Flats East of St. Marks 11.23.2013

[fishinfool]

Saturday morning started with a light fog at the lighthouse ramp. I was on the water and headed to my first spot by 06:30. The falling tide and 65° water temp looked very promising. I started in 3' of water near the Rock Garden. No luck. I moved in to one of my favorite spots and picked up a short Red on top water. The water was getting shallow pretty fast, so I moved to spot number 3. I need to remember this as a go to Red spot. There were many crabs, but unfortunately no fish that day. I think with all those blue crab, that should attract some reds.
Spot number 4 was 4' of water just west of Grey Mare Rock. I was rewarded with a 14" top water trout. I switched to a Paul Brown Original that produced a 16" trout that went into the box.
The action was pretty slow, so I moved to a rock pile about 3 miles south to pick up some sea bass. I kept 6 from 10" to 14". Included in the catch was a 12" grouper which was released to fight another day.
I started to head in and stopped about 1/2 mile outside of Stoney Bayou and tried a jig/cork ( first time of the day). An 18" trout went into the box.
All in all it was a great day on the water. I put some food in the cooler. The water temps rose from and early 65° to an afternoon high of 69°. The air temp was 65°when I started and finished up at 75°. The westerly winds were almost nonexistent until around noon, when they picked up to around 8 mph. The water was smooth to a slight ripple until 3 o'clock.
I hope it is not another month before I get to do it again.

[Salty Gator]

Nice report Jim. Im glad you were able to get out

[SS-342]

Thanks for the good report! It is nice to just be on the water. Catching fish is a bonus!

[DixieReb]

Glad you got out and caught some. We fished Keaton Sat. with much the same conditions you described, foggy morning(we got b'fast and waited around hoping it would lift, and it did)and very low winds. A perfect day as far as weather, but low tidal movement til late. We caught many BSB but all ours were too small. I'm anxious to see what all this rainy/cold weather is going to do to the fish.

[Harmsway]

Sweet.

[tallykenj]

Good report and nice fish!