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.
Which is about all we did. My buddy Wil and I both took personal holidays from work and were the first boat on the water at the Aucilla.
Got to Sulfur creek and started fishing topwater with a few follows and short strikes. We DID NOT have a manatee come up and scratch his nose on the boat and follow us around for a few minutes. As you all know manatees are almost extinct so I know we didn't have one do that.
Wil ties on a gold spoon and hooks into a big redfish that quickly lets go after a short fight. The water is boiling so he throws back in and hooks up again, only to loose the fish again. 2 more times and 4th times a charm. 26 inch redfish.
We moved out to Cobb Rocks and put out a chum bag hoping for a cobia. Wil quickly hooked up a nice bluefish on a live pinfish but as the tide stopped so did the bite.
Went out to Peter's rock and finished out the chum bag on the incoming tide. Lady fish, small trout and a school of huge spanish that broke 4 lines at one time were all we could manage. Did not see the fisrt cobia and had very few fish interested in our live pinfish.
Beautiful day on the water with temps in the 80's light NE/SW winds. Water still seems a little cool but this week should help that. Back at the truck at 1:00 pm.
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Tom Keels
Owner, Webmaster
BigBendFishing.Net
We had about the same out of St. Marks this AM, where are all the lady fish comming from.
Hit the Bird racks about 9am, hooked a couple of LF, then on to the flats, not even a pin fish, tried (I think 2nd stake off of black rock) farther west and out, lots of weed line.
More fun on LF, then finally a 20 1/2 inch trout. Also caught up with several blue fish (anyone know what you can do with them)
also caught one pin fish, but nothing would take him. Still a beautiful day on the sea.
You are kidding right? Bluefish are some of the best eating fish that swim. Filet and skin them then cut down both sides of the center bone line about a half inch on each side. This should leave you with two strips of meat that are perfect for frying.
I wish I was kidding, I'm just learning these waters, thanks for the info. Don't they have to be 12 inches at the fork. I hope so I sent back 2 at 11 inches, fun to fight though. Also since I moved up to 14lb on my spinners and 30 on my big rod, all the fish got to the boat. Again Thanks for the info (Is stake 2 off of Black rock?)
I trolled around at St. Marks looking for Spanish in particular but we sight fished for the non-existing schools of Cobia, and fished a bar for reds to no avail .....think the cobes may be running further offshore from the reports.....on the troll we caught a bunch of ladyfish, one bluefish, lost one small spanish, and caught one screaming 5.5lb spanish man was he fun on light tackle...ZZZZZZZZZZZZ
Reporting Back, WOW, Left St. Marks around 9 am, quickly spotted oil slicks, weed line and bait fish just off the point. Caught a little shark and under sized trout. Ran out to the area between Black rock and stake 2.
I've heard reports of no bait fish, but there were little schools of bite fish here and there.
Since I've up graded by tackle, we landed 6 nice 20" or better spanish, couple of blue runners and several pesky lady fish. What a great time. The bay was like boating in a swimming pool, just like glass, good current,a little hot. I'm not complaining a wonderful day on the seas.
