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Topwater Troutfest

Inshore 
3K views 16 replies 10 participants last post by  dbeam 
#1 ·
I remember one night back in March or April, after a late Sunday sprint up to Weldon for the striped feesh, when I was driving home and thought to myself - "I'm exhausted, I will never again participate in this tomfoolery".
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Cody and I double stacked the yaks on Jolene, the faithful Taurus, at 2 PM yesterday and headed east. We launched at 4:15, and in about 5 minutes, the skunk was off thanks to the willing participation of some little stripers and drum. Wind was working the points, as we worked the current breaks adjacent to them. Cody caught a few stripers trolling, and I slung my favorite dinged up chartreuse super spook jr, getting enough bumps, blow-ups, and slurps to keep on keepin' on.

We turned our attention to the opposite bank of the flow we were fishing, where wind was beating the bank and a creek mouth came in that masked a pretty well defined current break with some feeding activity. Cody cranked in short stripers and a barely keeper or 2, with fish that improved as he moved along the bank. I also heard some loud expletives that I later learned to be signals that a quality fish had wrapped him around a log.

I moved into the creek mouth where the water turned to glass, and started working the spook. First cast around the sheltered bend into the creek, fish on. 8 aggressive schoolies more or less back to back in the 16-18" range, with 2 nicer ones that weren't very keen on coming to the boat (they eluded me at different points in the fight).

At this point, I was satisfied with our trip... but there was this one spot we had eyed from some map study that looked like it would be perfect. Cody and I moved to fish opposite sides of the same island, and shortly, we were into them, as evidenced by the sound of explosions and headshakes. Fish were on wind breaks, following the schools of bait with very apparent feeding. I worked my spook erratically, much to the delight of the speckled prey. Every trout was a keeper, and some far exceeded the minimum mark.

After catching a couple of 14-15" snacks, I switched it up and casted down the more sheltered bank towards some scared shrimp. Walking the dog commenced, and a monstrous explosion ensued. Drag ripped for a moment, and then my line broke somewhere on the leader. I switched over to a top pup (which I don't like nearly as much as the super spook jr), and took a few casts as I hung my head and mourned the loss of my favorite lure. Then, like a sign from above, I saw a chartreuse object rise to the surface as if it had returned from the dead. Before I knew what was happening, I was wearing the rest of the enamel off of my canine teeth as I quickly bit off the top pup and re-tied the spook. In yon distance, I could see and hear Cody continue catching while I fumbled with my leader line anxiously.

As if I wasn't already convinced that I had been witness to some sort of miracle, more good luck came my way on that first cast back out. Walked the spook steady upon impact, then let it pause. Before resuming twitching, something came from the deep with murderous intentions, and erupted in a splash that Cody could see from 100 yards away. After the first initial run, I felt a headshake, and knew what I was dealing with. One rather pathetic fight later, and my personal best trout was sitting in my lap.
Vertebrate Salmon-like fish Fisherman Fish Recreational fishing

24.5", ~5lbs, and mannnnnnnnn was I stoked. Once my hands stopped trembling, I resumed fishing.

My side of the island turned off as the wind let off, and I headed over to fish with Cody. His stringer was full and he was continuing to thump em, so he stuck with the spot a little longer and I moved to the bank a couple casts past him where we could see occasional blow-ups. A few casts later, I determined that there was a 21" trout who was interested in chartreuse.
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The wind got calmer while the sun began to wane, and we began to fish our way back to the launch with meat in tow. En route, Cody's stringer got an upgrade as an 18" trout thumped the lure he was trolling.

Grinning ear to ear, we pulled the kayaks out as we marveled at how excellently the evening had worked out with such a small window of time to fish. 4 hours on the road, 3 hours on the water, my 2 biggest trout to date, and 1 full cooler!
Food Fish Seafood Water Ray-finned fish

(Cody's stringer)

Smile Food Fish Seafood Ray-finned fish


Thanks for reading y'all!!!
 
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#9 ·
HAHAHAHA, you drink pumpkin spice beverages!!!!! Do you dip your topwater in your drink this time of year, is that the secret? Nice work bud! Glad to see a good fishing report and not another bad knee or "I've got another wedding to go to" report.
 
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