Annual Mem Wknd St Joe Report
Posted: May 29th, 2013, 9:50 pm
Able to get down for a long weekend again this year. This was our 12th Memorial Weekend Trip in a row to St Joe. This was by far the best fishing trip we have ever had to St Joe. A few highlights of the trip were two young ladies getting firsts for salt water and one of them catching a slam. The trout were thick in the bay and the redfish schools were wanting to play as well. The flounder bite was the best we have had.
We were able to get down on Wednesday night this year instead of our normal Thursday at noon. We awoke waaay too early on Thursday morning to try and catch the last of the incoming tide. On the water and fishing by 6 a.m., we were greeted to 4 foot waves in the bay and dirty water. NOT a good way to start the trip. We had our hearts set on topwater at our best topwater spot and had probably 30 rolls in the first 45 minutes, but only 2 trout in the box and too many lady fish to count. It was short strike heaven. Even tried the ol bait em with the topwater and feed em the gulp and that didn't even work. The fish wouldn't touch a spook, but would come up just fine on a top dog jr. A little different sound and different cadence did the trick. The action came to an abrupt halt and we moved to another spot and no grass at all and it was blowing so hard you couldn't see anything anyway. I was very suprised at the lack of grass in the bay. Usually it is already thick by the time we get there. We ended up with 5 keepers and back to bed for a nap we went. Back out with the next crew at 2 p.m. to catch the outgoing and the bite was off the chain........for the last hour. Fished all afternoon trying to find the school of reds I was after and after 3 hours of limited catching, we ended up with a 4 man limit of reds, 2 trout and 3 flounder in about an hour.
Friday was more wind. Started out with arties (gulps/topwater) and then ran into bait while fishing. Two throws of the net and we were in business. Ended up with 10 keeper trout and 3 keeper flounder for the morning. Went out in the afternoon and once again fished for about 2 hours with limited action with 3 trout and 2 flounder and then finished with 4 limits of reds inlcuding a buddies wife getting slam who had not fished before. We must have caught 30 reds in the one spot. The best was seeing a first timer have so much fun and become completely addicted to fishing!!!!
Saturday was a day full of trout and flounder. First crew was out in the morning and we had 8 trout including two pigs at 22 inches and several flounder. Dropped the first crew off at Presnell's at 2 and the second crew came on. 18 trout in an hour and we ran out of bait. The bottom dropped out of the tide and the wind was howling and bait was of course no where to be found to finish out our 5 man limit. We weren't complaining and went in for dinner.
Sunday was another great day on trout. This time I made three cast with the net instead of two and bait was NOT an issue. We ended up with 15 trout and 4 flounder.
Monday was back on the reds and we knew it was gonna be tough cause we couldn't stay out late enough for the tide. We ended up with 6 reds with only 1 keeper at 26 inches and 3 flounder. The kicker was the flounder were gigantic. One flounder was the same exact 26 inches as the red. He was a toad. It was our slowest day, but I wasn't complaining. My crew wore me smack out. I am ashamed to say this, but I was actually tired of catching fish by Monday afternoon.
The final tally was 9 gallon bags packed smack full of red, trout, and flounder filets. It was a great trip with great friends fishing, eating lots of good seafood and enjoying the water!!!!
The red is 26 inches to give some perspective as to how big the flounder are.
We were able to get down on Wednesday night this year instead of our normal Thursday at noon. We awoke waaay too early on Thursday morning to try and catch the last of the incoming tide. On the water and fishing by 6 a.m., we were greeted to 4 foot waves in the bay and dirty water. NOT a good way to start the trip. We had our hearts set on topwater at our best topwater spot and had probably 30 rolls in the first 45 minutes, but only 2 trout in the box and too many lady fish to count. It was short strike heaven. Even tried the ol bait em with the topwater and feed em the gulp and that didn't even work. The fish wouldn't touch a spook, but would come up just fine on a top dog jr. A little different sound and different cadence did the trick. The action came to an abrupt halt and we moved to another spot and no grass at all and it was blowing so hard you couldn't see anything anyway. I was very suprised at the lack of grass in the bay. Usually it is already thick by the time we get there. We ended up with 5 keepers and back to bed for a nap we went. Back out with the next crew at 2 p.m. to catch the outgoing and the bite was off the chain........for the last hour. Fished all afternoon trying to find the school of reds I was after and after 3 hours of limited catching, we ended up with a 4 man limit of reds, 2 trout and 3 flounder in about an hour.
Friday was more wind. Started out with arties (gulps/topwater) and then ran into bait while fishing. Two throws of the net and we were in business. Ended up with 10 keeper trout and 3 keeper flounder for the morning. Went out in the afternoon and once again fished for about 2 hours with limited action with 3 trout and 2 flounder and then finished with 4 limits of reds inlcuding a buddies wife getting slam who had not fished before. We must have caught 30 reds in the one spot. The best was seeing a first timer have so much fun and become completely addicted to fishing!!!!
Saturday was a day full of trout and flounder. First crew was out in the morning and we had 8 trout including two pigs at 22 inches and several flounder. Dropped the first crew off at Presnell's at 2 and the second crew came on. 18 trout in an hour and we ran out of bait. The bottom dropped out of the tide and the wind was howling and bait was of course no where to be found to finish out our 5 man limit. We weren't complaining and went in for dinner.
Sunday was another great day on trout. This time I made three cast with the net instead of two and bait was NOT an issue. We ended up with 15 trout and 4 flounder.
Monday was back on the reds and we knew it was gonna be tough cause we couldn't stay out late enough for the tide. We ended up with 6 reds with only 1 keeper at 26 inches and 3 flounder. The kicker was the flounder were gigantic. One flounder was the same exact 26 inches as the red. He was a toad. It was our slowest day, but I wasn't complaining. My crew wore me smack out. I am ashamed to say this, but I was actually tired of catching fish by Monday afternoon.
The final tally was 9 gallon bags packed smack full of red, trout, and flounder filets. It was a great trip with great friends fishing, eating lots of good seafood and enjoying the water!!!!
The red is 26 inches to give some perspective as to how big the flounder are.
