I was almost a mile up one of the bayous right where the two rivers meet when I heard some strange grunting noises that I thought for sure was an alligator letting me know that I was about to be toast. I high-tailed it back out the run, dodging large swirls in the water as I went. Well it turned out to be 4 very large manatees. They apparently thought my canoe made a good playmate, because they swam right up to me and followed me around for quite a while. Unfortunately I didn't get any good pictures because I spent most of that time afraid that they were going to turn me over.
This was within the no-wake zone that was expanded last year where the St Marks and Wakulla rivers meet. It would be great if some people would actually start slowing down there. If you don't care about people, at least do it for the manatees! I fish there frequently in my canoe and spend a lot of time dodging wakes as it seems like about 50% of the boats that go by do so at full speed. Yesterday, a large offshore twin engine actually sped up to power/plane just past the first no wake sign - gimmie a break!
Anyhow, I spent the entire afternoon fishing the grass, caught some decent trout here and there, and lots of ladyfish. Finally found the reds I was looking for around 6:00 PM about a mile south of the no wake zone. My first fish measured in at just over 26.5" with the tail pinched, so that one went in the cooler. My next cast landed a 28" red, and I got 3 more reds over the slot. Came back in around 7:00PM with sore muscles and blisters after about 9-10 miles total paddling, but I got some fat red fillets to show for it, so it was overall a great day on the water.
I was throwing a black and silver mirrolure, green bite-a-bait, gold redfin, and a couple of different color 4" zara spooks. All fish were caught on 4" spooks, and all reds were caught on the zara spook still attached to the redfish in the pic below.
First picture below is the 28" red before it went back in the water with the 26.5 sitting in the cooler. If you look toward the top left corner of the second pic, you can see the barge that was laid up in the grass all day. I don't know how that happened, but it was there all day with a tug still attached, and it spun 180 degrees between noon and 6:00 as the tide came in and went out.
