St. Marks trip 4/3 thru 4/7

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robbankston
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St. Marks trip 4/3 thru 4/7

Post by robbankston »

Well we had a blast on our trip down. Got there Friday afternoon around 4 and had the truck unloaded, the boat in the water, and sitting at the oyster bars near the Lighthouse by 5:30. Right off the bat first cast something swipes one of my brand new 7 dollar mirrorlures. Must have been a blue or a spanish. No more action that night but it was more of a boat ride to make sure all was good for Saturday. Dang good ride too. The old Monark and Johnson treated me well this week.

So Saturday I'm up early can't sleep. We head down and talk to Allen at fish camp for some last minute advice and live shrimp. Allen says everybody is going east so we had west. Figure it'd be easier to get my feet wet over there than to fight rocks and traffic right away. Well about an hour into it I finally get a bit and land a keep. First fish of the trip and its legal. Good way to start a trip. After not catching or getting any bites we head east. We end up with two more keepers that day one of them was a nice fat 18 incher.

Sunday we head out a bit later and fish east again. We drifted/trolled over to Palmetto into some real shallow water. Had to pull the Johnson and drop the trolling motor. Wife caught a small flounder which was a first for her and one of the biggest hardhead cats I've ever seen. I also caught a stingray over there. Decided to head back over near the lighthouse where we were having our best luck. Caught a bunch of shorts and one keeper. Towards the end of the day I'm popping a cork with a live shrimp when all of a sudden something hammers the cork and then takes the shrimp. Good fight and a few minutes later I land my first Spanish. I've caught Kings offshore fishing but never a spanish. He's a keeper too. As we are doing our last drift a couple on another boat flags us down and give us two nice keeper trout. They said they aren't going to bother cleaning two fish. Ok we'll take'em. :)

Monday we decided to try west. W e did a ton of exploring and it was nice but not even a nibble. Went over in front of the lighthouse and started getting bites and put a keeper in the cooler to save the day.

Decided to stick with what was working on Tuesday. Drifted east in front of the lighthouse all day and caught a ton of shorts with 4 keepers. The wife got a nice 17 incher.

As most of you know Wednesday was windier than the weatherman predicted so I asked Allen where a good place was to fish out of the wind. He recommended a spot up the Wakulla so that is where we headed. Decided that was wisest since the Monark is a bit on the small side and we are a bit on the inexperienced side. He said the spot usually had redfish (which we wanted to catch) and he also said there were sheepshead. Well we didn't see any redfish but we did the the sheepshead. After we fed them shrimp for most of the day I finally figured out how we should fish for them and the wife proceeded to catch a nice keeper and another small one. By that time all the shrimp was gone and so was our energy. Decided it was a great way to end a great trip.

Really enjoyed ourselves and thanks to everybody who gave me advice on here. It definitely helped out.

We also had an awesome meal at the Seinyard in Woodville. I definitely recommend it.

Also only put one ding in my prop. Which considering I am a novice there and we fished for 5 days solid I was happy with.

Final tally was 10 keeper trout, 1 spanish, and 1 sheepshead.

Here's a few pics from the trip.
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A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week. -George S. Patton
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Hit-n-Miss
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Re: St. Marks trip 4/3 thru 4/7

Post by Hit-n-Miss »

:-D Good deal you got some nice fish. For some reason I don't do well at St Marks. Tried for years. I do better at Ecofina and Keaton. If you ever fish there I can give you some tips for that area. :-D
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robbankston
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Re: St. Marks trip 4/3 thru 4/7

Post by robbankston »

Hit-n-Miss wrote::-D Good deal you got some nice fish. For some reason I don't do well at St Marks. Tried for years. I do better at Ecofina and Keaton. If you ever fish there I can give you some tips for that area. :-D
I'll definitely remember that offer. Thanks!
A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week. -George S. Patton
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Harmsway
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Re: St. Marks trip 4/3 thru 4/7

Post by Harmsway »

Glad things worked out for you, robbankston. Wish I could have seen the Monark in action. Maybe next time. :smt006
To fish, or not to fish, . . . those are the answers.
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fishinfool
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Re: St. Marks trip 4/3 thru 4/7

Post by fishinfool »

I am really glad you two had a good time. I know you were as excited as kid on Xmas morning. Maybe on your next trip down I can put you on a couple of spots that have produced for me. I just hope it is not one of JT's holes.
It is always nice when a plan comes together. :D
FF
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KyTrkyHntr
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Re: St. Marks trip 4/3 thru 4/7

Post by KyTrkyHntr »

:thumbup:
Catch & Release Fish!!!!....... Not Criminals!

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robbankston
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Re: St. Marks trip 4/3 thru 4/7

Post by robbankston »

Yep, hope to run into some of you guys one of these days. Actually did run into one guy and his family off of here from Athens, GA name of Allen. Don't remember what he goes by on here but they were good folks. We saw them at the BBQ Oyster bar there in St. Marks. Pretty good place. Good crabcake sandwich and oysters. :thumbup: Riverside had good oysters too! :thumbup: :thumbup:
A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week. -George S. Patton
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jcflats
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Re: St. Marks trip 4/3 thru 4/7

Post by jcflats »

Sounds like you had a good time. Good Report!
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Ron Wilson
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Re: St. Marks trip 4/3 thru 4/7

Post by Ron Wilson »

Nice trip and report. Glad ya'll got down and back safely and a good time to boot. Thanks for posting up. :thumbup:
"Plan for the worst."
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robbankston
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Re: St. Marks trip 4/3 thru 4/7

Post by robbankston »

Now I'm looking forward to my next trip in June. :D
A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week. -George S. Patton
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