Report Request - Alligator Point TOURIST!

[Shawn McNew]

New to the forum here. First post! I got turned onto it by one of my customers here north of Atlanta, Mike England. I own a striper specialty shop where everything is geared towards striper and we are the only shop in NW Ga that carries live shad. I guide striper around here and in TN out of a 20' flat bottom with 140 Suzuki 4 stroke. I didn't see a place on the forum for report requests, so I hope I'm not out of line posting here.

Me and wifey are coming down to a bungalow to chill out for a few days on Grouper St just south of Ochlockonee Bay. I'm torn whether or not to drag the boat down or just bring our kayaks, leaning towards Kayaks as I'm not fond of putting the boat in salt. I have access to unlimited rods, reels, lures, shad, etc...I throw a cast net for a living. I'd like to know the best bet for some drag pulling action and maybe decent redfish. We'll only be able to fish Mon and Tue Sept 16-17. From reading the reports here, conditions are less than ideal and we might should have vacated somewhere else if fishing was our primary goal, but her heart was set on this little place, and we want to see the lighthouse in St. Marks. Kind of a romantic thing.

Any help is appreciated, PM, email, call me if that works better than public posting. sqstriper@yahoo.com check out Striper Soup too. Thanks guys.

[wevans]

I would bring the yaks and take em everywhere I went With the rain chances staying down, you may be hitting the area at just the right time Do a Google search of the Saint Marks Lighthouse, click on Maps, then switch it to Satellite mode, you will see lots of nearby fishing for the yaks and can pan the image around to all of the areas that you plan to visit to see all of the Oyster bars that will be within an easy paddle in a yak I aint been fishing of late, so will let others chime in on what is the best tackle and such that you will need. Good luck and tight lines

[Salty Gator]

Pm sent, I hope y'all enjoy our wonderful area.

[mbweimar]

Where in NOWEGA are you? If you don't mind me asking?

[cotton]

Check out http://www.fcka.net also. Its a great kayak site for our area.

On the main page you'll find dozens of kayak launches.

Register to check out fishing reports.

Read this post:
http://www.fcka.net/phpbb3/viewtopic.ph ... Essentials

Create a post in the going fishing section. Its likely someone will even offer to let you tag along. If not, you'll get some great advice for any kayak launch you want to try.

Great group of guys and gals.

[Shawn McNew]

Where in NOWEGA are you? If you don't mind me asking?

If you google Striper Soup you'll find out more than you ever wanted to know! My shop is pretty well known amongst Allatoona anglers. If you're headed N out of Atl on i75, it would be exit 277.

Guys, thanks so much for the info. Cotton, I read that post and it was some great basic info and exactly what I needed to read. I think I'll stick to the 'yaks on this trip just to get a feel for the area and if/when we come back, I'll have the big boat (which will be a new 2280 tunnel I'm having built for the bait business at this very moment). I'll post some pics of our [hopeful] success!!!

[Shawn McNew]

Well, I guess I suck. Just following up. Thanks for the advice (from the guys who helped), it was immensely helpful. Even at that, I still suck. Guess I'm not that good out of a kayak. The catch tally was 2x small ladyfish on kastmaster spoon (man they hit hard on light spinning), 2 x sail cat on cut mullet off the beach RIGHT at high tide, and 2 x small rays same method as sail cats.

We went up to St Marks one day and put in at the saltwater ramp and paddled out the canal and as far up as the lighthouse. Some stuff was busting bait here and there, but I couldn't get anything to hit anything except a ladyfish. I jigged up pinfish in the grass with a sabiki and used them. Had live finger mullet and used them. We did see a manatee in the wild there, so that was kind of neat. Well, it was just the nose. I saw breaking fish with birds diving about a half mile out and my wife swore to me that if I paddled out there and left her, the rest of the trip would me miserable so I stayed put.

I wasn't hitting the tides right I don't think. I caught extreme low tide on Tues morning (9/17) and walked out at the state park on the southern mouth of O bay. There was action, and I kept getting hit on my badonkadonk and not hooking up. So I went back to the spoon and got a ladyfish. The tide turned and it got still, so I walked around for a bit in the shallows. Tons of hermit crabs there and those spiky little conch snail things. Went back to condo and got yak and gear and bait and headed back. Drug the yak out that walkway to the right and through the grass and down to the water. It was back up over the oyster bars already and flowing hard. I fished the topwater, the spoon, gulp shrimp new penny, and live bait. Got one lady on the gulp...an EXPENSIVE ladyfish! I ended up not getting anything and then hit the surf right at high tide and got the bottom feeders.

Next time I will have the boat now that I have a little better feel for what I need to do.

Here are a few of the pics:


















































Tight lines dudes..

Do you guys think these jigs would work for fishing there? I made these today, I call them tailspin jigs. They are killer on hybrids here on the lake when they are breaking on shad.

[Harmsway]

Well, Shawn, you did everything right; except hold your mouth right, and throw the tailspin jig.

[Rhettley]

I missed your original request for information but that's an interesting report. Good pictures! Fishing has been really hard and unusual this year thanks to all the rain in FL and GA. Like said, it sounds like you did it all right except for the catching. Fishing 6 to 10 foot deep water for trout would have been pretty much your only other option and it sounds like the wife wasn't interested in having a shark swim underneath her yak. I'd say the jigs you made would work. You might even want to put some for sale in the for sale section on here. Jigs from and ounce up to 4 ounces would be good for cobia, grouper, kings, spanish, tarpon, reds, and of course lady fish and cat fish....

[SS-342]

I enjoyed reading your report. Like Rhettley said, the fishing has been tough with all the fresh water. Hope you found something to enjoy enough that you all will want to come back.

Thanks for mashing a few of the love bugs and hope you took some back with you. They are one of several things we like to give away.

Thanks again for the report and pictures.

[zload]

You didn't get your limit of lovebugs, come on back and get the rest

[Salty Gator]

I think those spin jigs would be nice for cobia

[Seachaser]

As a fellow Georgian and freshwater fisherman it takes a while to figure things out. An Old timer took me under his wing when I first came to the Sunshine State and the learning curve was shortened a great deal. Nothing like local knowledge.