St Marks NWR - 29 Mar 2015

[Terrier]

Fished the refuge today from 9:30AM - 2:00PM. No kayak today, just wading the wash bar (It was a cold start for wading, but with the morning low I didn't have to get real wet). Picked up a small 14" flounder early, on a olive/chart/white clouser, then nothing until mid-morning when I got a 16" trout on a polarflash clouser, followed by a 18" trout on a pink and chart marabou/ostrich clouser type fly. I switched over to a cowen's coyote in olive tan and gold and got my first redfish of the year (and first Slam on the fly) - 23" and a hard fighter. I picked up a 19" trout on the same fly a little while later. All the action came on the rising tide, with some decent water movement. There was little water movement in the afternoon and I caught nothing after midday. I saw an overslot red and a smaller slot red caught in the morning on dead shrimp at the end of the bar. There were small baitfish around - and a manatee - so despite the cold start, spring is happening.

I released the redfish and the larger trout.

A few pics:

redfish:



Dinner:

[fishinfool]

nice catchin

[Jhults11]

Good job terrier! Way to get it done. We saw ya slinging the old buggy whip this morning. It was tough fishing today. We hit the flats for 2 hours from 2-6 feet to no avail. The water temp was 61.5F, which pretty much killed the flats bite. The flats were 72 last weekend. We managed a few rat reds and 1 big flounder in our go to area. The low tide, high pressure, and 20 knot north wind really made it tough today!

[Terrier]

Good job terrier! Way to get it done. We saw ya slinging the old buggy whip this morning. It was tough fishing today. We hit the flats for 2 hours from 2-6 feet to no avail. The water temp was 61.5F, which pretty much killed the flats bite. The flats were 72 last weekend. We managed a few rat reds and 1 big flounder in our go to area. The low tide, high pressure, and 20 knot north wind really made it tough today!

Next week's weather looks good - 80's and 70's, so the water should warm up quick. That north wind was tough this morning - I wore three layers of clothing and was still cold.

[countrycorners]

Nice!