JestersHK

Looks like any hope of Wade fishing is going to be out for my trip down next week? Anywhere you can wade at further down? At least the fish are biting though. That's a beautiful Brown there and love that fish box. Thanks,

Not sure what his dry fly of choice was. I'll see if I can get ahold of him.

Awesome fish and great job on the catch! Beautiful colors on that one. Thanks for sharing.

Quick trip report from this weekend. No pics this time as fish were nothing spectacular. Only cool thing I saw was a huge nest of water snakes down by the handicap ramp under the Apron. Must have been 40-50 water snakes out there sunning themselves. Made it down to the camper late Thursday night. Woke up Friday and did some chores and upkeep. Finally made it down to the water around 10:30 or so. Started fishing on the apron below the dam. Water was fairly low and a bit more clear than I've seen it in a while. Was pretty slow and caught just a few 12in fish. Moved around a bit back to the top side of the dam and caught a few keepers for dinner. Didn't stay out too long and fish were a tad smaller than the ones we've seen the past few months. Over all I think I caught 9 or 10 in about 4 hours. Threw multiple maribou jigs in different colors and weights. Landed most fish on the Olive Wooly bugger with metallic highlights and a gold head 1/32 sized fished low and slow towards the bottom. Not my best day... My buddy on his fly rod had a slow first couple of hours as well. Nothing on Glow balls, and didn't start catching till he switched over to top water. Saturday we headed down a bit earlier around 8:30 or so. Started above the dam and moved down onto the apron catching a few here and there. Bite was a little better. We headed down further below the outlet and fished right before and after the bluffs. Got into a nice school right before the bluff wall and landed about 5 fish in a row. Again all on the Olive Wooly bugger. River started to get packed the further we went down and at the main spillway from the outlet it started raining. We headed back up and took a break for the rain to move out. I headed back down around 2:00 and fished the top of the dam. Landed a couple nice keepers around the 1.5lb mark. Had a decent fish pull the hook on me too. That seemed to be my luck. After the bite stopped I headed to zone 1 and fished from the light house back down to the dam. Caught maybe 10 more or so in that stretch and finally called it a day. I probably caught 80% of my fish on the olive wooly bugger. Threw a bunch of other stuff and even drifted a few different patterns under a float. The low and slow jigging seemed about the only thing that would produce fish consistently. River got pretty busy on Saturday being the holiday and all, but you could still find a quiet spot for a bit if you kept moving. Overall a pretty average trip. Good luck out there.

+ 1 on the Pfluegger president, Last year I picked up a Quantum Energy and it has been rock solid and amazing so far after a long season. Taking them both apart before the season started you could see where the extra money went. I purchased a model year close out after they released the next model year so the Energy wasn't too much more than the Pfluegger.

Nice Reds! Tried to get on some of those while in FL, but no such luck. Stalking them from the Yak looks like an amazing time! Thanks for sharing.

Great good to know. You guys ok with bring your own troller? Thanks!

Beautiful fish Phil, Thanks for sharing. 16 days and counting and I will be down there for the week! Can't wait to fish that dock. If we were to rent a boat from you guys, how much lead time do we need to let you all know? Thanks,

Man nice looking fish. You weren't kidding about busting out the white maribous.

Thats a big kitty... Although the odds are still pretty astronomical to be attacked by one thats one of the things always in the back of my mind while walking out to the deer stand in darkness. The picture from the one on the game cam in MO stalking the deer makes you realize just how close they can stalk without you even knowing they are there.

I know last weekend at Bennett it was really crowded even at the whistle at 6:30. Fishing was pretty dead by around 10 down there so I would say the earlier the better. Hard with little ones though... I thought I read somewhere that they would be restocking throughout the day, but a friend of mine said they were not doing that this year. Maybe they will at Meramec. If the same MDC group shows up, or if its similar to Bennett they will have tents setup with different games and activities for the kiddos. Hopefully the Bird team is there. They had live owls and a hawk there which was really cool for the kids to see. They gave all the kids a little backpack filled with goodies, and a big bag of fish food for feeding at the hatchery. Good luck hope you guys catch em!

Beautiful fish, and I agree those are some amazing shots you took there. Wish I had those photog skills, I always end up taking ipotato pics with the cell phone...

I'll def take you up on that. Won't be back down to Florida till next year. Its crazy how you mention the schooling of the ocean fish. The morning I caught the lady fish a huge prolly 80-100ft in diameter ball of bait fish moved in under the pier. Remarkable to see this black ball just teaming with larger predator fish running lines all through them. Closest thing I ever saw to that was a school of sardines while snuba'ing in Aruba. Huge balls of Sardines 30-40ft in diameter and when a predator swam through them they would make a bubble all around the bigger fish. Ocean is an awesome place. If it wasn't for the sand, hurricanes, sand, heat, sand, humidity, sand, and the tourists I'd almost consider living closer to the big water LOL. Did I mention I HATE sand. Still finding sand over 2 weeks later.

We were down for the whistle on Saturday. Was def a big crowd. Kiddo caught about 8 fish on her own, made me proud. Been trying to get a TR up with some pics, but fishing was slammed with a ton of folks down there. Plus I started busy as I had my dad with me who's almost legally blind so didn't get to fish much myself, but him and the kiddo had a blast. MDC did a great job IMO with all the stuff there for the kids.

That sounds awesome hoglaw. I saw a few kayakers out there on my one day when the surf was down. I do regret not fishing inshore more. Those trout and gator trout look like a fun time. Saw a nice bull red get hooked up, but I never got one on the line. Def on my list for next year.

John, I was thinking the same thing with the sabiki rig. I'm going to try and mock one up with some 2 or 4lb and some micro hooks. I think jigging them like you do for ocean bait would yield some results off of docks and such. One rigged with some zebra midges might work on the trout too.

Beautiful pics. Thanks for sharing.

Was just there 2 weeks ago. Left a quick report here Lots of catfish at the pier and in the bay. Pomps, Kings, Spanish, and Cobia were all being caught as well. Check out the forums here. Tons of daily reports and guys sharing where the bite is at. http://www.pensacolafishingforum.com/ Good luck!

Now thats funny right there... Too bad we lost the audio to the secret NSA archives.

Awesome, Thanks NoLuck. Heard they stocked some big ones in there last year. Hoping the little one can land a lunker!

Heading down this weekend for Kids day with my dad and oldest daughter. Anyone know which section they block off for them? Assuming fishing starts at the 6:30 whistle? Looked for some rules and info on the MDC site, but couldn't find much. Mainly wondering how they handle adults helping with netting and such. Looks like we are going to have some awesome weather. TIA guys, JestersHK

Ha, I say let that one count lol. What a beautiful fish. Thanks

Made it down to Destin last weekend with the family. Although the weather didn't cooperate I still squeezed in a few fishing sessions. Last year I purchased a 9ft surf rod and did some googling to figure out how to catch ocean fish on my own and skip the pricey charters. I had surf fished before, and started in on some pier fishing as well, and it is an absolute blast and relatively cheap. A $200 budget/investment will get you all the gear you need for the occasional trip. It makes for a nice change of pace from slaying trout, and you never quite know what you are going to catch out there. Had a break in the storms on Sunday and we loaded up to hit the sea side beach. Kids and I hunted for some sand fleas and after I found a few I rigged up and chucked out a number 6 circle hook on a fish finder rig. After about 10 minutes I had my first fish on of the day. A nice little sail cat. Rain started back up, and I only managed to catch one more. Saw a nice stingray while wading out, but couldn't get him to bite. Storms rolled in that night and the swells were huge. Red flags all over the beaches so unfortunately my surf fishing was done. Next night I headed out around 9:30 after the fam went to sleep and hit up Okaloosa Pier on Okaloosa Island. I stayed through the night and must have caught about 60 Saltwater cats of various sizes with the biggest being about 5 pounds. I literally was catching one as soon as my bait hit the bottom. I tried squid shrimp and even some bait fish caught on the sabiki rig to try and catch something else, but thats my luck. At least I was catching something LOL. I ended up staying out all night and around 5:30 the Local guys started showing up waiting for the Spanish and King Macks to start coming by, A huge swarm of bait fish came through and I cut the weights off and tried catching a King by floating my bait towards the surface. As my luck would have it I hooked up but it was just a big lady fish. A quick but fun fight, then I was heading back to the condo to have breakfast. On my last morning I only had a few hours to fish. Check out was late morning so I got up early and headed back to the Pier. I spent an hour or so catching bait, then around sunrise the locals began showing up to try for Spanish and Kings again. A father and son from Ohio I fished with the night before were back and while we were chatting the son hooked into something big. He had a screamer on and fish was making some huge runs. We initially thought it was a big King or a Cobia. He finally got it to the surface and it was a nice size spinner shark. Not really what we were fishing for but it was a good fight while it lasted. At this point I hadn't even hooked anymore catfish. It was looking gloomy on my hopes for a King, and the darn dolphins had moved in and were stealing baits left and right off our lines. Around 7am I hooked up one of my few remaining cigar minnows, and cast out. After 5 minutes or so rod tip bent over and I was hooked up! Was a pretty quick fight, was hoping for a nice Bull Red, but ended up being about a 5.5ft Blacktip Shark. He made some good runs, and as soon as I'd get him to the surface back down he'd go. Wish I could of landed him on the beach surf fishing, and did not want to harm him bringing him up to the pier so I had to cut him off. Here's a quick vid of the end of my battle with him. http://vid1066.photobucket.com/albums/u402/JestersHK/455B6834-E46D-4EAC-BC4B-9D4F413124D6_zpsl5ewazfs.mp4 Hope you all enjoy and tight lines guys JestersHK

Rainbow trout - lots of em LOL Longear sunfish Bluegill Goggle eye Channel Cat Flathead Cat White Crappie Last weeks saltwater trip in Destin yielded me Ladyfish Hardhead Saltwater cat - about a gabillion of these... Sailfin Cat Spanish Mack 5.5ft Blacktip Shark 4 or 5 different kinds of bait fish on a sabiki rig

Thanks for the report. Hope the size of the fish keeps up like it has been. Definitely better than this time last season.