St. Marks 6/5/21

[PhishingNole]

Took the family fishing on the east flats Saturday morning (7:30-12:00) trying to snag a Redfish and then a Spanish Mackerel at my wife's request. Needed to be a quick trip, so Dog Island wasn't an option.

Missed on the reds and macks, but did catch a mess of trout and a few African Pompano [EDIT: Florida Pompano]. Started at about 7' in front of the rock garden and drifted in to about 2.5' to see where they were holding, but we caught em pretty much in all depths. The biggest fish all were in about 3' maybe 300 yards from shore.

Water was around 84 and clear as I've ever seen it.

Paddle tails (slam shadys we're by far the most productive) under popping corks and zman paddle tails on Texas Eye jig heads caught everything.

Topwater (skitterwalk and spook jr) was a bust, the only thing that wanted gulp shrimp were puffers, and couldn't get anything to bite the 17mr.

Hooked a couple huge catfish or small sharks on cut ladyfish, but they cut the line before getting them in the boat. Had wire leaders, but they cut the mainline while fighting.

We drifted over the rocks on a rising tide and I'm getting more comfortable, but I am worried about what the minimum depth is to safely drift in that area. We never got less than 30" and I navigated carefully out using Navionics.

The boat is listed at a 10" draft, so I'm calling it 14" and considering 18" the minimum depth, but I don't know how high the highest rocks are in there.



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[redcodefsu]

What did you catch the pompano on? I believe we have Florida Pompano up here. I'm not sure of the range of African Pompano

[Juan]

He had to mean Florida pomps... unless he made a long run to the Keys and then the limit is 2.
Great report! but you probably shouldn't say "snag" a redfish.

[PhishingNole]

Haha, yes I meant Florida Pompano. He chomped on a slam shady under a popping cork.

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[ropeman]

The boat is listed at a 10" draft, so I'm calling it 14" and considering 18" the minimum depth, but I don't know how high the highest rocks are in there.

Sounds like a good day fishing! There are a few rocks out there that are exposed on a low tide and Navionics has most of them marked. From my (limited) experience the best thing to do is run slow anywhere inside the rock garden until you have some established tracks.