BigBendFishing.Net

Well, the launch site for the BBF Flotilla didn't look too promising so we journeyed over to Spring Creek and put in from there. Nothing fancy as far a ramp made of shell and concrete mostly. A well-seasoned gentleman will come and collect $5.00 and you will be on your way.

Well on our way leads to the next part of the journey. Neither of us and had ever circumnavigated Spring creek. I'm cruising along, following the channel markers out. As you get close to Oyster Bay and Shell Point the channel markers become interesting to say the least. More like a maze. Take a 90 degree turn, another one and a 180 here and there. Well during one of the 180’s and being in a myriad of channel markers. I'm looking for another red , is that bait fish ahead , no ..CHIT!"...Yep.... Ran over a bar in about 6" of water. Transom still in tack, foot is okay (paint missing)...I think I wet myself. On the way in we found the error in our way, not by our fault either. The red #30 marker is missing . When you’re more or less surrounded by channel markers and one is missing that is a problem. Tom said he would post our track. Other than all the turns it is a good creek to run out.

On to fishing... We arrived over towards Patties Island / Goose Creek area.... Started red fishing a point I had found during my research. After about 10 minutes I landed a puppy red and Tom landed a Ladyfish. We work the bank down to an old dock. Tom misses a 30+ red (we saw it) and I missed something that left a boil the size of a truck hood. Saw a nice Bull shark, he wanted my stick bait . It's getting hot now and nearing slack tide, so we race our way to a bar in the middle of the bay. Our racing partner decides it's his bar and motors past us . He doesn't catch anything, but I hung a good trout on the side he didn't fish .....We end up fishing a sand flat that dropped off into deeper water. Got into a pack of ladyfish, that was fun at slack tide. Ended up with 7 keeper trout, missed / lost several trout and caught a bluefish, a flounder, several ladyfish and some blue runners. Pound for pound a Blue runner is a bad dude.

Bait used were Mirrolures, various stick baits, topwater and straight jigs.

Saw all kinds of critters to include Spadefish, sharks (some big, couldn’t get Tom to go swim with them either ), catfish and various other types of wildlife.

I told Tom if Shell Point was closed we need to fish Aucilla, before we became biased about fishing stained water. Think I am becoming biased .

Highlight of the day was two Cobia. Tom caught a 15" and I caught my first one, a 30". Tom has the pictures and will post them Something about that Keels guy, bringing first time luck to me, my first grouper, now my first cobia…I told him he needed to give me six numbers to play .

Ended up meeting up with Rocket, Fish Masterson, Sneakybooger and Cranfield around 1:00. We talked with Wevans on the radio a few times. We tried to raise a few others, but nobody had their ears on....Nice to meet everyone, even the "Limey" Cranfield.

Nice to meet everyone and I appreciate all those that took part in the flotilla, hope to see everyone else next time…..

wtg

How wide did you think that gap was between markers 23 & 24, maybe 10 feet?

In addition, several of the markers present in no way correspond to their positions indicated on my Garmin mapping gps. Not a place I like to navigate in the fog or with a storm chasing me in!

Sure was pretty out there yesterday. Heard ya'll on the radio, too busy fishing to try to find anyone.

Fishing was great. We got our limits of trout, bunch of shorts, boated three big spannies, got cut off by twice that many, and caught some big sharks, couple of stockwells, blue runners, etc.

Highlight of the day was listening to Cranfield on SneakyBooger: "You can call him a lot of things, but bright isn't one of them." Fishing really does bring out the best in everyone.

I put in at Spring Creek because I ended up fishing with a friend who lives down there. What was up with the Shell Point ramp? Does it have a chain across it?

Chalk,
Good to meet you, TK, Cran, and Sneaky B yesterday. PinFish Masterson and I finally found some trout after we left you guys. We we back to redfishing after we took off, but to no avail. We set up a drift, in a little deeper water and found them. Nothing to much on size, but fun to catch. Seven identical trout @ 16", and then FM caught the largest trout @ 18.5. We had a lot more hook ups, but they would let go, or get off right at the boat. I attribute that to a juvenile fish not yet aggresive enough to really attack his prey.
Anyhow, we didn't get off the water yesterday until 7:00, and it was ROUGH going back to Oyster Bay. We tried the reds one more time before going to the hill, but they weren't there.
Had a good time yesterday, and Cran, keep up the good work on your Alabama dialect .
Rocket

Sorry I missed out on most of the fun I had depth finder problems and just could not fix it I fished till 10 and then just had ta go home and do something with it "ended up changing it out. No fish for the day, but a lot of BIG blow-ups on a top dog jr., nothing on the jig & ct! The wife decided that we should make the rest of the day a family day and I could not disagree since I was going out for Grouper today "but thats another story

Sorry I was late on posting. My partner did a good job telling the tale so I guess I'll post the pictures. They are of chalk so brace yourselves....







Good seeing and meeting everyone. We need to do this again real soon. IM TARRRED.

I tried to take some pics of my guest....I guess he didn't want to be photographed .....Eatmocrawfish...we tried to raise you around the time Cranfield was on the air....

Good report. Glad you fellas had a good trip. I'm gonna have to make one of these flotillas sometime.

I would have thought if you were having your picture made, you'd at least put the wig and that nice dress on.

Sounds like y'all had a good day. I would have enjoyed being there.

Tom had it on.....guest = wig & dress...I suppose that is why he didn't want any photos

Great meeting you fellas. We ended the day with 5 good trout. We first had run out to some 'structure' and saw 2 cobia, one little one that we could not get to leave our baits alone long enough for the fat forty incher to eat our hook. Then we headed in and met up with Big T and Chalk, PinFish Masterson and Rocket for some lyin -- I mean, storytelling. And that Crabfield feller of course was laying it on the thickest. You know how those "Limey" boogers are.

What a beautiful day we had, eh?

BTW, the ramp apparently was open. Just not sure who was running the place so I used it for free. Can't beat that.

Also, last week out of Shell Point we managed to hook into a total of 9 cobia, 3 being keepers, largest was 40 inches. Trout were on fire all week.

Wish I had known ya'll were going to be there
I would have joined in on the fun.

My plans are to be in the Shell point to
Gray mare area all weekend.
Trout, Reds, and maybe a volunteer Cobia.

May see ya'll around.