9/10 Econ and 9/11 St. Marks Reports

[big bend gyrene]

Back in 2002 when I moved to FL, I went to work at General Dynamics Land Systems and was lucky enough to work with board member Sharkman. He taught me volumes about the Hickory Mound, Econ, St. Marks, and Wakulla Beach areas and for that I'll be FOREVER grateful. In 2008 I left G.D. to help my wife run her derm practice and that seriously cut into fishing trips with Sharkman. Fast forward to a few weeks ago and Sharkman calls to let me know he's taking a job with another plant and has a brief window for us to catch up on old times while casting some plugs & spoons. I'm on it like white on rice!

Meet up on 9/10 and head out of Econ to target inshore reds versus our usual cobes. Must have been doing something wrong because we ended up seeing 7 or 8 cobia at two different spots and only caught one red!

Picked up a trout or two along the way but the shocker of the day was having a HUGE spotted eagle ray cruise by us while we were in only 4' of water. See them offshore almost every trip but first time seeing one SOOOO shallow. It actually hung around and entertained us for about 15 minutes. Extremely cool experience.

Bad news to share is that we witnessed as bad of boating etiquette as we've seen in the past 9 years. We silently approached oyster bar after oyster bar only to have multiple boats run right up on us WOT. Less upset by the company than the way the company visited... noisily and obviously clueless as to the pains made hunting the spotted ones.

Sunday proved to be an entertaining day. First off, beautiful morning to launch.

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Pushed our luck with the ramp. Actually had to hit the backstop to load. Knew we were skinny when we saw this while leaving the ramp...

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We shared many laughs while catching bait but not because of any great fish stories as much as my torturing Sharkman with a new toy.



In the past we've never listened to music, but the Eco Extreme case allows for the waterproof storage of my Droid X and contains an internal speaker jack that hooks into the phone and lets the case work as a speaker. Embarrassed Sharkman mightily by demanding we listen to Vanilla Ice, MC Hammer, and Young MC while we loaded up the boat with pins. He tolerated the torture well until my playlist shifted to a half-dozen or so bagpipe songs! Man, you would have thought he was a Gitmo prisoner and I was making him listen to Metallica!

Anywho, after we loaded up with bait we ran to a few midshore numbers and first stop/first drop down got hammered by what sure looked to be a nice grouper. Lost it, but thought, "WOW! It's going to be a great day!" Thought for sure based on the inshore cobes spotted the day before that we would catch multiple cobes but just caught/tagged one. Still, the one allowed me to finish using my 10th tag of the year. While hunting the cobes we avoided chasing random bait balls, but after we tagged the one cobe we said to heck with it and started chasing bait. It wasn't a mistake. Sharkman instantly hooks up with a St. Marks bonita!

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Also caught lots of these...

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Back inshore caught a few of these...

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Pretty sure Sharkman and I are going to struggle even more in the future to coordinate fishing trips, but got to say haven't smiled/laughed in months as much as I did the two quick trips out! Can't wait to get back on the water.

[sosprey]

Great post and great times! Just shows that catchin' ain't the whole ball o' wax! Good times with a friend or two makes even the pitiful limits and funky season dates worth putting up with. Tight lines -

[fishinfool]

[Rainman]

Thanks for sharing. Interesting to hear there are some cobia still around. Where did you get that Eco Extreme from? I bring my droid out on the boat and listen to music all the time but it would be nice to have the case with a speaker! Does it require batteries?

[big bend gyrene]

Interesting to hear there are some cobia still around. Where did you get that Eco Extreme from? I bring my droid out on the boat and listen to music all the time but it would be nice to have the case with a speaker! Does it require batteries?

Rainman, September is one of my favorite times for the cobes. Late May is probably my absolute favorite, but they are here all summer long... just have to broil in the sun and be patient fishing structure to catch them. Love this time of year because fall is in the air, it's not hell-hot, AND some days you'll see big numbers cruising through as they're beginning their migration pattern. I'm convinced that the population goes up due to travelers joining the more resident crowd that parks here during the summer. Looking at my past catches, mid-September has been great with things tapering off the first week or two in October.

As for the Eco Extreme, ordered it online from Costco. Here's the link:
http://www.costco.com/Browse/ProductSet ... 00000&Mo=0

It's bigger than it looks in the pics... guessing that external dimensions are about 7" h x 5" w x 3" d. Case won't blow you away with massive volume by any means, but does amplify a bit, sounds pretty decent, and appears to be built rock solid. Uses 3 AA batteries but the folks who designed the case were smart enough to house the batteries INSIDE. My droid battery drains like crazy if I leave it seeking a signal, but if I put it in airplane mode it does great. Played music from my droid the entire time we were on the water and barely budged the droid battery or the Eco cases' battery levels.

[KyTrkyHntr]

[buoy37]

Great report and great pics!.

Glad to hear you two had a blast.

[Harmsway]

Attaboy, John! That how to get'er done alright.

[Sharkman]

It was fun but next time I bring the music(Skynard, Zep, Stones). Let's do it again soon.

[Ranaman]

nice job guys! Great report John.

[Tidedancer]

Great report and photos. What camera are you using? My photos never look that sharp.
The music box is a great idea for those who do not have a radio in the boat.

[big bend gyrene]

Great report and photos. What camera are you using? My photos never look that sharp.

Tidedancer, I'm using a Lumix TS3.



At about $250 a pop it isn't the cheapest option out there but is waterproof to 40', shock proof up to 6' drops, takes 12 megapixel photos, shoots full 1920 x 1080 hd video, and through internal gps can digitally mark both photos and video locations. Have to remember to cripple that last feature before I post! Joking aside, though not cheap still a heck of a camera for the price. Here's a link to the camera that speaks to crazy level of features.
http://panasonic.net/avc/lumix/compact/ ... index.html