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.
Started out at daylight going down the fogged St. Marks river from the fort. Could barely see 5 feet in front of the boat. Thank goodness for a chart plotting gps.
Put the lines in the water just as the sun broke the horizon. 5 minutes into trolling this one hit a blue over chartruese stretch 18 with a fly in front of it...
On the tape he was 33", on the scale 16 pounds. Biggest grouper the boat has seen.
Lines back in and 10 minutes later we had another hit and pulled in a 24 incher. This time on the blue mackerel rapala. A couple of shorts and one more 23" keeper rounded out the day. Caught one short on the fly in front of the stretch. After the tide quit about 10, no more bites. All fish caught in 12-15 feet of water.
Tide today was as low as I've ever seen it. Tried to help Surface Interval pull a bowrider off the Lighthouse bar to no avail. They'll be there till high tide.
This is what you get when its too cold to fish.
Last edited by Tom Keels on December 7th, 2002, 7:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Tom, would you kindly describe or show your rig using a stretch w/ a fly in front of it? I've thought about doing something like that, would like to know how you rig it. Tks.
The tide was a problem for me Sat morning launching at the Mashes Island public ramp at Ochlockonee for sure. Finally got unloaded and eased out to the river with the trolling motor but anyone with a steep-V can forget it near low tide. We trolled for about 3 miles SE of the bay toward some numbers with no luck. Picked up a considerable amount of grass. I took your advice Tom and went to 80 lbs on the leader but didn't get to try it out this trip. We anchored up on a spot in 19 ft. about 3:00 and within 20 mins had caught 1 short 20" and one keeper 25". The wife hooked up on two really good fish but was unable to bring them up and both broke off. She now agrees that all that cold air, frost and "fishing gear" aint so bad. We caught another 20" short on the spot and the bite shut off as the water calmed down. We lost a lot of bait to Sea Bass and caught two decent ones and kept a 15". We fished LY's and sardines but the LY's was the bait. I think we caught the end of the bite but still worth the time. The afternoon was as nice as it gets and overall a great day on the water.
How where the sea's? We went to Tampa to try to get into protected water. Was it rough? I am kicking myself about now because the fishing was absolutely horrible down there.
Chug
Winds were from the North and as we went out just after lunch seas were 2-3. Around 3:30 the water beginning calming down to a light chop. Nice! Water temp was 57.
Off the tag end of the leader which I left about 2 feet long I slid on a chartruese sea striker teaser, tied on a 5/0 J hook then put a pearl curly tail grub on the hook. It rides up and in front of the stretch making it run shallower and gives the impression of a fish chasing a bait. Got the idea from Whopperstopper.net.
