Sargent - Trout Brown

I went to Sargent on Sunday for some late afternoon fishing. I fished from 1:00 until 7:00. When I got to the beach the water was brown and pretty choppy due to the steady East-North/East wind. All I could catch in my net was good size finger mullet. I was hoping for something bigger that I could use for cut bait. I was using 80lb mono and Kahle hooks hoping to catch some slot reds or maybe even a bull red. After 10 minutes my rod tip dances and goes slack. I reel my line in as fast as I can. I didn’t feel any weight but I could tell that I was skipping something across the top of the water. When I got closer I found out it was a 16” trout. Sweet! I didn’t expect that. 15 minutes later I caught another trout and then another. I was also catching some nice sand trout mixed in.

When I ran out of finger mullet, I packed my rods up and drove back to the bait hole and caught some more. I also got two big mullets for cut bait. When I got back to my spot I noticed the tide was starting to fall pretty quickly and it was now getting to be late afternoon. Lately, I have been hooking some nice fish under these conditions. I put another finger mullet out and rig up my other rod with cut bait. I was chilling out drinking some beer and listening to the football scores on the radio when I hear my clicker screaming. I looked at my rod with cut bait but it wasn’t that one – it was the finger mullet that got hit. I tightened the drag and felt a good fish. It was give and take for a couple of minutes and then my line got cut. I re-rigged with single strand wire and put that rod back out. I also brought my other line in and changed the cut bait. I didn’t have long to wait before that bait got nailed. It was dropped almost immediately so I brought it in and then casted it back into the second gut. 15 minutes later I get a nice run and this time the fish is hooked.

I think this is a blacktip but I could be wrong.