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Put in around 9 lots of boats down the river. Worked our way down the river and fished below the island to mouth of river, nothing. We then tried west of river mouth 2 to 5 ft, nothing. Next we move toward Econfina fished in 2 ft and then tried various creeks, nothing. We tried various colors of plastic, lures, etc. but we couldn't find any fish. Pretty day on the water but I guess you can't have everything. First time I've tried fishing in the winter so it appears I have a lot to learn about winter fishing.

We were there the same time you were. Must have caught 100 trout and kept 4. All but 1 of our fish came from the main river just above the island. In the winter you have to fish a lot slower, we fished on the bottom and had a lot of fish pick up the lure before we moved it. Deepest holes are best. And white gulp. It will get colder later in the week, go try it again. Carry lots of jigheads, you will get hung a lot winter fishing.

Yes, we saw the shorts being caught in the river but thought we could find some larger fish out of the river with the warm temperature. It was obviously a mistake leaving the river.

We went looking for bigger fish, too. Made it all the way down to twin palms rock in a deep hole, and nothing. Wound up back upriver in the shorts and managed just a few keepers.

We went on Christmas day and found some nice fish. We ventured out to a few of the neighboring creeks and had the most success around the mouths and oyster bars near the shorelines.
We had to work for em but ended up catching a dozen reds , 15-20 Trout with about half of them being keepers, and also had a couple flounder to finish off the inshore slam.

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bigphishy wrote:We went on Christmas day and found some nice fish. We ventured out to a few of the neighboring creeks and had the most success around the mouths and oyster bars near the shorelines.
We had to work for em but ended up catching a dozen reds , 15-20 Trout with about half of them being keepers, and also had a couple flounder to finish off the inshore slam.

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Sound like a perfect day to spend Christmas. Nice catch!!!!

Nice fish. I figured that must be where the reds and bigger trout went, they sure aint in the river right now.

Was there yesterday myself and pretty much the same story. Lot of shorts and just a couple keepers. But it was great to test out my new jon boat while the weather was perfect.

Did any of you see those 2 one-man boats with the small engines in the river? They looked like one good wave could swamp them. They stayed in there with us and caught some fish, though.

DixieReb wrote:Did any of you see those 2 one-man boats with the small engines in the river? They looked like one good wave could swamp them. They stayed in there with us and caught some fish, though.

Maybe solo skiffs. Those things are pretty cool

Yes I saw them and yes they were Solo skiffs. They were out on the flats for a little while also. Pretty cool little boats, powered by a 5 hp motor.

Nice Christmas outing and it looks like Santa rewarded you for your efforts.

Shields Marina in St. Marks is now a dealer for Solo Skiffs. Interesting concept. Believe the designer was also the founder of Mitzi Skiffs.

I was looking at the info on those Solo Skiffs, and noticed that they can't be swamped. Supposedly the water runs out the back of the skiff. It has no transom in the usual sense. Nice concept, but I don't know if I could tolerate reaching back to steer with the tiller. Maybe with a tiller extension and some sort of stand up grab bar to hang onto, like a surface drive boat.

camperkilgore wrote:I was looking at the info on those Solo Skiffs, and noticed that they can't be swamped. Supposedly the water runs out the back of the skiff. It has no transom in the usual sense. Nice concept, but I don't know if I could tolerate reaching back to steer with the tiller. Maybe with a tiller extension and some sort of stand up grab bar to hang onto, like a surface drive boat.

If you like fishing the river and creeks by yourself or flats on a slick day one of those would be awesome. Anything outside of those situations not so awesome, around here anyways. Yeah they may not swamp and sink but you can bet in some chop they will wet you and everything you are carrying.

Apalachee Inshore wrote:

camperkilgore wrote:I was looking at the info on those Solo Skiffs, and noticed that they can't be swamped. Supposedly the water runs out the back of the skiff. It has no transom in the usual sense. Nice concept, but I don't know if I could tolerate reaching back to steer with the tiller. Maybe with a tiller extension and some sort of stand up grab bar to hang onto, like a surface drive boat.

If you like fishing the river and creeks by yourself or flats on a slick day one of those would be awesome. Anything outside of those situations not so awesome, around here anyways. Yeah they may not swamp and sink but you can bet in some chop they will wet you and everything you are carrying.

Yep. Your probably right.

I guess we have to think of it as a kayak. A very heavy kayak that you don't have to paddle until you get to the destination.
My wife and I travel in a fifth wheel, and I don't think I would be able to heft it on top of the truck anyway.