St. Marks 6/13/02

[rx fisher]

On the water 8:00, very flat, got hot fast (temp I mean). Saw a big school of Jacks, but couldn't hook up, too fast. Fished West flats in a channel with Cajun thunder and live shrimp, very slow bite. Tried running a jig with shrimp along bottom,more productive, hooked up with lady fish, ramora, cats nothing worth keeping, but gave a pull.

Found lots of weeds, pulled between to floating islands of floating grass and caught 1/2 dozen trout all about 11 inches. Had one big pull but never got to see what it was.

Moved to the East flats, tons of pin Fish seemed to be standing head first in the grass ( maybe spawning?) one 3 ft shark and one 14 15/16 inch trout (need a fish stretcher). Several lady fish made it interesting.
Kind of slow day, but loads better than work.

[Tom Keels]

I too was out there today. Not a breath of wind or ripple on the water until about 11. Slow bite as well. Ended up with 2 rock bass and 2 nice trout 2 18 inches. Saw 3 cobia. The third was under the boat as we drifted and my friend Reddy saw the tail sticking out. As I looked over I saw a cobia the likes of which I've never seen. This fish was a good 4 and a half feet long with a head nearly a foot wide. He wouldn't take an eel jig so I pulled my rod with the pinfish in close and he inhaled it. 10# mainline with a 50 pound leader. By the time Reddy, who is a novice in every sense of the word, got the boat cranked I had about 20 wraps of line left on a Stradic 4000. After a good 10 minute chase we had him fairly close to the boat and I aske Reddy to start clearing rods out of the way. Well, it took him a little longer than I hoped and the fish did a uturn under the boat and the line got tangeld on the swim ladder. SNAP. Uhhhgggg, I'm gonna have nightmares about that fish.

[shreward]

Being a novice myself, I'm sure Reddy feels horrible too. Nightmares and all.
But also having been in your shoes, I know ya are not exactly sleeping happily.