St. Marks 10-20

[Srbenda]

Shell Island is closed, the fort ramp is closed, and Shields was the available ramp, so we trailered the boat there and launched. We trailer very infrequently, so it's never fun.
In the river, while some channel markers are there, plenty are not, so use your chart to make sure you don't dig up an oyster bar.

Got the boat in the water with no incident, and headed out to glass smooth seas. Saw lots of bait activity south of the sandbar, but no fish would bite spoons, jigs or paddle tails.

Tried some cut bait on the bottom at the St. Marks reef, as well as other lures. No success.
Went to some hard bottom south of the reef, and again got skunked. Kept a pinfish about 10' deep at both locations, and nothing took a swipe at all.

Wind began to pick up around 130 or 2, and suddenly became 10+ out of the south. We headed to the west flats with popping corks, and only managed a miniature 10" trout. The wind was pushing us about 1.4 knts/ hour and fishing became difficult, and waves began pushing the 1' mark in the bay.

So back through the mostly-unmarked channel to the ramp with NO FISH.

First time I've been totally skunked.

[DixieReb]

Tough day for sure. Maybe they need some time to adjust after the storm. Thanks for the report, hope it gets better soon.

[Jhults11]

TNT on the Wakulla is open as well. Early week the buoys were all over the place but the USCG was out Wednesday through Friday getting them all back in order. According to my saved track, it appears to me they are all in line and good to go again. The fishing wasn’t great yesterday, but should improve with the dropping water temps. Furthermore, we need the water to clean up too.

[silverking]

Thanks for the report and the navigation update, guys. Tides/moon weren't the best. Should really pick up this week with the cool snap and full moon tides.

[fishinfool]

I went out of Ecky with two friends Saturday. The ramp was in good shape, but the floating docks are still not useable. You have to board your boat at the stairs or the seawall. There was some debris in the river but it was not horrible or dangerous.
The fishing was very tough. Caught some catfish on topwater and jigs on the flats. Fished the creek mouths and in the creeks. Lots of bait but no takers. Managed to loose a 12"-14" flounder at the boat and landed one 17" trout.
Water clarity is still an issue. Never found visibility greater than 3 feet. Water temp was still in the 82 degree range. On the plus side, the floating grass was almost nonexistent.

[Redbelly]

Are the rock markers still in place at Ecofina going out?

[Carlabear]

Yes the markers are ok at econfina but there are two trees in the river. There are some trees down but lateral to river but may be floating out at some time so be careful. We had a great weekend fishing. I caught first 26 inch trout on topdog and my partner caught one 27 in. One down by rock island and other around mailbox. We caught several other trout 17 -18 inches on corks etc. It was a great time fishing. water was not dirty but you couldn't see bottom.