St. Marks Fri. April 30 and Sat. May 1

Algaegator · Post by **Algaegator** » May 2nd, 2004, 8:40 pm

As you guys may or may not know, once a year a group of doctors from Macon, GA, come down and completely occupy Shell Island Fish Camp at St. Mark's for one week. Having just moved here from Macon, in October, I know several of those doctors, and I had the privilege of fishing with one of them on Friday. His name is Tripp Smisson, a neurosurgeon. I fished with Tripp once before, on the Atlantic, but I really enjoyed the opportunity to fish with him this weekend on his boat, the Rapid Infusion, a 31-foot Contender. If you were out on Friday, you probably saw us. His was easily the biggest boat on the flats, but he's been coming for several years now, and he really knows how to catch the trout. It poured rain Friday morning, from 7 - 10 a.m., totalling about three inches. But finally it stopped, and we headed out immediately thereafter, hoping that the influx of fresh water wouldn't foul up the fishing too much. There were five of us all together, Dr. Smisson, his two sons, his nephew and myself. Upon reaching the flats, west of the channel, we immediately started catching trout on SWA electric chicken. I boated a 32.5-inch cobia, using a translucent yellow DOA shrimp. We also caught numerous lady fish and a few pin fish for bait. We had a great day of fishing, with a total of 18 keeper trout and one Spanish mackerel, totalling 25 pounds.

Saturday, May 1st: Today, I took a couple of my friends from work out on my boat, in hopes of catching lots of trout, like we did on Friday, however, the bite was slow all day. My friend, Brian, did boat a 24-inch cobia, which was caught on SWA electric chicken. We drifted live pin fish, with no result, and I tried DOA shrimp and SWA candy corn, with little interest shown by the trout. The majority of our catch came on electric chicken. Our total for the day was eight keeper trout, one bluefish, and an abundance of lady fish. The lady fish all pretended to be baby tarpons, jumping as high as five feet out of the water when hooked, and all were released unharmed. In addition to our catch, there were two catfish, which gave an epic struggle before they, too, were released unharmed. Surprisingly, the weather was very cooperative both days, and a wonderful time was had by all.

Post by **Cranfield** » May 3rd, 2004, 3:54 am

Nice report algaegator, I think ladyfish are great fun on light trout tackle, but then I even enjoy catching sailcats.

Is it my imagination, or do there seem to be more cobia being reported this Spring ?

Post by **tin can** » May 3rd, 2004, 7:16 am

Good report, Algaegator. The fishing was tough this weekend. Sounds like y'all hung in there.

dstockwell · Post by **dstockwell** » May 3rd, 2004, 7:33 am

A nice buch of fish.

A 31ft Contender on the flats.. WOW.

Post by **Chalk** » May 3rd, 2004, 8:10 am

Nice report....Them cobia seem to be coming in strong this year...Think I have seen more cobia reports this spring than in years past..I might have to go and give'm a try this week...

Post by **tin can** » May 3rd, 2004, 8:13 am

I think there are more cobia this year. I've seen them every trip for the past few weeks. We saw several this weekend. Friday eening Trip pointed out behind the boat and said "Look at that shark!" I got him to roll on my bait once, but he missed it.

Post by **Reel Country** » May 3rd, 2004, 8:24 am

Was that the crimson colored Contender? We saw it coming in on Saturday afternoon at the cookout at the Fort. Nice boat.