May 8-After Work "Adventure"
Posted: May 9th, 2013, 5:51 pm
After a long day of work for both my Dad and I, when the clock struck 5:00, we headed south for some salt therapy. We knew we wouldn't have much time on the water but were hoping to make the most of an opportunity to get out. Got to the lighthouse somewhere after 5 and hurried to get everything ready. Forecast seemed decent, supposed to be around 10 knots or less out of the southwest. When we got out of the car at the lighthouse, we were greeted with a little bit stiffer breeze. It was blowing a constant 15 knots out of the southwest, at least they got the direction right! With the wind howling, I knew we probably shouldn't make any long runs, even though I was tempted to. We headed to an area that was fairly new to us, we have fished in the vicinity but never in that exact location. We worked our way through different areas with the trolling motor, fighting the wind that was blowing one way and the tide that was rushing the opposite way. After about a half hour or so of this, we only had two strikes on topwater to show for our efforts, and both the fish didn't quite connect. Solid blowups, but no hookups. Just as I was about to turn us in a new direction with the trolling motor and head to a different area, my Dad said "there's a whole bunch of mullet right over there". I decided not to turn away and headed straight for the mullet. I let the wind blow us towards them and kept working my topwater. I wasn't loving the way it looked in the one foot chop we had in our "protected" area, so I put it down and picked up my rod with a soft plastic. First cast I thought I felt a little bump, but nothing. Second cast with it I knew I felt a bump and it was ON! I knew it was a red right away. This was a smart red. He hit both my trim tabs several times trying to cut me off, but I was able to lay on the poling platform and maneuver him away from them. I got him to the front of the boat and figured the coast was clear....but I forgot I still had the trolling motor down. The fish ran straight to the trolling motor and got me all wrapped up and then took off in the other direction. I pulled the motor up and got my line untangled and miraculously the fish was still hooked up. After that I was able to get him to the boat and my Dad netted him. Fish was a healthy 28 inches, a good one. A few pictures and he went back into the water to make another angler happy some day. We worked that area over and I think there were a few more fish there but they spooked out. We moved on to the area I was heading for before we saw the mullet, got there and the best we could come up with was a 18 inch trout on my soft plastic. Fished a couple more spots as the sun began to set but didn't have any more success.
Now the real fun!
I knew It was going to be a hard falling tide and the canal would be skinny on the way in. It was a negative tide but not a terribly strong negative so I figured we would be fine in my boat. Passed a boat that was probably 15 or 16 feet but with much more of a deep V and deeper hull than mine. This boat had four guys in it. They were fishing around the end of the oyster bar and I was hoping they weren't planning on taking their boat out at the Lighthouse because I knew that may be trouble. Made it through the entrance to the canal which was pretty skinny, but not the skinniest we have ever seen it. We idled on in with my motor trimmed up and got the boat on the trailer. It wasn't a breeze to get it on there, we had to pull it up with a rope rather than drive it on, but we got it on. I'm not sure why there is such a shallow spot just off the end of the ramp, but it is in a horrible location for those trying to get their boats on and off trailers in low water. I could not even float over that spot without making contact with the shallow spot, I would love to see the Lighthouse fix that. As I got my boat on the trailer, I could see the other boat that I mentioned before trying to get into the canal. After seeing that I could barely get my boat on my trailer, I knew the guys in the other boat wouldn't be able to get theirs up. We didn't really think we could help them but also did not want to leave them so we walked down the levee to see what the situation was, knowing it may not be good. We were figuring that best case scenario was that the guys had realized they wouldn't be able to get in and dropped someone off at the oyster bar to drive their trailer to the Fort and they would drive the boat up the river to take the boat out there. Worst case scenario would be that they made it into the canal but got stuck somewhere between the entrance to the canal and the dock/boat ramp. When we arrived, the situation was worse. The guys were about a quarter of a way up the canal to the boat ramp, but stuck on one side of the canal and no longer floating. What made it worse, was that their motor had burned up and was not operating. I didn't think I could put my boat in to get back out to them to tow them in and thought that if I tried, we might end up with two stuck boats. Although we couldn't really do anything to help, we did not want to leave them either. We brainstormed ideas but since they had no trolling motor, all I could come up with was for them to throw their anchor to the middle of the canal and try to move themselves that way. Unfortunately this didn't work. We called some of our buddies including Keyser, Chewy, and Otto but they didn't answer. I kept envisioning a situation where a Hells Bay comes in right before me and the Hells Bay makes it in and I get stuck without a motor as darkness is approaching. I knew that had it been my Dad and I in that situation, I would be praying the Hells Bay owner was going to help us in some way. We told the guys we weren't going to leave until we found someone to come help and started working the phones like it was the night of the NFL Draft and we were team owners. Called multiple agencies that we thought would be able to help the situation and a few of them disappointed by basically saying "we can't help, we can't do anything for them, tell them to wait for the tide." I alreadly knew that the guys just had to wait for higher water, but even when they got it, they still would be in trouble since they have no motor. I was calling agencies asking them to have someone come sit on the levee(where I was standing) in their truck and shine their headlights on the boat so that the guys had some sense of safety. Eventually we got a response from the Wakulla County Sheriff's Office that they would try to send an officer after we told them that the situation was pretty close to becoming an emergency. We saw one of those white trucks that the wildlife guys who work at the Lighthouse drive around and tracked him down to tell him the situation and he said he would go sit with them until they could float. On our way out, we talked to the Sheriff who was heading in to help the gentlemen to make sure he knew that eventually, a boat would need to be involved to get the guys and their boat to safety. He mentioned that the Sheriff's Office had an airboat they could use if they needed to. I believe what ended up happening was the call got passed to the FWC and they got down there and got the gentlemen to safety. At the end of the day, all of our emergency responders did everything they could and hopefully got the gentlemen to safety. A job well done guys and one that we should all be thankful for.
Had a buddy tell us that he was out Tuesday afternoon and heard a call from the Coast Guard on the radio that two flares were shot off south of the St. Marks Lighthouse. He said the FWC officers went racing that way but I never heard anything else. Anybody hear anything about that?
Here's the redfish and a few sunset pictures, no pictures of the trout because we didn't get home until real late.
Now the real fun!
I knew It was going to be a hard falling tide and the canal would be skinny on the way in. It was a negative tide but not a terribly strong negative so I figured we would be fine in my boat. Passed a boat that was probably 15 or 16 feet but with much more of a deep V and deeper hull than mine. This boat had four guys in it. They were fishing around the end of the oyster bar and I was hoping they weren't planning on taking their boat out at the Lighthouse because I knew that may be trouble. Made it through the entrance to the canal which was pretty skinny, but not the skinniest we have ever seen it. We idled on in with my motor trimmed up and got the boat on the trailer. It wasn't a breeze to get it on there, we had to pull it up with a rope rather than drive it on, but we got it on. I'm not sure why there is such a shallow spot just off the end of the ramp, but it is in a horrible location for those trying to get their boats on and off trailers in low water. I could not even float over that spot without making contact with the shallow spot, I would love to see the Lighthouse fix that. As I got my boat on the trailer, I could see the other boat that I mentioned before trying to get into the canal. After seeing that I could barely get my boat on my trailer, I knew the guys in the other boat wouldn't be able to get theirs up. We didn't really think we could help them but also did not want to leave them so we walked down the levee to see what the situation was, knowing it may not be good. We were figuring that best case scenario was that the guys had realized they wouldn't be able to get in and dropped someone off at the oyster bar to drive their trailer to the Fort and they would drive the boat up the river to take the boat out there. Worst case scenario would be that they made it into the canal but got stuck somewhere between the entrance to the canal and the dock/boat ramp. When we arrived, the situation was worse. The guys were about a quarter of a way up the canal to the boat ramp, but stuck on one side of the canal and no longer floating. What made it worse, was that their motor had burned up and was not operating. I didn't think I could put my boat in to get back out to them to tow them in and thought that if I tried, we might end up with two stuck boats. Although we couldn't really do anything to help, we did not want to leave them either. We brainstormed ideas but since they had no trolling motor, all I could come up with was for them to throw their anchor to the middle of the canal and try to move themselves that way. Unfortunately this didn't work. We called some of our buddies including Keyser, Chewy, and Otto but they didn't answer. I kept envisioning a situation where a Hells Bay comes in right before me and the Hells Bay makes it in and I get stuck without a motor as darkness is approaching. I knew that had it been my Dad and I in that situation, I would be praying the Hells Bay owner was going to help us in some way. We told the guys we weren't going to leave until we found someone to come help and started working the phones like it was the night of the NFL Draft and we were team owners. Called multiple agencies that we thought would be able to help the situation and a few of them disappointed by basically saying "we can't help, we can't do anything for them, tell them to wait for the tide." I alreadly knew that the guys just had to wait for higher water, but even when they got it, they still would be in trouble since they have no motor. I was calling agencies asking them to have someone come sit on the levee(where I was standing) in their truck and shine their headlights on the boat so that the guys had some sense of safety. Eventually we got a response from the Wakulla County Sheriff's Office that they would try to send an officer after we told them that the situation was pretty close to becoming an emergency. We saw one of those white trucks that the wildlife guys who work at the Lighthouse drive around and tracked him down to tell him the situation and he said he would go sit with them until they could float. On our way out, we talked to the Sheriff who was heading in to help the gentlemen to make sure he knew that eventually, a boat would need to be involved to get the guys and their boat to safety. He mentioned that the Sheriff's Office had an airboat they could use if they needed to. I believe what ended up happening was the call got passed to the FWC and they got down there and got the gentlemen to safety. At the end of the day, all of our emergency responders did everything they could and hopefully got the gentlemen to safety. A job well done guys and one that we should all be thankful for.
Had a buddy tell us that he was out Tuesday afternoon and heard a call from the Coast Guard on the radio that two flares were shot off south of the St. Marks Lighthouse. He said the FWC officers went racing that way but I never heard anything else. Anybody hear anything about that?
Here's the redfish and a few sunset pictures, no pictures of the trout because we didn't get home until real late.
The end of that channel is shallow on a good tide...