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.
(Day 1 Friday) Lavon, Daniel and I got to Keaton around 7:00 Friday, unloaded our stuff at the rental and got launched. Was worried that the low wind forecast for the weekend would mean no drift. Luckily NOAA was wrong and we had the perfect amount of wind. Decided to go south first and check it out. Water temp was 78-79 and the fish were biting. But most of them were too short so we headed north. Made several stops along the way picking up a few keepers here and there. The dirtier the water the more keepers we would get. Got to what we were pretty sure was 14 trout in the box so it was time for a fish count. So I put my phone in my shirt pocket and closed the velcro over it. I dug all the fish out then squatted down at the side of the boat to rinse my hands before taking a picture of the fish. Well...when I squatted down the side of the boat pushed my phone up and out through the velcro. BLOOP!!!....AAAAARRRRGGGHHHH!!!! water dark, 7' deep, drifting fast and no mask on the boat equals no chance of recovery. Stupid stupid stupid!!!! After calling my wife(on friends phone) and breaking the bad news it took me a few minutes to compose myself. Well nothing I can do about it so back to fishing. We had one more trout to catch. We waded trough a bunch of shorts and finally got it and headed in. Got all the fish cleaned and then got showers. Then off to dinner at Kathy's crab shack yummy. After dinner we vac sealed all the fish, made some tackle adjustments for the next day and hit the hay. Will edit and add photos later.
(Day two Saturday) Forgot to mention on way in yesterday we baited and set the pinfish trap. We got up and eased out the canal just as it was just starting to get light. Went straight to the trap thinking we were going to load the baitwell......not! Nothing but one small black sea bass. I swear I am never fooling with that thing again. Same water conditions as the day before so we went straight to where we ended yesterday. We were steady putting fish in the box(in between shorts and net malfunctions) till around 10:30 then the bite died. After about an hour of trying different things I finally figure out what they want and fish start hitting the cooler again. We got our limit earlier today with some bonus fish. So we headed on in to try to make it to Wilson's to stock up before going to eat. And since we are in Perry...Deal's here we come! Man what a good meal. Then back to the cabin to to vac fish and get ready for our last day. Pics coming.
(Day 3 Sunday) Last day so we had to pack up and load the truck before fishing. We decided today to head in at 10:00 no matter what we had in the box and not run as far north. The fish were very aggressive but most of them were not our target species lol. We did manage 4 sea bass and 3 trout. One sea bass was 16" he fought good. No pictures today as we were ready to get home. Was the first time in several years that we were able to get our schedules together so that we do a trip. Was a great time with great friends and can't wait until next time.
Red Beard wrote: ↑May 7th, 2024, 12:23 pm
Thanks for sharing: looked like a great long salt therapy session was had! Well deserved I’m sure!
It was great been a couple years since done a 3 day trip. However my cellphone got a little too much salt therapy. In fact it's still somewhere out near Spring Warrior.
Lavon, Daniel and I got to Keaton around 7:00 Friday, unloaded our stuff at the rental and got launched. Was worried that the low wind forecast for the weekend would mean no drift. Luckily NOAA was wrong and we had the perfect amount of wind. Decided to go south first and check it out. Water temp was 78-79 and the fish were biting. But most of them were too short so we headed north. Made several stops along the way picking up a few keepers here and there. The dirtier the water the more keepers we would get. Got to what we were pretty sure was 14 trout in the box so it was time for a fish count. So I put my phone in my shirt pocket and closed the velcro over it. I dug all the fish out then squatted down at the side of the boat to rinse my hands before taking a picture of the fish. Well...when I squatted down the side of the boat pushed my phone up and out through the velcro. BLOOP!!!....AAAAARRRRGGGHHHH!!!! 
water dark, 7' deep, drifting fast and no mask on the boat equals no chance of recovery. Stupid stupid stupid!!!! After calling my wife(on friends phone) and breaking the bad news it took me a few minutes to compose myself. Well nothing I can do about it so back to fishing. We had one more trout to catch. We waded trough a bunch of shorts and finally got it and headed in. Got all the fish cleaned and then got showers. Then off to dinner at Kathy's crab shack yummy. After dinner we vac sealed all the fish, made some tackle adjustments for the next day and hit the hay. Will edit and add photos later. 
I swear I am never fooling with that thing again. Same water conditions as the day before so we went straight to where we ended yesterday. We were steady putting fish in the box(in between shorts and net malfunctions) till around 10:30 then the bite died. After about an hour of trying different things I finally figure out what they want and fish start hitting the cooler again. We got our limit earlier today with some bonus fish. So we headed on in to try to make it to Wilson's to stock up before going to eat. And since we are in Perry...Deal's here we come! Man what a good meal. 
Then back to the cabin to to vac fish and get ready for our last day. Pics coming.
