New to the area..

[procraftwes]

Wife and I have already driven to carrabelle. Definitely i small fishing town. It's 130mi drive but we will just make a weekend out of it.

I like fishing out of St marks but it's further to deep water. I have better inshore success there though. 25 minute drive from Tallahassee doesn't hurt either.

Panacea is closer(to me don't know where that 130mi drive comes from) and closer to deep water than St Marks.

Spend some time exploring the 98 corridor.

[Crazytazman]

130 mi drive is from Valdosta to carrabelle

[Crazytazman]

I'm used to fishing in 60-90' of water off charleston sc but from what I read you don't need to go that far in the gulf to catch good bottom fish. I'm gonna go out to 100-150' and see what I can find trolling and bottom bumbing...

[procraftwes]

I'm used to fishing in 60-90' of water off charleston sc but from what I read you don't need to go that far in the gulf to catch good bottom fish. I'm gonna go out to 100-150' and see what I can find trolling and bottom bumbing...

30-40' will get you into some quality grouper/snapper this time of year.

Depends on what you're after but 100-150' is overkill.

[Crazytazman]

Thanks procraftwes. I'm reading a lot of post that suggest the same thing. I'll keep that in mind. Shorter run to 40' as well.

[EddieJoe]

Although it might seem obvious, the depth issue is highly dependent on where you are fishing, water temperature, time of year, and fresh water flow circumstances. This affects where bait is holding, and predators do follow the bait.

While not always true (see above), once the water is 80 degrees (like now), deeper water will hold bigger bottom fish in general. How far one has to go is always the question of the day for me., and I make errors all of the time. For example, twice this month I went too shallow and it was obvious the fish had moved deeper, but sometimes this is a problem related to factors such as “brown slime”, not just depth.

Fishing, not catching, some of the time.

Luck
EJ


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[Crazytazman]

Exactly EJ. It's gonna be trail and error for awhile. If I'm on the water I'm happy. Catching the fish is a bonus. I really appreciate all the info. I'll be posting on here how I'm doing..