Keaton Report September 22-23, 2017

1902 Billy Pillow with a 4.1 pound trout caught 9/20/17

1906 Billy Pillow with a 20" flounder 9/20/17

Keaton Beach Report

Trout are biting like crazy!

Mike King ( Hammanocker) from Thomasville, Ga. had a limit of ten trout with his grandson, Saturday, with a flounder and a bluefish.

David Malone fished with his son-in-law and limited out Monday using live pinfish under Cajun Thunders.

Billy Pillow and I went Wednesday and for the first three baits Billy cast he was bit. We only saw one fish though a nice keeper trout. Four baits later Billy had three keepers in the boat. He had thrown back two shorts. I moved on up the pond to look for some darker water and possibly a redfish or two. Next spot was a zip.

Then the third spot was the charm. First cast, Billy had a nice keeper trout. Three baits later he said " This is a good one!" so I grabbed the net and landed a 4.1 pound trout our largest of the day.

He caught a nice red then lost one around 5-6 pounds right at the boat before I could get a net on it. Then I caught a red ; so we brought in two then released two more keepers after that. Billy also caught a beautiful 20" flounder; so I guess he caught the Big Bend Slam a trout, redfish and flounder all on the same trip!

Our first stop we were in relatively clear water, started in 5 ft. turned and left from 3.5 feet of water. My second stop we didn't catch a keeper after three baits; so I moved further North. It was and hour and a half before the full tide when our best drift ( bite) came to fruition. Most of the reds bit from hi tide til :30 after the tide peaked while the trout bite quit on the hi as they usually do. That drift started a mile off the hill and wound up 50 yds. from the grass. Again the water depth went from 5.5 to 3.5 ft. So the fish have returned to normal and resumed the same positions they were in before Irma blew all the water out of sight. Water temp in the Gulf ran from 83 - 84.5 degrees . We caught all our trout on live pinfish rigged up under Back Bay Thunders, of course.

There is, however, an unusually large amount of dead floating grass which has moved back in after the storm. The opposite