Date: Sunday, February 15, 2004
Location: North Guana Lake
Target species: Reds, trout, drum
Bait: Dead shrimp
Dale Ball and I waited four long weeks to see a day when the weather conditions would be right for catching some fish. Lately, the cold fronts had been accompanied by extremely high barometric pressure (BP) levels and freezing winds, and the rainy weekends had pushed the BP to extreme lows. And, of course, it's very uncomfortable to fish in piercing wind chills and constant rain.
But today we knew we would catch fish. The rain was gone, the skies were clear and sunny, the temperature was in the upper 60s, and the barometer was on the rise. It was perfect, despite the West winds which were gusting to 30 mph. As long as the sun was shining, we were warm.
We got only a few bites from 3:00 until 4:00 PM. But as it grew closer to sunset, we began to get bite after bite on our dead shrimp. Dale caught a crab, which I broke up and used for bait on one of my rigs. Soon I got a strong bite on the crab line. It was a huge red. In fact, it turned out to be my biggest red ever. It was 31 inches long and weighed 13 pounds.
Most of our fish were caught in a single spot, located just North of the tower on the West side of the lake near a slanted wooden pole. We anchored against the cattails facing East and fished about 20 - 30 feet from shore.
We continued to fish until our legs were so cold they felt numb (about 7:30). Just before we left, Dale hooked a big drum, which we figured weighed about 9 or 10 pounds; it flipped off before we could get it in the boat.
Actually, we left while the fish were still biting. But there is always next week... and time to buy thicker pants!
Note: The lake level is still above average, but has been lowered a bit more. It's now about 12 - 15 inches lower than it was the first of the year.
Here is a breakdown of our landings and other hard bites:
Redfish: 8, with one at 31 inches estimated to weigh about 13 pounds
Seatrout: 2
Black drum: 6, with one at about 9 or 10 pounds.
Total catch: 16
Other hard bites: 12
Total activity: 28
Wishing you great fishing,
Stu
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