St Marks 07/12/03

[Sir reel]

Wife and I launched from the lighthouse about 7:30 am. Weather was good. Rode east toward Peters Rock to where I had last fished (3 weeks ago) and had caught some trout. Started draging jigs just off the bottom (10 ft depth) tipped with fishbites but no cork. Caught some pin fish and baited up my heavy rod with one to drag from the back. Very slow. Never hooked a single trout Tried going further out, tried coming in closer to shore, tried squid on the jigs . Lots of sharks, caught two and had one very large member of the family on for 10 minutes before he chewed through the 30lb steel leader. Had him next to the boat and saw the cork but couldn't see the fish. Had several (4 or 5) baits come back in with the typical shark bite (half the pin gone right behind the gills) I may be mistaken but the water actually looked more stained to me this weekend than it did 3 weeks ago. Would have been impossible to scallop anywhere we were.

Weather started looking iffy about 2:30, with big stuff building South of us so put everything away and started towards the lighthouse. Waves were being generated by the stuff South of us and were building. A 19 ft Carolina Skiff has never won any awards for a dry ride and we really got wet trying to beat the weather back in. Waves hitting just angled enough on the port bow to throw the water up and all over us.

Sure hope you NFGFC guys had better luck with your tournament. How about some reports.

[dstockwell]

Well at least you were on the water. Better luck next time.

[DixieReb]

Sir reel,
My wife and I were out of the lighthouse the day before you went. We did not much different than you-mostly sharks and only one trout(keeper). that was the only trout bite we got all day, and he was in 41/2 ft. water.
We went out as far as 18ft. and got 1 big black bass,1 big grunt,my wife lost the biggest shark, cobe, or whatever I've seen all year. Whatever he was, he rolled about 40 yds. from the boat and made a foam trail about the size of a bathtub. BIG fish!! Ibottom fished in that deep stuff and could not believe how poor it was-caught all the 6-7 inch bass Ii wanted but no big on es. 1 kkper shark, 1 bass, 1 trout,1 grunt,1huge pinfish bigger'n my hand. But a fun day out! water very dirty like you said.

[Sir reel]

Good afternoon Jessie,

Thanks for your reply. It's nice to know that someone else had the same experience. It sort of restores your confidence in your ability

Couple of questions if you don't mind. Did you travel east as far as I did or stay closer to the lighthouse? And, did you go south from where you were fishing for trout?

How about bait... were you using CT's , jigs, etc for trout..... pin fish when you went further out.... what did you use for the bottom feeders??

Thanks again.

[DixieReb]

Sir reel,
We were South of the wooden rack by the sandbar about 2-3 miles,started out catching ladyfish so went further out and drifted East toward Aucilla. Got the bass on a '' GOTCHA'' sinking plug. We fished live pins under CT rigs but had little luck. She hung that big thing on a shinertail under CT about 3 ft. I used cutbait and shrimp to catch all those small bass. Got a jolthead porgy on bottom rig.
We fished just west of channel to get trout and 1 keeper shark. Lots of baby sharks in there,chewed up some good shiners. Looked like bathtub toys when you caught one.
We had an enjoyable day, the weather and tides were as good as I've seen 'em in a long time. And the fish ate good tonight, too! Good luck if you go, I probably won't go until the dirty water clears some. We probably would have got more if it was clearer. Just my opinion.

[Sir reel]

Great report Jessie,

Thanks for sharing your information. Best of luck on your next trip and perhaps we'll meet up some time.

Best Regards.

[Sharky]

What Jessie failed to mention was he laughed at me when I bought that "gotcha" plug and laughed when I put it on, but he wasnn't laughin' when I pulled in that 12 in black bass. Wish I could have caught a box full of them. I pulled in a LARGE shark all the way up to the boat on a c/t rig with a live pin under, but, the dip net was still intangled with the gotcha plug and he tried to lift the shark to grab behind the gills. Well it whirled around to take a bit out of this issue and bite 30 # monofil into and took off. Would love to have brought that one home and grilled him.
Think we are going to park the boat until Sept. We are not sure if the water will ever clear up!!!