St Marks..Wed-Fri

[sundown]

Met a good friend from Atlanta area in Cairo Wed morning..We had lunch with a business associate and then headed for St Marks.
Put the boat in at Shell Island and had made to the lighthouse by 4:30. We then headed west to Cat Alley to see what we could catch.
He started with gulp shrimp, me with a topwater. I’d made up my mind that was all I was going to fish today. I tied on a Top Dog and we started.
Right off the bat he started catching sailcats. This was around Patty’s Island. We had plenty of water so I figured there would be some trout in the area. We did catch four respectable trout. He must have caught 15 plus sailcats. I did catch the two biggest trout on the Top Dog but strikes were slow to say the least.
About 7:15 we figured it was time to hit the road so I threw one more time…… Something boiled at the plug and headed for Shell Point.. pulling drag !
I finally turned it and it was boring down. I was hollering for my partner to get a tail rope and the flying gaff ! Knew it was either a non jumping tarpon or Chalk trout .. Turns out it was another sailcat. Had a head big as Uncle Snap’s old bulldog ! Had no idea they got that big ! luckily one hook had him in the lip so I got my plug back pretty easily..We headed for the hill .

Thursday had a meeting in Tallahassee that took most of the day. It was after five before we got back out. Had two more friends join us..We for sure didn’t turn west when we got to the river mouth ! Headed down towards Grey Mare where there was still plenty of water to get around. With gulp shrimp and skitterwalks we caught several nice keepers and quite a few shorts. Getting dark so we headed back with lights on…….

Yesterday (Fri) we were out before day. Had planned to go outside a ways and troll some rocks and see if we might luck up and drag a gag off of one of em.. Stopped down outside Grey Mare to throw a topwater before we started trolling. Turns out that’s where we stayed all day.. The good weather report turned south in a hurry. It was real choppy at 7:30 and dang rough an hour later.. Tried twice to go south but never made it further than Peter’s Rock before stopping. Too rough……
At 1:00 we had resorted to soaking cut bait.. Caught bout every kind of trash fish on the flats I think. I did catch one huge Spanish on a minnow plug. Also caught a Cobia about 28â€

[Ron Wilson]

Good report, Sundown. Sounds like everyone had a good time, and caught some fish to boot.

[tin can]

Good trip, Sundown.

[birddog]

Great report. Thanks Sundown.

[Browning Slayer]

Nice Report Sundown!

[Chalk]

Nice few days on the water....

[Travis Lackey]

great report, thanks for the info.

[Sir reel]

Very good 3 day report. Sounds like you covered the area pretty well and your report is appreciated. Thanks.