St. Marks Reprt, 6/26/03

Post by **dbplug** » June 27th, 2003, 8:11 am

Hit the lighthouse about noon for a quick afternoon, landing about half full. Very light chop, winds out of the south less than 10.

Ran to Aucilla, met a nice guy from T-Ville named Matt. He gave us a whole of info on bottom, bars, in general the area around the mouth of the Aucilla, very thankful for that. Heckuva nice guy.

Quickly caught 2 monstous hardheads on grubs with FB, Quicly moved. Water was beyond tea colored, more like overheated strong USN style coffee. Temp gauge reported water was 85-89 degrees.

Headed back west looking for clearer water and grass. caught one short about 2:30 just inside the stake line 3 mi. east of the lighthouse in about 7'. Pinfish were even hard to come by.

Last stop, old faithful, just out of the lighthouse in 5' yeilded the best although pathetic result. Trying to get pins on a homemade sabiki with FB for bait got us a 24" trout, amazing.

We could see the bottom in about 4' at this spot, so up went the flag, an down went the knothead. I Swam for 15 minutes, no scallops, no (well you know).

Better'n working. Wind picked up, moderate chop, off the water at 4:30

Post by **dbplug** » June 27th, 2003, 8:42 am

forgot to say, whole lotta grass, some clumped up in 1/4 acre floating islands.

beerfish · Post by **beerfish** » June 27th, 2003, 3:05 pm

thanks for the report

Post by **Cranfield** » June 27th, 2003, 3:15 pm

What causes the grass to break away from the bottom and float on the surface like that ?
Is it a natural phenomena, or man induced ?

Post by **dbplug** » June 27th, 2003, 4:16 pm

I think the rough storms down there that one long rainy week tore up some grass. The wind probably get it all bunched together. If you put all the floating grass together that we saw between St. Marks and Aucilla, I would estimate it at 25-30 hectares.(metric talk just for you Cran)

Btw Cran, I enjoy your reports/musings/observations very much.

Post by **Cranfield** » June 27th, 2003, 4:32 pm

Thanks dbplug, I wondered if it was a "seasonal moult", or something similar.

Metric ain,t for me, Im not even decimalised yet.

If its not inches, feet and yards, I have problems imagining it.
Probably an age thang.

Post by **Fish Masterson** » June 27th, 2003, 10:54 pm

If the grass is seeming worse this year than most, I wonder if the prolonged presence of the dark water is blocking the sunlight enough to cause the grass to start dying off.
Just a thought, Fish Masterson

EddieJoe · Post by **EddieJoe** » June 28th, 2003, 5:00 pm

Plug:

I saw a boat parked near the St. Marks Channel, on the east side, with I think four people in it as I motored in from 24. Time was about 4. Was that you? I was in a 17' Aquasport, 115 yam, by myself.

EJ

Post by **dbplug** » June 30th, 2003, 7:41 am

No, EJ, just two of us in a Key West 17. Sorry I missed ya'