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.

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.