St Marks 9-16 - catchin'
Posted: September 17th, 2006, 10:03 pm
Took a neighbor who is a veteran grouper digger out for a little po' folks fishing closer-in. Fished the falling tide from about 10:30 till 3:00. Tried some rock piles in 9' without much success.
Then went on out to some hard bottom in 16' and proceeded to put a whoopin on the spanish mackeral. Anything flashy got their attention. The odd thing is that they didn't seem to be feeding all that aggressively. Very little surface activity, no birds, virtually no indication at all that there were spanish in the area. This is just a good spot with a lot of natural structure where I usually catch something. Lots of fish following spoons right up to the boat. Foul-hooked several whose curiosity got the better of them.
By far, the highlight of this trip was a 36" king mackeral that my friend hooked and landed using 10 lb test line and a little johnson sprite spoon. Fortunately, this guy knows the value of keeping line and gear in good condition. His equipment held up like it ought to and we followed the fish around till he wore out almost a mile from where he was hooked. I've caught a few kings, but they were all in much deeper water (like 60+ feet). So, this was a real treat. Later, we saw another king about the same size swim through a school of spanish and literally slice one right in half
Also got 4 nice sized sea bass and a flounder
Brought home 20 spanish in the 2 - 4 lb range. Would have kept more but I have one of those old Florida Sportsman lawsticks that said the limit on spanish was 10 per license. I thought that was wrong but wasn't sure so I let a bunch go just to be on the safe side. In hindsight, that worked out for the best as I had more fish than I wanted to clean once I got home. I admire all you guys that can cheerfully release a legal, edible fish. I just have a hard time with it when I'm out on the water.
Then went on out to some hard bottom in 16' and proceeded to put a whoopin on the spanish mackeral. Anything flashy got their attention. The odd thing is that they didn't seem to be feeding all that aggressively. Very little surface activity, no birds, virtually no indication at all that there were spanish in the area. This is just a good spot with a lot of natural structure where I usually catch something. Lots of fish following spoons right up to the boat. Foul-hooked several whose curiosity got the better of them.
By far, the highlight of this trip was a 36" king mackeral that my friend hooked and landed using 10 lb test line and a little johnson sprite spoon. Fortunately, this guy knows the value of keeping line and gear in good condition. His equipment held up like it ought to and we followed the fish around till he wore out almost a mile from where he was hooked. I've caught a few kings, but they were all in much deeper water (like 60+ feet). So, this was a real treat. Later, we saw another king about the same size swim through a school of spanish and literally slice one right in half
Also got 4 nice sized sea bass and a flounder
Brought home 20 spanish in the 2 - 4 lb range. Would have kept more but I have one of those old Florida Sportsman lawsticks that said the limit on spanish was 10 per license. I thought that was wrong but wasn't sure so I let a bunch go just to be on the safe side. In hindsight, that worked out for the best as I had more fish than I wanted to clean once I got home. I admire all you guys that can cheerfully release a legal, edible fish. I just have a hard time with it when I'm out on the water.
