BigBendFishing.Net

For those of you in the Tallahassee area, just wondering your favorite site to launch if you want to hit deep waters AND you're towing your boat. Realizing deep is a relative term, for the purposes of this message I'm thinking 40' to 60'.

Been going out of either Econfina or Saint Marks areas the 8 years I've lived here, and rarely run out further than 30' depths. Never gone out of Keaton OR Mashes Sand, but really wanting to hit deeper waters one of these days. Would be willing to tow a couple of hours, but not really wanting to go past Apalachicola or the Keaton Beach area.

EXTREMELY curious to hear about likes/dislikes of launching from the east versus west sides of our bay.

Carrabelle City Ramp.

Tidedancer wrote:Carrabelle City Ramp.

He speak da truff.

I go out of Mashes Sands most often mainly because I don't want to drive the extra 30 min to Carabelle. Buoy 26 is 9 miles from the landing and is in 35 feet. It drops to 50 feet within a 2 mile from there. The K tower which is 7 miles south of Buoy 26 is in 65 feet. It is a nice landing but watch out for the low tides during the winter. It is an hour drive from the North side of Tallahassee.

konrad wrote:I go out of Mashes Sands most often mainly because I don't want to drive the extra 30 min to Carabelle. Buoy 26 is 9 miles from the landing and is in 35 feet. It drops to 50 feet within a 2 mile from there. The K tower which is 7 miles south of Buoy 26 is in 65 feet. It is a nice landing but watch out for the low tides during the winter. It is an hour drive from the North side of Tallahassee.

The distance to 30 to 60 or so foot is about the same from Mashes and C'belle If you plan to go deeper than 60 foot, I would put in at C'belle though

wevans wrote: The distance to 30 to 60 or so foot is about the same from Mashes and C'belle If you plan to go deeper than 60 foot, I would put in at C'belle though

I like Lanark as well as I like to fish some numbers on the East side of DI. That all depends on your boat though. Carrabelle works well for trips to deeper (60+) water.

Mashes Sands or Carrabelle.

Carrrabelle. Pirate's Landing ramp is pretty good. Cross the Carrabelle River Bridge, turn left, go end of road.

Harmsway wrote:Carrrabelle. Pirate's Landing ramp is pretty good. Cross the Carrabelle River Bridge, turn left, go end of road.

The newer ramp right across the river from that ramp is pretty nice as well.

Sure appreciate ALL the responses. Clearly the West side wins the poll and I much appreciate/will definitely take the advice.

Have to admit I'm a bit surprised not a single vote for the Keaton Beach side. Few public numbers posted for structure sites in the 50 ft depth range pretty much south of Keaton I thought might be popular targets, though realize takes a bit of a ride out to get to them.

Just out of curiosity, can anyone compare their west side experiences versus east? Is it longer boat trips, type of bottom, and/or quality of the fishing that's so different? Not doubting any of the recommendations, just eager to learn more about both areas and based on the 100% support for the west guessing there are some significant advantages.

MANY, MANY thanks to all again!

The bigest agvantage is distance to deeper water! I can be in 30 foot of water in 6 miles from Mashes 40 foot in 10 miles and 50 foot in 12 miles It's what, about 16 miles to 30 foot around Keaton?
The advantage of Saint Marks and East is there is more structure and you can find keeper Grouper in as little as 12 foot of water but ya also gotta know where ta look for em

big bend gyrene wrote:Sure appreciate ALL the responses. Clearly the West side wins the poll and I much appreciate/will definitely take the advice.

Have to admit I'm a bit surprised not a single vote for the Keaton Beach side. Few public numbers posted for structure sites in the 50 ft depth range pretty much south of Keaton I thought might be popular targets, though realize takes a bit of a ride out to get to them.

Just out of curiosity, can anyone compare their west side experiences versus east? Is it longer boat trips, type of bottom, and/or quality of the fishing that's so different? Not doubting any of the recommendations, just eager to learn more about both areas and based on the 100% support for the west guessing there are some significant advantages.

MANY, MANY thanks to all again!

I find it much, much easier to catch gags east than west. Although I have found west will give you more flexibility since there are more public numbers west if you want to have that ace in the hole for the 'I just want to catch something' out of town guest.

There is also much less fishing pressure east vs west.

out of keaton Buckeye Reef is 18 miles in 45ft of water. if you look at the chart you will see that 6 fathom curve and 10 fathom curve are a lot closer the further west you go. 30 to 40 miles out of keaton is still only 50-65ft 30 miles out of Carrabelle is 100ft.