St Marks River 11/12-13/13

[Poopong McPlop]

Spent the night with some friends on the big boat the last 2 days, and I also brought down one of my small boats to do some inshore fishing. We missed the daytime tidal run, so we grilled out, drank beers, and philandered until around 10pm. It was hard resisting the urge to put some baits in the water, especially since there were boats fishing the low tide across the channel. I knew fully well there wouldnt be any fish within casting range and the crabs will get your bait eventually, so we waited. An hour or so before high tide we put out our baits. We ended up with a few snapper, several hardheads, and a 12.5" Sheepshead. All of our fish came very close to the peak high tide and the first hour of the outgoing tide. We were kind of pleasantly surprised that the run was not catfish heavy like it has been at night.

Today we woke up around noon, and begin loading the boat. The river temp was about 64 degrees, and the wind was blowing hard today. Initially we fished one pole setups with a slip cork. We checked a couple of the barge slips where there was no current, and past spots that have delivered 24" reds, but we came up empty for the first 15 minutes. With no luck fishing the calm waters, I figured the fish would be on the ledges or in holes or structure in the river channel. After drifting slowly and switching the sonar to wide beam, I located a huge return on the bottom of the channel. I pitched a shrimp into the school and began bottom bumping it. It immediately caught us a 14" Mangrove Snapper. We anchored and fished a two pole setup, actively fishing a slip cork rig on the ledge and passively fishing a bottom rig in the middle of the channel. We ended up catching about 15 Mangrove snapper, 8-10 Sheepshead, a just under 18" Red, and a 16" Spanish Mackerel. 75% of our fish were caught on the corked rigs slipped to the bottom at the base of the channel drop off. The rest were caught tightlined to the bottom, in the middle of the channel. We ended up keeping 6 Sheepshead, 9 Snapper and the Spanish Mackerel. (sorry no pics this time) Another great day at St Marks!
"

[SS-342]

Another GREAT read!

McPlop, I don't know what you do for a living but I do know you sure can fish!

Always enjoy your post.

[SHOWBOAT]

Nice report.

I'm not a live baiter, but you ladies seem to have this down to a science. Good read

[Salty Gator]

Thanks for the report. Nice!

[Poopong McPlop]

This was a guys trip this time. The ladies will be out another day! I do just enough for a living to buy more boats, and have the time to use them. Hope this fishing report helps out anyone wanting to come down to the river!

[redcodefsu]

Awesome report. You caught these up the river? Didn't know mangroves and sheepshead went into brackish water.