ECONFINA 11-02-03

Post by **dolphinatic** » November 3rd, 2003, 1:57 am

Got the boat in the water around 7:15 on a high tide. Headed out the mouth of the river and went SE towards the bird racks. Stopped about half way out to the racks in 4-5 ft. with a nice breeze. Started out first drift using live shrimp and SWA's under Equalizers. The bite was slow at first, but the shorts starting hitting the live shrimp. The wind picked up after an hour, so we decided to head in a bit with only 2 keeper trout in the boat.

We started drifting again heading SW towards Aucilla. We started catching shorts and got broke off by something.....probably a spanish by the looks of the leader. We moved a little further west and started another drift. The bite was on! In a span of 20 minutes or so, we had 7 trout and 3 rock bass...all but 1 on SWA's. We drifted for 45 minutes catching fish the whole time...mostly shorts. I only needed 1 more trout to have our limit, so I headed in one more time for one last drift. On my way in, I hit a rock-coral "mound" right out in the middle of the flats!!! That was a first. Needless to say, I bent my new stainless prop in two spots. This pretty much killed the day. In disgust, I decided to just drift and see if catching any more fish would make me feel any better. We caught a few more trout and I got my last keeper to give us our limit for the day. I decided to head on in with my bent prop. Got back to the mouth marker and there was 5 or so boats sitting there because of the VERY low tide. While we were trolling in, 2 baots went past and the one following nailed a piling and nearly ripped his motor right off the back! It really hurt to hear that. A few minutes later, I looked back and they had the paddles out. We spent the next 45 minutes trolling back to the ramp and dodging all debris in the river.

The boy and I ended up with 10 keeper trout (15-17") and 3 nice rock bass. Most of the trout were caught off SWA's (electric chicken) and all 3 rocks hit the "chicken." Totaled about 30 trout for the day with about half going 14".

I have now decided that after 2 damaged props in the last month, that I will no longer be in the Econfina area at low tide anymore. Can't afford it! Anyhow, the weather was nice all day with the wind being a little more than what I prefer, but it kept the flies away! Next week, it's back to fishing the deep holes for some of those nice groupas![/b]

Post by **Cranfield** » November 3rd, 2003, 6:04 am

Nice report dolphinatic.

Some fish catching activity ,for sure.

Leaving a part of your prop at Econfina, seems like the "dues", everyone who fishes that area pays eventually.
It sounds as though the Chap who hit the piling, may come to the same conclusion as you.

Post by **Chalk** » November 3rd, 2003, 7:03 am

dolphinatic, sorry about the mishaps, glad you caught some fish. You gotta be on your p's & q's coming in the mouth of the Econfina for sure. You didn't by chance mark that mud pile over towards Aucilla did you?

dstockwell · Post by **dstockwell** » November 3rd, 2003, 7:44 am

Glad you caught some nice fish, sorry to here about the mishaps. Send that prop to Georgia Precision Prop for repair. http://www.gaprop.com

Post by **Tom Keels** » November 3rd, 2003, 8:04 am

We kinda have a tradition that all new prop eating rocks found get their GPS numbers posted. Let me know if you care to share that one. I think we'd all be interested in it.

Post by **CSMarine** » November 3rd, 2003, 8:41 am

Great fishing.

Tough about your prop. Did you say it was new?

Post by **wevans** » November 3rd, 2003, 9:29 am

And ya'll wonder why I don't fish over that way

sounds like ya'll done good on the catchin though

Post by **Sir reel** » November 3rd, 2003, 10:36 am

I'd like to welcome you dolphinatic as the newest member of the Econfina Brothers of the Repair

Chalk wasn't kidding about those P's and Q's (Piling's and Quary stones)

Last March was my formal initiation into the Breathern..... here's a little reminder that I look at ever so often just to keep things fresh in my mind.

(I had just put on a brand new aluminum prop the night before)

This picture being towed in towards the tripod by some very nice folks from Thomasville gives you some idea of how far out we were and west of the river. I got impatient and just did not go far enough South before I turned towards the West

I still fish and prefer the Econfina over anywhere else. That being said, there is a greater risk to become complacent about being careful there than anywhere else. Late fall and winter tides on the Econfina can really be dramatic (the low's). You just have to remember what can happen when those folks are blow'n past you on the way out while your idling down the river and out the mouth. Rules of probablility says their days a coming

Glad you were able to make it in on your own and your's was a real nice catch. Thanks for the report. (ps I'd be real interested if you could give us a idea of where that piling was....that concerns me more than the rocks.)

Post by **Chalk** » November 3rd, 2003, 11:20 am

wevans wrote:And ya'll wonder why I don't fish over that way sounds like ya'll done good on the catchin though

Show'm where you fish wevans, I can't find the terraserver picture of skipper bay you have posted before.......I respect that place much more so than Econfina, but Icky has bitten me too. I said bitten, not chewed my leg off like Sir Reel....

Post by **CSMarine** » November 3rd, 2003, 11:41 am

SR, I was looking at your boat picture. Is the rigging board on the side of your boat permanate? Or does it come off.

Post by **wevans** » November 3rd, 2003, 11:41 am

This pretty much cover my main teritory

I gotta get back over into Oyster Bay again soon, they should be all over it right now

http://terraserver-usa.com/image.aspx?t ... 9&z=16&w=2

Post by **Sir reel** » November 3rd, 2003, 1:20 pm

Good afternoon CS,

The tray is removable, can be used by its self or in combination with a small cooler used as a livewell. It snaps on after launch and off before loading on the trailer. Its something I developed to give me a place to rig,cut bait, etc and keep the mess under control. Keeps my other cooler tops, console, decks, etc, cleaner. Made it from starboard and a tray all purchased from Marine Liquidators. The cooler can be attached or removed and used as a livewell which I didn't have. The cooler can be picked up from inside the boat and placed inside if I want to run a while at speed and not have the weight hanging outside. I used the tray station on FishingFools standard skiff hull and it worked just as well as it does on my SemiV hull (both Carolina Skiff's) He's been after me to get him my template but haven't gotten it to him yet. The design isn't reall pretty yet but been using it for about 7 mo with no problems.

dstockwell · Post by **dstockwell** » November 3rd, 2003, 2:19 pm

Thats sure is a neat set-up there.

Post by **Frank Bradfield** » November 3rd, 2003, 4:55 pm

Well if it makes you feel any better, Econfina owes me 2 props so far, sure it want be the last, but i want quit fishing it, the river dosen't scare me as much as the flats, thats a big area with a lot of rocks and it will get ya soon enough, but if it matters thats why i don't run SS prop on my inshore boat because they are more expensive and can do more damage to the rest of your motor because of their strength. My boats running pretty good with a skint up prop, I think i'll just run it on through this winter...

Post by **dolphinatic** » November 3rd, 2003, 10:47 pm

Hey Tom....I didn't get the exact numbers on the piling I hit, but I will on my next trip out. I didn't have my GPS with me and I had nothing to mark it with. I know right where it is though. I have never seen one out there before, but it definately needs to be marked! I can give you an approximate location for all of you who dare to fish there on a low tide. It is about 3/4 of a mile due south of the Econfina mouth marker. There is a white marker (a jug) floating where it looks like someone marked a spot. The piling is about 150 yards due east of that marker. It's a real nasty one too. I apologize for not being able to mark it.

I sent the prop off for repair to a place over in Panama City. It is called Marine Wheels and they do really good work. They get it back to you fast also. It took 3 days last time I sent it off (the week before last

).

Thanks for the welcome to the "Econfina Club."