# Trout to 7lbs, Reds to 12lbs



## Capt. Adam Jaynes (Mar 6, 2008)

The Thirdstone Gulf Coast Trout Series had their season opener this past Saturday and somehow Aaron and I managed to come out with a first place check. My number one goal when we left the ramp that morning was for us to at least have our three trout to bring to the scales that afternoon. Aaron had worked every day for two weeks straight leading up to the event and I had been guiding duck hunts up until Wednesday when I arrived back in town. Thursday was our only day to prefish and we covered as much water as possible without staying in one spot for too long. We caught fish at every stop but the problem was we only caught trout on one stop, every where else we caught fish they were reds. We only had six trout bites on the day and they were not tournament winning fish but something we felt we might be able to grind out and maybe come away with a check.
We got off to a dismal start Saturday morning when Aaron pulled off a solid trout in the 4-5lb class within the first five minutes of fishing and then ten minutes later I somehow managed to hook into a cormorant. I’m not sure who was more ticked off, me or the bird, one thing for sure though is I hope I never have to tangle with another cormorant as it was the meanest **** bird I’ve ever had to deal with. The rest of our morning was much more productive, incredible actually. I am not sure how many 3-5lb fish we went through but it was definitely a considerable amount, probably around 35 to 40 fish. We caught our fish on an East Beast TTF Trout Killer and a pink Maniac Mullet. They wanted both the trout killer and the maniac mullet fished slowly along the bottom. Our two best fish only measured 25.75in and 25.25in and weighed 7.2 and 6.75 respectively, they weren’t long but extremely healthy! We weighed in 18.91lbs at the scales but unfortunately one of our trout expired on the long drive bringing us down to 18.41lbs. The next event is February 18, hopefully we will be blessed with the same kind of fishing as I am sure there will be a lot of heavy stringers brought in again.

Friday before the tournament, Kevin Reid drove in from Dallas to fish from the boat and learn the area as best he could so he would be able to bring his grandkids out in his Ranger next time down. He also hoped to get his line stretched a little, we managed to get both goals accomplished. It was a good thing Kevin was no stranger to rough water from all the time he’s spent chasing bass on the lakes as it was already whitecapping in the river when we left the boat club. Our morning started off very slow, catching only one or two fish at each stop. Around 11:00 the tide switched to incoming and the redfish went off. We found them slicking from 1.5-4′ of water over scattered shell. Kevin did the best throwing a glow/chartreuse Trout Killer on an 1/8oz Yellowmouth jighead while I was throwing an east beast Trout Killer also on an 1/8oz Yellowmouth jighead.
That might have also been because I was staying busy netting and releasing Kevin’s fish, we were Power-poled down and nearly everytime I turned around he was bowed up with another one!


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