Day 1 and it was quite an eventful day, I had a great time and got lots of exercise. What is a Slam you ask, it is...
It is when you catch three separate species of the for targeted species we go after. They are speckled trout, red fish, flounder and/or snook.
I'm in contact with several of the locals and we plan on meeting up tomorrow at Bottoms road boat launch. They all wisely chose tomorrow as a better day because of that high forecast in winds today. Unfortunately, when traveling you're on mother nature's schedule and I'm going to work with what I'm dealt.
I started that Wakulla Beach and decided because of the forecast ENE winds I would focus on the west shoreline hoping there would be bait pushed up over there with the bonus of smart spots showing hot. I headed towards the oyster bars south of the launch area and landed a ladyfish on the way while trolling slam shady bomber. I fished the bars for a few minutes and had a couple noncommittal passes at my moonwalker. I then headed west for the shoreline. So far easy going, so far 😜. I work the shoreline from north to south about a quarter mile and the wind was really starting to pick up and there's no bait site. Now what?
I decided I needed the exercise so the plan was to head over to the oyster bars in the North East almost 2 miles go away now in the wind was directly in my face. So I put some poles out and started trolling that way. After all, into that when I could only go so fast. When I got over in the vicinity of those oyster bars I started at I landed a nice jack. Species #2. Unfortunately, during the fiasco with the jack I got lined around my prop and my net fell overboard and we seem to be floating an opposite direction. By the time the prop is clear the net was nowhere insight and I had a bunch of distance to make up thanks to the wind.
Well I made it to the oyster bars in the wind was still pretty brisk but the waves were were not as bad. There I caught a nice chunky 15 1/2” trout and pretty red that maybe you could have made 20" with a good pinch of the tail. Species #3 & 4. I surprisingly was getting a lot of little nibbles that I couldn't figure out and a lot of the action was right at the kayak. Only one of those little nibbles at the boat was on really started pulling back, what was it. I finally got to see my FG not come to the surface and I was going to find out. Flounder! My Slam! But my net is gone 🤬. I got his lips at the edge of my kayak and he took one last shake and my slam was gone. 😭 Species #5, kinda.
Then I saw some tailing on an oyster bar and got out to wade. I chased a big ugly black drum around for a little bit, he was a monster. Species #6. Then I saw some more tailing and waking and was pretty confident it was a red; unfortunately, the sun went behind clouds for quite a while I was never able to track it down. But in some blind casting I did catch my smallest ever fish on a lure, see picture. Species #7.
I decided to call in today. On the way in I was visited by a pod of 3 dolphins that surfaced in front of me and came swimming right down the side of my kayak, then turned around and came back to the other side popped up said hello and then moved on. Species #8. One heck of a day, had a great time!