Holiday Fishing Report

12.28.12

Hunter was in for Christmas and wanted to do some fishing.  Unfortunately the weather wasn't cooperating too well.  Rainy/stormy then windy/cold.
But we managed to get a couple of trips in.
Thursday we strolled up to the lake and caught a few largemouths to get warmed up.

It was good to catch a few from the lake since the nasty flood earlier in the year had darkened the water considerably, but it looks like the bass are still in there and doing well.

With the cooler weather and wind we decided to put in at the Ochlockonee River State Park and fish in Bear Creek on Friday.

We hit the holes as we proceeded towards the boil, but couldn't get bit.

We eased past the boil about a quarter of a mile and finally got the bite going.

We caught 6 reds and surprisingly Hunter caught a largemouth bass that wanted his jerk bait.

Nancy and Hunter doubled up to get it going.

Like Mother Like Son

Hunter caught an 11 spot red.  Five on this side and six on the other.

We then eased all the way through Bear Creek back to the ramp.  It was a pretty day although windy and cool.

We tried fishing in Panacea Harbor on Saturday, but the wind was too much for us and after an hour we came in.

Our fish dinner for the holidays was provided to us by the Seineyard Restaurant as we headed there for Hunter to sample some fish before he heads back to Charleston for a new year.

66 degrees=Jerkbaits

12.11.12

Very Swift Incoming Tide

I was surprised when we dumped the tin boat in at Mashes Sands when my temp gauge registered 66 degrees.

The past few times out the water had dipped to 60 degrees.

I still had my Mega Bait jerk bait tied on and couldn't wait to chuck it in the swift incoming tide at the middle bar.

The third cast had a small trout to the boat.

The fourth cast a 19" speck nailed the bait, and jumped like a largemouth.  He put up quite a battle in the swift water.

We eased back and forth along the back side of the bar and caught 12 trout there.  Nancy got a real nice 18" speckled trout on a gulp.

I caught some on a new color Gulp I found while in Charleston visiting Hunter, Disco Prawn.

We eased over to Chaires Creek and we added two more trout to the total.

We fished about 2 1/2 hours and caught 14 total specks, a pretty good day for mid December.

Clear Cool Water

11.25.12

Water:  60 degrees

Air:  59 degrees

Fishing for us has slowed a little between working more and holidays.

We did manage a couple of quick trips recently.

Doug and I did a quick pre Thanksgiving feast trip in Elmore Cove.

We saw lots of reds and trout, but due to the extremely clear water, we were flushing them and not catching them.

Nancy and I went out for a fast afternoon trip on the coolest day of the year and hit Chaires Creek, where she caught a small trout and we hit the white bar and caught this flounder.

He got to go free as I was feeling lazy and didn't want to clean him for dinner.

Time to start looking for the fish in warmer water as it looks like winter fishing is upon us.

More Trout

11.6.12

Having our fill of trout catching yesterday, we wanted to catch a big bull red today.

So off we went with some cut mullet and some ideas where to catch the reds.

Tried the mouth of Tide Creek, the white bar, the clam bar, and the assorted oyster bars in front of OR.

The only thing we could catch were trout, trout, trout.  Speckled and white.

Lots Of This Happening Today

Probably caught another 20 or so and wasn't even trying.  Also had some whiting mixed in.

No reds, but another beautiful day on the water.

Whack Fest

11.05.12

Water: 66 degrees

Last half of out going tide

We fianlly got out on the pond after weeks of visiting, fog, wind, work, fog, wind, etc., etc.

A beautiful fall day and the fish were biting as we set down at our favorite oyster bar in the OR.

The water was falling nice and a north wind was blowing against the tide and was setting up a good chop where we wanted to cast our lines.

We were rewarded with trout after trout that came aboard the tin boat.  Every cast was greeted with a solid strike that produced a nice trout or a trout the got quick released due to the quick tide.

I was throwing a megabass jerkbait and Nancy was floating live shrimp.

Nancy caught the only non-trout when this sheep head decided it wanted a shrimp cocktail.

We got back in time to load the boat on the trailer before the bottom of the tide fell out.

I cleaned the boat and the fish and headed to Stacey's and she produced the final product.

Blackened trout, YUM!!

Raging Tide

10.16.12

We went out for an afternoon trip at the mouth of the OR.

We had a negative tide this morning and the afternoon tide is a 4 footer, so the water is flying in and out of the river.

The water had clouds of silt drifting past the boat and I didn't have high expectations after viewing it.

We tried the mouth or the river and the clam bar, just to be entertained by the dolphin hammering the mullet.

Our last stop was the white oyster bar and I caught 4 trout off one rock there, (one was a quick release and as usual it was the biggest one).  They ate a jig head with a gulp fluke.  The others were just keepers and we had some fish in the freezer so they got to survive for another day.

A beautiful day, but tough fishing.

It's October and It's Rattlesnake Time!

10.10.12

I was going out to buy some rum last evening and ran across this fellow soaking up the heat from the asphalt.

Last October I saw a bigger rattler in the community.  They love crawling up on the asphalt when it starts cooling down.

I notified the neighbors since we are all a bunch of dog walkers.  Hopefully these snakes will be seen and not heard!

Small Fish Small Post

10.9.12

Nancy and I went out for a quick trip Tuesday.  Didn't hit the tide quite right.  We wanted to go out to Shell Point Reef, but the wind was blowing too hard for the little Nan to go out there.

We eased over in front of Piney Island and caught two small sea trout and a small flounder and of course a pooping lady fish.

Eased back into the Panacea Harbor and caught a couple of sand trout for dinner.  Even they were tough to come by on the slack low tide.  But, they tasted good in Panko!

The Sea Craft Is In The Water

10.15.12

Launched the '76 Sea Craft this morning and gave it a run.

Happy to say that it ran well and looks like it will be a fun boat over the next few years.  It's a bit of a project, but it gives an old retired guy something to do.

At least it looks good in the water.

Sand Trout Send Off

10.2.12

Patty and Willie had one more day of fishing left before going back to the salt mines of NE Georgia.

The winds were low when we first got up, but as the morning went on they started raging out of the west.

I decided to take them into the harbor at Panacea and avoid the heavy winds and take advantage of the sand trout I had been catching there.

The sand trout didn't disappoint as the action was pretty much non stop until the tide starting topping off later in the afternoon.

We Hung Them Old School On the Rock Landing Fish Board

Setting Up The Shoot

Happy Fisherpeople

Pat Stylin' and Profilin'

 In the sand trout catching, Pat hooked up on this nice 3 1/2 foot bonnet head shark that drug her around the boat a few times.

What the hell is it?

Dang, that's not a redfish!

All in all a great fishing day with our fishing family!!

Like Hunter Says: That Looks Like A Slaughter

9.27.12

Willie and I went out and hit the oyster bars at the mouth of Ochlockonee River.
They were finally accessible without a gale force wind blowing in from the east.  The fish were very cooperative.

I sent a text message to Hunter to show him the fish and his quote is the title of this posting.

We managed trout, flounder and reds on our first few drifts.  I looked over my shoulder and saw the birds working on the clam bar on a very fast incoming tide.

Willie and I went out and jumped into the frenzy nailing big spanish and one trout out of the school.

I never thought I would hear Willie say it, but he said "Well I think we've got enough spanish."

So we moved on to the inner bars, but the tide was raging and we couldn't hook up on anything again except for this guy.

We headed in to clean the morning catch and grab some lunch.

Our afternoon trip featured a good redfish bite as we fished the outgoing tide.

The fish were a beautiful red.  We figured it was from all of the dark water that was produced by the heavy rains this year.

Blackened redfish is on the menu this upcoming week!

Seatrout Shootout Trip

9.16.12

Doug and I fished the windy Shoot Out.

We couldn't get to any place we wanted to fish, so after running his boat aground and breaking my iPhone, we came back to the house and loaded the tin boat and snuck in behind Piney and started fishing.

Doug caught a nice keeper and some smaller trout and I caught some puppy reds as the tide was rolling in.

We kept trying til 4 PM, but could never get on the good ones.

Oh well, maybe we can fish one of these when our holes are easier to access and the wind isn't tropical storm strength.

Circa 1950 Woman Catches Trout On Bday

9.11.12

With the winds raging from the east, Nancy and I slid in behind Piney Island and fished some new water for us.

Nancy was rewarded with a nice 17" trout birthday present.

All I heard her say was "fish taco".

Meat Trip

9.3.12

Hot and no wind, finally.

Headed out with Larry and Phil.  They came down from N. Ga. to do a meat run and the fish didn't disappoint.

Being the first boat out of Lanark this morning, it was smooth sailing to K Tower, the Sea Hunt was running 30 mph with a full load.

On my second cast to the tower with a buck tail with a white twister tail attached, a big cobia decided he wanted it for breakfast.

I managed to get him about 15 feet from the tower and then he figured out he was hooked and ripped the 65 lb. power pro line into the barnacle encrusted tower and that was that.

I saw him swimming back and forth all morning, taunting me with the jig hanging out of his mouth like some type of award.

Phil had a keeper cobia bust him off at the boat.  Barracuda were on the prowl all morning slashing the bait against the tower.

We decided to head over to some numbers about 3 miles from K tower and as we were pulling over the hole and saw what looked like the christmas tree of snapper on Phil's Lowrance.

We pulled over the spot and the look was confirmed.

We caught 4 red snapper off this spot.  Ah a month or two too late.

Larry's Snapper Coming Up To The Boat

We managed to place a bunch of pink mouth snapper, black sea bass and porgies in the cooler here and to a lesser degree on several places on the way back in to the hill.

We stopped at the cut on the east end of Dog Island and caught a few nice blues that were schooling there and put a couple in the cooler.

We also played with the big ladyfish schools that had acres of bait frothing trying to get wings as the ladies were gorging themselves on a Labor Day feast.

Got to the hill, loaded the boat and headed to Carrabelle  for the cleaning fest, boat and fish.

Great day on the water with two NE Georgians.

Goliath Grouper Sampling Video

Well, no fishing report.

Went up to Charleston last week to visit Hunter and with the stormy weather around we just haven't made it out.

Now we get to prepare for Hurricane Isaac, so, probably no fishing this week either.

But, yesterday I got to speak with the folks that are doing the goliath grouper sampling in the Gulf at the FSU marine lab.

We keep trying to find them hooks that won't be bent by these monster fish.

They have this video on you tube.

Check it out, pretty fascinating.  (If you like giant fish).

I have embedded it to the right of the blog.

Bluefish Are Eating!

8.14.12

We headed out to look for some groceries and a tarpon on the incoming tide this morning.

The tide didn't want to come in very quickly.  We spent about an hour trying to lure a trout or two from the bar in front of the river.  We only could collect two small ones and while fishing the bar I kept seeing the birds out off the clam bar.

So, we headed out there to try and get our line stretched, which we did.

Nice blues in the 2-4 lb. range were feeding on small rain minnows and under them were small Jack Cravalle's.

I kept one blue for fish tacos and we tired of catching them and headed down the coast to look for tarpon.

We went all the way to Mud Cove, but saw no tarpon rolling.

Looking to the skies we saw storm clouds gathering, and not wanting to get in a storm again, we headed in.

Yep, the storm hit while cleaning the fish and boat.

What a stormy summer after TS Debbie.

Shopping for Blackened Redfish

8.7.12

Nancy informed me we ate the last filet of grouper last night and the freezer was bare of fish.

So, we went out for a quick shopping trip to the outer bar of the Ochlockonee River.

The tide was rushing out this morning after a really high tide.

I managed a puppy red on a Gulp Jerk Shad and had some little guys pecking at it.

Soon I felt the pick up of a bigger red and the battle was on.  The fish really fought hard in the swift current.

After a few back and forths behind and beside the boat I finally got him to the point where Nancy could scoop him out.

He measured 26 63/64" which made him a keeper and not the dreaded over slot red.

Nice Double Spot Tail

Into the cooler he went.

We visited a couple of our other inner bars but no luck and decided to pull off the water before the storms hit again.

Our grocery shopping was over and now we are looking for our blackening spices.

Yum.

20/0 Hook Bent Straight

8.3.12

I've been working the past few weeks at AMS in Medart.

They are a local marine supply store and bait shop 319.  I am learning  a lot, especially about the local commercial fishing.

I also see pictures and talk to people about their fishing experiences and all this job does is make my want to fish more.

There is a gentleman that orders special hooks for catching Goliath grouper (jewfish).  He studies them for the state of Florida.

I have not met him yet, but I've heard of his tales of the monster Goliath grouper.

He orders 20/0 hooks at the store for them.  Basically, the hook is the size of a beer bottle, maybe bigger.

Today, when I came to work, the guys that work at the store showed me these STRAIGHTENED 20/0 hooks.   They are estimating the Jewfish must weigh 800 lbs. or so.

Check it out.

Now that would be a battle, or should I say,a losing battle!

Hey, Nancy Let Me Catch One Today!

7.31.12

We headed out today to look for cobia and tarpon, but ended up with a 12 pound overslot redfish.

We had a short window of opportunity, the weathermen said a squall line was going to set up around noon and they were correct, except in came earlier than expected.

We caught some bait out at two flat and hit the 2 post and tripod looking for some cobias, but to no avail.

We headed towards Bald Point to look for bait and as we go near Lighthouse Point the wind was really whipping around the corner and storms were building back at the mouth of the Ochlockonee River.

I saw some pelicans diving on bait about a mile offshore and eased over to see if tarpon were in the mix.

Bait was getting busted in the swells that was forming and I thought they were Jack Crevalle.

I threw my DOA Bait Buster in the mix and the first cast brought this nice red to the boat, much to our surprise.

We had to leave after this photo was taken as the weather was turning quickly.  We made a couple of drifts in front of Tradewinds as we watched the storm start to gather momentum

Nancy was shocked as a huge ray jumped out of the water right beside her and flopped beside the boat.

I managed a big sail cat, the rains came, and we headed in to be greeted by pitch black skies and heavy lightning and rain as I finished cleaning the boat.

Wicad!

7.25.12

I went solo today in front of Piney Island and off Mashes Sands point.  Looking for tarpon all morning.  It was very hot and steamy today, I was thinking I was back in ATL.

Only saw one roll today, with a few LY's in the mix they should be there soon.

I have started throwing the Wicad swim bait that my buddy Nick builds.

Yesterday I had some swipes from some big fish, I don't think they were tarpon.

Today, though a black tip shark and a trout wanted some Wicad-ness.

Nice swim bait Nick!!

Jumped One Tarpon

7.24.12

Nancy and I headed out to try and use the DNA kit and swipe a tarpon.
We want to contribute to the fisheries effort to track the tarpon in the area and they sent us this cool DNA kit to do it with.

I have tried it out and found out I'm not related to Steve Jobs.

We found the LY's schooling in 16 feet of water which is pretty far out from the shoreline off Bald Point.

The tarpon were there rolling around in the bait.

Nancy set up on one which hit a grunt under a cork, but he quickly threw the hook.  It would have been a good one to play with because it was in the 70-80 lb. range.

I caught a spinner shark on a DOA bait buster.

Nancy caught numerous sail cats and sharks on grunts and crab knuckles.

She even caught a big sail cat while talking to Hunter on the phone.

She's a pro!  (Sail Catter)

No Grouper Today

7.17.12

Water temp mid eighties

We took the Nan Z out to try and catch a grouper sandwich, but to no avail.

We watched a huge lighting storm from the deck Monday night and wondered if we would be able to go.

Tuesday morning looked better, so we headed out to a ledge that has produced nice grouper in the past.  It was south from Mashes about 22 miles and in 55 feet of water.

We fished all of our humps that have produced there in the past and could not hook up on a grouper.  Only grunts and black sea bass were interested and they did not jump on the hook easily.

So, knowing that their were afternoon t-storms predicted, we headed back in around noon.  About 20 miles out we hit a log in the water.  Slowing down and realizing we didn't do any harm, we kept heading in.
As we viewed the big thunderstorm brewing at Mashes, I was wishing I had a 150HP under my saddle, but the 115 Yamaha was flogged and going 37 mph.

We arrived just in time to view this coming.

White Pelicans

7.11.12

Tried tarpon fishing last week with no success.  Nancy hooked up on a nice spinner shark on Monday down at Mud Cove, but it broke her line on the first jump/spin.

I tried going out Wednesday but didn't get out very long due to storms rolling in and out.

But, I did bump into this flock of white pelicans in Dickson Bay.

When we see them come in in the fall and spring we know the seasons are changing, so I was surprised to see them here in the middle of summer.

New Tune!

Check out a very young Robert Earl Keen singing Five Pound Bass to the right.

SON!!!!

College of Charleston Fishing Team Results

7.2, 4, 5, 2012

Water low eighties.

Very dark and tannic near shore after the heavy TS Debbie rains

Hunter and Charlotte came in to the big town of Panacea for a little fishing and R and R after finishing up some late spring schooling at C of C.

We wanted to scallop but the fresh heavy rain had made the visibility very low and we didn't want to swim around in the water without the ability to see scallops (or sharks).

So, the seas let us fish a few days.

On Monday we wanted to go on a cobia run, but there was a heavy chop and it was like getting in a washing machine every time we tried venturing out to our favorite spots for the cobes, so we tucked in behind Shell Point Reef and in front of Piney island.

The Nan Z managed the usual potpourri of fish; two trout that will become four nice sandwiches coming aboard.

Charlotte started off the week with a keeper trout.

We took a break Tuesday and geared up for a tarpon trip on Wednesday.

While I was trying to catch some pinfish for bait on the clam bar, the crew were busy catching trout.  Some came on white pearl grubs under the tourist rig and others came on spoons.

Charlotte with a tourist rig trout

Ol' Jack Crevalle was wanting onboard too

We tried down at Mud Cove and managed some sail cats and sharks.  We found some tarpon rolling in front of the old KOA, but they were still pretty scattered.

Hunter intensely trying to catch up!  Charlotte with Mr. Slimey

They both have good dentists

Thinking we were gonna have some calm seas, we decided to head out to our snapper hole off Dog Island on Friday.  The seas were calm as we headed south from Mashes Sands but as we turned the corner at Lighthouse Point, I knew it might get a little sloshy for the Nan Z.  A bank of clouds and thunderstorms were out on the horizon.  

Always a Nice View off the Mashes Pier

We managed to make it to K tower, and with one eye on the water spouts forming in the distance and the other eye on the tower, I maneuvered the boat back and forth in front of the tower and let the crew drop down and see what the could bring up.

Nancy quickly got a nice door mat flounder in 55' of water.  That was a good start.  She then connected on a nice Gag.

Cool Gloves!

Hunter caught some spanish and had a cuda or two cut his lures off.

We used up our bait and headed back to the hill as the storms had started to dissipate and a nice ride was welcomed as we accomplished another safe trip off the Forgotten Coast.

The College of Charleston fishing team put up some good numbers this week!

Can't wait til they come back.

It Was A Snap(per)

6.29.12

Water 82 degrees

Dark water from Lanark out to Dog Island from Tropical Storm Debbie

We finally got way off the hill today as the seas died enough to get the Nan Z off the trailer in search of a red snapper

We double teamed them today with Phil, Dee and Larry following in their boat as we pursued the Red Snapper and anything else that would stretch our string.

We caught a few pinfish in umbrella cove and we were commenting on how Debbie had turned the water dark and reddish looking.  What a lot of water coming into the Gulf!

We headed another 17 miles off the Island at a 330 degree bearing.

I had one snapper number from a few years ago that I had never tried.  It was in 65 feet of water.

We arrived with some nice rollers coming by the boat and a fresh wind blowing so we didn't get overheated as the sun started beating down.

We started catching nice grunts right away.

Then Nancy's rod tried to escape her hands as she got pulled down hard.

The fight broke her old Penn reel, but she kept trying to bring the fish up.

As it neared the surface I saw the color we were looking for, Snapper color!

I scooped it up and it was a beauty for our little boat.

The fish was 27 inches long and weighed ten pounds on the boga grip.

Phil hooked up on a fish that broke his hook in half.  He blamed that on Wal Mart hooks.

We never did get another snapper to bite, and the sharks started rolling in.  I decided to pull anchor and head about 6 miles to another spot that was south of K tower.

As we were riding around we were going in and out of the biggest weed line I have ever seen here in our short time at the Forgotten Coast.  On one side of the weed line was the darker colored water, on the other side was the clean water.  Spanish and bonita were tearing it up whenever we got near the line.

We layed down and Nancy hooked up on one of the bonita and it took her around and around the boat.

She finally landed the stocky fish.  Not good to eat, but plenty of fun to catch.

As the afternoon breeze started kicking up we started working our way back to the hill.  The wind was making for a wet and rough ride.

Many more grunts, black sea bass and mackerel came to the boats.

It was nice to see Phil and Larry let Dee fish once in a while.  Every time they would let her drop a line she was hooked up on something.

Their white striper rods stayed bowed up most of the day.

It was a nice offshore trip with a great crew on one of the few days we have gotten offshore in this windy year of 2012.

Debbie Was A Bad Girl

6.26.12



We survived.  Spent the morning cleaning up.  Incredible rains of 26 inches in and day
.
Got out a little this morning and we couldn't go many places due to the roads being closed everywhere.

Lots of misery for a lot of folks.

Here is a link to Rock Landing getting pounded and a Towboat USA rescue of their own boat.

Bananas before Debbie

6.22.12

We finally managed to get out and fish a little.  The winds were from the SE at 15 mph and the water temp was in the low eighties.

Phil and Dee were down from Gainesville to do a little salt fishing and see the wonderful sights of the Forgotten Coast.

They brought their boat back to it's origin of birth here at Mike's Marine.

It is a sweet riding boat and took the inshore chop well.

Here they are with the pedal down looking for the next trout honey hole.

Fishing wasn't a total bust.

We managed to put a speckled and a few sand trout in the box for their guests that were at the house they rented on St. George.

The fish were in the 6 foot range around Turkey Shoals and the old motel on 98.

After a few hours of fishing everyone started to dig for their snacks to quell their appetite.

I heard Dee say, "Phil do you want a banana?", I knew then why we weren't slaying them.  

Guess the striper folks on Lanier don't have the same rules as the salts here at the Forgotten Coast.

Although the banana jinx was broken as we put a few sand trout in the boat after the consummation of the bananas.

I'm sure we would have caught more fish if we were banana less.

Unfortunately for their family, they are now stranded on St. George with no power as Debbie is hung up out on the coast.

Driving rain, high tides and wind in excess of 45 mph has closed the bridge over to the island.

I guess Dee won't be shopping for real estate here in the near future after their stranding!

Blow Wind Blow

It has been very, very, very windy this year.

Headed down to Crystal River to fish and try and get out of the wind.

Nope.

My Brother and I were stuck inshore and caught sharks and a few little trout.

Wind was howling out of the NE.

I think my boats are rusted in place in the garage.

Oh well, maybe this week, but it doesn't look good.

Caught a Good One Red Snapper Fishing

6.3.12

ME!!!

We were going out to try for Red Snapper, but the seas were too concrete mixer like.

We stayed in and were spooning up black sea bass and other cool looking fish.

This one let go of the hook and it ended up in my hand.  First time ever.

Cut all the hooks off except the embedded one, drove 15 miles back in the soup, loaded the boat and got home and got the hook taker outer which I thought was in the Nan Z, but wasn't.

Nancy looped it around the hook and with great pleasure yanked it out of my hand.

OUCHEY!!

San Antonio Crew

5.24.12

Bob and Maggie were in from Texas and we took them out for a quick trip.
The water has warmed into the low 80's and a lot of eaten' fish have left the building.

We went out to Rotary Reef and fed the spade fish for a while.  Then we came back inshore to try and catch something.

Sure enough, the ladyfish and shark got into the mix.

They will bow your rod and you get to say you caught something.  Hooray!