St. Marks, 5/11/04
Posted: May 11th, 2004, 2:31 pm
I might be gettin' the hang of this chase. Took one of my new neighbors with me. Learned quite a bit from him.
Got to the Fort at about 8:15, headed east of the lighthouse a few miles. Stopped in 6' of grassy bottom, put the trolling motor in, set the auto pilot north at about .5 MPH.
Freelined shrimp was the best ticket, followed by topwater mirrolure 54M, black back/orange belly, then candy corn w/FB, then E. Chicken. Nothing on White/red, silver, or gold. Water was very clear to 9'.(think scallops)
10:00 to 11:40 bite was on, 16 trout, only two shorts, most 17"-18" range, one 22". Floated oveer some structure in 3', saw a HUGE sting ray, being followed by what looked like one legal size cobia, followed by another Cobia that looked to be about 5'. Threw a mirrolure at him but nada.
Turned the trolling motor around and headed due south back to deeper water, had a pin freelining and a "special cut tail" from a pinfish that I could not describe hanging off the back of the boat, got a 20" Smackeral on the "special", and then a Cobia started playing with the pin. He would take it, run, let it go, play with it again, let it go, and on and on and on. Took about three minutes for him to play it 50 yds to the boat. He was within 5 feet of the boat still messin' with us. He was 4' easy. Very exciting, very aggravating, but mostly exciting. One day I will get one.
Bite was alittle slow
Tally 14 legal trout, kept two
3 ladyfish
1 small rock bass
5-6 pins
1 mackeral
0 stockwells
Got to the Fort at about 8:15, headed east of the lighthouse a few miles. Stopped in 6' of grassy bottom, put the trolling motor in, set the auto pilot north at about .5 MPH.
Freelined shrimp was the best ticket, followed by topwater mirrolure 54M, black back/orange belly, then candy corn w/FB, then E. Chicken. Nothing on White/red, silver, or gold. Water was very clear to 9'.(think scallops)
10:00 to 11:40 bite was on, 16 trout, only two shorts, most 17"-18" range, one 22". Floated oveer some structure in 3', saw a HUGE sting ray, being followed by what looked like one legal size cobia, followed by another Cobia that looked to be about 5'. Threw a mirrolure at him but nada.
Turned the trolling motor around and headed due south back to deeper water, had a pin freelining and a "special cut tail" from a pinfish that I could not describe hanging off the back of the boat, got a 20" Smackeral on the "special", and then a Cobia started playing with the pin. He would take it, run, let it go, play with it again, let it go, and on and on and on. Took about three minutes for him to play it 50 yds to the boat. He was within 5 feet of the boat still messin' with us. He was 4' easy. Very exciting, very aggravating, but mostly exciting. One day I will get one.
Bite was alittle slow
Tally 14 legal trout, kept two
3 ladyfish
1 small rock bass
5-6 pins
1 mackeral
0 stockwells