St. Marks

[Ted in Tallahassee]

Went out from the Fort Tuesday the 21st and before that March 30th. Both days very similar weather pattern; pretty stiff 10+ knot north wind at dawn until about 10:30, then gradually calming to flat calm for about an hour or so, then slowly going from a light south-southwestern breeze and increasing to a 10-15+ knot blow by about 2:30. Cool in the mornings and nice & warm & cloudless by afternoon.

Last Tuesday could best be summed up in one word: RABBITFISH aka smooth puffers. Good gravy, those things are insidious! They destroyed I don't know how many Gulps with their tin-snip beaks and they even ate up my bobbers! Other than that, on each of those two trips we only managed a few keeper trout, mostly large ones, and one or two flounder. As for Reds, we'd get a couple of shorts and a rogue over-slot mongo. Ladyfish and mackerel are definitely back, and pinfish and mullet are everywhere. Saw a couple of big sharks when it was calm (we were anchored & chumming, incoming tide), had one on a couple of times but the circle hook never set. Earlier in April I caught & released a beast of a Brown shark aka sandbar shark. On that same day the flats were on fire with trout--I limited out by 10:30 and four of the five were caught on fairly large live pinfish.

Apparently Rabbitfish are good to eat as long as you clean them right, otherwise you can die. "Don't puncture the guts," they say. Mmkay. Not that adventurous or desperate to try them quite yet.

On both days I saw a couple of "houses" as I call them on a flooded oyster bar--giant black drum. They're massive and blocky and loom as big as a house as they slowly amble around. Had one on for a bit but he threw the hook. Ate a big piece of ladyfish laying on the bottom. Just as well. I figure these giants are probably breeders. Making thousands of new ones for years to come.

In the short windows of time it's been flat calm I have not seen any scallops on the bottom, though I have not intentionally gone to the places they usually are and looked for them. Still, it is not encouraging. There's still time though.

On an early trip in March, on the white sandy area as you approach the entrance of Stoney Bayou, as we were idling along we saw a fish zooming around over the sand. At first we thought it was a Red that we spooked, but it was zigging and zagging all over the place at blinding speed and after a while we realized it was not spooked but was chasing and eating small baitfish. It never let up, speeding all over the place, passing near a couple of times. In the clear water and bright sunlight we saw that it had a distinct, bright GREEN color. It was short but very stout. What was it? Then, on one close pass I saw a detailed side view--it was unmistakably a BONITA!? Definitely not a crevalle or horse-eye jack or a pompano, but a BONITA. I had no clue they were ever even in the gulf let alone would ever be in a foot of water next to shore. New for me. I had previously always known them to be only a blue water fish. We kept trying to cast our Gulp jigs out in front of him but he was so fast and zagging around our casts were hopelessly off-target while the jigs were still in the air.

Also saw three or four giant tarpon cruising over mixed shallows west of the mouth of the St. Marks channel on a trip earlier in March.

Where did the Bird Rack go? It's just not right to not see it in its usual place anymore. I figure the Feds will eventually replace it with something similar, because it's marked on the NOAA charts as being there in the form of a large tower. Gotta have fairly important navigational importance for that reason.

[Red Beard]

Great Report..

The bonita spotting is wild, you just never know.


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[bman]

Water is warming up fast this year--- we got into ladyfish and bluefish our last trip.
Saw a spanish sail out of the water but never hooked one.

[redcodefsu]

My last two trips I caught a 25" Spanish and 36" Kingfish out of St. Marks.