opportunity
or get to fish in a few different states along the way. I fished in
multiple places but I'm going to put this here cause the majority of
what I did was in the salt. My first opportunity to fish was in Cumming GA where I got to meet up with my old friend Mike and we rented some kayaks to fish on Lake Lanier for the day.
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This is pretty much my first experience on a kayak for the most part so it was a whole new adventure in itself for me.
I was hoping to target some stripers while we were out there. I started off throwing spooks while the sun was starting to get high in the sky this top water junkie had to try anyways. No luck so we trolling our way back into an area called 6 mile slough. After we got into the slough while I was trolling my swimbait around I did see a few boils pop up, but being in the kayak by the time I could get to them the party was over.
After a few hours of trying and trolling around I gave up the idea that Mr. striper was going to come around for me. Gave up trying for that and switched gears towards trying for bass. Texas rigged a senko up and started tossing that around. Took me a little while to
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Fished from 0700 till about 1500 for a hand full of small bass and called it from there. Got off the water in time to make it out to the
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On hole 12 though the rain started
Back a little further down south my stepdad's nephew Daniel took me out during the night for a hog hunt. Daniel has a friend who has a series a crops that the hogs wreck serious havoc on and Daniel goes out there to thin them out and protect the crops. As we showed up to Daniels house My Step dad Scott was telling me to watch my step around the area because they have spotted rattlesnakes in the area recently. As we got there sure enough they are all standing around over the top of one that they had just killed.
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Cool thing to see, but man snakes are creepy things. Even with the head gone that thing felt so alive and weird in my hands.
Took off on our hunt and rolled up onto our first crop of watermelons and immediately saw one pigging out in the field. I took my first shot with Daniels AR-10 and missed, Daniel took a second shot and brought the hog down. Walked out to him and got to finish him off with the .44 mag. I've never been hunting before. I've just been a fisherman my whole life, so this was a very different and interesting experience for me.
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Kept driving around the property looking for more boars out on the fields. Hours went by and we haven't seen anything else except a couple of deer and a coyote. Right as we were talking about calling it a night Daniel spots one about 200 yards out in the peanut fields. We hop out and Daniel and I stalk up onto it and try to get close enough to get a good shot. As we were getting closer we saw a total of 5 out there together out in the fields. Daniel told me once we make our first shot don't stop shooting until they are all gone/dead, or we run out of ammo because they are dangerous animals. Made it inside of 50 yards on the group to make the shot and I ended up taking one down in the bunch and the rest got off before we could bag anymore.
My second boar of the night.
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After that we called it a successful night and went back home.
After a few days there we took of for Savannah GA for a day. Out there I got the chance to fish off of a pier in Tybee island.
The crowded beaches out here.
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Made it to the end of the pier and just fished shrimp on a high low rig knowing I would be able to get something doing this. Sure enough didn't take long at all and I started getting some kind of perch or something around the pier.
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Not really sure what it was, but they were plentiful and entertaining to catch.
Lots of people out fishing on the pier and it made some of the combat fishing to do on the AR look calm.
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Most guys were fishing for sharks and rays and they were doing pretty well.
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I didn't get a lot of pictures of other people's catches, but I did see one guy get a 4ft bull shark while I was there which was really cool to see. Seeing the bull shark though made me think twice about all of the people swimming on the beach though cause I know there are bigger ones out there. That was pretty much the extent of my fishing in Savannah.
Next stop was just past Destin, FL. Got out to another pier and I started off doing the same set up shrimp on a high low rig. I know I can't go wrong with that.
Started off pretty close to the end of the pier and started catching a couple different species of small bait fish.
This guy the locals told me was a pin fish.
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and this they called a Hardtail.
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The hardtails were a lot more plentiful and also much bigger and put up a hell of a fight for their size. Almost everyone was just catching and releasing them out there for fun and enjoying the day. A few of the fish as you could imagine die when they hit the water and there was close to a dozen dolphins in the area going to town on them.
It took me a long time to get a good shot of one on my phone, but I did get a few.
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Most guys were tearing the fish up on sabiki rigs and there was one new thing I had never seen before which I'm pretty positive would not be legal here in Cali.
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Its hard to see here in the picture, but around the bright orange strip is a bit of gill net that the small fish get stuck in. Interesting concept and it definitely was working, but not out performing bait.
Tons people people were pulling them up 3-5 at the time fishing was pretty good.
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I noticed a couple of local cousin out here were keeping the hardtails, they told me they fillet em out and fry them. One guy moved next to me with his cooler and I was helping him fill her up.
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After a few hours out on the pier I ran out of bait and came back into have dinner with the family. Guy at the restaurant told me that night fishing off of the pier was pretty good too and since we were here for the night say no more. After about 2200 I ran back out there. Got on the pier and I caught a pin fish real quick and threw it back out live in high hopes of getting onto a red fish. A red fish is one fish that is on my bucket list and I've been dying to catch for years and I knew this was going to be my first real opportunity to get one. Not how I always imagined it would be but I know they are out here and my chances were pretty good.
While I was waiting there was a lot of action on the surface and there were a few people throwing spoons catching some lady fish off of the pier. I didn't have any small spoons or plugs that I could throw for them and I was getting pretty jealous, not that they were catching and I wasn't, just the fact that I couldn't even fish for them. I kept watching though and I saw these fish busting the surface and this top water junkie knew I had one hell of an opportunity here. I did have a Jr. Super Spook in my box that I tied on and tried tossing which was pretty interesting trying to do from the pier, but the lady fish were smashing my spook! They missed more then 90% of the time but for some fairly small fish they hit with some serious aggression and fought like a bat out hell. Great and followed up with some major acrobatic jumps.
After a while I was able to bring several of these guys up onto the pier for a quick picture.
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They kept me pretty entertained for a little over an hour before they stopped biting.
Was a pretty peaceful night out on the pier with lightning flashing every so often out in the distance.
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Just as my lady fish bite died off I noticed a fisherman fishing near the surf get a pretty nice sized red fish.
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Seeing that made me want a red even more so switched back to trying for them. The fisherman told me he caught his fish on a sand crab. I'm using a live pin fish which isn't the same but plenty of people out here have told me that it will work. Stayed out there nearly all night, but we stopped seeing the red fish cruising around and bites were non existent. Most people left and I was the last one out on the dock hoping the morning bite would turn on for me, but around 0400 the lighting that I've seen flashing all night was finally getting on top of me and the rain started coming down and the wind picked up good so I decided to get out of there while I still could and get some rest.
Next and final stop for us was New Orleans where we picked up my brother and spent the next few days experiencing the city. Running around in the city is not really my cup of tea, so I kind of just hung out in the hotel the most of the time. I did get a quick chance to fish a little bit near the city park where I was able to get a local species of sunfish.
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Conditions weren't great though and I wasn't able to get into anything else out there.
Highlight of LA for me was we went out on a air boat tour and got to see the swamp and a few dozen gators.
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Super cool experience to see.
Got home late last night and its been a hell of a trip and a fun couple of weeks. Definitely know where I want to spend more time at and try to experience more things at next time I go out there on my own. Still great to see and get all kinds of new experiences though.
Till Next Time Guys
Mark
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