St. Marks Lighthouse Reports Sep. 19 & 25th

[Ted in Tallahassee]

Me & the 10 year old son went out from the lighthouse the morning of the 19th with the neighbor and his son, headed out to about 4' approximately off Big Cove, the tide was high & falling. We were throwing white Gulp 3" shrimp on redheaded 1/4 oz. jigs under cajun poppers. Got a few short trout, then a ladyfish, then a couple more ladyfish, then we were getting ladyfish on almost every cast for the next hour. They'd eventually throw the hook all by themselves about 2/3 of the time with their head shaking & jumping, which was a much welcomed turn of events after being slimed a half dozen times while unhooking them. When one would be pulled in there would inevitably be 3 or 4 or 5 around it. I'd never seen so many ladyfish. I felt like I could have jumped out of the boat and walked back to shore on them there were so many. The wind was probably over 10 knots, almost to the "too annoying" level for my idea of an idyllic day fishing on the gulf, what with the boat rocking so much and such, but the fast & furious ladyfish action made the kids hardly notice it. As we drifted, maybe at about 6 feet I saw several long brown shapes near the surface that looked like sharks maybe, and I threw that way and they were all over it and I had one on. After a good fight, what is it, a gigantic remora? No, it's a cobia! First one I ever caught. He was well short of 33" fork but it was fun to catch for sure. We got tired of catching ladyfish after a while (no more trout or cobia to be had) and it was about time to head over to the scalloping area for a last scalloping blast, which was really the point of the trip. The tide was dead low and it was perfect, we went to my secret GPS scallop spot and we killed it, got a few gallons worth and these fellas were definitely bigger than the early season midgets. Kids were pooped out & we came on in. Overall good fun day but a little windy and no fish in the box.

Then on the 25th I went by myself, early AM tried throwing Skitterwalk & One Knocker (bone) in the entrance of Big Cove, tide incoming. (As a side note as the boat was drifting near the grassy shore of the east entrance, who should I see but "the" big gator (musta been him) who exploded out from the grass and dove into the water. It's good to be IN the boat.) As I drifted into the mouth of Big Cove, near the still area along the east edge, I saw a school of reds near the bottom milling around. But they were not interested in the topwaters, Gulp shrimp/jigs, or swimbaits of various sizes, makes & colors. Next time--live shrimp. Oh--allow me to mention--the previous trip's abundance of ladyfish was replaced by an abundance of biting flies. The ones that look exactly like houseflies and seem to prefer to bite the backs of your legs and your ankles and otherwise land all over the inside of the boat. I was ready though, having coated my legs with bug spray and repeating about every 15 minutes. Not once did they try to bite my arms, neck or face. Go figure. Giving up on redfish, I got the tiny bait rod out and caught a few small grunts & pins for live bait. Tried fishing one there, nothing. Then I headed out to deeper water and threw topwaters & Gulp jigs/poppers. I think I caught two or three short trout and lost one or two over the next two hours, man it was slow. I'd move, cast, move, cast, and then some. Then, when I was just inshore of that big rock sticking out of the water that I call "False Grey Mare" because it's not too far west of the real McCoy and once I had thought it was Grey Mare, I was about halfway retrieved on a cast and saw something hit some baitfish in the other direction, and in one sweeping motion I cranked it all the way in and casted it towards the expanding rings of the splash I had seen, and when the popper/jig landed, the popper bobber instantly disappeared, like it wasn't foam but made of rock. BAM something had hit it instantly upon hitting the water. (The last time that happened it was a shark ...) Man it fought HARD, and when I finally got it close enough to see it, it was a big fat mackeral. Why it was still on and hadn't cut my 30 lb. fluoro leader was because the jig hook was just on the edge of his lip. So now, as I'm frantically trying to get him to the boat in order to net him before he slices the leader or the jig pulls out, my Penn Fierce $79 rod/reel combo Bass Pro special starts acting up again --the frickin' anti-reverse feature starts intermittently failing. (The first time it happened was when back in April when there were tons of bat rays everywhere I decided to "play" with one by trying to land my jig on its back to scare him and make him take off, when, you guessed it, I hooked him.) So anyway, here I am trying to hold the net in my left hand, work the rod and no-anti-reverse-Penn turd reel in my right hand, and maneuver this big mackeral into the net. I must have made a half dozen attempts which probably looked like the pole vault competition at the Special Olympics before I FINALLY got him into the net and into the boat. Measured 26" and he was a fattie! I filleted him and fried him in peanut oil and have been eating him for lunch at work the past couple of days over rice. Oh yes he is fishy and tastes much like bait but I will eat him and smile as I'm chewing because he was big and fought hard and was the only fish I put in the box that day. PRINCIPLE. (He's STILL better than the 5 teal my buddy shot the day before. Duck = liver in my book. ANY fish is better than liver.) So I fished a LOT after that, nada. Not one trout, but did get three almost legal BSB's over my secret "reef" spot (an oasis of sponges, weedheads, sandy bottom, spadefish, sheepshead, BSB's, porgies & mangrove snapper.) The water did not seem to be moving much at all. Moved, casted, moved, casted. Zilch. Near the end of the day I tried shark fishing near the mouth of the river using a huge lizardfish I had just caught on a float for bait. Musta sat there 45 minutes, nothing. Reeled it in and he was cut in half. No matter, if it was a small enough shark to not inhale it whole I ain't interested.

That is all.

[spothogg]

Good read! Thanks for sharing the stories

[Bass Pro Shops]

Bring that rod and reel in and we will take care of you , go to the customer service desk and ask for Chris. I work This Thursday open to 3:00 and Friday open to 4:00. I will make sure we get you a new one or credit for that one that you can put towards another set up. I would personally reccomend the 2500 or 4000 Shimano Sadona combo we have that is set up on one of our graphite series rods, I own three of the sadonas and they are a great reel.

[Salty Gator]

Good report, thanks. Was it a Spanish or a king Mac ? I know some folks that swear fresh fried Spanish is better than trout. Must be kept cold they say. Also if teal taste like liver it was overcooked. When any duck or goose is overcooked, it taste like liver

[luceror]

Just want to say that I enjoyed yr novella. And that some good reds have shown up in the panacea area w/in the last week or so. So get back out there and a Wprk the mouths of the creeks at the points.

[randymullaly]

Fished Panacea yesterday. Dropped off at Rock Landing and ran up the bay fishing the grass beds in the creek. Lots of activity with the reds till two huge dolphins showed up. They put on one hell of a show in 12" of water but that was the end of the reds for the morning. "NOTE TO SELF" ---- Dont forget that it gets shallow fast there in a falling tide and you CAN bottom out 20' away from the channel marker!

[Ted in Tallahassee]

Thanks much for the offer to repair my reel Bass Pro Shop. I can't complain too much really given the good price and the fact that I've used it quite a bit. It only happens intermittently. Also, after doing some research, it seems that this can happen with these series of reels if grease gets into the needle-bearing like mechanism of the anti-reverse, and well I did add grease to the innards of my reel 'cause it seemed a little sparse. I'm going to see if I can try to clean/degrease that bearing looking thing out that houses the instant anti reverse and see if it fixes it.

[luckywsp]

Ted,
Just wanted you to know Spanish was never my favorite until my buddy made me some ceviche with it. It is amazing with some lime juice and some finely chopped onion and peppers. Thought you might want to try it next time. It is way better than frying or baking it.

[Rainman]

Ceviche Spanish is fantastic!!! Just had some Monday.

[big bend gyrene]

Another thing you can do with any "fishier" tasting oily / bloody fish is give them a good soaking in milk before cooking. The casein in milk bonds with the & breaks down trimethylamine which is the chemical responsible for the fishy smell associated with many. Also really helps to clear the fish of blood. A 30 minute soak can make a big difference but I often let fishier fish soak overnight.

[FUTCHCAIRO]

HI BIG BEND GYRENE, BOY I AM GLAD YOU POSTED ABOUT USING MILK TO SOAK SPANISH, I TRIED IT TONIGHT AND MAN IT REALLY MAKES A DIFFERENCE. I CAUGHT THESE SPANISH ABOUT 1 1/2 YEARS AGO AND WAS ABOUT TO THROW THEM OUT, TRIED SOAKING THEM IN MILK FOR ABOUT 2 HRS. AND BOY THEY WERE DELICIOUS. I ALWAYS BLEED SPANISH WHEN I CATCH THEM BEFORE THEY GO ON ICE, WHEN I GET HOME I PUT THE FILLETS IN A ZIP-LOCK BAG WITH WATER COVERING THE MEAT. I HAVE EATEN SOME COBE'S THAT I HAD PREPARED 2 YEARS BEFORE AND THEY WERE JUST LIKE FRESH. THANKS AGAIN FOR THE TIP ON THE MILK PREPARATION ON THE SPANISH.
PA
SEMPER FI

[big bend gyrene]

PA, as much wisdom as you've contributed to the board it makes my day I was able to share scoop on something you found useful! And Semper Fi right back to you!

[MudDucker]

Got to try the milk idea. I put some vinegar in water and soak fillets in that to remove slime and much of the smell.