St. Mark’s 5/15

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DadSquatch
Posts: 4
Joined: May 10th, 2021, 6:48 pm

St. Mark’s 5/15

Post by DadSquatch »

A buddy and I drove from Atlanta to the St. Mark’s Lighthouse where we put in. That is a beautiful park and everyone we met at the dock and at the pay station was very nice and very helpful.

We hit the water around 8:00. We went to marker 10 and headed east. We were fishing a gulp under a popping cork in about 3.5 to 5 feet of water. We caught most of our fish in about 4.5 feet of water.

Since this was my first time out, we pushed to the west of the channel and that was a bust.

The wind picked up through out the day and my little boat was drifting at about 2 mph.

Caught about 10-15 small trout, 2 puffers, 2 lady fish, and a very very small sea bass. The biggest fish was right at 15. To close to the line for me to keep.

Any pointers on finding the bigger fish would be great. We did not venture past Minnie cove.

Overall, 10 hours of driving for 6 hours of fishing was well worth it.
PhishingNole
Posts: 121
Joined: March 4th, 2020, 12:07 pm

Re: St. Mark’s 5/15

Post by PhishingNole »

I got stuck doing chores in the morning, so we went out in the afternoon (about 2) and fished east like you did.

I was fishing a little farther out than marker 10 to get into 3-6 feet, essentially just short of the sandbar.

The wind was cranking and we were drifting quite a bit faster than I like. A lot of folks use drift socks to slow the boat down in heavy wind, and I think we'll be picking one up before the next trip.

I had two kids popping live shrimp under popping corks, my wife popping a vudu shrimp and paddle tails, and I worked a trout eye jig and top water at the end of the day.

Kids pulled in a bunch of short trout and ladyfish but we mostly got tore up by smooth puffers. Damn things destroyed two vudu shrimp lures, destroyed a new cajun thunder cork, a few hooks, and a bunch of zman soft plastics. We couldn't get away from them.

I did manage a 18" spanish mackerel on the jig and a huge catfish on a skitterwalk, which surprised the heck out of me. That was the last thing I expected to catch on top water.

Having trouble understanding this warmer pattern myself.


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Hit-n-Miss
Posts: 3477
Joined: May 20th, 2004, 12:15 pm
Location: Boston Ga.

Re: St. Mark’s 5/15

Post by Hit-n-Miss »

DadSquatch wrote: May 16th, 2021, 1:45 pm A buddy and I drove from Atlanta to the St. Mark’s Lighthouse where we put in. That is a beautiful park and everyone we met at the dock and at the pay station was very nice and very helpful.

We hit the water around 8:00. We went to marker 10 and headed east. We were fishing a gulp under a popping cork in about 3.5 to 5 feet of water. We caught most of our fish in about 4.5 feet of water.

Since this was my first time out, we pushed to the west of the channel and that was a bust.

The wind picked up through out the day and my little boat was drifting at about 2 mph.

Caught about 10-15 small trout, 2 puffers, 2 lady fish, and a very very small sea bass. The biggest fish was right at 15. To close to the line for me to keep.

Any pointers on finding the bigger fish would be great. We did not venture past Minnie cove.

Overall, 10 hours of driving for 6 hours of fishing was well worth it.
X2 a Drift sock is a must if you are drifting over .5mph. How were you fishing? Just gulp under a cork? Also, in from the stake line(to the left out the channel) is a good area called the rock garden to fish.
Michael171
Posts: 5
Joined: January 14th, 2021, 11:58 am

Re: St. Mark’s 5/15

Post by Michael171 »

I got out both Saturday and Sunday and never found the decent trout on the flats. Tried from the lighthouse to the edge of rock garden from 2 feet up to 6 feet with little to show for it and lots of lures and shrimp lost to bait thieves. Finally found a couple of black drum and quite a few reds on some oyster bars up in the bay a bit west of the lighthouse. The bigger trout have eluded me for about a month. I was able to lock into them in creek mouths before then, but this is my first summer here, so i'll continue to search as the water heats up.
cotton
Posts: 241
Joined: November 10th, 2009, 10:59 pm

Re: St. Mark’s 5/15

Post by cotton »

Caught some good ones fishing in 3 ft over spotty bottom on Sunday. Solid grass or sand yielded little.
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guthooked
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Posts: 282
Joined: March 16th, 2012, 9:23 am

Re: St. Mark’s 5/15

Post by guthooked »

Not as knowledgable as some others on here but when you start using swimbaits on jigheads and/or mirrolures you will pick up larger fish.
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