Personal Best Speck

Last weekend Tracy caught her biggest speck ever. This weekend it was my turn.

After supper I started throwing a Spook Jr. while Tracy went in the trailer to mix up some hummingbird nectar and change. On the second or third cast I got a solid fish on but didn't realize how big it was until later. There was a boat cruising down the river watching me so I acted like it was just another hardhead even though the whole time the fish was stripping line and making me move up and down the river bank to keep up.

Tracy finally came out and expertly netted the 25" big girl. I was pumped up as this beat my previous record by 2". This fish was easily over 4lbs and gave it her all before coming to hand.

The mosquitos chased us in at sundown but we were up early and headed upriver with our topwaters and a baitwell of live shrimp. Tracy had a big fish early on her topwater but after 30 seconds of drag screaming runs it came off. We didn't get our eyes on it but for the record we are going to call it a redfish otherwise she will continue to have nightmares about the big trout that got away. We caught lots of ladyfish and I managed a couple of sheepshead including this little guy.

His big brother showed some battle scars and had no trouble chomping the live shrimp.

Tracy caught this little redfish. These guys were bright copper colored and feisty.

I got in on the redfish action too!

This was the most unusual catch of the day - a needlefish on a topwater. Tracy caught three nice specks and I added one so when we headed back to PPRV for lunch we were already feeling pretty blessed.

I didn't manage the baitwell and we lost the remaining shrimp, so I decided to throw the topwater a few times before going in for lunch. Once again there was a big girl just waiting for a hapless mullet to swim by.

This 21 1/2 incher grabbed the dog walking lure and did a sumersault before crashing back into the river and the fight was on!

Tracy came out in time to help me land the nice speck and took some nice pictures.

I could see some more big specks in the river so after lunch I headed back to the bait shop for some more shrimp. We fished for a while but apparently the trout had moved. We hadn't yet washed the boat so I suggested another ride on the river to see if we could find some fish. It was plenty warm but we had enough cloud cover to keep the extreme heat of the direct sun off our necks.

This time we went down the river below the intracoastal. On the way down river we spotted two whitetail bucks on the edge of the water. Cool! We found a spot with a grassy shoreline and anchored the Second Honeymoon. Here Tracy is fighting a ladyfish.

We caught all kinds of fish - Tracy even added another 21" trout to the box. I hooked a big shark and played it to the boat but after we both got a few looks at it and decided not to bring it onboard I did a LDCR move which solved the problem. Wade fishing anyone?

We finished the day trying once again to temp a fish in the river in front of the trailer but the remaining shrimp ended up feeding the pinfish and hardheads along the rocks. We had a great day and boxed seven quality trout over the two days. I'll be making some friends happy with some fresh fish!