Today I had the opportunity to meet-up with Randy Miller from the local area.
This Florida coastline tour stop in Wakulla county has presented great opportunities for meeting new SaltStrong Insiders. Although, this is the last day here it won't be the last time I visit these beautiful fishing grounds.
Today I had the opportunity to meet-up and fish with Randy Miller and I would say the adventure was a success. We started with a beautiful sunrise headed just east of the launch area to the nearby creek mouth hoping to find some early reds while we still had some outgoing tide. No luck on the reds but Randy broke the ice with this little trout, but that was just the beginning.
We continue to work the eastern shoreline and work our way up to John's Island looking for reds. This is where I spotted some redfish tailing and was able to land that one small red, my hunt for the slam was on. From there we moved west to Pattys Island and started working the flats hoping to pickup some trout in-between the islands. We both picked up some nice trout in these flats my largest being 21 inches.
Didn't spend too much time at Pattys Island and continue to work flats westward over towards Live Oaks point where we hope to pick up some more reds. Although, we didn't catch any more redfish I did see a couple while fishing the shoreline and "WOW" one was a monster. We continued to work flats and shorelines from here to there on the western side of Goose Creek Bay and pretty much continue to pick up trout all day, they seem to be everywhere.
Randy continued to work the western shoreline where he ended up picking up a crevalle jack. I went towards an oyster bar out in the middle of the bay called the Long Bar hoping I could pick up my flounder, which would've completed my slam. I couldn't find a flounder but I did pick up my first ever Cobia. It was small, but it still counts in my book.
This is where Randy and I met back up and worked our way back into the launch area. Of course more trout were to be caught. When ended the day with Randy hauling 8 trout, two over slot, big ones, and the jack. I caught at least as many trout, several over slot, the cobia and some lady fish. Of course, we both had several professional releases on top of those catches. That's were the fish gets itself off the hook when you get him close to the kayak. 😂
To top off the day, we had the pleasure of another SaltStrong inside, Carole Turner, meet us at the launch area. Coincidentally, Carole and I were fishing opposite end of the same oyster bar the day before. When writing a fishing report on the SaltStrong community site I mentioning other kayakers working the same area. Carole being a member was reading the post and recognized I was referring to her. After she responded to the post telling me that was her, another SaltStrong member, I invited her to meethup with Randy and me. Sure to other commitments she was unable, but surprised us. It was awesome to meet another in this way.
Wakulla county portion of the tour is now history, but won't be forgotten. Not only did I meet Carole, meet and fish with Randy, but I also spent some time chatting with a Justin and Jordan for some time at the boat ramp last trip. And just like Carole, while reading my post, responded that they took were members. So cool!
The Florida coastline fishing tour continues, next stop Fort Desoto in St Petersburg.