Saturday 3/3

[fishfalcon]

Drove down Saturday morning with a buddy to fish the rising tide. Got to the house about 11 am and was shocked at how low the water was. Could not get out of our canal so we had to trailer the boat to Shell Point and use the new ramp. Ran out to try and catch some trout, but found no takers. Fished from 2-7 feet of water and threw a variety of baits. Warmed up and the wind laid down and we saw a few fish working so we chased them a while. Ended up boating 6 Spanish to 22" with everyone catching at least one. Moved a few more times and caught 2 short trout but no keepers. Nice day on the water, but pretty slow fishing. Talked to some folks at the ramp and they had posted a goose egg so our day looked pretty good. Water temps about 66-67 with decent clarity.

[Salty Gator]

Thanks for the report. The neg low tide with a stiff north wind will do that. Just curious, if you couldn’t get out of the canal, how were you able to get the boat on the trailer to get it to the ramp?

[fishfalcon]

The boat was on the trailer not in the water. It was obvious that it was pointless to try and launch in my neighborhood. Nice ramp at Shell Point. I bet it is a circus during scallop season.

[Salty Gator]

The boat was on the trailer not in the water. It was obvious that it was pointless to try and launch in my neighborhood. Nice ramp at Shell Point. I bet it is a circus during scallop season.

Yea it’s a nice ramp for sure. I’m not sure if it’s any closer to st marks than shields and the fort though. And no fresh water launch for those freshwater pontoon trailers.

[silverking]

The Shell Point ramp is way too far from the scallop grounds. There's bird crap on the floating docks and almost no current. It also takes several minutes to idle out to the channel and the toilet paper is constantly low in the Port-A-Let. Plus they charge $$$ to launch there. Scallopers should definitely avoid all these hassles and launch at the fort or lighthouse ramps, at least from the middle of July until about the 25th of September.

Nice report. Heard the Spaniards were in Panama City and Steinhatchee, so glad to hear they've showed up here as well. Might take a brief hiatus this w/e, but it looks like the spring season is officially underway. Big Bend Gyrene is probably already sitting on the hook waiting for that first cobia to pop into his baits.

[big bend gyrene]

Big Bend Gyrene is probably already sitting on the hook waiting for that first cobia to pop into his baits.

Silverking, sure you can appreciate what I'm about to say... never go into business ownership if your desire is fishing as much as possible. 2002 through 2008 while working in management for General Dynamics I had every other Friday off and made double-digit number of trips out each year. Left them to help Pam run her practice, and the more we've succeeded and grown the lower the number of trips I've made out. Not sure I even made 5 salt trips out this past year, though blessedly was able to steal some late evening time on the pond behind our house.

Honestly have let the forum trigger my initial trips out the last couple of years... wait until a few newbies generously share surprise cobe captures and then start doing homework on ideal solunar date targets.

Super nice Feb weather had me thinking we might get an early bite this year, but March knocked all the leaves off my fig bush and temporarily turned my grass brown again. Thinking we need a few more really warm weeks before they'll show up in full force. Going to try and snag some big bass until a few steady reports pop up.

[silverking]

Can't understand that at all! My business lets me fish as much as I possibly can. In fact, I'm going to do some research tomorrow.

Heard of a few early scouts caught in Destin but agree the last couple of blasts have probably slowed down the brown bomber backstroke.

[Trippyling]

I bet with the regulation change we will see more fish make it to our area. I'm thinking the next 3 weeks will produce a cobia. Big bend gyrene this could be the year you break your record so you need to be out as much as possible.