The Trout Factor - Coastal Georgia

Date Added: November 02, 2008 02:35:44 PM

Nearshore/Inshore Georgia Fishing: Inshore Trout and Red fishing continues to be excellent for most anglers and we all know it only gets better from here. The water temperature is falling pretty quick, now. We went from 86 degrees to the low 70's in a couple of weeks, and now it has crept down near the 65 degree mark. This sharp decline and then leveling, has sparked a pretty good fish bite in the rivers and near the beaches. After all the talk about bad weather throughout the summer months and terrible inshore fishing, the holy of holiest, the "Speckled Trout" has finally come knocking…. For ALL OF US. In nearly each instance I have visited local Marina's and Boat Ramps, the story has been equal. Trout! And, large numbers of them caught on a variety of bait. Although each angler has his/her own tactics for catching Trout, this season is starting out with the makes of very memorable one. The Bass Boys Story... I visited St. Simons Marina last weekend to check out who was catching what before the wind started blowing the following day. I had high hopes there would be a good crowd of fisherman there just before the Weather front approached, especially on a Saturday. As the barometer dropped through the early AM hours, I waited patiently to see who would be the first group back to the dock with a limit of Trout. At about 10 AM, a bass boat slid in and tied up. I watched with curiosity while they jostled with their gear and coolers, and the two anglers gave us a few hard stares as well. We don't see bass boats in saltwater all that much and I didn't recognize either of the anglers on board, so I minded my business, but only for so long. The two never came up the dock and were just standing around the boat like they were lost. Well, they were. I took a walk down after about 15 minutes to check on the Anglers and see if they had any questions as they looked very confused. They had been fishing in the Altamaha River (a brackish/more fresh) for large mouth Bass and took a wrong turn and ended up in the Intracoastal Waterway heading south and ran into St. Simons Marina after a fairly long Journey down river. The driver said he had never been to the GA Coast and both the guys were from Alabama. He told me they were lost and were looking for Two-Way fish camp. I told both of them they may need fuel and we'll have to go to lunch and let me draw them a map to find their way back. These guys were so far from their launching area, I couldn't believe it. During our conversation, the guys said they stopped along the way and fished several "points" of marsh grass that looked good to them. I asked them what they had used for bait and both the anglers were tossing black rubber worms with green and blue tails and had also been tossing a few spinner baits and jerk baits. Now, for the big question I had been leading up to for nearly 15 minutes. "Did you catch anything?", I asked. The driver looked at his companion and answered "Yes, we did… But we're not sure if these fish are legal in length and we're not 100% sure what they are". When he said that, my gut hit my knee caps. I was thinking these guys had killed a pile of undersize Redfish. So, I asked to see their catch and let them know I was not the ‘Police" and would lead them in the proper direction. The drivers fishing buddy opened up the large center release well on the aft deck of the Bass Cat with hesitation. His motion seemed intentionally slow and lifeless and was driving me nuts at that point. I wanted to know what they had in that well! Finally, he opened it and asked me to step on board. I took a quick look and stepped back on the dock. I shook my head and looked down and he slammed the lid shut. The driver of the boat asks me, "Are we in trouble?" with a curious look on his face. I answered with only this. "If I were you, I wouldn't take that mess of fish up here and clean them". It would have caused a fiasco if they had. The boys had themselves a box full of Trout in the 3-5 pound class! I finally quit holding out land let them in on their accomplishment and exactly what kind of day they had. "Getting lost was a good thing if this is the result", I said. I told them to be sure they didn't have any more than 30 fish total, so they began counting very cautiously. They had 26 Trout and 6 Redfish, all legal. The Trout were huge and every one of those fish came off Rubber worms, spinner baits and Jerk Shad. These guys didn't know a thing about saltwater fishing, were lost and had never fished this area in their life. They were simply good fisherman during a great Trout season. These guys were so scared they had done something wrong; they didn't know what to do and out of fuel. They wanted to ask directions and buy fuel, but were worried someone would ask if they had caught anything. Again, they weren't 100% sure they were trout, but they only THOUGHT they might be. Incredible… I will never forget it. After I was sure they were legal,

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