Keaton Report April 21,22/2017

Photo Cutlines:

hannah Hornsby

Hannah Hornsby of Thomasville, Ga. with a nice redfish 4/15/17

Keaton Report

I was thinking of dropping the word "fishing" in front of report since they are all fishing reports?

Anyway the trout are improving depending on where you are and when you are there. Sounds confusingly simple I know, but on a tip from Bo Lester of Adel, Ga. of Possum Navy fame , who caught his limit the last three days staying at Keaton Beach; I decided to take Capt. Dave Malone down to where Bo had said he got his five trout in under two hours this a.m.( Wednesday 4/19/17) Sure glad we did as David put three trout to 19" in the boat in under :30 then when the tide laid flat he helped me catch pinfish, which I was doing the whole time he was catching trout. Dave was using his own 5/0, 1/8 oz. jighead with a discontinued Edge Bait in a color he doctored up to look like nothing you or I have ever seen; much less have the trout seen it and they just thought it was Great! After an hour or so of catching pinfish Capt. Dave picked up his rod again and on four casts had four keepers . Well, I couldn't stand that; so I stood up and on my second cast caught one 22" long. That put the fire out and ten minutes later we came in with 7 trout.

Monday, I had Michael and his Dad Mike Downing of Madison, Fl. out and we brought in 12 keeper trout. a huge 5 pound Spanish for Michael, three Black Sea Bass and a redfish all caught on live pinfish rigged up 34" under a Back Bay Thunder. We fished 5.5 - 6.5 feet of water to land this nice box of fish.

We had four fish on one drift and three on three more drifts...something that has been rare this year so far, so I would say the trout are on the upswing with much less work providing more results.

Redfish continue to be elusive with less caught than in many an April that I recall. Rumors have more reds south this year than north of Keaton...? Maybe less pressure on the reds down there?

Ladyfish and Bluefish have swarmed up on the deeper flats this week; while I caught my first Pilchard and my first Bluerunner while catching bait. Two sure signs of Spring.