St marks 12-1

doomtrpr_z71

Senior Member
Decided to play hooky from work Friday to squeeze in one last trip for the year, put in at the lighthouse mid morning. Fished the long bar and the flats around the lighthouse with nothing to show for it.


But it was a beautiful day regardless


Found a ton of bait but no fish, so we headed east and went down a couple of miles when I swerved to miss a floating log. The floating log turned out to be a giant alligator a long ways from shore.


Since we were stopped to look at the gator, we started fishing and managed to pick up a sea bass in 10 ft, a lizard fish and a keeper trout in 8ft.

We went further into the rock garden and caught a couple of shorts and then went to grey mare. Fishing from grey mare into nearshore was a bust, the couple of reds I found were not cooperating, even after hitting one in the head with a spinnerbait we couldn't get a bite. Luckily we finally found some trout in 4ft and managed to get get our 2 man limit along with a blue runner.



When we were one short we debated on whether to head in or not, after looking at the radar we decided that we would do one more drift. The last drift was one too many and the rain pushed out over the lighthouse so we had a wet ride in.



But it was a fun day with a good meal from the Riverside cafe to cap it off and we made it to Sylvester with 3 miles left to E.
 

1eyefishing

...just joking, seriously.
Just noticing this... Looks like a good day.
I only wish I was close enough for the single day trips!
It sounds about like our last trip down there in late October. If you put in the work, you will eventually get the fish. But they are not exactly jumping in the boat!
I'm wondering where that Gator thought he was going to or coming from?
I'm looking forward to another few days down there soon. Do you know anything about the migration of the fish off the flats and into the rivers? And when / how cold does it happen?
:cheers:
 

doomtrpr_z71

Senior Member
Just noticing this... Looks like a good day.
I only wish I was close enough for the single day trips!
It sounds about like our last trip down there in late October. If you put in the work, you will eventually get the fish. But they are not exactly jumping in the boat!
I'm wondering where that Gator thought he was going to or coming from?
I'm looking forward to another few days down there soon. Do you know anything about the migration of the fish off the flats and into the rivers? And when / how cold does it happen?
:cheers:

It was supposed to be a 2 day but a friend of mine really wanted to have a get together for the sec championship so we made it a day trip. The gator was swimming outside the stakeline going along it. I think he was after ducks as we saw probably 100. With the cool weather we've had I'd say the fish are definitely off the flats and in the creeks and river now. Mangrove snapper should be in the river now or soon near the power plant.
 
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