BigBendFishing.Net

Hey all! Finally got around to becoming a member here! Let me start be saying wow, what a beautiful day to be on the water! Clear skies, little wind and slick waters pretty much all day! Probably the slickest ive ever seen it out at St Mark. Me and three buddies got to the fort ramp about 8:30, launch and get out to the mouth of the river about 9. Finding that no pinfish want our sabiki rigs tipped with gulp, we move to a new location. Yet again nothing here and nothing there...what the heck! Finally we manage to get a killer 4 pinfish in the boat...2 hours later! Geez! So, after realizing that today was not the day to stock up on bait, we head out to the St Marks Reef to see what we can pull in with our little bait. Wow! Within 30 minutes we all are hooked up, but not ever at the same time. Im the first to find my rod screaming! I jump on it, let it take it, and set it! So i thought! Line goes slack, i reel in only to find my pinfish untouched. Weird. Next thing i know my buddy hooks up to something nice! He's fighting fighting fighting and pop! Line goes slack, he reels in and finds that his hook simply came untied...we give eachother that look..."who tied that garbage". Disappointed from his loss, we look over to see my other buddy's rod creeping over. He grabs it, sets it. And starts battling it out! He's torquing that monster just trying to get an inch of line back, but fails! Fish starts diving for bottom and next thing we know the line goes slack. Lost him too! Dang it!! After mourning our multiple losses, we call it a day and head back to the launch around 3 with nothing in the box. I guess thats how it goes sometimes. Just hate to see it happen! Oh, anyone got any tips on catching pinfish? Usually i can go out a slay them, not this time.

What did the water look like?
Good report cant catch em all.

Welcome to the forum. Usually they are easy to catch on the flats. On an ultra light or lite spinning combo.Try putting 1/4 oz or so weight at the end of your line with a strong #10 or #12 bream hook 1 foot and 2 foot up from the weight. Put small pieces of squid or fish bites on it. Just toss out and reel back slow. Mostly get 5-6" pins that way.

If I'm correct, and if I'm not someone please correct me. when you have a slack/still water like you mentioned, the fish bite tend to slack as well. so that might have been your problem. Welcome to the forum!

Water clarity was terrible. Very low vis. And hit n run ill have to switch it up and try that one. I was just surprised how difficult it was to find the little that we did.

*Hit n Miss

Nambleman,
I think the pinfish have gone somewhere else. I had a friend of mine (very good fisherman) trying to catch them on the grass flats in front of piney island with no results. Could have something to do with this freshwater.

The pin fish are there on the flats like he said. Was there by the bird rack yesterday and pulled in what we needed to slay the reds yesterday. New post to come...

Milto, where by the bird rack did you catch them? We tried in about 5 different locations and couldnt seem to hookup.

We found them w no problem on sunday around palmetto island. I like to use 1/2 of a sabiki( 2 or 3 hooks, you never get pins on the upper hooks).w a 1/4-3/8 weight baited w gulp pieces. We seem to have far better luck w gulp vs squid, but either will work. Good luck

All around the sand bars there. Just find the sandy bottom spots. We had luck with the pin fish hooks and little gulp pieces. Would also have to agree with squid if you have it available.

Awesome, thanks for the tip! Ill give it a shot next trip.

Thanks for the good report, Nambleman.

Keep going and your good reports will be more successful, fish wise. All this rain and fresh water has kind of messed things up but it will get better.

Good to have you aboard and am looking forward to more reports.

When we go, my wife and I fish with cut bait, usually pen fish or skip jack. She is able to catch pen fish on bits of "bacon" on a small bream hook. We usually catch all that we need to fish with and are able to catch a mess of fish. Weather, medical issues, and other things have kept us off the water for a while now. Looking for some decent weather this fall and better conditions. Try the bacon on a small hook!

Daybreak