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I should say . . . The Spanish are here! Big time. Went out of St. Marks today. Fog thick as pea soup til' about noon. Nothin' biting. All he77 broke loose as soon as the fog lifted. Spanish Mackerel in good numbers and good size were almost everywhere at almost any depth. They ate everything moved fast enough. On the hook-up, followers were the rule, which broke many a line in spite of 1-foot steel leaders. Caught a couple of trout, too, by accident.

2 hours, 14 Spanish, 2 trout (19" and 21"), 2 anglers, 1 re-rigger (and 1 granddaughter that wishes she could have gone, too). Here some pics.

Nice going Will

Thats good to hear I was planning on heading that way in the morning.

Will, nice mess of fish. You and Brett had one heck of a day. Put Brett's "guns" to work cleaning those fish. I am glad you guys got to get out there. My son was to busy to fish with me today.

Greatt catch. I was planning on going to St. Marks on Wednesday and trolling for Spanish. Any tips you can give on where you guys where at? Have not fished for Spanish much and want to learn how. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Harmsway,I think we luanched right after you guys, were you in the Panga?

We were in my buddies new boat (20' Alum. Polar Kraft) that didnt have GPS yet so we had a tough time staying in the chanel. The fog was so thick at times we could not see either bank of the river and that was in the narrow areas! We had a hard time finding good fish, I think we managed around 15 or so short trout, a few short spanish and a 4-5 lb jack that was a blast on light tackle. As mentioned we caught most of the fish just as the fog lifted. Ended up being a really nice day on the water.

GaWhaler wrote:Have not fished for Spanish much and want to learn how. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Get something shiny and reel like hell.

GaWhaler wrote:Greatt catch. I was planning on going to St. Marks on Wednesday and trolling for Spanish. Any tips you can give on where you guys where at? Have not fished for Spanish much and want to learn how. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Slow troll (around 1,000-1,200 rpm) with Gotchas, mackerel rigs or McDonald's soda straw/j-hook in about 8-15 feet of water. Great spot is outside the stake line and scallop shoal off SM. Yu can also watch for birds/bait busting and cast to them. I like to use small silver diamond jigs when casting. The Spanish love glass minnows and those are great imitations.

Put a spoon behing a mackeral rig (Shields had some, Jerry's did not). Once you find a spot by trolling, just drift and cast. Never saw any birds feeding. They chased just about anything (fast is good with sudden stops), ate most of it, but the best hookups we had were close to the bottom on jigs. So pretty heavy jighead, 3/4-oz to 1-oz, and white grubs seemed best, but chartruse worked, too.

Aquamaholic wrote:Harmsway,I think we luanched right after you guys, were you in the Panga?

We were in my buddies new boat (20' Alum. Polar Kraft) that didnt have GPS yet so we had a tough time staying in the chanel. The fog was so thick at times we could not see either bank of the river and that was in the narrow areas! We had a hard time finding good fish, I think we managed around 15 or so short trout, a few short spanish and a 4-5 lb jack that was a blast on light tackle. As mentioned we caught most of the fish just as the fog lifted. Ended up being a really nice day on the water.

Yeah, it was pretty crazy (maybe stupid) to head down river in that fog! But we hugged the right edge of the channel at slow speed. It would have been insane without the GPS. Darn near got run over by a houseboat. Fog was predicted to lift by 10:00, but it was darn near noon by the time it cleared enough to run on plane. Holler the next time you see Booyah! out there.

Reel Addiction wrote:Will, nice mess of fish. You and Brett had one heck of a day. Put Brett's "guns" to work cleaning those fish. I am glad you guys got to get out there. My son was to busy to fish with me today.

Yeah, its sad though, Guy. Brett catches twice as many fish as I do, and they are twice as big as mine. But worth the embassassment just to spend the time with him. Call me when you need a fishing break, and we'll get out there.

Yeah, it was pretty crazy (maybe stupid) to head down river in that fog! But we hugged the right edge of the channel at slow speed. It would have been insane without the GPS. Darn near got run over by a houseboat. Fog was predicted to lift by 10:00, but it was darn near noon by the time it cleared enough to run on plane. Holler the next time you see Booyah! out there.

Yeah, it was not smart to head out without GPS! We heard some boats hauling tail (we couldnt see them only heard em) so we ducked behind a big oyster bar in shallow water and waited until the fog lifted some.

silverking wrote:

GaWhaler wrote:Greatt catch. I was planning on going to St. Marks on Wednesday and trolling for Spanish. Any tips you can give on where you guys where at? Have not fished for Spanish much and want to learn how. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Slow troll (around 1,000-1,200 rpm) with Gotchas, mackerel rigs or McDonald's soda straw/j-hook in about 8-15 feet of water. Great spot is outside the stake line and scallop shoal off SM. Yu can also watch for birds/bait busting and cast to them. I like to use small silver diamond jigs when casting. The Spanish love glass minnows and those are great imitations.

Thanks for the advice Silverking. Unfortunately, work and weather has gotten in the way of going fishing. Going to try to get to St. Mark's next week and give it a shot. I appreciate the advice.

Spanish are biting all the way up the St. Marks/Wakulla river as far as the St. Marks Yacht club docks. Saw them yesterday all over the river.

Its' because the shrimp are hatching.