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I haven’t been on the water much of all this summer, between work, friends cancelling trips, brutal heat, and no rain; I’ve just not been inspired to get out there and grind it out. I had a friend cancel on me again this weekend and I almost bagged the trip, but I stopped making excuses and forced myself to get out. Looking back at last years trips this time of year I knew exactly where I wanted to go, and it wasn’t the flats.

I launched early morning, and was in the water by 5am The plan was to fish a few lights before sunrise then fish the drop offs of the shoreline as the sun came up. I pulled up to the first light and started throwing a brand new lure I just got, the matrix minnow… It’s a suspending jerk bait that dives 2-5ft and has some rattles. It’s 3&1/2 in and has the tiniest hooks I’ve ever seen on a lure, but they’re razor sharp. I pulled out 2 tiny speckled trout, maybe 10 inches and decided to move on to the next light. At the next light I put the jerk bait away bc I didn’t want to be tearing up and killing a bunch of tiny fish I couldn’t keep, so I tied on a glow/firetail Doa shrimp. Within 5 casts I had a 17 in trout in the boat. I fished this light for another hour until sunrise and picked up around 15 keeper speckled trout, switching between the doa shrimp and a paddle tail, but they were all cookie cutter 14-15 in fish that were skinny.

As the sun came up I started moving down the shoreline to deeper water, I moved about a mile down the shoreline and was pulling up on a point I was going to fish when a 100k pb jumped right in front of me and threw his Trolling motor down, on his first cast in the area I wanted to fish he caught a nice 20 in speck. I grunted and moved around him without causing a scene. There was one other point close by I went to check, when I got there it was dead with no bait, I caught another 10 in dink. By this time the pb had moved on and I moved back in on the point I wanted to fish. There was a lot of tide movement with a falling tide and the wind was blowing hard down the shoreline, perfect conditions for this little point. It was around 830 around this time and the major feed was due to happen 930-1130… I started picking up fish quickly on this point, one after the other and the bite heated up more and more as we got closer to the major. The fish seemed to be in a tiny area, maybe 1000 sqft or so, and if I got of my spot I’d immediately stop getting bit. I fished in this little zone for the next 2 and a half hours and caught speck after speck, most of them 15-17 inches and a ton of 14in. Fish. I had 2 or 3 sizable specks around 20-23 in get the lure deep, only to come rushing to tge surface throwing violent head shakes and throwing the lure… I couldn’t keep any of the larger fish pinned but got a kick out of it.
All in all I boater around 40 specks for the day with 25 of them coming from this tiny zone. The lure of the day was the Norton sand shad 5in in Salt N Pepper w/ chrt tail. I was incredibly impressed by the durability of this bait as well as the action (Tons of body roll on the bait) It reminds me of a DSL lure which is sort of a hybrid between a paddle tail and rat tail, I’ll definitely be throwing these more often. It was a great day of nonstop action that you can only get from trout fishing. Looking back at my prior trips, this same area has produced for me year after year, on the same moon, in the same heat. I guess sometimes we do figure it out, and even though I didn’t get any big ones, I had a blast. I can’t wait for fall, fishing only gets better from here!

Tight Lines
-YakBoi

For some reason my pictures didn’t upload with the post.

Can't beat that day.
Thanks for coming back with the photos.

I change a lot of my hooks, especially too small trebles. The right size hook may not spit out as easy.
Many tiny finesse lures (winter glass minnows) have size 14 to 18 trebles, and I swap those to plug singles, size 4 and 6.

Sounds like an excellent day out there! I am going to try to get out this week before I start a two week trial next week.

Ron Mc wrote: ↑Mon Aug 14, 2023 10:18 pm Can't beat that day.
Thanks for coming back with the photos.

I change a lot of my hooks, especially too small trebles. The right size hook may not spit out as easy.
Many tiny finesse lures (winter glass minnows) have size 14 to 18 trebles, and I swap those to plug singles, size 4 and 6.

I think singles would do well on this bait, those tiny trebles scare me a little with a trout thrashing in the kayak around my legs, thanks for the tip

mwatson71 wrote: ↑Tue Aug 15, 2023 5:05 pm Sounds like an excellent day out there! I am going to try to get out this week before I start a two week trial next week.

Thanks Michael! It was a great morning considering there was a good amount of boat traffic and wind. I found a protected shoreline with the wind and tide blowing hard around it, wind was around 15 from the SW.

If you’re ever wanting some company, shoot me a message, my schedule is pretty flexible.

Thanks for the detailed report! Congrats on a productive outing.

Wish I’d have seen this prior to heading the the grass flats!

Great informative fishing report, Kyle.

I envy you because I haven't been fishing in about 5 months, stricken with a severe colon infection (Diverticulitis) that made me unable to walk or exercise until my gut doctor intervened two weeks ago w/ the strongest antibiotics on Earth. Totally lost my appetite.

I am a mean Kung Fu master who went from 175 lbs to 149 lbs weighed this morning. I look like a skeleton & couldn't fight a teen-age girl.

I'm praying for recovery & welcome all prayers. Funny how getting old & sick makes a man consider death. I've reread my Bible.

Enjoy every minute of your youth and you're all invited to my funeral (Shoffer presiding) whenever God wills it... Below photo is me at about 158 lbs., wasting away.


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Dandydon wrote: ↑Thu Aug 24, 2023 5:07 pm Great informative fishing report, Kyle.

I envy you because I haven't been fishing in about 5 months, stricken with a severe colon infection (Diverticulitis) that made me unable to walk or exercise until my gut doctor intervened two weeks ago w/ the strongest antibiotics on Earth. Totally lost my appetite.

I am a mean Kung Fu master who went from 175 lbs to 149 lbs weighed this morning. I look like a skeleton & couldn't fight a teen-age girl.

I'm praying for recovery & welcome all prayers. Funny how getting old & sick makes a man consider death. I've reread my Bible.

Enjoy every minute of your youth and you're all invited to my funeral (Shoffer presiding) whenever God wills it... Below photo is me at about 158 lbs., wasting away.

Don,

We miss seeing you man. I hope you get better soon. Once this weather starts to cool down I expect you and your black belt ass back out on the water ripping lips with us.

In all seriousness, prayers for you man.

Over the last five months, I have missed time on the water with the Senior Captain of the Hobie Navy. Part of it has been my schedule, but part of it has been this issue. It is my fervent hope, however, that the Senior Captain will bounce back in short order and be out there in no time not only catching some good fish but Lovin on Momma®. Keep your chin up, Captain. We're rooting for you!

Thanks to both of you men in my Hobie Navy for your kind words and support. Until this Diverticulitis hit, I'd hardly ever been sick or immobile.

I'm trying to get better so I can fish with you again. Let me say that old age brings wisdom but it also brings mortality and pain.

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Dandydon wrote: ↑Fri Aug 25, 2023 7:11 am Thanks to both of you men in my Hobie Navy for your kind words and support. Until this Diverticulitis hit, I'd hardly ever been sick or immobile.

I'm trying to get better so I can fish with you again. Let me say that old age brings wisdom but it also brings mortality and pain.

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I wish you a full & speedy recovery.

Dave

Thanks, Dave. Sharing my personal health crisis w/ TKF took a lot of thinking, but I've shared more on this board than most anybody (with my big ego), and am hoping my painful medical journey might help other members also going through the "bad stomach wars." Honor your intestines, men!

Here's a little sick guy humor. The photo below shows my new cold jet Enema device, w/ handy hand pump.

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Don, I dealt with that stuff in my early 20s. Found a naturopath that wasn’t interested in cutting me open. His equipment was a bit more “sophisticated” than your pump sprayer but did the trick. Get better. Going fishing with you is on my bucket list.

Mine too, Music Man!

Today I weighed 155 lbs, so at least I'm going in the right direction. My target is to get myself back to 175 lbs.

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Dandydon wrote: ↑Thu Aug 24, 2023 5:07 pm Great informative fishing report, Kyle.

I envy you because I haven't been fishing in about 5 months, stricken with a severe colon infection (Diverticulitis) that made me unable to walk or exercise until my gut doctor intervened two weeks ago w/ the strongest antibiotics on Earth. Totally lost my appetite.

I am a mean Kung Fu master who went from 175 lbs to 149 lbs weighed this morning. I look like a skeleton & couldn't fight a teen-age girl.

I'm praying for recovery & welcome all prayers. Funny how getting old & sick makes a man consider death. I've reread my Bible.

Enjoy every minute of your youth and you're all invited to my funeral (Shoffer presiding) whenever God wills it... Below photo is me at about 158 lbs., wasting away.


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Don, I hope you can make a full recovery soon. We’ve got to get back out there and fish again. Well, we fished a little and talked a lot, haha. Now Cody, he didn’t talk much, but I think that was due to one of your special brownies that he ate :p.. Keep your spirits up friend, I know you’ve got plenty more stories to tell and memories to make!

Until then I’ll continue my detailed reports so that you can maybe catch half as fish as me when we do get back out for a trip. Oh, and I’ll make you a believer of the magic powers the “Lil John” lure possesses.

-YakBoi

Thanks for your kind words of support, Kyle. Knowing & fishing with young turks like you, Dave and Music Man helps keep me going . All prayers are welcome.

You are fun to be around and your reports help keep this board hopping.

I'll recover from this illness and plan to let you outfish me again real soon, lol.

Enjoy the photo of me at your age vacationing in Bali in between my big international oil deals, living like a king.

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