September Speckled Trout on the Flats - Pensacola Fishing
Capt. John Rivers
September 18, 2012
Pensacola - Saltwater Fishing Report
We're two weeks into September and I'm excited about the cooler weather headed our way. What a difference a month makes. Last month the mornings were a bit humid and hot and I was breaking a sweat some days even at 5:30 am, but this week the mornings are going to be in the middle 50's. This Sunday was similar weather, cooler with calm winds, but it was a neap tide.
I knew it was going to be a slower bite as it usually is on a neap-tide, but I had the day off and so did the wife and we wanted to do a little fun fishing. Again to become a better fisherman you need to fish in all kinds of conditions, cloudy / sunny skies, high winds, low / high or neap tides. Because whether you're an inshore guide or can only fish on the weekends or couple of days a week, you never know what the weather is going to do.
You can check the tides with the tide charts, so if it's a neap tide, you should fish neap tides to see what works and find areas that produce on these types of conditions. So let's talk about our trip: my first spot was not so productive, although Gina had a nice blowup on a top-water plug. It was a pretty good fish from the size of the explosion. It hit the lure with such force that it only lasted a second and broke her off. I pulled up the Minn Kota I-Pilot and headed to spot # 2. This spot looked fishy, lots of mullet jumping and small bait pods, but again not much to show for. We did manage a couple of small specks and small ladyfish, but I wanted to find better fish. So again stowed the gear and moved to spot # 3, where we managed a few more small fish and again I was not impressed with the quality of fish so I moved to spot # 4. I started my drift down the bank and I heard Gina say, "Hey, I got one, and it's a good one." Ok, maybe I finally found some fish. I grabbed the net and it was a nice 18" speck.
I was grabbing my rod and I heard Gina say again, "Got another one." Two casts and two good fish. I was all smiles. I looked at my Lowrance and made a mental note on what our depth was and where we were. I netted her fish and this one was a nice 17" speck. She was tossing a MirrOlure MirrOdine 17MR – 808 and I was tossing a new bait I wanted to try, a Z-Man Scented PaddlerZ in Houdini. I've been using MirrOlures for over 20 years and they have proven to be quality hard baits, but I always like to try new products that come out and see how they perform. This new bait by Z-Man caught my eye a while back so I got a few and wanted to test them out. Well I am glad I made some room in my tackle bag for these. The baits are great with the ElaZtech technology, it is virtually indestructible which means you'll fish longer with one bait and catch plenty of fish. So after Gina caught her second fish and I jumped up on the deck and started tossing my rig.
I hooked a few nice fish and we were both trying to keep count on who had the most trout. I noticed Gina's leader needed changing, so I handed her my rod and swapped out her leader. She was hooking a few nice fish on the Z-Man so I started throwing her MirrOlure and on my third cast I hooked a toad. Gina grabbed the net for me and netted the biggest fish of the day, a nice 24" gator.
We paused a bit for some pics and were about to get back to fishing when the fish rolled and one of the treble hooks sank into my thumb near the joint. I was not a happy camper because it messed up our fishing trip.
I had Gina hold the hook and I took off the lure so all I had was a treble hook in my hand. We stowed the gear and headed back to the ramp to take me to the doctor. I tried to push it through so we could keep fishing, but the hook was imbedded in my tendon so I decided to leave it in. What a bummer ending to a nice day of fishing; I spent 4 hrs in the ER and almost had to have surgery. Two docs couldn't get the hook out without doing damage to my thumb tendon.
So they had to get an Ortho Doc and he was able to get the hook out without taking me up to surgery.
So tally for the day was 20+ trout, one missed big fish, and even the fish got in on the tally with one very sore fisherman.
My thumb is sore, but I should be back on the water Thursday and Friday for some more fun filled trout action. Of course, I'll have gloves on and use my fish grippers or the wife will come unglued!
Tight Lines.
John
Mega-Bite Inshore Charters
www.megabiteinshore.com
850-341-9816
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