A Rare Mid-week Fix

     Seeing as how I live two hours from the Salt and have to work a 9-5, a spontaneous midweek fishing trip rarely, if ever happen for me. That being the case, when I see the opportunity for a midweek fix, I jump on it. My buddy Ramsey was in town for a concert last Tuesday, and I had taken the next day off to recuperate, so naturally the best cure for a hangover was some time on the water.

We left Richmond around 8:30 in hopes of spending a beautiful day on the water, and maybe bending a rod. The Speckled Trout bite has really been picking up with the water temperature dropping, so after a quick stop at Oceans East 2, we were off to Rudee to meet Billy and hit the water.

     We paddled away from the ramp with plans to troll around until the tide started moving some. I hadn't made it more than 100 yards when I had a strike and the rod bent over and started bouncing-FISH ON! I knew right away it was a good sized Speck by the head shakes he was giving me. He quickly surfaced and began thrashing and splashing around behind me. Luckily, both trebble hooks on my MirrOlure MirOdine had planted firmly in the fished face, and after a short fight I  landed the feisty trout.

A Healthy 18" Speckled Trout

I continued trolling for a while, but it was unproductive in the dead low tide. Billy had picked up a small trout and a couple small pups bouncing bottom, so Ramsey and I headed over to see if we could get him on a fish. The tide was just starting to move back in and it wasn't long before Ramsey had a solid hit on his jighead and drove the hook home. Not being a kayak fisherman, he did a great job of fighting and landing the fish.

 Ramsey's 16" Puppy Drum

We kept at it drifting around the same grassline, and after another half hour or so, Alex had a strong hit. This fish looked bigger, and I thought he had a good trout, but after a moment he landed an 18.25" puppy drum. He was stoked to finally have caught a slot red- the waters have been teeming with 10-16" pups all summer, but the slot fish have been few and far between.

     The rest of the day was slow. I landed two dink Specks around 12" while trolling the incoming, Billy caught a few Specks, a couple Blues, and a Croaker. We headed in around 7:00, happy to have spent a beautiful day on the water with good friends- having caught fish was just a bonus.