St. Marks 5/11/2013

Post by **superiorrifles** » May 13th, 2013, 9:46 am

Special day of fishing for me and my step-son Devin Caldwell. This was a birthday gift I set up back in Nov to take Devin on a guided in-shore fishing trip. So I work out a trip with my long time friend Kevin Hough (2cond Place in the Red Trout Shootout) Kevin is not a licensed guide nor does he guide at all for an income. But if he ever wanted to, he is MORE than qualified! We launched from the Lighthouse at about 9:30 where we found a welcoming weather condition! Started out picking up a few Rock Bass at a close in rock pile. Then headed East to some of Kevins top secret fishing spots. Our plan was to fish for Rock Bass and what ever would bite until about 2:45 then head to the shoreline and fish the high tide for some big Reds. As soon as we got to the Rock Bass hole we were all reeling in big Rock Bass one after another. Then all of a sudden I hooked something bigger that was stripping line off my reel! Oh man a COBIA! fight him for 10-15 minutes and finally got him in the boat.

Dang! too short! Just as soon as we released my Cobia Devin's line started stripping! Another Cobia!

We end up catching 5 or 6 Cobia (All Short) but fun none the less! Kevin caught a nice Trout

We caught 40-50 Rock Bass, 3-4 Small Grouper, a Flounder

at about 2:40 we started making our way to the shore line to try to find some Reds. Fishing the incoming tide in about 1-2 feet of water the bite was pretty slow. We were all three using Skitter Walk top water plugs, but the floating grass kept us from being able to work the bait as it was intended. I switched over to my favorite rig "The Cajun Thunder". Working it behind the boat as Devin and Kevin were casting to the shoreline, the florescent orange cork disappears! I set the hook and was pretty sure I had a decent size Red, I reel the fish to the boat without much of a fight, but once the fish saw the boat it changed its mind on wanting to come on-board. It took a few feet of line in the process but I managed to turn it around. Kevin grab the net and dipped up the biggest Trout ever for me!!

We really did not want to leave the "just now getting good Redfish bite" Ut oh we gotta go, too late the storm is right on top of us! Kevin points the boat to a nearby island and we hunker down for about 20-30 minutes hoping we are spared from a direct lightning strike! Storm blows over enough for us to make it back to the boat ramp safely. Wow what a day! 40-50 Big Rock Bass, 2 Trout, 3 Redfish, 1 Flounder, 3 small Grouper, 5-6 Cobia Thank you Kevin for a wonderful birthday gift to my step-son Devin!!