Christmas Eve, RED-nose Sitings

12.24.10
Water: Extremely Clear
Water Temp: 62 Deg
Air: 50's
Tide: Incoming

Beautiful, clear water greeted Hunter and I on Christmas Eve afternoon at Fort San Marcos at St. Marks.
We have been reading about the trout bite in the St Marks river and wanted to participate.

As we were backing the Nan into the the water, a nice boat was pulling out.

We inquired, "'Did you kill'em?".

They said the fished from the ramp to Newport, a total of 5 miles up the St. Marks River.

They were disgusted that they didn't get a bite.

Hunter and I looked at each other and said, well, I guess it's up the Wakulla River then.

I knew the marina docks harbored a few fish, but the tide was really low.

We positioned our boat so the would go into the wind and started fishing the docks.  On about the fifth dock, Hunter said, "Dang, I got broke off."  He said "there's a 3 lb. bass, AND a 4 lber."

We eased around the docks and I caught a small bass on topwater.  Nice surprise for Christmas Eve.

We then started fishing down to the big boat docks, and Hunter started casting to the middle of the river.

He soon was hooked up.

                                                                 This nice red came aboard.

We kept moving up and down the river, as the bite would die in one spot, we would move about 25 yards and they would start biting again.

On one of our last stops, I fought this 24" red to the boat.

By the end of our little 3 hour trip, we had landed 12 reds and were broke of a handful of times.

Another highlight of our trip is we saw tarpon rolling in the river.  They seemed to be around lady fish schools.  We casted to them numerous times, but, no luck.

It was a Christmas eve trip like no other and one we will remember  for a long time.

Kings Bay Reddin' and Bassin'

12.20.10
Air: 60+
Winds: Calm
Tide: Incoming
Water Temp: ?

Doug and I fished the back of Kings Bay on a quick trip.  Went down to swap presents and pick up my Mom.  Somehow she said it was cold.  Hmmm, I thought Ohio was cold?

Anyways, we put in and fished the back end of Kings Bay.  We shared the waters with about a million manatees.

Here is one that followed our boat as we eased around.  I'm glad he didn't finally decide we were a female manatee.

We fished a big bubbling spring near the back end of the bay and I caught this nice multi spotted redfish on a white shrimp gulp.

When Doug downloaded the picture he started laughing.  He asked me "do you think people will believe you are fishing in Florda?".  Looking at the background, I think most will know.

His part of Florida is very different than where we live.  As you can see, he  lives in the big $$$ area.

I caught another red off the same dock as we came back a couple of hours later.  I also broke one off on that dock.

We fished our way back to the boat ramp, and Doug was whimpering about not getting a bite.

He said "one more cast" as we eased up to the ramp.  With a "there he is", we finished the day with this nice bass.  Consequently, we had a good 15 minute ride back to his house.  No whining!

It was a beautiful afternoon, shared by manatees, manatee watchers, birds and tons of lady fish.  

Rainy Reds

12.17.10
Water: 50 deg.
High tide
weather: rain

I checked the radar and it looked like a window of opportunity was upon us to fish between the rain that was traveling through the area this afternoon.

Grabbed the rain gear, just in case.

Well, after about 10 minutes in the boat, the rains came.

We fished around the docks in Panacea Harbor and came up with nothing the first pass.

As the skies got darker we were ready to load up, when two oyster boats came in and went to loading their boats.  We decided to try one more dock again and low and behold we landed two small reds on our last casts as the sky opened up.

Finally got the boat on the trailer and headed to the house where the rain had stopped.

Figures.

Hello Cold Redfish

12.12.10

Water: 51 deg.
Clear, outgoing tide
Air: 50 deg and falling
Wind: howling out of the north

When we came back in to Panacea Harbor yesterday, our friend Fred was there.  He said he had a good story when we got the boat out.

Evidently we ran about 48 miles too far yesterday, the reds were in by the docks in the Harbor and he saw someone catch 15 in a row.

So after a mental check yesterday, I decided to head out in the howling wind as the extreme front came through.  Fortunately the harbor is protected from a north wind.

My first 5 casts yielded 3 pups and two misses.

I started just skipping and pitching a white gulp shrimp to the docks Lanier styles and caught 8 reds and one flounder in a couple of hours.

Two reds were 22" keepers as seen here:

The wind finally go too much and the tide too low so I decided to head in.
I then had to start my boat for the first time to get it on the trailer.
That was an economical fishing trip.

Zip, Zilch, Nada

12.11.10

Water: 56 deg. Air 50's
Light winds, 1 Ft waves
Very Clear
Tide: low to incoming

Nancy and I decided to try and go out before the big blow this weekend.
We wanted to put some more grouper in the freezer since the Feds have decided that we can't keep any from 1.1.11 to at least 6.30.11.

We headed out to our holes that we killed them on when Hunter was in town a couple of weeks ago.

Unfortunately all we got for our cool boat ride was a great porpoise show, a few grunts and a tasty ham and cheese sandwich topped of with ginger snaps.

We fished our best spots this fall, Big, Yank Wreck and Good.  Zeroed out.

Oh well, if we don't get out again, we sure didn't hurt the endangered grouper species today.

Flattie in Cool Water

12.3.10
Air: 60's
Water: 57deg
Wind: sw 10-15
Tide: outgoing and clear

We decided to try the afternoon bite after chores were done around the house.

The tide was heading out and so were we.  The phrase "man it's colder than I thought" and "I'm glad I brought a jacket" were common as we headed to the oyster bars in OR.

As I looked at the temp gauge I realized why.  The water temp had dropped at least ten degrees since we fished last week.  The wind was stronger than we thought too.

Nancy decided to throw the Fat Albert grub after reading Capt Vic's article in the recent Woods and Water.

Good choice.  On about her third cast I feel the boat shake and the incredulous cry of "oh I've got one!".  Her rod was arched good and I heard her drag sing.  Nancy then said "It's a big flounder" and I suddenly started thinking of a stuffed flounder dinner and dug out the net.

It was a beautiful 17" fish.

We putzed around some more and didn't get anymore bites at our first stop, so we headed out to the bar at the mouth of the river.

We caught a small trout and a small red and decided it was time to head back in.

The ducks have really arrived with some beautiful buffleheads in the river.

When I cleaned the flounder I found it was full of eggs.

May not get out for a while, the weather report calls for wind and then stronger wind.