy who insisted on telling me where the fish were, I had the area entirely to myself.

I started fishing the shallow flats with a Chug Bug smeared up with some Pro-Cure gel and almost immediately started getting followups and eventually some solid hits.

I was blind casting over the grass and experimenting with several retrieves before finding the right one.

After about 10 casts and a couple of followups, I finally hooked into a small ladyfish which I quickly released.

Another 3 or 4 casts into another area produced a small undersize sea trout which I also released.

I was going to move up the road to a calm area that I knew always holds fish but there was a gator in the area that always gives me grief when I use topwater baits, so I opted on blind casting over the shallow grass beds instead.

I made several well placed casts before hooking into a very large ladyfish.  I was using a fast chugging retrieve and stopping for a few seconds before continuing the pattern.

The fish hit the Chug Bug when it was at rest and immediately jumped about 4 feet into the air and peeled off about 50 yards of line and again jumping.

I had my drag set light for a change and just followed the fish as it continued jumping all over the flat.

Finally, the fish tired and I managed to lead it to a spot where I could land it between the mangrove roots.

As I was fighting the fish, I thought it was a juvenile tarpon until I got it close to the bank.

I landed the fish and took a few quick pics along with this selfie before returning it to the water.

I continued fishing and caught one more fish before I decided to head back home.  I figured that 3 ladyfish and one small sea trout in a little over an hour was enough fishing for one evening.

On the way out of the refuge, I took this pic of the beautiful sunset.

Hope to get out tomorrow after my Doctors appointment.

Till next time,
Tight Lines.

Tarpon On A Chug Bug

Catching a tarpon on a Chug Bug this afternoon topped today's fishing trip, especially when I landed the fish using only one hand. I was taking a video with my left hand.

With all the rain this afternoon I just had to get in some topwater fishing, but my wife wanted me to go with her to help unload a hay shipment for her horse Mandy and the other horses at "the barn".

It was raining sporadically when we left the house and by the time we got to the barn, it had picked up to a steady drizzle.

I helped Karen move some bedding around and since there was a pond on the property, I decided to wet a line.

I always carry a spinning rod in the truck loaded with 30 pound Power Pro, a 20 pound fluorocarbon leader, and a Chug Bug, so I pulled out the rod and started casting around the shoreline and the lily pads.

I missed a couple of small bass around the shoreline but when I made a long cast into the middle of the pond, a nice fish blew up on the topwater bait. It didn't take long to get the bass to shore but as I was pulling it over the submerged grass, the fish flopped a couple of times and the hook pulled loose saving me the trouble of unhooking it. The bass was a chunky fish of around 5 pounds or more.

Karen opened the gate for the driver to leave and as the rain started picking up, we decided to head for the house.

At the house, the rain had slowed down but since I couldn't do any yard work, I packed up my other two spinning rods into the truck and headed for East Gator Creek Road to catch some trout.

The air temperature was in the high 70s and there was a very slight breeze blowing over the water making it a perfect day for tossing a Chug Bug.

I started fishing at the culvert and picked up a couple of small ladyfish before moving to the shallow grass flats along the road.

I started blind casting around the flats and picked up a couple of small sea trout, and lost two very nice keepers in the 22 to 24 inch category.

One day I'll remember to ease up on my drag settings when I fish for trout. I usually keep it tight for reds, but when I don't lighten it up for sea trout, I usually lose the first good size fish I hook. The hooks usually pull out after the first or second jump.

Anyway, a gator who evidently thought he owned the entire flats started chasing my Chug Bug where ever I started to cast. It got to the point that he followed me even when I got into the truck and moved several yards up the road.

I took several pics and a video of the water lizard before moving several hundred yards up the road.

The area I stopped to fish usually holds big ladyfish and juvenile tarpon, so I smeared up the Chug Bug with some Pro-Cure Inshore Formula and started pitching the bait as close to the opposite bank as I could get.

It took three blind casts before a juvenile tarpon blasted my bait and started jumping all over the area.

I didn't have my GoPro so I pulled out my cell phone and started taking a video of the action with my left hand, while I was fighting the tarpon with the rod in my right hand.

The results below aren't great, but I did manage to land the fish, get the video and a few pics of the fish, and release it to fight another day.

After landing and releasing the fish, another big gator started annoying me so I decided to fish the flats around Catfish Creek Loop.

I stopped several times to cast at wakes in the shallow flats, but only hooked and released a couple of small ladyfish.

The rain had stopped but the bugs were out with a vengeance, so I decided to pack it in for the day and head for the house.

On the way out, I saw the only other fishermen who was reeling in a redfish as I stopped to take a pic of the scenery. I took a video of the guy and his son as he was reeling in his catch, but he lost the fish as he was trying to unhook it.

On the backside of the road, the water was dead flat. I made a few casts to wakes, but nothing was biting so I headed home.

Hopefully, I'll get out again before I have to head back to work.

Till next time,
Tight Lines.

East Gator Creek Topwater Fishing

East Gator Creek topwater fishing this time of the year is great early in the mornings and close to sunset.

When I got home from work this evening, the first thing I did after unloading the truck was to pack a couple of rods and head for the closest water.

It was almost dusk so I headed for one of my favorite places to fish topwater baits, East Gator Creek.

The water was dead calm in most areas which required some finesse on my part, so I chose to start with a super slow, stop and go retrieve that usually produces hits, and this evening was no different.

The first culvert I stopped to fish turned out to be a bust.  My first cast spooked a large fish that looked like a slot redfish.  Several more casts produced a couple of follows, but no hits so I moved on to try some other likely spots.

A couple was fishing with live baits along the bank, so I slowly rolled past them and stopped when I was a few yards away from where they were fishing.

I made a long cast to the opposite bank with a bass pattern Chug Bug, let it sit until the ripples died, and then gave it a little twitch.    A fish swirled on the bait, so I let it sit and repeated the twitch.

This time a nice sea trout hit the Chug Bug and jumped completely out of the water as it took the bait.

The fish sloshed around in the weeds and got off the hook as I was trying to horse it in to the bank.

I heard the couple on the bank talking about "what was he fishing with" as I continued fan casting the area.

After a couple more casts, a small ladyfish nailed the Chug Bug and jumped all over the place until I could land and release it.

I slowly moved up the road and continued casting to likely spots with the same slow retrieve and managed to catch another ladyfish about the same size.

About this time a juvenile gator came up to follow the Chug Bug, so I moved up the road a bit to get away from the pesky little critter.

To make the story short, I managed to land and release five more ladyfish up to about 20" in length and missed another sea trout that looked like it would hit the 22 or 23" mark before the evening bite stopped.

The skeeters were absolutely brutal without any insect repellent which I didn't think about bringing along, so I decided to head for the house and call it a day before I suffered severe loss of blood.

On the way to the bridge, I took a few pics of the Parrish Park boat launch which was nicely lit up.

On a normal day, I would have continued fishing the topwater plug into the evening for some really big sea trout, but after making an 8 1/2 hour drive from Mobile, Al. I wasn't in the mood for much more fishing.

I'll get some in this next week for sure.

Till next time, Tight Lines.