St. Marks River

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TOWM
Posts: 67
Joined: June 16th, 2019, 8:10 am

St. Marks River

Post by TOWM »

In spite of a late start we did fairly well today. We stayed in the river and anchored near oyster bars within casting distance of the grass banks. We caught two keeper flounder, one short trout, one puppy drum, and a pinfish. All of the fish were caught on ⅛ oz jig heads tipped with frozen shrimp and FishBites slowly bumped along the bottom in about 2-3 feet.
The wind was blowing harder than forecast. The water temperature was around 62F. We are going to try again tomorrow.
BTW... I introduced two new fishermen to our wonderful pastime today! They are 10 years old, my neighbors kids, whose parents don’t have time to take them. The kids used their birthday money to buy fishing combos for themselves and have been politely asking me to take them sometime. Today was the day! I was happy we caught fish on their first trip.
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geofish
Posts: 340
Joined: July 23rd, 2016, 8:18 pm

Re: St. Marks River

Post by geofish »

Any day when kids catch fish is a good day. Well played!

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procraftwes
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Joined: April 25th, 2008, 5:20 pm

Re: St. Marks River

Post by procraftwes »

I could only get them in the deepest part of the channel a tough undertaking with saturday boat traffic. I idled over the spot moving when any traffic came through, rinse/repeat and just got tired of doing it. I was fishing in a similar spot on the entrance to a creek near the grass about a mile north of the mouth.. Seemed hopeless(no bites) so we just ended up cruising around. I hate winter fishing.

I'll have to find a couple of holes outside the channel so I can anchor.
DixieReb
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Joined: April 26th, 2003, 6:27 pm
Location: Moultrie,Ga.

Re: St. Marks River

Post by DixieReb »

:thumbup: :thumbup: Great job on the fish and taking time out with the kids! I know they had a blast. :D
Yours in the South
TOWM
Posts: 67
Joined: June 16th, 2019, 8:10 am

Re: St. Marks River

Post by TOWM »

Today was even better than Saturday! One of the twins landed a 14” black drum by himself and the other twin caught two trout. It was fun showing how to read the Garmin and all the controls in the boat. I think I have some new fishing partners!
We caught our fish in the vicinity of marker 40. The fish seemed were near the channel. We used frozen shrimp knocker rigged on the bottom in 5-7 ft. Water was a couple degrees warmer than Saturday.
How long will the fish hole up in certain vicinity? The kids want to go back next weekend.
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ugadawg
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Joined: July 23rd, 2006, 12:08 am
Location: Moultrie

Re: St. Marks River

Post by ugadawg »

They should still be there next weekend, as long as the cold weather forecast for this week holds. I have honed my winter fishing over the past few years as it seems to be when I can fish the most, and I consistently catch fish. During this time of the year, I closely watch the water temperature in Apalachicola. https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page ... tion=apcf1 It is the closest NOAA sea temp station to our area. The key temps to look for are 68, 60, and 50. At 68, the fish are on the flats in 3-4 ft of water and are easily caught. Plugs and gulps under a CT will catch fish as long as the water is moving. From 65-60, they move to the creek mouths and can be harder to get to in our area, as the prop eating rocks are also in the same area. Once the temp gets below 60, I can start to find them in the rivers. If the temp in is the higher 50s, they will be closer to the gulf, and will push up the rivers if it is in the lower 50s. We catch them mostly on plugs, but a gulp or shrimp on the bottom will also produce. If the water temp gets in the 40s (this rarely happens for more than a day or so in our area) then the fish will push up the St. Marks and stack up in the holes. If you can get on a day when the cold front has passed and it is just starting to warm up, and the water is moving, you can catch a keeper on almost every cast. Now the temps in our area will be a little different from Apalachicola because of the springs in the rivers, but I use Apalach as a reference because I trust the consistency of the NOAA station.

Right now the water temp is 61 deg which means the fish will push back to the mouth. Cold weather is predicted this week, so it will likely be back in the 50s by next weekend. Marker 40 is a pretty solid place to start.
ropeman
Posts: 399
Joined: July 23rd, 2007, 1:24 am

Re: St. Marks River

Post by ropeman »

I was out to the west of that area Saturday and only hooked 1 flounder. He even escaped the hook before getting in the boat. The water was about 58 degrees and we fished from 3' to 12' of water.
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geofish
Posts: 340
Joined: July 23rd, 2016, 8:18 pm

Re: St. Marks River

Post by geofish »

Sunday the fog was socked in till noon. I caught under-slot reds up in the East River and then found a gaggle of boats and schools of trout busting up bait just off the channel at marker 42. They were hitting shrimp and cut bait a bit, but once I tried a fat grey gulp minnow on a chartreuse jig head it was a trout on every cast. Mostly 14", but a few bigger. All released gently to play another day.

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Badfish
Posts: 25
Joined: February 21st, 2020, 9:45 am

Re: St. Marks River

Post by Badfish »

We were out Sunday also. We found trout holding under a school of ladyfish and could have stayed and caught quite a few. We opted to run offshore because of the fog and the other 5 or so boats fishing the same school. We ended up with a cooler full of rock bass and a couple nice trout.
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