Need a little help

[Balo19]

Hey guys Im new to the site and a little new to the area. Bought a boat a few weeks ago and all my son wants to do for his birthday is go out fishing. I have put in at the fort and Shields a few time to go scalloping off St. Marks, so not totally new. I don't know any good spots to fish out there. Can anyone help. We will be going this weekend and again putting in at fort or shields.

Thank you

Jonathan

[onefishtwofish]

Right where you went scalloping would be a great place to try for trout. Start out early in the morning in shallower and move out as needed. Just plan on hanging when you catch and searching when you don't-we will repeat a drift all day long if it keeps producing. I don't spend a real long time in one place if nothing is happening.

[rockyg]

Redfish are plentiful at the mouth of the St. Marks river right now. Buy some live shrimp, or catch some small pinfish, or net some small LY's (minnows) in the Lighthouse ramp channel/basin. Anchor up at the tip of a bar with current flowing around it. In or out going tide works. Try around bouy #17. That's a good area on both sides of the main channel.Rig up a circle hook and a popping cork. Throw over to and up current from the tip and let it sweep back by the tip. Also put one line out down current and just let it sit. Try the down current side of the bar close to the tip too. Reds like to sit just out of the main current and ambush bait caught in the flow.

Kids are happy with almost anything as long as there is action and using this method you might catch something big.

Or....run out to where you scalloped and drift with a gulp under a popping cork. Trout have been VERY hard to find but you will catch some kind of fish.....and that's all you son wants to do.

Caution......Saturday is a pretty low tide about noon. If you go on the flats you make darn sure you go slow and look out for rocks. There are a million of them, and the lighthouse ramp will be hard or impossible to use for a couple of hours before and after low tide, unless you have a very light boat you can hand load.

Good luck. Some of my most memorable trips have been with my Father and my son.

[Balo19]

Onefish and Rocky, Thank you very much it should help. Yes it always good for kids to catch anything, but nice to get a few keepers. My boat is a Robalo R200 so defiantly not a flats boat. I will have to be careful of the tides and rocks. I will be getting about 4 dozen live shrimp from shields!

Thanks again

[bman]

How old is your son?
I agree on shrimp or cut bait on a circle hook under a cork! drift and you will find them!

[Balo19]

just turned 12

[fishinfool]

Near "Blacks Rock" (about a mile and a half west of "Grey Mare Rock") and south as far as the buoy line that marks the wildlife refuge border. Look for sandy spots mixed in with the grass, bald areas. Trout will hide out in the grass waiting for something to swim through the sandy spot and ambush them there.
Previous posts about drifting through those areas and repeating productive drifts is spot on. If you have a GPS you can hit your MOB button to mark the spot you start catching.
Your most productive depths are probably going to be between 4 and 8 feet.
A jig with a gulp shrimp or curl tail chartreuse glitter grub or soft plastic jerk bait or the live or natural dead bait of your choice under a popping cork fished 1-2 feet from the bottom should do nicely.
Good luck and tight lines.

[wevans]

A boat with that much draft, I would be very careful going in amongst the rocks but that is where the fish like to be also. The ends of all of the Oyster bars should have a Red or two hanging around them

[crappielimits]

I would run that boat out to St. Marks reef or Ocklocknee Shoals and fish shrimp and squid on the bottom. He will have a ball.