Between work, travel and a nagging knee injury, I haven't been on the water much lately. Fortunately, things (including the knee) settled down enough to wet a line this morning. With arthroscopic knee surgery scheduled for Wednesday, I wanted to catch a few fish before the post-op recovery keeps me on the sidelines for a while. 

As usual, I had every intention of getting on the water before sunrise, but I couldn't quite pry my eyes open early enough.  I had the hull wet by a little after 7:00 a.m. It was very foggy this morning, even after the sun had been up for a bit.  Visibility was easily less than 100 yards.

There was plenty of bait in the water, so I decided to throw a topwater lure for an hour or so. Unfortunately, no one was interested in hitting my skitterwalk this morning. As a backup, I trolled a white Gulp! swimming mullet behind the yak on a dropshot rig. Nothing was interested in that one either, until this little rat red took a bite and helped me dump the skunk:

Close to dead low tide, I was drifting along with it back to the launch, thinking about calling it an early day since the fishing was so slow. I drifted over a relatively deep hole ( 8 - 10 ft), and the fish ID on my Piranhamaxfishfinder began registering multiple fish. I glided over near the bank and hooked up the stakeout pole, then tossed out a Gulp! shrimp (white) and a new penny peeler crab to let them soak. In the meantime, I made a few casts with a gray Gulp! shrimp on a jig head to see if I could find the hungry fish. 

Right after I stopped, another kayaker paddled past and mentioned he was calling it quits after a slow morning for him as well. On his way by, he laughed and told me that he "left the big ones" in the creek for me.  Not even two minutes after he paddled around the bend, one of my rods bent down and the drag began to sing.  After  several nice runs and bending the rod tip down to the water a few times, a very nice 21 3/4 inch red introduced himself.  His menu choice was a 3" white Gulp! shrimp dead sticked on a dropshot rig.

After stowing Mr. Red in the cooler for dinner, another rat red picked up the Gulp! peeler crab on a Carolina rig and put a nice bend in that rod, too:

By now, it was after 10:30 a.m., and the sun was getting high and hot. Time to head for home to get cleaned up and enjoy a cold, refreshing beverage!