St. Marks 3 Apr 15

[spothogg]

Buddy and I launched at the lighthouse and fished long bar area for the day. Managed a 21" trout and the surprise of the day was a 16" pompano. I had a shrimp under a cork and rod in rod holder with my back turned and hear my drag screaming (love that sound!). Picked up my rod and was met with a hard pulling fishing still taking line out. I exclaimed "maybe it's a cobia!" and my buddy laughed at me. Hey, I can dream. Once boat side, I thought it was a jack until we netted the fish. Are pompano that common in St. Marks area? First for me.

[silverking]

More common than most folks realize. They just aren't as easy to spot as they are on the beach troughs.

Live shrimp and sand fleas will work, as you discovered, along with the fakes like DOA shrimp and bucktail jigs, aka pompano jigs. Yellow and pink are good colors. Pomps react when they see puffs of sand on the bottom, so short subtle bounces are a good tactic.

Great fighters and delicious to eat.

[DixieReb]

Thanks for the report. Sounds like you had a day like ours yesterday, minus the pompano. The last pompano I saw caught out there was about 9 years ago, off a sand bar west of Aucilla.

[Terrier]

I saw you catch that - I was fly fishing long bar when you brought it in. Nice catch!

[tallykenj]

Nice!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk.

[spothogg]

Hey, Terrier, we saw you there in the blue kayak. I figured that was you from kayak fishing long bar several weeks ago and reading a later trip report by you. I have a green Gheenoe Classic and also kayak fish out of an Ocean Kayak Big Game II in urban camo. Great to see you out there!

I saw you catch that - I was fly fishing long bar when you brought it in. Nice catch!

[spothogg]

Great fighters indeed! I was surprised at how hard it fought. Appreciate the additional tips. I attended your last flats seminar and recall you telling us how they react to puffs of sand on the bottom. This was a surprise catch. Passively fishing the shrimp under a bobber amounted to just good luck that day.

More common than most folks realize. They just aren't as easy to spot as they are on the beach troughs.

Live shrimp and sand fleas will work, as you discovered, along with the fakes like DOA shrimp and bucktail jigs, aka pompano jigs. Yellow and pink are good colors. Pomps react when they see puffs of sand on the bottom, so short subtle bounces are a good tactic.

Great fighters and delicious to eat.

[bman]

Love those pomps!