BigBendFishing.Net

I am new to this website, my dad, brother, and myself visited Steinhatchie after an unsuccessful fishing trip in the Oklawahah River during December. It was my first time fishing saltwater. We were fishing out of my 20ft Ranger bass boat, and I can tell you I was a bit nervous going in what I call "the Ocean flats". We used our bass tackle and didn't do much our first day. On the second day after some local info we moved into the flats and probably caught 80 trout and limited out with keepers. On the last day it was so foggy I had to use GPS to get back into the flats. The trout ran bigger that day and we caught well over a 100 trout. When I say bigger I mean 16-18 inch trout. I am a school teacher/football coach and plan on going back to the big bend March 17-25. I would like to catch some different species of fish this time, and maybe try to test some different water. I am going to stay at the River Haven Marina, they were very nice and helpful on my last trip. Any tips or information would be helpful and appreciated.

T welcome aboard....Steinhatchee is a little south for most of our members, but someone might be able to help...Dependent on the moon, Fish haven reef maybe holding some sheephead.....Heading Northwest towards Piney Point you will find some great trout waters...Best of luck and let us know how you do....

Tennessee wrote:I am a school teacher/football coach

Echo that,
-and what Chalk said.
Also, I wouldn't expect much besides trout & redfish but they should be really on then.

With that boat, you are looking at trout and reds. You might with good weather be able to venture out to the Steinhatchee reef. There might be some sheephead on it, but it is really the wrong time of the year for that. Its too early for cobia or spanish.

Good luck!

MudDucker wrote:With that boat, you are looking at trout and reds. You might with good weather be able to venture out to the Steinhatchee reef. There might be some sheephead on it, but it is really the wrong time of the year for that. Its too early for cobia or spanish.

Good luck!

Thanks to all of you for the info. You mentioned with that boat. I am not going to sell my Ranger, but it will be paid for soon and I may buy a boat for saltwater so I can do more different types of fishing. Any suggestions? Are there boats out there for fishing with small cabins at a reasonable price?

Tennessee wrote:Thanks to all of you for the info. You mentioned with that boat. I am not going to sell my Ranger, but it will be paid for soon and I may buy a boat for saltwater so I can do more different types of fishing. Any suggestions? Are there boats out there for fishing with small cabins at a reasonable price?

Welcome, Tennessee. I am also a bass fisherman. That said, there are way more kinds of saltwater boats than bass boats. It all depends on what you want to fish for. There are flats boats, bay boats offshore boats, aluminum, fiberglass, small, large.....................you name it. When you decide what type of saltwater fishing you want to do, look at what others are fishing out of. Personally, I own 3 boats. I have a bass boat, a bay boat, and a small boat I fish saltwater creeks and skinny water with.

As for cabin boats, you can buy a nice used one for less than you paid for your Ranger.

Good luck to you.

MudDucker wrote:With that boat, you are looking at trout and reds. You might with good weather be able to venture out to the Steinhatchee reef. There might be some sheephead on it, but it is really the wrong time of the year for that. Its too early for cobia or spanish.

Good luck!

I thought it was the right time of year for that???

Perch Jerker wrote:I thought it was the right time of year for that???

It is for sheephead, they were whalloping them this time two years ago on that reef...I watched a guy burn an electric fillet knife up cleaning so many of them things at Keaton....I believe Capt. McGriff said the first full moon in March was the time for them as well....

Thanks chalk. I hope to burn mine up this weekend

Hmmmm, usually by March, my luck wasn't too good on the sheephead on the Steinhatchee Reef. January and February were always hot with the right weather.

Tennessee, price for boats that are safe for offshore fishing have price tags as wide as the housing market, from the price of a good used doublewide all the way to the Trump Mansion.

T, depending on how far you want to run you can head west out of steinhatchee and fish the creek mouths between there and piney point. You can usually catch reds off the oyster bars at the mouths of those creeks. Just be careful, I would hate for that Ranger to get scraped up.