East River St Marks

[ertauber]

Yesterday I decided to return to the Lighthouse and try the East River bars. Got there at 10am for an incredible low tide. The channel out of the ramp was inches of water, but after a very slow exit I got to the river. Followed my GPS safely to the East River and upriver about a mile to a favorite spot. Tide was just starting to come in. My mentor had told me to look for the cuts and the ripples around the end of the bars. Found my spot, anchored and prepared my first cast. Using a red fish magic with root beer and chartreuse paddle tail made my first cast to the right spot. BAM that redfish was motivated! 22" was in the cooler. After a short water break rigged my second rod for freeline shrimp with a bullet weight. Sent that one out and continued to cast the plastic. Second rod went wild. Hoping for a monster red but it wasn't. Water was pretty clear in 5' and it soon was clear this was a huge sheepshead. Got it in the boat and it filled a seat in my bass boat. Into the cooler for mister toothy. Sent my shrimp out again. After 4 black sea bass (all shorts) I changed the plastic to a speckled white paddle tail. The trout loved it. Legal size ones into the cooler. By noon the tide was coming so strong the anchor was sliding a bit. Moved around to other bars but nothing. By 2:30 I was done.
Great day on the water and a better dinner.

[DixieReb]

Nice!! You went a mile up the East River?

[silverking]

East River is way underrated! And those sheepies are tasty. Great winter day.

[DixieReb]

I've never tried to go up it, didn't know how far up you could go. Sounds like a great place to winter fish.

[ertauber]

Actually it was 1.4 miles thru the gauntlet of bars. Fished same spot yesterday and the trout was on fire but no reds. Got drenched in the downpour and then the wind came up and at 54 degrees it was time to stop.

[xXLoneBowmanXx]

East river is a hidden gem in my opinion. It's tricky to navigate to the mouth of the river on low tide, I don't think I've made a trip up there that didn't produce fish. Last spring I landed a 26" trout off of one of the bars. Plenty of eating size black drum up there at certain times of year, too.

[kenfly]

Never really fished up in the east river at all but have always wanted to explore it a lot more, may have to try it, yeah I know the lighthouse ramp can be real tough this time of year you have to plan pretty good or you will be stuck for a while, don't ask me how I know Lol


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