Caught More Trash Than Fish

This trip to Bayou Chico in Pensacola, Florida exceeded my expectations with just one dink speckled trout. The weather has been really bad, dumping fresh water all over the Gulf Coast. Chico is one of those areas that is almost immune to big weather conditions and this was why I chose it for this trip. I launched around 2 pm with an incoming tide and the start of a major peak. I stayed on the east side of the bayou and worked my way to the mouth and back to the boat ramp. I started off with an Unfair Lure Rip n Slash as a change up from the standard white paddle tail I use for Chico and immediately hooked up on what felt like a speckled trout but it came off before I could see it. When I reached the mouth of Chico, I switched to a 4” white paddle tail and found a school of dinks. I assume they were dinks anyway because I would get a hookup, it would come off, and seconds later I would get a another hit but no hookups. I finally landed one trout and it was for sure a dink.

I chose the east side of the bayou for this trip because I figured there would be more saltwater at the mouth than in the back. As typical with big rain events in our Gulf Coast waters, there was a larger amount of trash in the bayou and I caught more debris than fish this trip.