BigBendFishing.Net

I am so bored...I've seen it mentioned a few times here. That surpasses the amount of times in my 34 years on Earth that I've heard it referenced on the whole internet, in conversation, etc. If I buy a riverboat one day, the decision will have been made in large part because I want to go as far up that thing as possible.

My favorite kind of fishing is untapped freshwater fishing. I've snuck into the couple of places on the Pinhook that you can get to if you're brave on the edge of the Aucilla management area/Flint Rock management area and caught some fish but that's more backwater than anything else. It was cool and all, and low and behold I pulled a bass out of it but I want to get into the main river. I'm planning on going down the Florida Trail to it this summer. I know that by the time you get to the bridge you're out of freshwater country but if I bet I could find a beaten path before it.

I've taken the Florida Trail from HWY 98 to the bridge (old train tracks) over the Pinhook. About a 45 min hike. You will get muddy and wet on the way. Also, take a gun or bear spray. Not for the bears, but for the big, mean wild hogs in that area. I was literally chased up a tree last time I made that hike.

Oh yeah...the bank fishing sucks on that part of the Pinhook. You need to carry a boat. I hauled an inflatable kayak, and promptly punctured it on an Oyster bar below the bridge.

Have fun.

Catch any?

One 22" trout about half a mile south of the bridge. Was not worth the effort.

Today I made it over 2 (maybe 3 but I think 2) of the oldest tram bridges past the St Marks NWR sign that warned of treacherous conditions for the next 1.8 miles. I made it over a couple more wooden crossings but I don't think those were actual tram crossings, rather just something people have put there since for hiking. Then I had to turn around at an old tram crossing that was either flooded or washed away (couldn't tell through the solid black water). How much farther did I have to go to get to the Pinhook Bridge? I had to be getting close lol!

I tried this again the other day and had fun even though I failed again, and even though tragedy struck on the way out in the truck lol! I went in rubber boots this time just for the place where I’d turned around before. I walked a mile past where I’d made it to before and gave up, having walked 4 miles past the 1.8 miles to go sign where the trails gets tough.

The first 100 yards or so of the rough part of the trail had been cleaned up since the hurricane, not quite golf course style but the fallen trees were sawed and tossed out of the way and some orange Florida Trail added. Then it got rough again and I’m thinking well that was nice now time to stomp on through. I stomped and stomped and finally stopped where I did and low and behold Google Maps worked. I was almost to the freaking Aucilla River way the heck up from the Pinhook!!!!!!!! The trail remained a structured tram of some kind (limerock, railroad ties or something) that I guess went to some forgotten spot on the Aucilla but because the trail never totally disappeared I assumed I was going the right way. Meanwhile I didn’t waste my time looking at Google Maps every 2 seconds because it never worked before anyway. I’ll be the last human to have been there lol!

On the way out I seen where I’d missed a turn to continue down the Florida Trail, where they had continued to clean up. So not only did I miss the turn, I missed it for the grown up route right beside it to nowhere lol! 10 mile walk total but I was glad I did it. Keeps me tough. And it beat the alternative - getting trampled by the 3 hogs I seen when I first started on the grassy part.

I got back to the truck and I was beat, but I’m thinking ok I made it and it’s just time to go home. It starts raining no big deal, then a tree is down in the road still no big deal I have a chain. Well I barely got it hooked up because it had to be hooked up toward the stump to whip it around out of the way and it was of course in the culvert. The chain was just long enough. And somewhere in the middle of all that I moved my fishing pole and jammed the hook into my thumb past the barb. The way out was a bigger death trap than the 10 miles walking to nowhere lol!

To quote Chevy Chase in the movie "Christmas Vacation"...

"It's all part of the the experience."

A revisit to the Pinhook is on my bucket list. You can't get any more intimate with real Florida than exploring that swampy, treacherous expanse. Not for the faint of heart or breath.

My ultimate goal is to go all the way up and down it even if it means investing in a bike, kayak and trailer then biking in through the other way more streamlined route. Another improbable but not impossible way I’ve though of is to find an expendable jonboat, get it down there and leave it down there forever locked to a tree for whenever I get the wild hair.

I finally made it today!

This was after trying again yesterday and trying the turn I’d missed last year. That wasn’t the right way either and I saw another hog lol! Not being totally beat by the time I got to the truck I stomped around a little more and found the right way to go for sure which I did today.

It wasn’t a bad walk at all but I was so dang sore from yesterday that I was going to turn around and come back with a bicycle. At about that time I seen a group of fiddler crabs in the mud which of course meant I was getting close. I kept on going and I’m glad I did because it was great. I seen a group of mullet and finger mullet in the trailside and more finger mullet down at the freshwater pipe crossing. And a big blue crab. The mullet were docile to. I bet I could have caught them! This was an hour after low tide to. Gosh only knows what comes in with that tide.

That’s awesome, glad you made it back. Any pictures?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

O yeah! I seem to remember pics from my phone and this site not cooperating but it’s been years since I tried to lemme see.

Glad to hear that you finally found it! I would like to tag along on one of your hike some day.

Hot dog let’s go!

My sister says I have to take her and her younguns there. What!?!?!? She’s never let me take them stomping around and now all of a sudden she says they’re down for the Pinhook???

Can those kayak movers be strapped to the back of my 10 ft aluminum boat like they all SAY they can in product information? I can’t find any pictures to verify. I want to drag my boat down there obviously.

BloodyChamp wrote:Can those kayak movers be strapped to the back of my 10 ft aluminum boat like they all SAY they can in product information? I can’t find any pictures to verify. I want to drag my boat down there obviously.

There are dollys for jon boats that could help you do what you're looking to do. Something like this plus a bike?

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Boat-or-Cano ... gJtQ_D_BwE