St Joe 5/04/07 - 5/05/07
Posted: May 6th, 2007, 12:08 pm
5/04
Left Tallahassee at 8 a.m. on Friday morning headed to PSJ. After a few stops, we were in the water by 11. Since none of us had ever fished over there before, we idled out the marina for a ways and pondered what to do. Decided to run over near Black's Island and fish. We found some good looking craters / potholes, stopped the boat and drifted through them. We immediatly started catching quality fish. My girlfriend Tiffany caught her first trout and redfish in a span of about 5 minutes...pretty neat! We moved out of the area after a few drifts and went up closer to the island and caught a few short trout...nothing spectacular. We ran over towards Conch Island and drifted through in hopes of picking up a red or two. After starting our drift, something caught my eye in the water about 15 ft from the boat. It was a monster cobia, probably about 45-50 inches long and fat. He slowly moved away and we (me and Brian) were in such a hurry casting to him that we made terrible casts. The fish didn't even take a look at the jerkbaits. It was getting hot around 2:30-3 so we decided to take it to the house for a few cold ones.
Tiff's first red
Another nice red
Even a blind hog finds one every now and then
Tiff's first trout
Brian with a good'un
5/05
We went to bed wondering whether or not the tourney was on PSJ time or Tallahassee time (not knowing they were one and the same), so we got up around 5 and made the 15 minute drive from St Joe Beach to Presnells. We had left the boat in the water the night before to try and avoid the mass chaos and loaded the gear. Finally, it was time to go and we followed everyone out the marina. We ran towards the area that we had fished the day before and it immediatly paid off. On the second cast of the day, Brian caught a fat 19" trout and proceeded to take me to school for the rest of the day. A few casts later he hooks into a nice one and the Mexican fire drill began. We had equipment laid out all over the boat and in the process of grabbing the net, I almost tripped over a tackle box and fell overboard. We somehow managed to get the 23" trout into the net before the hook came out. We stayed in the area and caught a few more 18.5" trout and decided to move once the sun got up. We basically had all of our fish by 9 a.m. We ran just about everywhere in search of better fish, but just couldn't find any. After 9, the fishing was really slow. We managed to catch a few more trout to round out our limit, but for the most part, we didn't catch any quality fish after that.
I'm not one to brag, but while my partner was catching all of our trout and redfish, I was slaying the ladyfish, cats, and pinfish. I think we should devote the next tourney to those three fish...
In two days of fishing, I think I caught more of those things than I have in my entire life. We ended the day at about 1 p.m. got the boat on the trailer, took it into St. Joe to wash it and refuel, and ate lunch at Mickey D's. The weigh-in was really close and we were somehow lucky enough to win by 1/100 of a pound. We must be livin' right. It was a great tournament filled with some great fellowship.
We stayed real shallow both days, fishing in about 2' of water and drifiting across the 4' deep craters. The water temp stayed in the high 70's for most of the day. We caught almost all of our fish on jerkbaits and a few on topwater. I was hoping for a better topwater bite, but it just wasn't happening. Had a great time with the partner and enjoyed netting all his fish. As a couple people said, "It's all about partner selection," and today I was lucky as hell to have Brian. He put on a clinic all day. Enjoyed it alphabet man.
CC
back at the house with 2 nice ones
Brian with his 23" trout
Money shot
Alphabet man brings in another keeper
Left Tallahassee at 8 a.m. on Friday morning headed to PSJ. After a few stops, we were in the water by 11. Since none of us had ever fished over there before, we idled out the marina for a ways and pondered what to do. Decided to run over near Black's Island and fish. We found some good looking craters / potholes, stopped the boat and drifted through them. We immediatly started catching quality fish. My girlfriend Tiffany caught her first trout and redfish in a span of about 5 minutes...pretty neat! We moved out of the area after a few drifts and went up closer to the island and caught a few short trout...nothing spectacular. We ran over towards Conch Island and drifted through in hopes of picking up a red or two. After starting our drift, something caught my eye in the water about 15 ft from the boat. It was a monster cobia, probably about 45-50 inches long and fat. He slowly moved away and we (me and Brian) were in such a hurry casting to him that we made terrible casts. The fish didn't even take a look at the jerkbaits. It was getting hot around 2:30-3 so we decided to take it to the house for a few cold ones.
Tiff's first red
Another nice red
Even a blind hog finds one every now and then
Tiff's first trout
Brian with a good'un
5/05
We went to bed wondering whether or not the tourney was on PSJ time or Tallahassee time (not knowing they were one and the same), so we got up around 5 and made the 15 minute drive from St Joe Beach to Presnells. We had left the boat in the water the night before to try and avoid the mass chaos and loaded the gear. Finally, it was time to go and we followed everyone out the marina. We ran towards the area that we had fished the day before and it immediatly paid off. On the second cast of the day, Brian caught a fat 19" trout and proceeded to take me to school for the rest of the day. A few casts later he hooks into a nice one and the Mexican fire drill began. We had equipment laid out all over the boat and in the process of grabbing the net, I almost tripped over a tackle box and fell overboard. We somehow managed to get the 23" trout into the net before the hook came out. We stayed in the area and caught a few more 18.5" trout and decided to move once the sun got up. We basically had all of our fish by 9 a.m. We ran just about everywhere in search of better fish, but just couldn't find any. After 9, the fishing was really slow. We managed to catch a few more trout to round out our limit, but for the most part, we didn't catch any quality fish after that.
I'm not one to brag, but while my partner was catching all of our trout and redfish, I was slaying the ladyfish, cats, and pinfish. I think we should devote the next tourney to those three fish...
In two days of fishing, I think I caught more of those things than I have in my entire life. We ended the day at about 1 p.m. got the boat on the trailer, took it into St. Joe to wash it and refuel, and ate lunch at Mickey D's. The weigh-in was really close and we were somehow lucky enough to win by 1/100 of a pound. We must be livin' right. It was a great tournament filled with some great fellowship. We stayed real shallow both days, fishing in about 2' of water and drifiting across the 4' deep craters. The water temp stayed in the high 70's for most of the day. We caught almost all of our fish on jerkbaits and a few on topwater. I was hoping for a better topwater bite, but it just wasn't happening. Had a great time with the partner and enjoyed netting all his fish. As a couple people said, "It's all about partner selection," and today I was lucky as hell to have Brian. He put on a clinic all day. Enjoyed it alphabet man.
CC
back at the house with 2 nice ones
Brian with his 23" trout
Money shot
Alphabet man brings in another keeper
Guess we need to bring Tiffany along on every trip 
she is now the Blind Hogs official good luck charm!