A unique website dedicated to fishing information from Florida's Northern Big Bend. This includes the area from the Econfina River west to the Apalachicola River
Use this area to post inshore fishing reports from the area. Please try to include relevant information such as:
Location, date, time, water conditions, weather conditions, baits, techniques, species caught, etc.
Finally made it over to fish a JBT tourney and hit some new waters that I have never fished. Launched out of Lanark Friday at dawn and took a slow ride toward the FSU Marine Lab as I had no idea what was out in front of me with a steady 15mph wind choppin it up. Made it over without incident and dropped the trolling motor in about 3' of water, grabbed a topwater and chunked it toward the bank. Flipped the bail and was bout to start working back toward the boat when I realized the trolling motor had not locked in good all the way so started jerking on the handle with one hand and holding the rod with the other when something just about took my brand new stradic and gloomis into the drink. The fish would not surface and stripped 3 good runs before I could even slow him down. Finally got him boat side and was very pleased with my very first cast of the day!!
Caught 3 more smaller reds on the same bank and decided to go and look in the grass for some trout. Fished shallow near the docks on a rising tide and tried to stay in 2-3' water hoping to hit some bigger trout but only caught shorts. Moved out to the 5.5-6' area and started catching some decent fish. The bite was hot and cold all through the morning and then died out just before the tide quit moving. The fish did not bite good again until 1:30-2:00 and we caught some nice fish all through the flats. Ended Friday with 8 trout to 21" and 1 20" red.
Tourney Day
We hit JBT early Saturday morning expecting to hear the Tourney had been canceled but Tin Can assured us that we were going to fish. Hit the road and got on the water right at daylight and the wind was howling. We caught 4 reds early with the biggest at 23" and weighed 4lbs to take the redfish pot. Caught plenty of short trout throughout the day and finally got a 21" trout to eat a renegade and my partner picked up a 19.5 a couple of casts later with a gulp. Ended up with 5 fish to weigh but did not expect to even be close to winning but took home first place with a 9 lb. stringer.
I had a great time meeting everyone at the weigh in and meeting Thursday night. See everyone in PSJ next month!
Sounds like it was a great two days, BG! Congrats on the tournament victory - glad Blake was able to have fun as well. You've really gotta learn to smile in your fish pictures...
