Fishing Out of St. Marks on 10/17
Posted: October 18th, 2018, 11:18 am
Yesterday, I had time to fish, and wanted to see what conditions were like down in St. Marks as well.
My first stop was Shell Island Fish Camp, which is where I normally keep my boat. The fish camp is still in clean-up mode, and the staff expects that it will be up to a week before they resume marina operations. Next, I went down to Shield's where one of its two boat ramps was operational. The docks at the Shield's ramps are in fine shape, but a 28' cabin cruiser beached itself on one of the ramps. It appears that damage to the floating docks at the fort is the reason for the closure of the boat ramps there.
After launching from Shield's, we headed down the river toward the lighthouse. I was happy to find that there really was not much floating debris in the river. However, the buoys marking the channel from St. Marks to the lighthouse were all over the place. Beyond the lighthouse, the buoys seem to be where they are supposed to be. There was a small Coast Guard Boat on the river which had a small hoist aboard. The presence of the boat may mean that the buoys are in the process of being reset.
Once we made it a couple miles offshore, we found large floating mats of grass mixed with debris. A small 2' x 3' piece of plastic bobbing at the surface turned out to be the lid to a recycling trashcan with the whole trashcan attached and lurking below the surface.
The sea conditions on Wednesday were flat and glass-like. We fished hard to put three seabass, a Spanish mackerel, and a flounder in the cooler. On the flats with popping corks, we couldn't buy a bite.
My first stop was Shell Island Fish Camp, which is where I normally keep my boat. The fish camp is still in clean-up mode, and the staff expects that it will be up to a week before they resume marina operations. Next, I went down to Shield's where one of its two boat ramps was operational. The docks at the Shield's ramps are in fine shape, but a 28' cabin cruiser beached itself on one of the ramps. It appears that damage to the floating docks at the fort is the reason for the closure of the boat ramps there.
After launching from Shield's, we headed down the river toward the lighthouse. I was happy to find that there really was not much floating debris in the river. However, the buoys marking the channel from St. Marks to the lighthouse were all over the place. Beyond the lighthouse, the buoys seem to be where they are supposed to be. There was a small Coast Guard Boat on the river which had a small hoist aboard. The presence of the boat may mean that the buoys are in the process of being reset.
Once we made it a couple miles offshore, we found large floating mats of grass mixed with debris. A small 2' x 3' piece of plastic bobbing at the surface turned out to be the lid to a recycling trashcan with the whole trashcan attached and lurking below the surface.
The sea conditions on Wednesday were flat and glass-like. We fished hard to put three seabass, a Spanish mackerel, and a flounder in the cooler. On the flats with popping corks, we couldn't buy a bite.
