It was a chamber of commerce day out there in the morning. It was a little chillier than I expected, but we managed. The water temps ranged from 68 to 72 degrees during the day.
In my view, the bait was stacked up in the third channel because first channels we fished were pretty strong with traffic - both power boat and kayak.
Before the launch, we talked to some yakkers coming in around 2 am. One had a good flounder, and one guy said he caught two barely legal specks in the lights but otherwise, it was slow. I did not put much stock in those reports, as I am pretty confident about my abilities - especially at night - and I told DandyDon that we would do better.
We fished two surface lights that face into the bay. One had nothing (which was consistent with my experience at that same light about four weeks ago), and I landed three small specks at the other, with several bites, in about 15 minutes. The water was covered with floating grass, which made it difficult to navigate even a lure on a jighead without fouling the hook or line with grass. Since it was so still, those night fish can be easily spooked, so a stealthier approach is required. The floating grass inhibited that. However, as we hit the third channel, we began catching real fish at 4:15 am when the minor feed began - a slot red, followed by three 16 to 18 inch trout. In the morning, I landed a 15 inch and 19 inch trout, but threw the 15 inch back since I had already had enough for a family meal.
Once first light hit, and we made our way to the bay, I decided to spend a little time napping, since I had been getting little sleep in the last three days. Since I had some fish in the bag already, and the conditions were beautiful, I thought I would catch some shuteye . I caught a 45 minute catnap and was back at it at 7:30 am. Don had been hard at it since first light, as he was working over the morning schools when I joined him. Putting his decades of fishing experience to good use, he evened up the talley with some quality fish as I snoozed.
The fish I caught during this trip were caught on a 1/4 oz yellow jighead containing a glo/chartreuse or a Key Lime Down South 4 inch paddle tails, tipped with a Shrimp Flavored Fishbites, worked steady through the water column, at a depth of 2-3 feet.
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The red I caught on the same lure, but my experience with reds and canal lights is that one must work the lure slowly near the bottom, as that is usually where they can be found. That is what happened on this night.
My night fish were caught in lights where there were actively feeding fish, but I intentionally focus on the darkness just outside the light, as experience has shown that this is where the bigger trout can be found.
The two fish I caught that the morning were in 4-5 feet of water with about 12-18 inches of visability; the throwback 15 hooked on the troll and the 19 inch bonus fish hooked while casting to nervous water.
Stay tuned for amazing video from a recent trip to Florida where, between two boats, we jumped 27 tarpon, and landed 12, in a 4 hour period. It will not be a kayak report, but who in their right mind does not love video of huge tarpon jumps 20 yards from the boat, while bull sharks tear apart two of them right in front of us?
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