Forum Newbie

[LiL*BiLL*]

Hello all, My name is Billy Smith and I live just north of Atlanta and mainly striper fish on Lake Lanier year around. I've been following the forum for a while now and just joined up. I would like to thank everyone for their detailed reports and the professional feedback that most give. I will be making my yearly inshore trip to St. Marks the 2nd week in May and we usually try to get back in early Fall as well.

We have been visiting St. Marks for the last 7yrs targeting the inshore slam as well as cobia. Two years ago we finally figured out the cobia and boated 8 during the week with two keepers one of which was 54#'s and the other was just shy of 30#'s. I posted the report on Florida Sportsman under "St. Marks Extravaganza" for those who would like to see the pics. I look forward to reading more reports and thank everyone who contributes. Stay safe, Billy

[Flint River Pirate]

Welcome Billy, we are glad to have you on BBF.net.

[bman]

Welcome! I found your post in the archive... I hope its ok to copy it here:
I'm guessing there we photos- if you have them post them up!

I posted this report on our local Lake Lanier fishing forum and here is a copy for my Fl. friends


After six trips down to the gulf targeting the illusive cobia we finally figured them out. I had been reading up on fishing reports in the area with a lot of anglers striking out. Although when targeting cobia they had been seeing a 10ft tiger shark in the area. I told Allen on the way down I want to at least hook up with this shark and my chance would come believe it or not........ The inshore fishing has been on fire with limits of trout and spannish mackeral being caught every day. We have absolutely dominated the inshore variety in past trips even so that locals ask us how and what we were using.

Tuesday
This year was going to be different though....We had one fish on our mind and that was cobia since we have never caught one. When we arrived at the fish camp Tuesday morning I was apprehensive about asking how the cobia numbers where going but I asked anyway. The guides had told us that they had only seen one come through in the past weeks and it was just keeping size.

The weather was a little rough Tuesday so we stayed in to pick up some bait for the next day in deeper water. Pin fish and grunts are some of the favorite foods of cobia so we loaded up on those but while inshore we managed to pick up 11 keeper trout and several mackeral.

Wednesday
Wednesday was a flop.....We headed out 13 miles past the light house to some reefs on the map, anchored up and started our process of chumming. We managed several sharks and other trash fish while fishing nearly most of the day out there. The weather turned rough on us coming back in with large swells that would pull the boat backwards while trying to go over them. Needless to say I was sweating bullets trying to keep us in the right direction. Once we reached shallow water the bottom dropped out and began to rain so hard that you could barely see to the front of the boat. It was lightening and thundering all around and I didn't know which way to go to try and get out of the storm.
With the help of my HDS unit I was able to follow my trails without looking out to where I was going. The weather finally subsided but the wind was terrible so we headed back in.

Thursday
We got up a little earlier after talking a different strategy the night before. Today we headed out to some reefs a lot closer in and anchored up. Getting a chum block would be a miracle that would pay off in a big way. I had a drip bag on one side of the boat and a chum bag on the other with a scent trail that would surely bring in the fish. Within an hour the bait fish was so thick behind the boat it looked like it was raining at times. Fishing for cobia is the same as fishing for stripers here on Lanier. You put your free lines and balloons out the back and down lines off the side. The mackeral was coming through in sworms and the ticket for them was to cast a live shrimp weightless and let it slowly sink. We bought 100 live shrimp and you could almost count on a mackeral for each of them by using this tactic. My long time fishing partner Allen hooked up first with a small cobia on a live pin fish just under the boat. When he finally got the fish to the surface we thought it was a shark by the way it looked but no...... It was the illusive cobia we have been wanting!! After releasing it I went back to casting live shrimp out to the side of the boat and just as it hit the water my line took off screaming. I knew it was not a mackeral because this fish had some shoulders on it. After fighting for about five minutes it came to the top and it was another cobia but this time we've got a keeper. This fish was just a pound shy of being 30 and put up a hell of a fight on light tackle. We fished for a few more hours, hooking up with three more cobia and breaking off with another nice keeper.

Friday
Today would be the day of the greatest fishing experience on the ocean I have ever had! We got out to our spot early and anchored up with the chum and drip bag putting a heavy trail in the water. Within no time we had our thick bait schools back around the boat. I noticed today that we were not seeing or catching the mackeral like the day before but I would find out why soon enough. Allen boated a small cobia pretty soon after anchoring up so I knew that now we were doing the right thing. A few minutes later I would hook up with another nice keeper and fight it all the way to the boat only to have the hook come out of its mouth before we could get it.

Let the fun begin.....
I was standing up on the back of the boat to relieve myself when I noticed back behind Allan's balloon a huge dark object swimming around. No sooner than I could get SHARK out of my mouth the line slowly start creeping off. It was the 10ft tiger everyone had been seeing. This fish never put up a fight but whipped Allan's butt for about 3 minutes until the braid broke. I honestly believe it never even knew it was hooked that was how big this thing was. The action died down for a short time until we had two 10ft tigers swimming around the boat and a school of cobia tagging along. I just bought a new Calcutta/St. Croix combo from Larry and could not wait to get a fish on this rod worth bragging about. Boy did I ever.....One of the tigers decided he wanted my pin fish and swam off with it. This fish took me scrambling around the boat while smoking my new Calcutta only to have him pop the line about 200yards out.

While I was fighting this shark Allan thought he had hooked up with the other one again. The fish drug him around the boat about six times before showing itself. It was the huge cobia that was swimming along side one of the tiger sharks. He fought this fish for about 20min and got pulled around the boat about ten times before he could wear it down enough for his son, Nick and I to get it in the boat. The whole time he was fighting this fish the tiger sharks where swimming around the boat. Needless to say after putting this 50 plus pounder in the boat we were done fishing and called it a day. So on this trip...8 cobia, a ton of spannish mackeral, 11 speckled trout, and nearly spooled by a couple of big sharks.........Priceless!

30979

[ontiltttttt]

Welcome welcome! I'm excited to see some reports written by you this year.

[SS-342]

Welcome Billy! From what I've read, you will be another improvement to this forum. Looking forward to reading your post and sharing in your fishing excitement and experiences.

[DEMON]

Welcome aboard.

[fishinfool]

Welcome Billy. I hope you get on some more of those Cobes. They are definitely fun to catch!!

[JIm Smith]

Welcome, do you live anywhere near Winder? My son lives in Winder and does some striper fishing in Lanear

[woodstock52]

Welcome Billy, That was a great report, & I will be looking forward to reading many more.

[LiL*BiLL*]

Welcome, do you live anywhere near Winder? My son lives in Winder and does some striper fishing in Lanear

Hey Jim, Winder is about 20 mins from me and about 30 mins from lake Lanier. Also, still trying to find my way around the sight and figure out how to post pics. I'll do some more research here to figure it out.

[Harmsway]

Yeah LiL Bill, welcome aboard. Donate a little to the site and you'll get picture-posting privileges. There's backdoor ways to post pics, but whatthehey.