It had been quite a while since had the Gheenoe out on the water. Work has been crazy...10-12 hour days sometimes, learning new software that's been installed at my place of employment, extended family issues that seem to compound exponentially day-by-day, not getting enough sleep and feeling exhausted every day, those have been the reasons that I've felt almost just too tired to even want to be on the water, yet...that's really where I should be to escape all of that, even if it's only for a temporary period of time, right? An upcoming trip out of state required me to take the boat and trailer in for servicing beforehand so there are no unexpected crises that pop-up during my travels due to neglect or ignorance on my part. Now, finally, things have begun to settle down and I decided to take the little boat out for a trip after a long hiatus. I take a quick peek at the tides and decide that it's do-able and begin to make plans accordingly.
The first question is always 'who to invite'. I have a list of good friends and NCLA members that I can choose from and eventually I'd like to take them all but I have to start somewhere and "My Contacts" app on my phone was just the place to start. Scrolling down the list of names, I needed to pick someone that would have no problem with meeting me at the crack of dawn and be able to stay out until well into the afternoon without getting too hot or needing to relieve their bladder. Where I was planning on going would not allow for a quick exit from the boat nor have a safe place to trod upon said exit. Lori seemed like the perfect candidate and so I reached out to her and even though she had much farther to drive than I did, she happily accepted my offer and so the planning began!
We agreed to meet at a place we call Fish Creek. Although that's the name of the body of water we were going to be navigating through and fishing, the actual name of the launch site is called Joe's Fish Creek Camp. It's a large piece of private property in Ozello that the owner's open up for vessel launch for a $5.00 parking fee. Not too bad given the fact that there is really no other way to get to this area without launching at another ramp and using up a ton of fuel. The down-side is that it's a very tricky place to navigate with lots of shallow sand spots that you have to maneuver around to avoid and if you don't know how to do that...you certainly won't get very far from the ramp. I am lucky enough to have friends who know the area well and showed me the route on a previous trip so I was fairly confident in my ability to stay in the deeper cuts as long as I went slow.
By 7:00 a.m. that morning we both had arrived but we weren't the only ones launching there. There was another gentleman who was already preparing his boat for launch in front of us so we pulled behind him and began preparing our boat as well while we chatted with him about the goals of the day. He told us that he was waiting for a couple of friends who hadn't arrived yet and so he moved his boat over so that we could put in after he pulled his rig up from the ramp. We situated ourselves, got all of our gear organized and after a little 'misunderstanding' with my motor, we were underway.
By 7:00 a.m. that morning we both had arrived but we weren't the only ones launching there. There was another gentleman who was already preparing his boat for launch in front of us so we pulled behind him and began preparing our boat as well while we chatted with him about the goals of the day. He told us that he was waiting for a couple of friends who hadn't arrived yet and so he moved his boat over so that we could put in after he pulled his rig up from the ramp. We situated ourselves, got all of our gear organized and after a little 'misunderstanding' with my motor, we were underway.
We launched at low tide so we had to be very careful to stay in the deepest part of the creek. The plan was to make our way into some back feeder creeks where the bigger skiffs wouldn't be able to go, but it was still too shallow for my boat to make it through, even with the trolling motor, so we had to wait it out until the incoming tide raised the water level enough for us to creep back there. Meanwhile we would just fish the Creek in some of the deep holes that still possibly held fish. We spent the next hour casting lines, chatting and catching up on things going on in our lives. I had started out using topwater and Lori was throwing frozen (now thawed) shrimp. Suddenly in the middle of our conversation her line got tight and her rod bent over. FISH ON. Woo Hoo !!
Tried as I might, I had lost several fish on my artificials (topwater and subsurface), but Lori jog the job done by boating the first fish of the day. It's always exciting when you're fighting a fish while not knowing what species you've hooked. As Lori reeled her fish in closer to the boat, we were able to identify it as a redfish and gave one another a high-five. It's always fun to boat them. She made quick work of dehooking, photographing and releasing her fish. We chatted a few minutes about the awesome catch, readjusted our gear and reevaluated the possibility of heading back to our original plan.
Was hoping that enough time had past and the incoming tide had raised the water level enough so I could get my little boat over a muddy grass flat that separated the main creek, where we were currently fishing, from some backwater tributaries I wanted to explore and naturally I wanted to get back there before anyone else decided to. So we raised the back motor up and engaged the trolling motor and headed in that direction...all the while taking notice of water depth. It was still pretty shallow but we managed to make the best of it and make our way over and past that muddy grass flat to the other side where I had a little more water to work with.
We spent the next few hours exploring and finding some habitat that looked promising. I was using topwater and subsurface lures and Lori was using shrimp on a popping cork. We hit oysterbar passes and cuts. We hit grass patches. We threw under overhanging mangrove bushes and came up empty handed. It's not that we didn't see any fish...we spooked several redfish accidentally and seven saw a huge one tailing. We just couldn't see to get anyhing to bite no matter how hard we tried. The water level began to rise and the wind began to pick up. We began to see skiffs making their way back to where we were so we decided to call it a day and slowly head back to the main creek. Along the way, we came up on a cove we thought we'd take a peek at and as we rounded the point, Lori threw her popping cork under a shady mangrove bush. A few seconds later her bobber went under and her line got tight. No sooner had that happened, her line became slack again. When she reeled in her line, she discovered that her hook, sinker weight and leader line had been cut. All that remained was her popping cork bobbing in the water. Gillplate of a snook? Shark? We never knew what cut her line with such swift percision but something did. We took it as a sign that it was time to head back in. We didn't slay 'em out there or anything but we sure had fun catching up on the drama and events of our lives and hopefully we can do it again real soon!
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