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.
Got a later than I wanted to start and didn't get to the water until 4 pm. Brought along the sure fire wind generators (grouper rods) and they did their jobs. Caught about 3 dozen pinfish and still contemplated running offshore but I talked myself out of it. Should have gone.
Nothing for 2 hours and then my pawinlaw gets a 20" trout. We drifted some beautiful bottom in 5-7 feet and the bite was just not there. We found a good spot with rocks and stuff and anchored up and deployed the chum bag. Caught some nice rock bass and some sharks and that was it.
Hit several spots on the way back to the hill and did nothing. Back at the trailer at 8:30 pm.
The water is red in the river and over about a mile east. It then clears up very nicely. There was floating grass everywhere. The big news is the water temperature was 87° in the river channel and 85.5° on the flats. 4 weeks ago the water was 85°, 2 weeks ago the water was 76°, now its back up to 87°. I can't help but think this fluctuation has the fish screwed up. We'll see what happens this weekend.
Glad you made that report Tom. Don't feel that bad about not going today now. As far as water temp. At one time a couple weeks ago it got down to 73 degrees at Keaton. Three days later it was 82 at daylight at the same spot. It's got to affect them negativly.
Bud, I put in at the lighthouse. The gate closes at 9pm letting people in but it has a sensor that will let folks out after 9. There were 5 or 6 boats still there when we got to the gate at 5 to 9.
the gate will open, but the park is closed and the "man" gets a little angry because they are supposed to wait around until the last vehicle leaves. if they see a car still parked there real late they may come out there looking for you ...and you better make sure your running lights are working
The man wasn't there last night and I've never been hassled coming out after dark. I've heard that if you plan on fishing past 9 to leave a note on your vehicle advising them of that.
I've parked and fished there all night. Never had a problem. I usually give them a call out of courtesy and let them know we will be out over night. They've never been anything but cordial to me about it.
We went out around 10:00 and came in just before you got there. Caught 20-25 trout but only 4 keepers, two just over 18" and two just over 15". 3 were in 5'-6' and 1 in 3'-4'. Finally got around to trying live shrimp, but all they got us were shorts.
Same story for me on the 10th. Caught the falling tide at noon. The water is red but it's tannin and not cloudy so I think the fish have good visibility. We caught a few legal trout and 10-12 right at 15". The lady fish were fun. Two extremes, the CT without moving it at all worked much better than moving it. Killed me to just stand there watching it and waiting but that's what was working. The best action was on a straight grub (root bear w/gold fleck) worked with a real aggresive retrieve. I switched to a 1/2 oz. jig to keep it deep enough with the fast retreive. I don't usually do that and it worked, this time.
