At 05:00 sunday, the Weather Channel showed another small system out from Ecofina so we decided to head to St. Marks. Stopped to get a cup of coffee and ran into a guide I try to take lessons from a few days each year. I swallowed my pride and asked if he had any advice for me for the day. He told me exxactly where he had limited on Saturday and where he would be if the weather wouldn't let him fish that spot today and said he would be looking fo me. Well we got launched and headed down the river. I was determined not to get distracted because I wanted nothing but to get our boys on a limit of fat trout, but decided to stop by an oyster bar that looked to be at a promising stage in the falling tide. A few casts later and my son was fighting a slot Redfish on a gulp. This was the first keeper Red we have put in our boat on artificials.
I quickly followed with one about 21 inches and the youngest of the kids put a real doormat in the cooler. This seemed to have stirred them up enough that there were no more takers and we headed out to the deep flats. Fished this area for an hour or so with only a few shorts and a 8 inch Porgy that went into the live well.
The thunderstorm that had been east moved further on east so we heade that way as well. Found my guide right where he had fished the previous day. It was right at low tide and things were dead for an hour or more. All we could do was drag our hooks and watch a gargantuan storm start forming back around Spring Creek and Alligator Point. About the time this system left the station and headed our way we start catching fish, mostly shorts but 3 nice keepers hit the ice. As the grey, no black skies neared we started moving our drifts a little closer to the light house, but noticed a guy dressed for church in a brown suit about fifty yards away. I grabbed the Porgy out of the livewell and put him a #6 circle hook behind some 80 lb Power Pro and slung him as far as I dared. We tossed jigs for about 15 minutes watching the storm chug ever nearer. Got nervous, reeled the lines in and moved another 40 yards toward the lighthose. Slung out the poor Progy again and went to trout fishing. After about 10 minutes I noticed a brown suited one on the surface heading to ward the Porgy on the flat line. He deftly inhaled the big bait. I told my son to let him run a second, then he grabbed the rod rared back and the game was on. It took him about 20 minutes to get the old sow to the point I thought I could gaff her and get her into the cooler with a minimum number of casualties. After I missed about 5 times and managed not to break the leader, I was able sink the gaff and pull her over the gunwale. After a round of hi fives cooler logic prevailed and we went in under WOT with sparks nipping at our heals. This broke our two year drout on Cobias and was my son's first keeper. My Dad was right when years ago he told me how much more fun it would be to see my own son do the things I enjoy than doing them myself. He was right again.
The fish only went 40 inches at the fork but weighed 37 lbs.
We'll be back for more soon.
Nuts
