St. Marks 1-24-2016

[CoastalPirate]

Rastus and I launched from the fort around 7am. Finally installed my Humminbird and can give more accurate environment posts...now if I could just post more about fish! We fished on a rising tide. Water temps did fluctuate depending on what part of the river you were on. 55 degrees at the four mile mark to 59 at the power plant. Air temp was almost too much to bear. A freezing 27-28 degrees for some of the morning with about 5 mph winds. Ice covered the boat floor! Staying in the protected St. Marks River was the key to staying warm. As far as fishing goes I saw a lot of people catching trout where the St. Marks and Wakulla converges. I landed one trout and lost a keeper trout at the boat around 2pm in that area. My wife and I got a lot of bites after Rastus left, but the cold weather was too much for her and the kiddos. Rastus caught his one redfish at the power plant at 9:22am. All fish were caught dragging and bouncing jigs with Gulp's New Penny shrimp on the bottom. Huge shout out to SteveStinson and SilverKing for their advice for fishing this area and this type of weather. Enjoy the fishing video and photo of Rastus's catch!

https://youtu.be/0o1gf7nYS9c




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[DixieReb]

Did you try above the power plant?

[CoastalPirate]

DixieReb
We fished past the power plant around the first bend and decided to head back to the fort. Heard there was a lot of trout action happening up the river though. We did watch a guy catch a Pelican on the way back towards the fort on a jerkbait.


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[DixieReb]

We caught our 6 keepers in that first bend all the way to the next one. And several shorts, this was Thursday. They hit so light we almost didn't feel them. I bet yall were cold, it was freez'in here.

[Wadey]

We had 10 fat slot keepers by 12 noon yesterday launched at 10am the bigger fish came on the last of the outgoing tide no shorts all day, we carried on catching and releasing keeper trout until 4pm, we stopped counting at 40, boats must have seen us at anchor slaying them as a few came close (sorry but if you anchor within my casting range you are too close in my book) they cast their live shrimp in our direction, no luck for them, what were we fishing!!!!!! Well we started with the idea of 3" gulp shrimp or shad on the bottom finnesse style, why gulp, for one reason and that reason alone!!!! Gulp were the only 3 inch baits we had Lol, seriously any shad in that size I would use, it's about putting the 'bait' on their noses in the cold IMO, slow, slow action, on the nose is far more important than brand name lure. But yesterday was different to previous colder difficult days, the water seemed in some way more alive, birds were moving above, on and below the surface, could bait fish be here I pondered? We opted for Mirro Lure suspending twitch baits, boy did they work, not one solid hit, but by gently, oh so gently twitching, almost just slowly pulling, then releasing to flow back into the current, we had light pecks, the trick was to release just a little line after the twitch then lift into the peck, well it worked for us yesterday. Tight Lines