St. Marks 04-30-2003
Posted: April 30th, 2003, 5:00 pm
Luke (bigshark88) and I left the fort about 6:40 and headed to the east flats. Water temp was 73° and was 79° by 2 pm. By 7:30 I had 3 keepers in the box, all on the Chug Bug. Luke picked up some shorts on a CT/grub and put another keeper in the box just before the tide slacked at 8:20.
NOAA was wrong again and that made a fun ride over to the west flats in 3 foot following seas. Once we were there and the tide picked up we drifted almost to Patty's Island and picked up trout and ladyfish all the way. My pinfish rod was constantly in motion, but from either sharks or ladyfish. We managed to pick up 3 more keepers amongst the dozens of shorts. CT and Bone Diamond was the trick on the west flats. Water was much clearer than Saturday and was very clear with the rising tide.
We wanted to try for a red so we headed back east to Stoney Bayou and worked the edges, me with a ZULU and Luke with an inline spinnerbait. My third cast yielded a 17" trout. I missed several more and then spotted a nice fish between 2 points. I couldn't tell if it was a trout or red, so I told Luke to throw up to the point and pull it across. Well with 6 feet of line out I thought the fish had spooked, but with 3 feet of line out Luke boated this nice 22" fish.
We continued to work the area but the wind shifted to the south and was almost unbearable so we called it a day.
Water temp was 73° and was 79° by 2 pm.
We headed back to the fort and had the boat on the trailer by 3:00.
Total Tally- 9 trout from 16-22"
Nice day on the water.
NOAA was wrong again and that made a fun ride over to the west flats in 3 foot following seas. Once we were there and the tide picked up we drifted almost to Patty's Island and picked up trout and ladyfish all the way. My pinfish rod was constantly in motion, but from either sharks or ladyfish. We managed to pick up 3 more keepers amongst the dozens of shorts. CT and Bone Diamond was the trick on the west flats. Water was much clearer than Saturday and was very clear with the rising tide.
We wanted to try for a red so we headed back east to Stoney Bayou and worked the edges, me with a ZULU and Luke with an inline spinnerbait. My third cast yielded a 17" trout. I missed several more and then spotted a nice fish between 2 points. I couldn't tell if it was a trout or red, so I told Luke to throw up to the point and pull it across. Well with 6 feet of line out I thought the fish had spooked, but with 3 feet of line out Luke boated this nice 22" fish.
We continued to work the area but the wind shifted to the south and was almost unbearable so we called it a day.
Water temp was 73° and was 79° by 2 pm.
We headed back to the fort and had the boat on the trailer by 3:00.
Total Tally- 9 trout from 16-22"
Nice day on the water.
Glad ya'll had better luck 