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East End - St George Island

Posted: July 11th, 2018, 11:30 am
by WetBandit
Thinking about giving the East End of the St. George Island State Park a shot one weekend soon.

I have a question about weights. Will the 2-4oz spider weights I typically use for surf fishing work well for this area? Just wondering if the currents at the east end will be stronger than off the beachfront and require heavier weights.

I've never been to the east end before so if anyone has any other suggestions I would be happy to hear them. I've done a fair bit of surf fishing and plan on having wet lines by sun up.

Thanks in advance.

Re: East End - St George Island

Posted: July 11th, 2018, 11:39 am
by Redfin
Get there early, only allow 20 or so cars in a day

Re: East End - St George Island

Posted: July 11th, 2018, 1:07 pm
by fishfalcon
It has been years since I have fished it, but we did catch some fish including bull reds. Also, hooked a lot of sharks. Those weights are big enough. Bring bait with you as we sometimes had a hard time catching baits there. It is a 4 wheel drive only track to get there.

Re: East End - St George Island

Posted: July 11th, 2018, 1:45 pm
by silverking
Normal park hours open at 8 a.m and close at sunset. You can get the gate combo code if you have an annual park pass or are staying there camping.

Not sure if they still require four-wheel drive with the recent road improvements. The park office can verify.

Fishy spot that's frequented by critters with teeth. Have fun.

Re: East End - St George Island

Posted: July 11th, 2018, 2:04 pm
by Pirate
You will not need 4 wheel drive. Like Silver King stated you cannot get into the park until 8 and will have to be out at sundown unless you have an annual Florida State Park pass or are camping. If I'm not mistaken its five dollars to enter per car and then additional cost, maybe per person, to get through the gate to the East End. Years ago we did get a campsite we never used but that may not work anymore. I'm not sure what an annual pass cost if you are in state but out of state is $128 I believe. A couple of trips will pay for this and you can enter and exit anytime you want to at no cost as long as you get the combos ahead of time. Its good at all state parks and to me well worth it since it cost $10 to enter with a boat.

Re: East End - St George Island

Posted: July 11th, 2018, 9:41 pm
by Scoop Sea
I went there on the 4th and fished the bay side. I saw some beautiful full grown reds tailing and got a few to chase my lures but had no luck. A fella near me was using a BitaBait fluke in a greenish color and he was laying out the trout. That's the good news. The bad news. A couple of fellas were shark fishing a couple hundreds of yards away and they pulled in two tigers, one around 9 feet and one around 7.5. It does cause the pucker factor to go up a little when you are out there chest deep casting....lol Another downside, boats tend to come in there and anchor up and splash around, which in my case, definitely didn't help me with the reds I was pursuing before the boats showed up. All that being said, it's a great place to go and wet a line while your significant other relaxes on the beach. I saw non-4WD vehicles there. I have an annual pass, so I didn't pay the daily cover charge, but I believe it was $6. If you get the annual pass ($95 with proof of being a vet last year when I bought it), you can call the office there and get the gate code to enter the park before the 0800 public opening. I don't know if they will give you the east end gate code though. If you take a kayak, you can get in there early and work the shoreline while the sun is coming up and have a blast. Good luck either way.

Re: East End - St George Island

Posted: July 12th, 2018, 9:46 am
by WetBandit
Thanks for all the feedback! Good to know I can run my typical surf routine and I am excited to hear about the flats on the bayside. I was looking at the map of that area the other day and thought there would be some good wading out there. I'm going to try and get out there this Saturday, I love when my biggest problem is deciding if I want be on the beach or throwing topwaters in the bay at sunrise.

Regarding access, I'll tell y'all what I know. I was at St. George just swimming and enjoying the beach a couple weeks ago and I went to the entrance both to ask about after hours access to the East End. I am an annual pass holder, which I purchased more for the after hours access than the savings, although both are great. It's only been a few months and as an avid wader I have definitely gotten my money out of it already. The ranger on duty told me that I needed to have an after hours pass which you can only get from the entrance booth in person. I have one for St. Joe's Peninsula Park already but he said you need one for each park. He gave me one for St. George and numbered it, and said I would need to provide the pass number, in addition to my member number when calling for the front gate code. I'm not sure if this is 100%, I think you could still probably call and get the front gate code if you have an after hours pass (Ive done this at other parks) but that is what the man told me.

For the East End, he gave me another 'East End' access pass. They have day passes and annual passes for the East End, I got an annual for no charge as an annual pass holder. He numbered this pass as well and told me I would need to provide this pass number when calling ahead for after hours access to the East End. If you have the annual east end pass you can call the day before and get your name on the list for the next day and the east end gate code, which they change twice a week. It's not 20 cars a day, it's 20 cars at a time. So when I leave on Saturday I'll stop by the entrance station or call from my car if I decide to swim first and let them know I have left the East End area to open up a slot for someone else. Sharing is caring. I am to understand that 4WD is not needed to make it to the end. I asked specifically and the ranger I spoke with said that while it helps to have good ground clearance, he had just been back there in his Prius. It's just a slower crawl. I drive an Accord so that was a relief.

Hope that helps and thanks for everyone's input. It's been a long week already but I'm hopeful I'll be able to get my butt out the door at 3am to make the trip from Tallahassee in time to get set up before sunrise and put in some work.

Re: East End - St George Island

Posted: July 12th, 2018, 10:06 am
by WetBandit
On second thought... just checked the tides and they are not moving much. H 2.34 at 5am, L 1.64 at 9:38, H 2.79 at 3:11pm. May save the effort for a different day.

I can always go see because I have caught fish under these conditions, but man, I've also had some really crummy days too.

Would anyone care to comment, specifically for this area?

Re: East End - St George Island

Posted: July 12th, 2018, 10:41 am
by silverking
New moon tides and strong solunar periods. You don't get as much tidal influence there as you do in St. Marks.

I'd set the alarm and go.

Re: East End - St George Island

Posted: July 12th, 2018, 11:32 am
by Swampcreek
https://tides4fishing.com/us/florida-gu ... d-west-end

looks good to me, I might have to talk the wife into letting me take the boat out.

Re: East End - St George Island

Posted: July 12th, 2018, 12:08 pm
by WetBandit
That makes me feel better, thank you.

Re: East End - St George Island

Posted: July 12th, 2018, 2:18 pm
by eightwt
Fished there yesterday on fly. Few ladyfish and some long line releases. Didn't see the few bait fishers having much luck either.