# Cockroach bay and Little Manatee River solo trip 3/15



## firecat1981 (Nov 27, 2007)

I had 2 fishing buddies bail on me and an other one almost call in sick to work to come, but at 6:30 in the morning I decided to go out anyway and just have some peace and quiet. 
I picked up 3 dozen shrimp, I would have gotten 4 or 5 but I kept hearing reports of bait on the flats, so instead I picked up chum. Well I get out to the flats and looked for birds, not a single one in sight, I mean nothing! I did see some hawks later so I went and chummed, nothing! So I went along my way.

I started by fishing the flats at the mouth of the river, nothing, not a single hit to be had in the area. I then went to a little honey hole of a sunken boat I found. It produced right away, first a small trout, then a small snapper, flounder, and sheepie. I had a nice grouper on for a few seconds but he straightened my hook out.


















I continued on once the bite stopped, poking around the flats to the south, nothing! Plenty of mullet jumping, but that was it. After a while I decide to go back around the islands. I was around mags hole when I finally got some steady action. It came in the form of trout and ladyfish. I think I got 5 more trout and maybe 8-10 ladyfish. The only legal trout was a nice bruiser at 20.5", he and one lady went in the cooler. The rest of the trout were just short of legal.


















All was caught on live shrimp until now, I tried some DOA's and a spook, and got one dink lady. I went around the islands and tossed chunks of ladyfish, nothing. I didn't get on the water until 8:30, and was off by 2:30. Here's my map for the day.


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## Shadowcast (Feb 26, 2008)

Nice report! It's good to see that area producing....new skiff coming 4/7.


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## ugaflats (Jan 13, 2008)

Cool map, how did you do that?


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## firecat1981 (Nov 27, 2007)

There is a "view in google earth" feature in the garmin mapsouce program I use.


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