As if catching a sheepshead on our gold TroutEye jighead last week wasn’t surprising enough, this weekend our friend Martin caught an even rarer catch while fishing with Captain Willy Le of Native Fly Charters in the Mosquito Lagoon. Martin was fishing a Z-Man MinnowZ rigged on a gold Trout Eye jighead and hooked a 4 lb Mullet! It was hooked clean in the mouth meaning he was eating it. Crazy stuff! Great catch Martin!

 

Here is a list of species that we have caught on our jigheads

• Spotted Seatrout
• Southern Flounder
• Red Drum
• Striper
• Spanish Mackerel
• Sheepshead
• Gar
• Arkansas Blue Catfish
• Largemouth Bass
• Mullet
• Pinfish
• Ladyfish
• Spot
• Oyster Toadfish
• Black Sea Bass
• Bluefish
• Jack Crevalle

I may be forgetting some, but needless to say they have wide appeal.  Let us know if you have a notable species catch not listed!

 

We are proud to announce that Tampa Fishing Outfitters is the FIRST retail shop in the state of Florida to carry TroutEye jigs.  TFO is an awesome shop, and you should go in and check them out and pick up some of our jig heads, you won’t be sorry!  http://www.tampafishingoutfitters.com

 

 

 

 

We are very excited to announce an alliance with Z-Man Fishing Products.  Z-Man branded Trout Eye jigs will be a part of their product line in the upcoming year.  Z-Man is a Charleston based company that happens to be one of the premier fishing tackle companies in the world!  We are honored to be a part of their line and believe that we have a winning combination.  Coming soon.

 

We will continue to sell our self-branded jig heads in 5-packs at retail locations as well as in bulk quantities online.

I promised my friend Scott a trip before he heads back home to the cold winter in upstate NY. Our planned day’s forecast went from bad to worse, with a high of 48F, water temps at 45F, and 10-15 NE winds. Ugh.

Well, we layered up and headed out. As we are making the run I have to admit I was thinking of other places I would rather be! We hit several spots at the typical “right” time and not even a bump, so just kept moving and trying, moving and trying.

Finally I get a nice thump and its a 23.5″ red. Scott followed with a 25.25″er and we found the small pocket where they were located. We doubled up on some nice upper slot reds, and ended up with 9 from 15.5″ to 25.25″. A pretty good result for such a cold day.   The wind gusts were literally blowing the Whaler all around, making holding us in our spot really difficult!  The only time we could really cast with accuracy was to time our casts between the gusts.

The icing on the cake was when I changed over to a white with green speck paddletail rigged on a gold TroutEye jig. I get a slight bump and was VERY surprised to catch a sheepy on it! First ever for me, and though I have read of folks catching them on arties, I have never heard of any of my friends or acquaintances doing it. Pretty cool! Maybe he thought it was a runaway oyster or that the gold eye was a pearl 🙂 Who knows?

We have caught all inshore species on our jigs, including several freshwater species, but I would never have thought we would catch a sheepshead!

Tight lines everyone! -Dave

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In other news, we finally have real packaging for our jigs, and this is how they should look in our retail shop displays, so keep an eye out for them!

We are at the bottom of the temperature curve, historically, and from here on out the water temps should slowly rise out of the danger zone for trout mortality.  That being said, just this morning my friend Jeremy Mehlhaff (charlestonshallows.com) reported seeing a dead trout, and I have seen lots of cormorants up in the creeks so surely there is some mortality going on as I write.  I’ve heard SCDNR and others speculate that when the water temps slowly decrease (as has been the case this year) that trout work their way toward deeper waters.  I have to believe this is true because in some creeks where trout were abundant a month and a half ago, those same creeks are mostly devoid of trout right now.  There are a a few stragglers, as shown below, but not many.  I tend to believe they are not there, rather than not biting, because I have not seen any sign of them sunning on a flat nor hugging the bottom using my depth finder.

Redfish on the other hand, are stacked up in certain spots.  We have found them in some traditional spots, and some spots that were on fire last year are barren.  This seems to be common – you just have to learn the new pattern, and that is the fun and rewarding part!  Once you find the pattern they are on this season (fun), it should be pretty consistent if you go back on the same tide (rewarding).

Ralph and I have fished separately the last few trips, and we both have been fishing the new gold TroutEye jigs exclusively to give them a good test.  They are definitely popular with the fish  🙂  Overall, the size of the reds we have been catching have been increasing recently with 28-30 inch reds almost every trip.  Remember to let the redfish eat this time of year.  When I sense a redfish bite, I literally count to 2 before setting the hook.  It will help your hookup ratio.  We have been consistently catching 2 or 3 trout in the creeks but not many.  A small bait such as the Zman 3.75 StreakZ in Ralphs Shad color is a great combo for the trout.  The small size well matches the smaller baits in the creeks such as glass minnows.

See you on the water!  – Dave