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.
Since I'm working this Saturday and the second half of team shake n bake was on vacation this week, we decided to sneak in a quick day trip to st marks. Didn't even let getting stopped by the train get me down or the fact I had to get up an hour earlier than I planned to go drop off research materials before I could head out get me down. We stopped for some frozen bait for the reef in Monticello at trophy creek outfitters and picked up a spare CCA ruler. Since it's my busiest time of the year for work I haven't actually been to the flats since mid may, so we finally got some use out of our CCA star entries for 23. We slid in the ramp at the lighthouse that was surprisingly less packed than I would have figured for the week of the 4th. Rolling out the channel we saw several boats scalloping but we headed to deeper water. Halfway to the first spot I got a feeling about a point on my gps so we made a detour and struck paydirt in 8ft. I started fishing a weedless flick prawn on the bottom but the key to the day was paddle tails. I couldn't buy a bite and there was plenty of action going on for the second half of team shake n bake so I made the switch myself. We caught 40 or so trout in the span of an hour with 4 solid keepers. We also managed to find some good ole sailcats mixed in and a black tip shark decided the paddle tails looked tasty as well. After we drifted past 10ft the bite died and instead of doing the smart thing and starting that drift back, we decided to run to the st marks reef to catch a few grunts for tacos. But nothing at the st marks was interested in our frozen bait, so we ran out to the wakulla BB and a similar story. Same story at dog Ballard so we ran to some shallower rocks to try and find some BSB for tacos but they were all 9.5ins so back they went. So back we ran to our original spot, this little excursion in the deep water had burnt enough gas to move the needle off the F on the stottcraft so mission accomplished burning a little gas anyway. Unfortunately the bite had died off substantially and rain was building so when we got a break, we ran in real quick, encountered a nice older couple that were having motor trouble and towed them into the lighthouse ramp, they were getting ready to wade in while pulling the boat so I'm glad we got there when we did. We hit the road back to the GA and managed to get to Whataburger in Thomasville in no time.
Story of the day was paddletails in 8ft, color didn't seem to matter, shrimp baits didn't do much, nor did my dark sleeper on the bottom. I did fish an inline spinner and all that managed was sailcats and not the Spanish I hoped for.
Great day on the water even if it was quick and it was nice to see 87f water temps instead of the 90+ I saw on the 4th.
Thanks for sharing your day at St. Marks and beyond. The paddle tail experience tells us to empty the tackle box trying different baits and seeing what "they" want today. Good post; keep em coning.
thanks for the report