Ocean Man

Just like the weekend before last,Duayne and I camped out at Ft Mcrae and slaughtered the fish all weekend. We got toSand Island late Friday night and set up camp. We relaxed by the fire for a little while before heading off to bed.When we got up Saturday morning we walked around the island for a while trying to find some Flounder. We caught a few but they were all to small. We went back to camp, cooked up a good lunch and relaxed for a while. Later that day we decided to walk around to the North side of Sand Island to fish the ICW for some Spanish. We found a nice little spot holding a bunch of bait with the occasional Spanish crashing through them. We had a lot of fun throwing live alewives to them with our ultra lite set ups. We caught a handful of them before we ran out of steel leader and headed back to camp. Later that evening we ran into and chatted withJeremy (Reel Addiction) in the cove on our way out to try out our Snapper hole in the bay. We anchored up on the spot and started catching some small Snapper right away. It didn't take long before Duayne bows up and boats a nice 21 in Snapper. After some high fives we got back to fishing and a little later Duayne bows up again. This time the fish is stripping a bunch of line. Jeremy was driving by and came by to see what we were catching. Duayne got the fish boat side as they were pulling up. Turned out to be a big Stingray.



We continued on fishing after the ray and Duayne caught another nice Snapper 20 in.



With 2 nice Snapper in the box we get back to fishing. I had a large pinfish down on the bottom that got crushed.When thefish took off runningI knew it wasn't aSnapper but I wasn't sure what it was. Once I got it close to the boat it made a nice jump and I seen that it was a huge Ladyfish. By far the biggest one I've ever caught, 27 in and 3.5 lbs.



I dropped back down after catching the huge Ladyfish and pulled up a nice 18in Snapper. Three Snapper in the boat and its starting to get dark. Duayne drops back down and bows up on another nice Snapper. He gets it in the boat and its another 21 incher.We headed back to camp with smiles on our faces with a limit of bay Snapper in the box. Wewent back to campand Jeremy and his crew pulls up to our camp to hang out for a bit. After they left we cooked up some supper and hung out with the other campers for a little while. The next morning we got up and walked over to the spot we caught the Spanish the day before. This time instead of Spanish the Redfish were in there thick. We had our ultra lite's with 8lb test and were wearing them out. Both of us stayed hooked up constantly with nice upper slots. We kept 2 25 inchers and released the rest. Whenone of uswould bring one in to the beach there would be 3 or 4 more following it and the other would toss a bait to them and be hooked up. Some professional Redfishers seen us bowed up. Once they seen it was Redfish we were catching they eased up a little closer. They asked if we minded which we didn't as we were catching all we could stand. They were nice guys and fished along side us for a while but they didn't catch but one slot on the smaller side while we were bringing them in one after the other including one that was a max slot at just barely under 27 inches. After Duayne and I caught 20 or so the bite died down and we went back to Spanish fishing. The Spanish bite was not very good but we did manage to catch a few nice ones before heading back to camp. Once back at camp we cooked up a quick meal and swam/hung out with the other campers. Banana Tom was out there with his houseboat as well as his brother Jimmy and a bunch of others. Around 2:00 everybody packed up camp and the once hoping cove turned into a ghost town in a matter of minutes. After the beach cleared out Duayne and I started to pack up camp ourselves. We went on a mission to find some more spots in the bay that held some good fish. We found one spot early that looks pretty promising but we only pulled onebaby Grouper off it. So we moved on and drifted fished for a while near our good hole and found quite a bit of small structure a long way from our spot that was holding some nice fish. Duayne brought a big Snapper to the boat before it threw the hook, probably 24-25 inches. We already had our limit so he would have had to go back anyway. I dropped down a whole white trout andpulled up a 21.9 inch Grouper. Just shy of legal, so I let him go and watched my Grouper sandwiches swim back down to the bottom.It was getting dark and we were discussing picking up and going to the house when Duayne bow's up real good. After a shortfight the fish rocked him. Duayne gave him a little slack then pulled him out of his hole and won the battle. He worked him to the top and up pops a 27in Gag Grouper.:letsparty:letsparty



I laid all the fish on the deck that didn't get eaten during the campout for a final pick.



We had a great time and caught a bunch of good fish. I forgot to mention we took my dog Jake and he had a blast as well. By Sunday afternoon he was so tired he couldn't hardly stand up. I had to carry him outside this morning to go to the bathroom because he wouldn't get up on his own.

Brad King

Awesome catch Oceanman. You gonna make the Oct 11 campout. Would love to have a beer with you!!!!!1

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parrothead

Good report Matt. Nice pictures to. Sounds like you guys had a good time.clap:clap

Scott

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kbi_n_mayretta

thanks for the post & pics, awesome report! :bowdown

zodiac470

Awesome report as usual! Tell Duayne to get a haircut!

Clay-Doh

Man Matt!!! The dog days of summer! Sweet story man....and what a mixed bag of fish too!!!!



You guys gonna be out for the shark tourney aghain?

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Doogiesar

Great story to read. Thanks for posting and nice pics as well. This weekend was one of the best ones so far on the water. Looks like alot of fun out there camping. Maybe I will be out there Oct 10th weekend.

Getsome

Great report Matt, looks like you guys had a blast. I hope you can make the Shark Tourny the 11th. I don't think you have missed one yet. And thanks for the yellow gravel #.

Ocean Man

Brad & Clay, I will be out there for the campout but I'm not sure about the Shark Tourny part just yet. I may have to leave early for my niece's 5th birthday party.

Clay-Doh

Well as long as you get out there to hang out for a bit!

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