A unique website dedicated to fishing information from Florida's Northern Big Bend. This includes the area from the Econfina River west to the Apalachicola River
Use this area to post inshore fishing reports from the area. Please try to include relevant information such as:
Location, date, time, water conditions, weather conditions, baits, techniques, species caught, etc.
Breambuster, his family and DDB were going to steinhatchee and I asked if I could follow along. They said sure so we met them at Seahag at 8:00. . . We launched while they were getting bait. My motor was acting screwy to the point I thought we were going to have to load up and go home. It kept just dying but ran fine. But it kinda straightened out so we got into the river and tried to catch some fish. . This guy kept looking for a hand out. Even trying to get a short of my line. . We caught a dozen or so shorts and one keeper. . Then the bite died. So we moved a few times. But after 2 hours without a bite we decided to call it a day. Idled over to Peng and gave him the rest of our bait and the one fish and headed home around lunch. . Peng and Dave it was good to see you guys and hope we can fish again when it warms up. Hope y'all got into the fish after we left.
Been there, done that. Been there and loaded the boat in that river. As my old daddy used to say, that is why they call this fishing and not catching. I did yard work. I still think you won!
Good seeing you as well. We did manage 8 trout and one lost sheepshead. Highlight of the day were two tarpon hookups, one of which BB jr. Brought to the boat and quickly released. Most fish came at the turn of the low tide.
MudDucker wrote:Been there, done that. Been there and loaded the boat in that river. As my old daddy used to say, that is why they call this fishing and not catching. I did yard work. I still think you won!
ddb wrote:Good seeing you as well. We did manage 8 trout and one lost sheepshead. Highlight of the day were two tarpon hookups, one of which BB jr. Brought to the boat and quickly released. Most fish came at the turn of the low tide.
. You and Peng would be hard to beat if you fished tournaments. You take pic of the tarpon? Would like to see that.
Well, at least you got on the water HnM and identified a problem to be fixed before things really heat up.
ddb wrote:Good seeing you as well. We did manage 8 trout and one lost sheepshead. Highlight of the day were two tarpon hookups, one of which BB jr. Brought to the boat and quickly released. Most fish came at the turn of the low tide.
Would love to see photos of the tarpon as well. Any size? Caught in creek with spring? With the water temps in the lower 60s, those would be rare catches indeed. I did hear a rumor about a snook caught in the Ochlockonee, so who knows with this crazy La Nina weather pattern.
"Sun rise and sun sets. Since the beginning, it hasn't changed yet." Little Feat
A bit of a story about the tarpon pictures. The first one quickly broke the line after a jump or two. On the second BB grabbed his phone while Calvin fought the fish. He had a few tech difficulties and while there were several nice jumps and woops, we were left with two one second videos, one of my elbow and the other just showed BB jr. BB jr. Just leadered the fish and it broke off boat side. Both were small by tarpon standards, less than 10#, but good fun.
As far as I know the steinhatchee river doesn't have springs, but given the area it very well could. I think I ve heard before that winter tarpon are fairly common in the river. I think there are a few videos somewhere.
A little research indicates the river is spring fed.
Last edited by ddb on February 5th, 2017, 1:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.
ddb wrote:A bit of a story about the tarpon pictures. The first one quickly broke the line after a jump or two. On the second BB grabbed his phone while Calvin fought the fish. He had a few tech difficulties and while there were several nice jumps and woops, we were left with two one second videos, one of my elbow and the other just showed BB jr. BB jr. Just leadered the fish and it broke off boat side. Both were small by tarpon standards, less than 10#, but good fun.
As far as I know the steinhatchee river doesn't have springs, but given the area it very well could. I think I ve heard before that winter tarpon are fairly common in the river. I think there are a few videos somewhere.
. Funny. But still cool to see I bet. I have never hooked one of those. Can't wait for spring fishing. Enjoyed doing something new with y'all. Would even like to fish with y'all at Keaton if can't fish Ecofina.
Sure is a pretty area down at Steinhatchee. . . I am still completely unfamiliar with the flats there. I ran out the mouth just to look. Man there are a bunch of bars around the mouth that if someone got out of the markers it would end badly.
Very cool on the baby poons. There are a few spots around where the little guys hang out. They're usually very difficult to feed, however. I've thrown the tackle box at 'em at times and only had one eat. Talked to Mark Nichols of DOA Lures about that and he speculated they might only come up into those freshwater boils to cleanse themselves of parasites.
Glad you got some goodie out of them.
"Sun rise and sun sets. Since the beginning, it hasn't changed yet." Little Feat
. 
. We launched while they were getting bait. My motor was acting screwy to the point I thought we were going to have to load up and go home. It kept just dying but ran fine. But it kinda straightened out so we got into the river and tried to catch some fish. 
. This guy kept looking for a hand out. Even trying to get a short of my line. 
. We caught a dozen or so shorts and one keeper. 
. Then the bite died. So we moved a few times. But after 2 hours without a bite we decided to call it a day. Idled over to Peng and gave him the rest of our bait and the one fish and headed home around lunch. 
. Peng and Dave it was good to see you guys and hope we can fish again when it warms up. Hope y'all got into the fish after we left. 
BB jr. Just leadered the fish and it broke off boat side. Both were small by tarpon standards, less than 10#, but good fun.
. 
. I am still completely unfamiliar with the flats there. I ran out the mouth just to look. Man there are a bunch of bars around the mouth that if someone got out of the markers it would end badly. 