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4/18 St. Marks

Posted: April 20th, 2020, 2:22 pm
by SouthernPointe
Checked the weather all week and had our sights set on Saturday with the intent of fishing the incoming and outgoing tides.

We woke up around 4:30am to see a giant blob of nasty. We checked all the weather sources and decided that the blob would ease it’s way to the south of us and continue East. So we decided to make a go at it. We did have our doubts.

We made our way south and managed to make it to the Fort right before daylight, and we were the first boat to put in. Interesting enough, it was the flattest I have ever seen it, not a single ripple. Dead flat.

We made our way out and to the east of the lighthouse. On our first spot, we managed to pickup three nice sized reds (25” and 2x20”). They were caught on Zman paddle tails and a spinnerbait. Meanwhile, the skies looked to be flat and grey as the water, but you could hear the monster to the south growling. We continued to monitor the weather. I think we had the whole Gulf to ourselves in a 50 miles radius prior to 8:30am.

We hit a couple more spots and creeks through out the morning and early afternoon. It would rain and then the sun would come out. This happened multiple times. We managed to see more and more boats as noon approached. Folks seemed to be stacked in 4’ of water.

We ended the day with 3 reds, 9 trout (a 20” being our biggest), a flounder and some black sea bass . It was a great day on the water and I’m glad we took the chance.

My brother-in-law caught his first redfish with the intent of targeting the species. He also managed to get his first Inshore Grand Slam. What a day.

Y’all stay safe.

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Re: 4/18 St. Marks

Posted: April 20th, 2020, 2:33 pm
by Red Beard
Solid Report! Nothing like being the first one out and having the area to yourself.


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Re: 4/18 St. Marks

Posted: April 20th, 2020, 3:41 pm
by Tide-Dancer
Great report. Sounds like you guys had a great time

Re: 4/18 St. Marks

Posted: April 20th, 2020, 6:26 pm
by Salty Gator
Nice work y’all, congrats on the day. thanks for the report. :thumbup:

Re: 4/18 St. Marks

Posted: April 20th, 2020, 9:45 pm
by doomtrpr_z71
We were right behind y'all, we didn't make it till 930 and had to make a trip back to the lighthouse ramp since we had forgot one of the rainsuits in the truck. Looks like we should have concentrated on trout and not chased Spanish, y'all had a better box of fish than us for sure.

Re: 4/18 St. Marks

Posted: April 22nd, 2020, 3:17 pm
by SouthernPointe
doomtrpr_z71 wrote:We were right behind y'all, we didn't make it till 930 and had to make a trip back to the lighthouse ramp since we had forgot one of the rainsuits in the truck. Looks like we should have concentrated on trout and not chased Spanish, y'all had a better box of fish than us for sure.
Our true intent was redfish. After having a bass boat for a number of years and not fishing in the Gulf and now having a flats boat, I have definitely lost my touch in the redfish arena. Hoping to continue to learn and explore for future tournaments.

We unfortunately did not bring any true rain gear, just jackets. Luckily it wasn’t cold.


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Re: 4/18 St. Marks

Posted: April 22nd, 2020, 7:35 pm
by doomtrpr_z71
SouthernPointe wrote:
doomtrpr_z71 wrote:We were right behind y'all, we didn't make it till 930 and had to make a trip back to the lighthouse ramp since we had forgot one of the rainsuits in the truck. Looks like we should have concentrated on trout and not chased Spanish, y'all had a better box of fish than us for sure.
Our true intent was redfish. After having a bass boat for a number of years and not fishing in the Gulf and now having a flats boat, I have definitely lost my touch in the redfish arena. Hoping to continue to learn and explore for future tournaments.

We unfortunately did not bring any true rain gear, just jackets. Luckily it wasn’t cold.


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I too need to improve my redfish game, my boat drafts too much to really get up after reds but I'm hoping to upgrade this year and chase reds more. St Mark's remains the only place I've caught reds successfully, all I've managed to do in steinhatchee is hook them and loose them. The funny thing is when I started putting on my full rainsuit at the ramp there was 2 dudes with no rain jackets on and a girl in a windbreaker, the look on her face when she saw me putting all of that on was priceless. It never fails, if I put the bibs on, it keeps the rain away.