Whiskey George Sentinel

I knew it was a good sign , when we headed into Whiskey George and there was an eagle watching the confluence with Cash's Creek. The morning was overcast and a pleasant temperature. Typical fall weather in Apalachicola. There were birds working schools of shrimp, being pushed to the top by trout. We stopped and caught a dozen short fish before we headed up the creek.

We picked up 8-10 more small trout on top water plugs, but not the quality of fish I was after. I was basically scouting for trips this week and I wanted some bigger fish.

Our clouds went away and so did our top water bite. The tide had turned and better trout started blasting LYs all around us. We switched over to sub surface MirrorLures and started catching better trout.

I'd accomplished my goal to locate some fish in an area that i hadn't fished in a couple of weeks and we had caught 20+ trout in the 2 hours that we'd been out...now it was lunch time and time to watch a ball game.

Happy Hour On The Bay

 As I wandered down to the dock for a sunset cocktail and maybe get lucky with a few sunset pictures, looking across East Bay at Apalachicola. I heard the chirping of an eagle. He/she, I haven't mastered determining their sex at 100 yards at twilight, landed in some pines.

What to do now...finish my cocktail and take some sunset shots or run through the pines and palmettos in shorts & flip flops in the dark. Well I took a dozen or so sunset shots...but I  had to go see if he was still there.

 

It was 700 PM and the light was going fast, but he was still there. The quality isn't the best, but considering the time and trees...it's not too bad.

Signs of Fall

 The first flight of white pelicans showed up in East Bay this morning. A sure sign that cooler weather isn't far away. As you can tell from the picture they were too far away for decent pictures  with my current lens. By the time I decided to put the boat in the water for some closer shots and ran around towards Whiskey George, they had departed.

The good thing about white pelicans is their arrival coincides with Mirrolure time. This is when the larger trout start loading up on protein for the fall and winter. I didn't hit any of the big sows this morning, but I did find some nice sized males 18-19" that were looking for a snack. We've got some rain forecast later on this week so we may get some top water action, if we have an overcast day or two.

Eagles are everywhere you look in the bay. This immature eagle didn't seem to understand why I was releasing trout.

They don't get their white tails and heads, along with their yellow beaks, until their fifth year. This guy looked like he was starting to get some white on his head.

Monarch Madness

I think the monarch migration may be in full swing

Autumn in Apalachicola

This is a busy time of the year, here on Apalachicola Bay. As summer heat begins to give way a lot of things start happening at once. The first being the annual white shrimp migration. The shrimp that have been growing in the bay's and river's brackish waters start moving to the open gulf to spawn. During this journey trout, reds and tarpon have a hey day and so do we! There is no limit on white trout, so it's a great time for fish fries. Limiting on speckled trout is also very doable.

Fish and shrimp aren't the only creatures on the move. Now also the beginning of the butterfly migration with thousands of  Gulf Fritillary

and everyone's favorite the Monarch

and one of my favorites the Common Buckeye

 

Many of our migrating birds are passing through now. I've seen a number of colorful warblers that don't year around here along the ever entertaining humming birds, not to speak of all the eagles that are starting their nests. There were 5 overhead at one time last week.

Cool nights, warm days and all kinds of critters...Autumn in Apalach is a fun time!