# Last Couple of Trips – February 2011



## HaMm3r (Dec 11, 2006)

As Thingfish mentioned, it seems like there haven’t been a lot of reports this past month, and a little bit of that is my fault for not sharing. After the stellar black drum day I had at the beginning of February, I just didn’t bother posting the lesser outings. So here they are, but don’t expect much… :


2-18 – Scottsmoor Drum/Trout

Headed over to Scottsmoor to see if I could get on the black drum again. It was a beautiful, calm, sunny day and I did find the drum school fairly quickly. Unfortunately, they weren’t behaving like last time at all. They were barely tailing, seemed very spooky and refused to eat anything I and a couple other boats threw at them. (Three other Gheenoes besides mine.)


Eventually I got fed up with them and went to see if I could find a trout or two, and that’s exactly what I ended up with.










2-28 – St. Johns/Econ Shad on Fly

Yesterday I decided to try my luck at catching a shad on fly, since the annual shad run has been supposedly going on these past few weeks. Now, let me just say that I’ve never tried this before and this was all new water to me, so that’s my excuse for the rest of the report.


The morning started out foggy and calm, but soon cleared to reveal herds of cattle in the distance and the occasional eagle soaring overhead.  

















I had high hopes at that point, but they faded just as quickly as the wind increased, so that by mid-morning my shirt was snapping in the breeze and casting the 5wt became a real challenge. I kept at it though, working both south down the St. Johns and west into the Econ River. Sadly however, I never did find the shad or any other fish willing to eat. :'(


Despite getting skunked, it was a nice day to be out and I had a good time exploring the area. Here’s a few highlights…

Quite a few gators. The big ones made me a little nervous…









Had a lot of fun “herding” cattle with the boat. Sometimes they’d run along the banks next to me. ;D









Saw the big fire over in Scottsmoor go from a small, single column of smoke to the massive road-closing blaze we’re seeing on the news right now. 









Lots of turtles. This was a brave or stubborn one.









Saw four other Gheenoes that day, including Ron and Carl’s. Theirs was the first Gheenoe I’ve seen registered to the state of Michigan.


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## jeross (Jun 6, 2009)

Nice trip, anyway. The crappie should be in the river bends now. A little jig will get you some fine eating fillets!


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