BigBendFishing.Net

Took a day of spring break to knock the dust off my boat and gear, went with my son and wife to St. Marks for the day. Morning was a little foggy and burned off around noon, could'nt get to adventerous with the family in the fog, so we mostly hung out between the lighthouse and the birdrack and caught scores of just short trout, fun but no meat. When the fog burned off we started near the channel trolling for macks, no luck around the channel, headed further East
set up a troll and WAM drag starts screaming about spooled when line went slack, fish headed towards the boat, reel, reel reel. very nice 38 inch mack. will be on the grill shortly. trolled another 45 minutes nothing, went back to catching short trout. Even tried the west flats just
short trout, must be early spring, I had a dozen in my hand that were 14 7/8 inches.
Great day on the water with my family, I was blessed.
Looking forward to the season. tight lines

38" mack Was it a King or Spanish?

Sounds like a king mack to me. It is a little early for them though. But then again that would be consistent with a lot of other things this year.

Great trip. What would we do without those short trout when we have kids in the boat!

A very nice Spanish, though I've caught Kings smaller

Yeup- those young kings have markings almost like a Spanish.
If I remember right there is some way to check the fins and see which it is....
Or is it the lateral lines?

Juvenile kings can also have spots, but the real determining difference between Spanish is the lateral lines. On Spanish mackerel the lines gradually taper down towards the tail, whereas with kings the line takes a distinct dip partway down the side.

Good deal, RX. 38" Spanish. Bet that was fun.

sounds like fun..no matter if it was a king or spanish. any 38 inch fish is a good fight.

Nice mack, he should grill up nicely. Try fishing further east toward Aucilla, you might get more keeper trout. 5 ft. spotty bottom.

Nice fish Rx.

rx fisher wrote:A very nice Spanish, though I've caught Kings smaller

Sweet action!

Nice mack RX Fisher.

38"?
I need a picture of that, please. I caught a bunch last spring 30-32 and they looked giant.
Early for KIngs? Who knows, I can attest to February Cobia.

Nice fish, RX.

Holy mackerel.