Beautiful day on Big Lake

[Gerald]

With the high winds as the front came through Wed/Thur. I was not sure how the fishing would be on Friday. Last night's comment by Biglaketiger [thanks] about the wind being calm at 10 PM gave me hope that the water would be "OK".

The weather report called for fog in the AM, so I did not set the alarm. When I got to Hebers landing at 10 AM.......the winds were very light and the parking lot was 1/2 full.

Once I got out on the Lake, the water looked fairly good. There was 6" to 10" visiablity and the water only had a dirty "stained" look to it.

As I headed south [my plan for the day was to also catch crabs in the marsh.] the water got a little better. About half way down the Lake, I spotted a few seagulls sitting on the water and I could not resist giving them a try.

As I eased closer, I started throwing a soft plastic bait. As I got closer, I spot fish chasing shrimp and got a hook up. Seeing the feeding action, I put that rod down and started throwing topwater. About 1.5 hours later I had 12 nice Specks and 6 or 8 under size or close to 12 inchers that got released.

When "action" finally stopped [some of the time, the birds all left] I headed to the marsh. There were several boats at the "fence" castnetting. I stopped to give it a try but after a couple throws and talking with the other people......shrimping was very slow. But there were flounder being caught by people there.

The flounder were being caught with live shrimp and I only had some frozen shrimp. My shrimp did catch some fish. A small flounder, rat red, hardhead catfish, oyster fish. So after 45 minutes, and watching other people catch 6 or 8 nice flounder.....I had not put anything else in the boat.

That finally changed, and I ended up catching 3 flounder and a 18" Red. Another boat returned [been gone ~ 1.5 hours] and said they had just caught some nice Specks in Lamberts Lake.

I stopped at the Weir [inside].....yes, I sometimes fish there. The fish there really liked my frozen shrimp. I got bites on almost every cast. I have never caught so many [7 or 8] 8 to 20 lb black drum. I did catch 3 big Reds [22" to 25"] and lost another when it broke my line under the boat.

Being a couple Specks short of a limit.....I went back out into the Lake to see if I could find a few more. About the same general area as earlier, I found some seagulls on the water an a couple flying around. The same pink Skittlewalker did its thing and caught several more specks to completed a Beatiful Day on Big Lake.

I never did get to my "Plan" for the day. That will have to be next trip before the 9 th.