Slept in late Saturday after preparing the boat Friday after work. Fishing partner "sandtrout" showed up at the last minute Saturday afternoon and was ready to go. Decided to make it fun so I took both of the dogs, that would make four of us on the small boat. Finally got down to the ramp at the Fort after 1:00 pm. Tide was low and wind was blowing and water temp was 63.0 at the ramp. Started heading up the St. Marks and immediately noticed the water temperature was dropping the closer I got to Shields. Decided to turn around and head down river to the Sheep’s Head hole at the mouth of the river. Surface Water temp was 53 degrees at the mouth of the river. Checked the fish finder going over the hole twice and nobody was home. Noticed there were two pods of dolphins working the area. I shut off the motor and took in the view of the enormous dolphin doing some team work. I always enjoy the sounds of them breathing and gracefully swimming around almost touching the side of the boat but just out of hands reach. Headed over to the wreck and figured it might be holding some rock bass and again no one was home, not even a nibble. I turned the boat north and headed toward the ramp. There were some yackers and other small boats working the channel around buoy marker not far from the hill and decided to anchor off the channel and brave the wind. We were bottom fishing with light slip sinkers and a fish-finder rig with some small hooks. First cast brought in fingerling sand trout. Second cast, ditto and so on. This went on for about 30 minutes. At one point my new partner caught a sand trout bigger than I had ever seen come out of the river. I told him we couldn't go home with just one, so he released it. I wanted to get a better look at the hole so I motored in a zig-zag pattern in the channel till I spotted a giant “bait ball” of fish in a hole in 17’ of water. I anchored on the windward side of the river and apparently was in the right spot. Every cast to a specific 10’ wide area, yielded a sand trout 5”-6”. We were using some shrimp I bought at Winn Dixie and cured them in salt for about 4 days. (there’s an old post about this process @ http://www.bigbendfishing.net/phpBB3/vi ... hrimp+cure) That seemed to be the “ticket” to double hook-ups. After releasing 20 or more, we started catching bigger ones 12-16 inchers. The decision was made to start keeping the ones over 12”. We caught a variety of fish, drums, dogfish, short speckled trout, pin fish, croakers and puppy reds. I re-rigged with a larger hook and used one of the tiny fish for cut bait, and that is when AHBL. We pulled in keeper size sand trout on almost every cast, keeping only those over 12”. Every once in a while I’d get one of those jaw dropping yanks on my line and almost lost my pole more than once while trying to get a drink, or helping my partner using the landing net. It was kind of weird because if you cast outside the 10’ target area, you would not get a hit, but if you hit the target area, it was wham fish-on. We stopped fishing after 11 fine keepers were in the box. I hardly put a dent in the salt cured shrimp, but I can say they work great in the river, and they stay on the hook as good as gulps. It was one of the best January fishing trips I have been on in several years.
The Fish...
The Crew... "Sandtrout" and Kipper and Bailey...
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