It has been a while since I last posted, and quite frankly it’s because I have not been catching many fish lately. With the waters being very dirty and dark around the areas I fish, there has not been a lot to write about. To be honest, this has been one of the most unproductive summers I can remember. Last Friday my buddy Allan and his friend Jason invited me to head out to Cedar Key with them. Most of the reports from Cedar Key have been favorable compared to the dirty water areas north. We headed out and got to the water about 9:00 with an incoming tide that was going to be high at 1:30.

 As I had heard from several folks, the water was much clearer than any I had encountered further North. We hit some grass fats early and right off the bat I hooked into a nice trout using a Zara Spook-mullet color top-water plug. This fish turned out to be a nice 23” trout. I had not seen one of this size in a while. It was great to have some top-water action. We floated across these flats and caught several short trout and a couple just legal. We were using a variation of baits including top-water plugs, gulp under a popping cork, DOA terror Eyes jigs, and jerk baits. I must say Jason…the other Jason was catching the most fish at this time and throughout the day. It was confusing for Capitan Allan to keep us straight since not only was he fishing with two of us named Jason but we also have the same last initial…S. So I thought it was real funny when he just started referring to Jason as “dumbass”, until I realized after a few minutes he was talking to me.

Once the trout bite began to slow a little we moved in around some oyster bars looking for reds. Jason managed to get a real nice slot red fairly quick so we assumed it was on. Well not really. That turned out to be the only red we landed. We did lose a couple though. At this point after seeing schools of bait everywhere I decided to hop out on the bars and try my hand with the cast net to get some cut bait for later. Well that was a pitiful sight. My old cat net was a mess and no matter what I did it resembled a matted pile of crap every time I threw it. Let’s just say the whole process can be summed up in two words-monkey and football.

We got back out in the grass close to Seahorse key and hit a few more trout and played around with a couple of flounder that we did not manage to get in the boat. At one point I was standing in the back of the boat getting ready to cast at the exact time the “Captain” set one of his rods down, you guessed it, as I casted, I ripped the rod right out of his hands and right into the water. Instantly I knew that I would have to do my best David Hasselhoff and with the magic words “I got this”, I dove in and managed to swim down and get the rod. It was awesome…at least in my mind. When I got back in the boat I felt like I had saved the day for my good buddy. The only problem was the fact that not 15 minutes before, I had taken a great picture of Jason (not dumbass), with his redfish and then proceeded to put my camera right in my pocket. Needless to say my camera now has some real issues. Oh well, all in all it was a great day.

On our way back to the channel we were easing through the grass flats and the other Jason noticed something flopping around behind Capitan Allan. Now I have heard of mullet, mackerel and the likes jumping in a boat accidentally before, but this friends was a freaking flounder! And yes it was legal, and did not realize that it had just committed suicide. We finished up a great day by heading over to the Pickled Pelican for some grub and a few Red Stripes.