Fourteen.

[Srbenda]

Fourteen inches.

That is the size of every trout in the Apalachee Bay.

Fished on Saturday starting a dead low tide, which was not ideal, but all schedules do not revolve around tides. Water temps have dropped significantly since last week, we only saw 68f as the high. A steady north wind has the bay stirred up, and visibility was less than 2'.

We did enjoy a fly-over of 4 Blackhawk helo's at about 1230pm, so anyone else that was out yesterday should have seen or heard them.

Fished live shrimp, Gulp, and live pinfish with very limited success. Lost something on one of the pins, but it was probably a shark. Every trout we caught was 14 or below.

We drifted 3 pins for over an hour, with no bites at all.

Tried fishing a bar on the way back in as well.


The weather is warming up through the week, so I'm hoping we'll see some more weekends of good fall fishing.

[Salty Gator]

We were East of the lighthouse yesterday and saw the helos. I couldn’t make out what they were, but you could tell they were military. We had our best luck with trout on suspending twitch baits, outfished the other lures. Thanks for the report, other than the wind it turned out to be a nice day

[Srbenda]

We were East of the lighthouse yesterday and saw the helos. I couldn’t make out what they were, but you could tell they were military. We had our best luck with trout on suspending twitch baits, outfished the other lures. Thanks for the report, other than the wind it turned out to be a nice day

How was water clarity?

[Salty Gator]

We were East of the lighthouse yesterday and saw the helos. I couldn’t make out what they were, but you could tell they were military. We had our best luck with trout on suspending twitch baits, outfished the other lures. Thanks for the report, other than the wind it turned out to be a nice day

How was water clarity?

Exceptionally clear where we were

[GaryDroze]

There were definitely many, many bigger trout in the area. They were up the creeks. I caught & released more than 10 trout over 20 inches that gulped live baitfish in creeks east of the lighthouse. To an earlier poster who said catches do not happen without pics: find the NFGFC facebook page. They got a pic of me with a 26" trout that I hooked in Deep Creek today. Apologies to those who don't want me to give specific locations, but if you can get to Deep Creek on a blown-out low tide, with 12mph north winds, more power to you. I had to drag my kayak about a mile to get to the payoff spots. Normally, I run 9 miles every Sunday morning with my wife. The effort to reach those fishing spots today burned at least as many Calories.

[cotton]

I believe fishing improved a lot this weekend. I fished a local tournament Sat. Big trout(mine) was 24 1/4”. I probably caught 5 over 20” Sat. Just like Gary I fish from a yak. Get up early and fish shallow.

If you want to catch more big trout, let the big ones go.

We also did a lot of dragging Sat.

[Srbenda]

We were East of the lighthouse yesterday and saw the helos. I couldn’t make out what they were, but you could tell they were military. We had our best luck with trout on suspending twitch baits, outfished the other lures. Thanks for the report, other than the wind it turned out to be a nice day

How was water clarity?

Exceptionally clear where we were

I should have gone east.
Ah well.

[Salty Gator]

There were definitely many, many bigger trout in the area. They were up the creeks. I caught & released more than 10 trout over 20 inches that gulped live baitfish in creeks east of the lighthouse. To an earlier poster who said catches do not happen without pics: find the NFGFC facebook page. They got a pic of me with a 26" trout that I hooked in Deep Creek today. Apologies to those who don't want me to give specific locations, but if you can get to Deep Creek on a blown-out low tide, with 12mph north winds, more power to you. I had to drag my kayak about a mile to get to the payoff spots. Normally, I run 9 miles every Sunday morning with my wife. The effort to reach those fishing spots today burned at least as many Calories.

Gary I think you are missing the point about specific locations. Most of us know that you you target them on low tide when you have the place to yourself. The problem is, people that are cyberscouting only care about location. They just see that Gary Droze wore them out in stony bayou or some other creek. Well, those people go to said creek when that can get their boat in. There were only 2 cars in the lot at 8:30 on sat and there were 2 boats there that I’ve never seen before. One was all the way back in the canal by the spillway where you like to catch bait and the other was idling way up at low tide. So while more traffic doesn’t affect you, it certainly does us. Some of us have asked politely that you not do this, and you seemingly agreed. On your last report , you not only mentioned the place, but also put in the title in ALL CAPS. It kind of feels like you are rubbing it in our faces a little

[Salty Gator]

Gary, if you really want folks to lean, teach about your techniques of low tide creek fishing. As we evolve as anglers we learn to find fish and not just accumulate a bank of “ spots” to catch fish. This would be a more valuable lesson to new anglers. Otherwise they assume if they go to the same spot, regardless of tide( remember they are new and don’t understand the tide situation yet) they will catch fish. It isn’t getting less crowded as time goes on. Please consider the other folks that have put on a lot of time in those creeks

[DEMON]

Well, I never.....! Was somebody trying to catch your fish?

[SHOWBOAT]

trying throwing plugs for larger fish.

Jigs and live bait can catch quality fish, but getting a reaction strike on a floating or suspending plug will greatly increase the likelihood of quality fish.

[rockyg]

I believe SG is trying to make a valid point. If I post that the trout are in 4' of water East of the Lighthouse that's a general area of how many hundreds if not thousands of acres? Lots......plenty of room for everybody.

IF I say I caught a Gator trout in Stoney Bayou, well that's an easy google search for everyone to find. One (1) boat running up the main channel puts the fish down for hours. In any of these creeks if you are the second boat in there your fishing will be severely impacted. SG's point is if you name specific creeks and claim you have been smoking the big trout and reds then other fishermen will want to explore those same creeks leading to more boat traffic and reduced fish catching for everyone.

You can look no further than the now nearly defunct local kayak forum. Some excellent and very dedicated fishermen posted detailed fishing reports there. Then those same fishermen noticed an ever-increasing crowd of new guys at the launch point. The new guys said hey we saw you on the forum, can we tag along. So that eventually put an end to that.

If you want to learn to fish the creeks, buy a cheap shallow floating boat, several spare propellers, and plan to spend a lot of time learning the area. I started about 50 years ago and I'm still learning.

[GaryDroze]

SG:

I'm not a "rubbing it in your faces" kind of person. I think the issue may be that I confer fishing tips the same way I did running tips when I was coaching high school cross-country. In 1997, my Maclay School team was ranked first in the state. The coach from Port St Joe High School pestered me all season for training advice, and I obliged. They went on to beat us in an upset win at the State Meet. The coach never even thanked me for my help. I was pissed for a while, but got past it. Guess it was my fault we lost, because I shared expertise. But I'm an EDUCATOR (note the all caps). It's in my DNA to spread knowledge.

Fast forward to this year. I am starting to see way more kayakers and wadefishers at "my" spots, and I suspect it is because I'm so open with info. In the last few months, I have encountered folks camping on my favorite low-tide holes, even during tournaments, when every cast matters and time works against you. Kind of sucks. Tough for me, but cool that fellow humans are getting into fish.

I'm still trying to figure out my response to you guys who can't stand to see somebody in your favorite spot. Most of you have motors on your boats, so you can turn around and scoot to Plan B. When it happens to me, I hafta paddle a few more hours, and adjust to tide changes.

I'm thinking about just not posting any more on this forum, and letting newbies track me down for location scoop. That way, they need to work a bit harder, since I'm not on social media & don't have a cell phone.

[Blue spinner]

SG:

I'm not a "rubbing it in your faces" kind of person. I think the issue may be that I confer fishing tips the same way I did running tips when I was coaching high school cross-country. In 1997, my Maclay School team was ranked first in the state. The coach from Port St Joe High School pestered me all season for training advice, and I obliged. They went on to beat us in an upset win at the State Meet. The coach never even thanked me for my help. I was pissed for a while, but got past it. Guess it was my fault we lost, because I shared expertise. But I'm an EDUCATOR (note the all caps). It's in my DNA to spread knowledge.

Fast forward to this year. I am starting to see way more kayakers and wadefishers at "my" spots, and I suspect it is because I'm so open with info. In the last few months, I have encountered folks camping on my favorite low-tide holes, even during tournaments, when every cast matters and time works against you. Kind of sucks. Tough for me, but cool that fellow humans are getting into fish.

I'm still trying to figure out my response to you guys who can't stand to see somebody in your favorite spot. Most of you have motors on your boats, so you can turn around and scoot to Plan B. When it happens to me, I hafta paddle a few more hours, and adjust to tide changes.

I'm thinking about just not posting any more on this forum, and letting newbies track me down for location scoop. That way, they need to work a bit harder, since I'm not on social media & don't have a cell phone.

well said Gary thanks

[Salty Gator]

Gary, you are very generous with what you have learned. No one doubts that. We definitely don’t want you to stop reporting. We just ask you leave specific locations out. People will learn more of they learn to find fish. And its not even the people who are members of this site. Look at the google bots that are on here every time you log on. Those are people that aren’t contributing members looking for spots. I’m certainly not tho only one that has addressed this. And again, only asking that you keep specific places out of the reports. Tidal creeks East of the lighthouse is vague enough so people won’t be camping in your spot, but specific enough to help. Again no one wants you to stop posting, but if you have to put in specific locations, then I’d be ok with you not posting. Like you said, no one can get back there at low tide, in cold 20k north winds, so who is it really helping? Is anyone learning? If they were they would be there at low tide when the fish are hemmed up in 3 little pools. With that said, to some your reports come off as bragging ( not me).... I know others from this site have emailed and pm’d you about this. Which I’m not going to do. All I can do is ask nicely. If you don’t want to accommodate our request, then so be it. So Gary, pretty please with sugar on top, please please leave the creek names out of your excellent reports.