keaton report september 28, 29 2018

Keaton beach report September 28, 29  2018

Trout fishing has been “off the chain” as the kids say “Outstanding” as I say with limits of trout easily caught with one fish over 20” per angler each of three trips this past week. We are catching our fish on live pinfish under Back Bay Thunders in water from 4.0 ft. to 6.0 ft. deep. The key depth is 4.5’ >5.0’ on the incoming tide with hours 2 – 4 ( of the 6-hour tide) the best overall bite.  I have continued to use a 32” length leader of TrikFish 30 lb. clear mono despite the stained water. If you move into water with less than 12”- 15” of clarity you would need to shorten your leaders.

I had Billy Pillow, of Woods ‘n Water Fishing Team fame , from Perry, Florida out Friday last and it took less than an hour-and-a-half fishing time to land our 10 trout. We had two over 20” as well.

Sunday, I had David Abrams of Tallahassee out with his two buddies, Mike Abrams and Clifford Dunaway. We brought in 11 trout  to 23” but released well over a dozen more keepers including four over 20” one over 24” I figured weighed 4.5 pounds. The trout heard we were releasing them and just had to have our baits. We caught them on live pins under Thunders in 4.5 – 5.0 feet. We managed one red but struggled to not find any more in an hour plus fishing time.

Monday, I took Don Garner and Kent Thornton of Valdosta, Ga. and again we took a quick limit of 15 quality trout with 3 over 20” in just over two hours fishing time and had one redfish.

We saw more ballyhoo on the surface this week than I had seen in a long time.

This weekend the key will be to work the early morning incoming tides for trout then hope for a redfish or two on the falling tide. Since the water has been clearing up a little our reds may have pulled back in closer to the hill to find them some crabs to eat!