megalomaniac
Well-Known Member
Had a buddy that wanted to go fishing with me this past weekend, I had a feeling it was going to be tough with all the freshwater we've had from the rains past 2 weeks, but I felt confident we'd still be able to get on the reds, as low Friday night was 36 causing a 5 deg drip in water temps to low to mid 50s, which should concentrate the fish in deeper holes, but high Sunday was going to be 70, causing water temps to go back up to high 59s and theoretically entice the fish to feed. Wind decent on Sunday.
I pulled up the satellite image Saturday for the marsh, and lots of chocolate milk water in the gulf (fishing the area inside the blue semicircle). Yuck, water looks terrible. Checked the NOAA buoys in the area and salinity was down to near zero.
I told my buddy Saturday afternoon conditions were far from ideal, but I felt confident we could catch reds... but we could also go the the MS/AL state line instead and get into some clean water, but I've never fished there before, so I don't have any proven spots. He said he'd rather fish the marshes on the wast side of the state, so we loaded up at 430a and drove down. Had 2h of strong falling tide, then slack for 3h, the rising good the rest of the day till dark, so my plan was to hit the holes for trout at first light, then just grind banks of the canals for reds during slack tide, all while searching for cleaner water in the deepest parts of the marsh.
Got to the first spot, muddy water, good current, but no salinity and no fish. Same for my next 5 spots. By now tide was slack so we moved a few miles back into the marsh and water color was a bit better. Ground out 5 reds in the next 3 hours, the headed far east to a series of bayous I've never been in before. Pretty good looking water, some salinity, but couldn't buy a fish. Worked our way back to the launch and picked up another red and 3 largemouth which were short but crazy fat.
I think we ended up travelling 17 miles, only saw 2 other boats in 9 hours fishing. 6 reds, 3 bass, zero trout. Beautiful day, but fishing just sucked. Learned a valuable lesson... no point in fishing saltwater fish when there is no saltwater!
I pulled up the satellite image Saturday for the marsh, and lots of chocolate milk water in the gulf (fishing the area inside the blue semicircle). Yuck, water looks terrible. Checked the NOAA buoys in the area and salinity was down to near zero.
I told my buddy Saturday afternoon conditions were far from ideal, but I felt confident we could catch reds... but we could also go the the MS/AL state line instead and get into some clean water, but I've never fished there before, so I don't have any proven spots. He said he'd rather fish the marshes on the wast side of the state, so we loaded up at 430a and drove down. Had 2h of strong falling tide, then slack for 3h, the rising good the rest of the day till dark, so my plan was to hit the holes for trout at first light, then just grind banks of the canals for reds during slack tide, all while searching for cleaner water in the deepest parts of the marsh.
Got to the first spot, muddy water, good current, but no salinity and no fish. Same for my next 5 spots. By now tide was slack so we moved a few miles back into the marsh and water color was a bit better. Ground out 5 reds in the next 3 hours, the headed far east to a series of bayous I've never been in before. Pretty good looking water, some salinity, but couldn't buy a fish. Worked our way back to the launch and picked up another red and 3 largemouth which were short but crazy fat.
I think we ended up travelling 17 miles, only saw 2 other boats in 9 hours fishing. 6 reds, 3 bass, zero trout. Beautiful day, but fishing just sucked. Learned a valuable lesson... no point in fishing saltwater fish when there is no saltwater!
