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Wife wants to go to St George. We plan to fish Gulf side in the park (not east end). Any what, where, and when tips would be appreciated. I'm planning on ending up at the last pavillion but that's not etched in stone. Are there any decent sand fleas around there now?

If you can throw a cast net you can get in a heap o trouble trout reds spanish shatk blues and flounder.

shrimp in the surf will always produce, doesn't have to be live, fresh dead from the the vendors work just fine. I've caught reds, trout, whiting, pompano, and unfortunately lots of cats there. Pompano may be back by then as the water temps are coming down a bit with the cooler nights. Look for the calmer spots where the water is flowing back out, these are entrance/exits inside the bars and can produce. Also, don't be afraid to fish right where the shore break is, I caught a nice 20 inch trout hunting in a foot of water.

bayside where the grass is, or oyster bars will produce more reds and trout than the surf will, but the whiting will keep you busy all day in the surf.

Mike

Welcome to the boards Mike......what does your user name mean???

Hey WAM. Good to hear from you. Forget the cast net. Water has been too churned up lately, I'm not gettin in it. I've been fishing there before. Check out this post from Pirate.
http://www.bigbendfishing.net/phpBB3/vi ... =4&t=19540" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Caught this one myself a couple of years ago in late September. Wife won't get over ankle deep anymore and I feel about the same.



Thanks irish but I have to stay on the beach with the wife. Can you say WHIPPED?
I will be looking for the run outs. That's where I fish. While I was bringing in the shark in the photo my son in law caught and released 3 reds so I will have them and trout in mind. I understand the shrimp are running in the bay about now so I'll be sure to get some. I'll also take my sand flea rake just in case. I always take too much stuff. I just hope I have a good report to post.
Thanks guys.

FR Pirate.... I am Big, I am Irish and I was going to form an LLP for an Irish Pub back in 2001, but my main backer fell through. Thanks for the welcome.

I used to fish alot till I had kids. Now that they are a little bit older, I am trying to get them out some. I used to fish spin and conventional both bait and artificials, but lately have been floggin the waters with a 6wt fly rod.

BuggMann, the runouts are key if you can find em, not always clear, and as you probably well know, they move alot. If its not too rough, I have used various chum methods off the beach, anything from frozen blocks to dry catfood soaked in menhaden oil. Me and a buddy even had luck using a water balloon launcher to send out frozen balls of chunk o fish past the breakers.

Also, if you get fresh shrimp for dinner, get them heads on, boil em' in old bay crab and shrimp boil, and save the heads, they give off a ton of scent either as chum, or if you leave a little meat on them, as bait.

The sharks have always been there. I used to fish for and catch some big ones back in the early 90's with friends from FSU. Both the seawall on the bridge and the beach itself produced. If people knew how many big bull, tiger, and hammerheads were caught out there, let alone blacktips too, nobody would go in the water. There is a big breeding ground just off of mashes sands beach over near panacea. I have heard from a few people with small planes that they have seen hundreds of sharks just a few hundred yards from shore periodically during the summer time.

Good Luck on the water!

Well we went. That's about all there was to it. Fished incoming tide both days. It was slick with very little wave action and I didn't see any decent runouts. Wound up at stop #4 in the park, no runout but a good trough. Loaded my surf wagon and hit the beach.

There were plenty of bait fish and the ladies were tearing them up. They would start just outside the sand bar and drive them in to the beach. Balls of tiny bait fish would swim past me no more than 1 or 2 yards from the waters edge. Had my cast net with me but resisted the urge to toss it. (If you have ever had to pick those little guys out of a net before, you know why.) Tried to keep my bait near the action. Fished live shrimp on a pompano rig, shrimp on a popping cork, Gulp, nylure jigs and top water as well. Caught nothing but ladies. Big ladies. Met one guy there that started a little earlier than me (had to get wife going), he had 1 pompano, 1 whiting, 3 yellow tails.
With the way the ladies were tearing up the bait, I was suprised I didn't pick up anything working on the scraps down under them. Oh well ....... Didn't have to clean any fish, got my fill of seafood at the Blue Parrot and then again at the Coastal on the way home. Great food and service at both.
And there's always next time.

Not bad at all BuggMann.