Tuesday morning we got up and out of Val-ditty relatively early, but after unloading in Lanark and loading the boat it was well after lunch before we powered down the river launching at the City ramp, good new was the new fuel pumps across the river at Pirates docks were open so we just slid in there to gas up.
Tuesday afternoon was windier than I wanted so drift fishing was a pain and I just didn't feel like anchoring in the cold, so we trolled. Weather was cool and the seas pretty calm but it was windy, NO one was on the water. We finally put a good fish in the box trolling and stopped long enough to up and down a few sea bass, seeing we didn't get out there until after lunch it wasn't a horrible day. grouper from Tuesday caught on a pink stretch 30’s In front of St George out of East Pass.
Wednesday morning we didn't rush to the ramp and it look like that was a good plan because there were quite a few trailers already there, but no one launching at that time we launched @ 10:30 AM again no hurry this time we went toward East end of Dog Island
and started trolling shallow after a VERY quick up and down stop with two sea bass.
Start trolling and the law pulls up and puts two Navy seal looking characters on my boat (still trolling) Real nice guys (officers Cook & Raker) did the standard safety check and licenses looked at the two fish and said see ya went on to the next boat out in front of us. he was near our next spot to up and down so when we got there they about drifted on top of us and we were catching BIG sea bass every drop with 2-3 following them up. We had fun until the FWC and fisherman were too close for comfort and hauled arses to deeper water. We trolled that area for a LONG time finally picking up two just legal grouper both again on the pink! We did a little more trolling at different spots, some more up and down out to 60 + ft, but still just sea bass. We stopped on the way in @ 45 and still just sea bass so we came home. Kept 17 of the biggest sea bass and 2 grouper! That’s it for fish in 2010!
We hit Apalachicola Thursday for beer and oysters, then an early dinner, were back to the trailer by 7:30PM and out on Friday afternoon after taking a walk around the neighborhood, going to the docks and packing it all back up and road back to Val-ditty to do a quite New Years at home.
Hope everyone has a great 2011
The Celestial Crab
