Healthy Grin Sport Fishing

A beautiful sunset last night was followed by some good speckled trout fishing this morning. I did not get the number of bites that I have been getting. All of those little trout must have moved. My first bite turned out to be a 23-inch puppy drum. Next was a 24-inch drum. I thought my third bite was another pup but it turned out to be a 24-inch trout. I lost three nice trout at the boat, all over 20 inches and two were citation-sized. I landed eight trout. One was 18 inches. The rest were all over 20 inches including four between 24 and 26 inches long. I did not miss all of those yearling trout at all. Really nice class of trout this morning.

There is an impressive yearling class out there. For most of the morning, it was a 12-13 inch trout on every cast, no matter where I fished. I did manage to catch a handful of nice trout up to 24 inches long and a single puppy drum. Another beautiful sunrise. Life is good.

I went after trout with Stan Simmerman today. We caught a gazillion trout. That is the actual number. There are a lot of baby trout around. We did manage to catch a couple 20-inch fish. Pretty day on the water.

There was a beautiful sunrise on the flats this morning. The puppy drum were nice but the trout were small.

I fished for specks this morning. I caught a bunch…and a single puppy drum. There were a lot of small trout. The largest I caught was 19 inches long.

I fished for specks this morning. Action was good. Ended up catching 22 trout and a bluefish. Most of the trout were small. I did catch three over 20 inches: two at 21 and a 24-inch fish.

I went out after speckled trout this morning. The bite was very good. For a time, it was a bite every cast. I have no idea how many I would have caught if I wasn’t taking the time to tag, measure, record, and photograph the fish. I ended up catching 25 speckled trout and 3 red drum. Three of the trout were over 20 inches long but the largest was just 21 inches. The largest pup was 25 inches.

After 36 years, I will retire from the practice of dentistry June 1, 2025. Dr. K. E. Neill, Jr. established this practice in 1967 after a tour as an Air Force dentist. I joined my father in 1989. For nearly six decades, a Dr. Neill has been serving the community at this location.

We have run out of doctors Neill so this will be an end of an era. People still remember the aquarium in the wall that my father had in the waiting room, which is now the back entrance. They also remember “Miss Kitty”, my grandmother, working the front desk.

Over the decades, we have been blessed with an excellent staff. Some truly exceptional individuals have worked at this office over the years. My current staff is an absolute joy to work with and leaving them is one of the most difficult things about retiring. Everyone that has worked here has done their absolute best to take care of our patient family.

We do think of you as family. We appreciate each and every one of you and are honored by the trust that you have placed in us. It really brings it home when I have a patient in the chair and I remember working on their parents when they were children. It is amazing the multiple generations of family we have taken care of.

We will be scheduling patients through the month of May. Any treatment that we cannot finish by then, we will not start. We will discuss your options.

There is a possibility of another dentist taking over the practice if we can find a good fit by June. If that happens, you will be updated.

We are always asked how the original Dr. Neill is doing. He is doing well. He won’t come back to work, I have tried. He is doing yard work, playing golf three times a week, and he and Mom are still traveling. As for me, after June 1, you can find me out on the water somewhere and Tricia and I will be doing our own share of traveling.