East of St. Marks Lighthouse Exploration

3.15.12

High Tide
Water: Low seventies

I heard there were some nice reds 6 miles east of the light house.  Not knowing that water that well except for some scallop trips, Nancy and I set out for some exploring.

We saw a manatee as we left the river and passed a huge sailboat.  So, as usual, it would be an interesting day.

We took the Nan to the rocks and started fishing the shallow waters that exist in that area.  The water was very clear, but all we could spot were rays, puffer fish and mullet.

We entered Deep Creek later in the morning and figured out that it is aptly named.  The creek had 6 and 8 foot hole at the mouth.

We started catching trout right away.

They were hitting grubs on the bottom and Nancy also caught one on a spoon.

We caught 4 18" trout, 4 pup reds and 4 flounder.

We also observed two gators as they watched us catch fish while they sunbathed.

While we never got into the big reds, we found another beautiful stretch of the Forgotten Coast.

Ochlockonee River Slug Fest

3.13.12

Willie wanted to go fishing to celebrate Patty's birthday, so we headed to the mouth of the OR.

We were greeted with perfect conditions, a light wind to our backs, an outgoing gentle tide, and overcast skies.

I knew it was going to be on when, on my second cast, I had a 19" trout whack my jerk bait.

We fished the middle bar for a couple of hours as the fish moved back and forth and we stayed on them.

The larger fish ate the minnow imitating lures, while the smaller ones fell for the popping cork and jig.

I decided to try one of the Zman Swimbaits.

I was nailed at the boat by  one of the largest Spanish I have caught.
What a drag sizzling fight!

As the tide was on it's last outgoing legs, we hit the outer bar and again a nice trout ate the SwimmerZ.

We got back to the house and the work began as I washed the boat and Willie took on the fish cleaning duties.

He took the fish that looked like this:

And for $2.50 Hutton's Seafood turned them into this:

A great day on the water by two fishing fools!!

Salt/Fresh Struggle

3.10.12

Ochlockonee River Salt
Crooked River Fresh

WINDY!!!!

Doug, Willie and I set out to try and get Doug's new rod and reel broken in.

But, the fish didn't cooperate today.  It was extremely windy, so we put in at Roho and fished the upper salty end of the river.

I don't think we got a bite.

We regrouped and went back to the house to do some freshwater fishing up in Crooked River
.
While it wasn't a whole lot better, Doug did manage to catch some bass on his Ol' Blue worm.  Willie caught a few stump knockers and bluegill.  Me, I just drove the boat and practice cast.

Crooked River Bass Biting? Not Today!

2.23.12

Tide: low

Water Temp: 61-62

Air:  70's

We travelled back to the Crooked River this afternoon.  We were considering hitting the salt, but the wind is raging from the south and the fog banks are coming and going off the Gulf, so the bass were going to get sore mouthed, or not.

Only brought two small guys to the boat.

Let's see what went wrong:

Low tide

Water not warm enough

Too Windy

No sun

Wrong Moon Phase

That should cover it.

Maybe next time!

Inshore Bluefish?!

2.2.12

High Tide

Water: 64 deg.

Air: 70's

We decided to try out of Lanark.  The idea was to catch a trout or two for the freezer out of the cut at the FSU marine lab.

We eased into the cut with nothing to show for the run.  The water was extremely clear and beautiful.

A bald eagle was perched to the south side of the cut watching us invade his fishing hole.

As I moved the boat slowly over the edge at the end of the cut, the fish finder lit up showing fish stacked up on the ledge.

I moved out and anchored and we threw some large shrimp on the bottom and under a popping cork up to the ledge.

Nancy soon hooked up and we were excited that we were going to put some trout in the boat.  We were very surprised when a bluefish was discovered to be the biting culprit.

Nancy put five or six more in the boat and I managed one while fishing on the bottom.

We decided to leave and try and find some trout.

That effort was to no avail, as the flats did not have any life to them except for acres of waterfowl.

It was another nice day on the pond, but the freezer is getting low.

Blowin' and Goin', Slingin' and Bringin' at Lake Jackson

1.26.12

Lake Jackson

Water Temp:  67 degrees

Air: 70's

Nancy and I went up to Lake Jackson to hit the large lips.  It was before a big front was coming through and we figured they would bite.  We were correct on the bite.

We managed to put 19 fish in the boat, 17 bass and two pike.

The wind was blowing hard with gusts up to 25 mph, that was the blowin' part.  Since we couldn't really slow down to fish slower plastics, we put on swim baits and started the slingin' part.

Our first stops were the hay mounds that Hunter and I did well on the first time we went to Jackson.  On the third mound I caught what turned out to be the first and biggest bass of the day.  I was retrieving a Grass Pig through the grass and the fish slurped it in.  I thought it was a little guy.  When she saw the boat and turned I found out that it was a little bigger than I thought.

We eased over to the north bank where Hunter and I caught them on the second trip, but the wind was raging in there and we couldn't get on them.  We slid over to the least wind blown shoreline that had a mix of new pads and the older vegetation and we started catching fish quickly.

Most were buck bass and as the boat quickly blew down the shoreline we could see multiple beds.  Most were empty but I did get eye to eye with a nice 6-7 lb. bass on a bed.  We made numerous attempts to set up on her but the wind and cloudy conditions made it tough.

I finally got the idea to put out the drift sock to slow down our pass.  I had never used it in 3 feet of water covered with old weeds, but it worked well.

We worked the buck bass over pretty good until about 2 pm when the wind got unbearable.

Nancy with bass on Big EZ

Nancy put three in the boat and was quite happy with herself after getting shut out the last time out.  She would have had a few others but the bird watching lulled her into a trance at times.  She snapped out of it when the Big EZ got ate a few times while bird watching.

You can see the old lilly pad stick ups in the background.  The beds and bass were all through this area.

We headed back to the ramp and managed to get the Nan back on the trailer.  That is a feat in itself with the extremely low water levels.  The word ramp is loosely used term, as we back way out onto a small point of land way past what was the paved ramp.  

Another good day of bassin' but now monsters.  We'll be back!

Dang These Bass Are Biting!

1.20.12

Crooked River

Water Temp: High Fifties

Air: Seventies

Tide: Incoming

Nancy and I decided to enjoy the nice weather and go back up to Crooked River and duplicate our last trip to this beautiful stretch of river.

We weren't disappointed as the newly tuned up NAN was a bass catching tin boat again.

We caught the fish on spinnerbaits and a lightly weighted fluke.

The fish were more concentrated near creek mouths this time instead of the weed patches on the main river.

These two came aboard on the spinner baits where I pitched it up just inside the current at the mouth of a couple of small feeder creeks.

It started a little slow, but I had one last cigar from my collection and after I lit it up the fish lit up.  It turned out to be another five fish cigar.

We were going to try some topwater rat fishing on the grass and moss, but Doug had borrowed my only rat when we went to the Big O and hasn't returned it yet.  It was last seen in the home we rented.

We only saw one other boat all afternoon and he was cruising down the river and not fishing.

What a nice afternoon and fishery!