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 offshore 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.
One of my business contacts calls me Sunday night and says he wants to go troll for grouper first thing Monday morning. He wants to take his 23' Grady out of St. Marks and all I have to do is show up so he doesn't have to go alone. That was an easy decision......so after a few phone calls to re-schedule some appointments (the joy of self-employment ), I plan for another day on the water.
We leave Shell Island Fish Camp at 9:30 and head on out towards 24. We decide to go SE instead and once we reached 35 ft., out went the stretches. The water was very calm with a light wind and the visibility was the best I have seen in years. You could see all the way to the bottom and make out every bit of the structure below. It was like taking a cruise at Wakulla Springs! We managed a few short gags on the gold/black stretches, so we proceeded to move out to deeper water. At 45 ft. we started again and at 12:00 we had our first keeper gag......25" About 45 minutes later we had #2......24" WE trolled the same area for about 2 hours and managed a few more keeper gags. Got broke off by a king about the time the wind picked up around 2:30. We decided to call it a day and head in with our catch of the day....all gags. Got back in to the channel just in enough time to beat the increased winds and seas......white-capping on the flats!
It was yet another beautiful day on the water. All the keeper gags either had squid or whole baitfish in their mouths when they were caught. Never had that happen with EVERY keeper fish. We used the black/gold stretches all day running about 1200 rpm about 125 behind the boat. All keeper gags were caught in 40 -45 ft. Nothing caught in anything shallower.
This little guy decided to take a break while we were trolling......
Shield's Marina or the Fort. We went out Shell Island because his boat his dry docked there and they put it in for him. I launch a 22' HydraSport at the Fort or Shield's all the time and there's never a problem as long as you navigate the channel all the way to the lighthouse.
), I plan for another day on the water. 
