St Marks Area Offshore

[RC]

First I want to thank everyone in helping me on my decisions about boat and electronics? Well I spent saturday checking out places to keep my new boat. Went to Carabelle. Did ya'll know the Moorings and the Georgian motel would be closed this summer for renovations. Couldn't find a dependable place to stay. Carabelle is out. Checked out Alligator Point. $9.50 per foot and a waiting list. Wound up at St. Marks and Shields it is. 2 hr. and 15 minutes from my house not pulling the boat.

Anyway now that I know what my home port will be I have a lot of questions for you experienced St. Marks fishermen. It's coming up on the windy season so I guess I will be limited to the flats untill that rare unwindy day comes along. When I do get a break I want to head offshore.

I've been studing some charts and I have some questions:

Looks like to me it gets deeper quicker off Alligator Point and points west. Thats a long run from St. Marks. Do ya'll go straight south or southwest?

How deep before ya'll start trolling for grouper

What kind of structure are you looking for out there. Isolated manmade structure or are there limestone ledges and hard bottom areas like over around panama city. I'm a diver so I know what it looks like over around panama.

Ochlockonee Shoals looks like and area that would hold bait and might have a few cobia in the spring. Am i correct or is this just a big sandbar.

Do any of you fish the Wakulla OAR reef. Probably gets a lot of pressure but it looks like a good area to start looking.

Looks like its about 30 miles to the K tower out of st marks. Is that about right.

Are there any books with published numbers for this area. I'm not looking for any of your secret spots but I would like to start my search in a likely area.

Thanks RC

[Chalk]

There are plenty of spots from Marker 24 to Ochlocknee Shoals..both east, south and west of these spots and inland from there as well...And that's all were gonna say about that, as Forrest says

Look for hard bottom...watch the depth finder, look for Wevans

[dstockwell]

Looks like its about 30 miles to the K tower out of st marks. Is that about right.

35 from the Fort, 30 from lighthouse.

[RC]

Thanks for the info Chalk and dstockwell. Kind of tight liped about those grouper spots aren't you. I would like to hear from any of you that fish out of that area. It's nice to know your not alone out there.

[tin can]

Head south to some of the public numbers. From there, pick a direction. It really doesn't matter. Put a trolling bait out behind the boat, troll about 3.5 to 4 mph. Keep your eyes glued to the bottom machine, and one finger on the GPS Mark button.

I'm not trying to be evasive. This method works. Either you'll see good bottom, or a fish will grab the bait. I've found lots of stuff doing this.

[Atticus]

Tin Can: Remember when we went out trolling for some grouper in the older Tin Can? We were trolling and you said to let out some line (100ft?) to a specific point which you had marked on the mono fishing line (little black mark)?

Do you remember that? If so...

How did you get that mark on the line at 100ft?

(I am assuming that you didn't have someone grab the end of the line, then pace off 100 ft, and then mark it)

That thought has been bothering me for over a year

It seems like it would be helpful if one were going to start trolling around while looking at the bottom machine, it could help them to have nice little marks on their line so they knew how much line was out, and they could compare that number with the size of their lure on the end of the line and then compare that ratio to the depth number on the bottom machine and feel secure that they are trolling their plug through the correct area.

[tin can]

Actually, I hooked the bait on my mail box, and paced 100' and 150' down the street, and marked both spots with a Sharpie. If you're searching for new spots, it's very helpful to know how far behind you the bait is.

Atticus, sometimes you surprise me with your observations. Ya shoulda asked a long time ago.

[Atticus]

Tin Can- I am glad I got that out of you, one of my life's mysteries is solved.

So I guess doing that makes break-offs even more frustrating?

[tin can]

Yup.