Econfina/St.Marks/Diving/Fishing

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Frank Bradfield
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Econfina/St.Marks/Diving/Fishing

Post by Frank Bradfield »

We hit the water about an hour before low tide, me,Pinfish King, Ben (my son ), Gregory ( Pinfish's son ). We slipped out in good shape , stopped and caught some Pinns & sailors for bait. We had heard all the tales of no fish, dead fish, floating fish so we had to see for ourselves. We had some friends who fished all day offshore and caught only 2 short grouper. They fished 22 to 35 ft. Our first stop was where we had been having good luck all year in 25 ft. We fished for a bit , caught some, then decided to jump in. Three of us go over , water temp on the top 84, on the bottom 82. I dove a 1.5 mm, it was just right. Off down the anchor rope i hit bottom pretty quick, waiting on my son i thinking man i can't see hardly anything, vis is about 10 ft. Everyone gets set and off we go, we see nothing, not even a grunt, just when i decide to give up my son grabs me on the shoulder and points out 4 or 5 grouper swimming by. I follow them to the spot. We shot a few and ice pick em to the head which everyone seemed to think was cool all that extra blood shooting into the water, I'm thinking not cool, dragging around the stringer in 10 ft viz. We give up on the dive and have some good conversation on how we were off the mark by a bit on the gps and how we have t o get that straight. Off to 40ft , we see lots of dolphins in 25- 30 ft. We arrive at 40, get a few bites , don't mark anything on the X 18 but decide to see for ourselves. Vis seems better on the top but once reaching the bottom , its not , still a solid 10 ft. Swam around a nice rock with some holes, fish count , very low, 4 small gags and 1 oyster fish. We save our air for another dive. Did i mention the shark shield we were trying out. I was letting the kids wear it and felt kinda good about it in the no vis water. Didn't see any sharks but we all got zapped by the trailing antenna a few times which didn't hurt but was good for a few laughs. They did say they forgot they had it on so it didn't seem to be in the way at all. No dead fish on the bottom or floating here but the fish count overall was very bad. Back to the 25 ft spot. Hit the bottom , this time i decide not to shoot the triggers, trying to get one of the real big grouper i saw. We were slipping around a big overhanging rock and i notice the outline of a huge fish under it. Vis is poor and nobody but me sees it , so i think no way its a gag, so closer in i go, i make out a Jewfish, about 250 lbs :o in 25 ft. I point it out to Ben & Gregory, they still don't see it, he's so big he looks like part of the rock, i give him a little nudge with the 52 SS, i still could not make out spots & vertical lines real good on him so this tell's you how close i am, or how bad the vis is, anyway, he likes this spot and decides not to move, so i nudge him again , this time he comes out, wow he's big, he moves off into the shadow's not to be seen again. The big grouper used the cover and slid under the ledges to give me the slip this time. Fish count was excellent in 25 ft, lots of grouper, 1 jew, lots of triggers, grunts. I'm not sure if the Red Tide had the Jew pushed in or maybe the storm, maybe he's a new full time resident , but overall the fish count shallow was much better, than deeper. We had a awesome day and everyone had a blast. Bottom time in 25 ft on 37 % is like forever, i even came home with leftover air. Total take which was not good but i guess compared to everyone else we talked to was not bad, was 4 gags, 2 triggers. Tom , by the way those triggers are a pain in the butt to clean, i need to watch you do that and come up with a better soulution. I'm just glad i didn't shoot a bunch of them. Pinfish king will be posting a pic with his son and the fish later on. frank
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Sir reel
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Post by Sir reel »

Good job on the trip and the report Frank. :thumbup: Great information, thanks. :D
"Good Judgement" comes from experience, ... and a lot of that..... results from "Bad Judgement".
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GC
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Post by GC »

Great Report! Maybe November/December will be ok after all! :thumbup:

I'm ready for a Jewfish season!! :D
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catchin1
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Post by catchin1 »

Intresting read. :thumbup:
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dstockwell
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Post by dstockwell »

Great read Frank. :thumbup: Are there not Jewfish in all kinds of depths, down South they get them in the ICW.
PinFishKing
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PinFishKing Junior with a few gags

Post by PinFishKing »

You just can't fix stupid.
PinFishKing
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try again

Post by PinFishKing »

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You just can't fix stupid.
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