St. Marks 7/24 (AM)

Post by **mjsigns** » July 24th, 2004, 4:15 pm

Put in at Shields at 6:25am. Shields didn't anything but frozen shrimp. My new fishing buddy was a little perturbed. I told him it was just that time of year. First stop was to anchor at the bird rack for some pinfish. I had great confidence in the pinfish catching capability of the new sabacki rig I just purchased from wally-word. Told my buddy, "Just sit back and watch and I'll catch a slew of pinfish fish on this rig". First time I put it in the water, "BANG" something big hit it and ran off with the whole rig. ###@! I immediately rigged another rod for pins. While I was rigging, my buddy rigged a frozen shrimp under a Jim-Bob bobber and immediately pulled in a nice Spanish. I caught a few pinfish and put one out under a Styrofoam bobber with a 20# fluorocarbon leader. After watching something chase my bait for 20 seconds, it took the bobber under and instantly cut the line. ###@!

With two or three pins, at about 7:45, we moved the boat west into the mouth of the river toward the western flats. The water was semi clear but highly tannic in color. Anchored in 5'-5'.5" of water in what appeared to be a slight depression. We fished jigs under C/T's while putting out pinfish under bobbers off the back of the boat. Between 8 and 10 we picked up two huge trout 24"and 23.5". The pinfish were the trick; a short time later my buddy caught one right at 18" on a frozen shrimp.
The Bite stopped, around 11:30 and we were off the water by noon.
Here's the pics!

Post by **birddog** » July 24th, 2004, 8:28 pm

Good job! Thats the way to hang in there and find some late summer "gators".

Post by **mjsigns** » July 24th, 2004, 9:04 pm

Thanks Birddog - It did took some stamina to bear the heat of the day between 10 and 12. Catching those big trout made the whole trip worthwhile.

Post by **Will_Fish_4_Food** » July 25th, 2004, 7:55 pm

Nice trout.

There were live shrimp available at Jerry's Bait and Tackle Friday....

dstockwell · Post by **dstockwell** » July 26th, 2004, 6:58 am

Nice.

Post by **DixieReb** » July 29th, 2004, 10:32 pm

WTG, MJ. At least you found some trout. Our las trip out of Keaton, we only found sharks and one keeper trout. Hot out there, ain't it?

Post by **mjsigns** » July 29th, 2004, 11:33 pm

It was soo hot, I drank almost an entire 1/2 gallon of ice water that I had brought with me. I am not always this fortunate. I think I read your post about Keyton the sharks and the heat. Sometime I would love to try the Keyton area. Maybe I would get lucky