St. Marks 3/13

[tin can]

Today was an experiment day. Launched around 10 this morning and headed east. Started in 4 to 5 ft. of water. Fished several different baits. Caught a few on a thunder. About noon I moved into a creek. The water was ripping in. Intended to stay in the creek until the tide turned. The tide chart called for a high at 2:13. It was still coming in strong at 2:45. After a discouraging hour with some uncooperative reds, I moved back out on the flats for a while. Fished several different baits again. The thunder paid off again. Moved in when the water started moving out. Caught 5 pup reds on ten casts. Headed west to an area I haven't fished in a while. Thunder paid off again. Loaded up and headed home at 6:40.

The water temp at 10:45 this morning was 69 degrees in 4 feet of water. The shallower I went, the warmer the water. 74 degrees in 2 feet. What surprised me is all of the trout came from 4 feet of water. Caught around 40 trout, half were keepers. I kept 4 fish between 17" and 19". The rest of the keepers were between 15" and 15.5". And they were scattered everywhere. Never got into a consistent bite. One here, one there.

[catchin1]

Good report TC.
Still my hero..getting to fish all the time.

[Eerman]

Sounds like a pretty successful "experiment". Makes work tommorrow sound like real fun

[mjsigns]

Good Report TC

Gonna make for a good fishing weekend ahead. Glad to hear
the water temp is warming. The warm days are beginning to
out number the cold ones.

See any bait fish?

[Reel Slow]

Thanks for conducting an experiment. Appreciate the info

[birddog]

[AJ]

They are getting deeper now. How far west did you get?

[dstockwell]

wtg

[Chalk]

[Littoral]

The water temp at 10:45 this morning was 69 degrees in 4 feet of water. The shallower I went, the warmer the water. 74 degrees in 2 feet. What surprised me is all of the trout came from 4 feet of water...And they were scattered everywhere. Never got into a consistent bite. One here, one there.

4ft and CT looked like the only consistencies. The one here, one there trip always leaves me hanging & wondering. It makes sense though. I'm sure the fish are hanging & wondering right now too.
A question,
I assume you used the jig grub without the CT and it was "less" productive. True?
By the way, nice job on collecting and reporting the temps. Much appreciated.

[KingEider]

I launched around 8 at the fort. Ran west a good ways and fished a few spots here and there. Decided to try some oyster bars in deeper water and hooked up a couple of trout in the 22-25 inch range on live shrimp then nothing but sheeps head and most were small bait robbers. Headed back out to the flats again we found most fish around 3.5 and the bite was spotty. I tried plane jig with no results then went to CT and started to hook up. My girlfriend stayed with live shrimp and pinfish and did about the same. I myself am not a bait monkey so I stayed with the soft plastics. All in all we caught about 20 or so fish and most were in that 15-15.5 inch range. with a few 18 and the 2 big fish off the oyster bar. I will try and post some pics later today.
I think I am going to stick to Econfina more than St. Marks fish just seem to be easier and bigger what do ya'll think?
Tight lines.

[tin can]

They are getting deeper now. How far west did you get?

Never went west of the river.

[tin can]

A question,
I assume you used the jig grub without the CT and it was "less" productive. True?

That's correct, Lit. A jig and grub on the bottom didn't produce much at all.

[Redfish Jim]

Thanks for the report TC

For what it's worth, I had no luck at all Sunday with a jig on the bottom either. That's after several trips where the jigs were definitely the way to go. The redfish I caught Sunday were on a gold spoon.

I'm thinking we'll be hearing reports of spanish any day now if the water temps continue to rise.

[mjsigns]

See any bait fish?