July 16 St. Marks Report
Posted: July 16th, 2010, 11:24 pm
Old high school buddy visited me this week so I dusted off Marine's Dream and prepared for a trip out. Due to the weather forecasters spreading doom and gloom about constant storm threats, I opted to put in at St. Marks versus my beloved Econfina due to fears that if storms hit at lunchtime I might not be able to head for the hill.
Well, the truth turned out to be polar opposite of what the weather folks predicted. They called for high odds of rain all day but with low winds. Instead the morning clouds burned off as a beautiful summer blue bird day developed but it was WINDY as heck!
With high hopes that winds might calm down as the day heated up, I loaded the live well with pins for a possible run to deep water. Also fished a bit between catching pins and got the stink off the boat. Caught a few trout and small mackerel.
With the skies obviously clearing by mid-morning I told my bud I wanted to try making it offshore. Welll... we tried, but sure didn't get too deep. Did make it to a bit of mid shore structure and anchored up as quickly as possible. Told my friend, "It surely will calm down as the tide gets closer to slack...". Well, it didn't.
The GOOD news is we DID find fish. Within seconds of dropping the anchor, we spotted bait pods and were chunking silver spoons. While the mid shore macks weren't actually fiercely attacking the pods, each time we casted towards the pods that appeared to be unmolested, it was on like Donkey Kong!
The macks were biting so good we forgot to drop live baits down, but when we did the bite was so slow on the bottom we kept throwing spoons to the macks. Nothing earthshaking to report, but we did catch and tag one short cobia who though small gave my buddy Jerome a decent fight. Did keep the summer cobia streak alive with all four summer trips out on Marine's Dream this year having a visit by at least one cobe.
By 2:30pm the waves still weren't dying down and my bud and I agreed we'd had enough rocking and rolling and opted to run in.
Lesson learned at the end of the day -- that the old saying "You won't know if you don't go" is true. Some nice fish put in the boat on an absolutely blue sky summer day. As always, nice to be back on the water enjoying God's handiwork.
Well, the truth turned out to be polar opposite of what the weather folks predicted. They called for high odds of rain all day but with low winds. Instead the morning clouds burned off as a beautiful summer blue bird day developed but it was WINDY as heck!
With high hopes that winds might calm down as the day heated up, I loaded the live well with pins for a possible run to deep water. Also fished a bit between catching pins and got the stink off the boat. Caught a few trout and small mackerel. With the skies obviously clearing by mid-morning I told my bud I wanted to try making it offshore. Welll... we tried, but sure didn't get too deep. Did make it to a bit of mid shore structure and anchored up as quickly as possible. Told my friend, "It surely will calm down as the tide gets closer to slack...". Well, it didn't.
The GOOD news is we DID find fish. Within seconds of dropping the anchor, we spotted bait pods and were chunking silver spoons. While the mid shore macks weren't actually fiercely attacking the pods, each time we casted towards the pods that appeared to be unmolested, it was on like Donkey Kong!
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Lesson learned at the end of the day -- that the old saying "You won't know if you don't go" is true. Some nice fish put in the boat on an absolutely blue sky summer day. As always, nice to be back on the water enjoying God's handiwork.
It would have been bad to stink up the Panga in front of your buddy! 
