looking for Cape San Blas/St. Joe bay advice

[dbplug]

Gentlemen and Stockwell,

I am going to Cape San Blas for a week starting Saturday. I am familiar with scalloping around Black Island. I need some tips on a few things.

Best spots to flats fish in the bay for trout, reds, etc.

Do the inshore reefs off of beacon hill produce?

What is the Indian pass boat ramp like?

Is the back side of St. Vincents worth a try?

Any other info would be appreciated. Give me holler on 16 if you are in the area.

[Littoral]

August is tough. I scalloped last week and did well. the water is clear. I'd fish as early as you can see with top water over the deeper holes in the flats "south" of the island. You should know them from scalloping. After sunup I'd go to bait if the topwater wasn't producing. There are a lot of pilchards in the bay now(scaled sardines/greenbacks, or locally called LY's). I also like the hard bottom areas at the north west end between the mill and the intercoastal.
Me, with all this fresh water I would'nt go to Indian pass side except for a stop at the raw bar.
Good luck.
Pass on how you do.

[Frank Bradfield]

Spent last week down there, best bet i could come up with in the bay is come out of the state park ramp, hang a left, fish about 3/4 ways down to end of cape. caught lots of blues, ladyfish, sharks, some things that just ran off with our tackle and about 4 trout up to 22in. Catch 2000s were working wonders , couldn't keep the ladyfish off ( don't think anything else had time to see it ) so dragging small live pinfish across the grass patches from 5 to 10 ft of water was the magic #. best i could tell the fish weren't holding on any one spot down there but migrated around so just we just picked 1 area and worked it back and forth, enjoyed the view the bay had and the fish came to us. Not bad for the hot summer bay fishing.