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Saltwater fishing

Dbllunger

Dbllunger

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Joined
Dec 8, 2004
Messages
12,164
Location
Middle Tennessee
I'm down at Cape San Blas for the week with family. Bring my boat down every year with me to fish St Joseph bay. Got after it this morning for speckled trout and managed to get a limit already. Caught several other species as well. Saw some big sharks, sea turtle and dolphins. Got this great picture of the dolphins right at sunrise. Man I love this place.
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Dbllunger":1vthxsgq said:
I'm down at Cape San Blas for the week with family.
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Small world... we are at Cape San Blas until Saturday also!

Did some surf fishing yesterday evening, but nothing to write home about!

Keep catching them!
 
We are gulf side. Up near the state park entrance.

You are going to get me in trouble. When we were looking at places to stay my wife mentioned a bay side place with a dock and bringing the boat. She asked if our boat could be used in salt water.

I said it could, but I didn't want to fool with it. I wanted to be ocean side for the boys to play anyway.

Now here you are doing exactly what she suggested! Hahaha

Are there places in the bay you can wade and catch fish? We have never been here before and I'm wishing I had brought a regular fishing rod now.

She wants to cook fish one night, but that 10" catfish and 12" shark from yesterday isn't going to feed anyone
 
Dbllunger":1u24uxk7 said:
Yessir there's places in the state park where you can wade and catch fish. I haven't tried it but I see folks down there every year when I launch my boat for the week

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Thanks. I'll check it out. May have to go buy a cheap rod..
 
Looks like great eating right there.

These saltwater reports are killing me. I really need to get down there and do some fishing.

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I was there last week to tarpon fish. My buddy, that I have fished with for 29 years and newly diagnosed with Parkinson's disease landed (to tippet) a #175 Tarpon on a flyrod after a 90 min and two miles out into the bay ride. !!!! Caught it IN Port St Joe bay!! Got a lot of it on GoPro . I had great " shots" at two but one big girl threw the hook on the initial take, and the other I screwed up and trout set instead of strip set! Good times.

A " low tide" such that it is there were folks on the Port St Joe side wading out to fish. It's shallow forever there. I love Beaufort SC but this place is special.


Ps. Those specs look great! One suggestion: we found if you can use say a frozen milk jug of water to keep those fish cool they taste even better. No joke. With water/ice in the cooler it produces all that slime which basically is all the fliuds coming out of the fish. That Yeti will keep them plenty cool.

You did good last year too. Didn't you briefly hook a Tarpon?
 
We have been going to the Cape for the past 9 years. We stay in the gated community of Hibiscus ( 4-6 private homes ). My all time favorite vacation spot.
 
7mm08":15n9wu97 said:
I was there last week to tarpon fish. My buddy, that I have fished with for 29 years and newly diagnosed with Parkinson's disease landed (to tippet) a #175 Tarpon on a flyrod after a 90 min and two miles out into the bay ride. !!!! Caught it IN Port St Joe bay!! Got a lot of it on GoPro . I had great " shots" at two but one big girl threw the hook on the initial take, and the other I screwed up and trout set instead of strip set! Good times.

A " low tide" such that it is there were folks on the Port St Joe side wading out to fish. It's shallow forever there. I love Beaufort SC but this place is special.


Ps. Those specs look great! One suggestion: we found if you can use say a frozen milk jug of water to keep those fish cool they taste even better. No joke. With water/ice in the cooler it produces all that slime which basically is all the fliuds coming out of the fish. That Yeti will keep them plenty cool.

You did good last year too. Didn't you briefly hook a Tarpon?
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It was about 3 years ago when I saw a group of tarpon busting bait on the surface. I threw a 7 inch redfin at them and had one take a swipe but not hook up and several follow it. It was a crazy feeding frenzy. Black tip sharks were mixed in with them as well. Don't know what the heck I would have done if one had hooked up.

Thanks for the suggestion on the ice. I will try that tomorrow.

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Any luck today?

I surf fished a bit at sunset. Ladyfish, about an 8" pompano, and about a 2ft black tip shark. Not much to brag about.

Any idea where to get bull minnows? A buddy told me a spot where he caught a bunch of flounder and such on them last week.
 
For your ice discussion— the proper way to do it is to make a saltwater slurry. Take a bag of ice and add a bucket of saltwater to it in the cooler. This is the way to get the best quality food product. The fish will also be much colder and therefore easier to fillet.
 
Pilchard":2t4x67va said:
For your ice discussion— the proper way to do it is to make a saltwater slurry. Take a bag of ice and add a bucket of saltwater to it in the cooler. This is the way to get the best quality food product. The fish will also be much colder and therefore easier to fillet.
Click to expand...

works on freshwater fish as well, especially white bass and stripers(if keeping them to eat) and crappie caught in the backwater. seems to pull a lot of the blood out of the flesh.
 
Pilchard":3r7p6uck said:
For your ice discussion— the proper way to do it is to make a saltwater slurry. Take a bag of ice and add a bucket of saltwater to it in the cooler. This is the way to get the best quality food product. The fish will also be much colder and therefore easier to fillet.
Click to expand...

Cool idea. It's really all cell biology at work.
 
WTM":2fluet1p said:
Pilchard":2fluet1p said:
For your ice discussion— the proper way to do it is to make a saltwater slurry. Take a bag of ice and add a bucket of saltwater to it in the cooler. This is the way to get the best quality food product. The fish will also be much colder and therefore easier to fillet.
Click to expand...

works on freshwater fish as well, especially white bass and stripers(if keeping them to eat) and crappie caught in the backwater. seems to pull a lot of the blood out of the flesh.
Click to expand...

It does as long as you submerge them alive. The internal organs pull blood into the vitals to survive.

I've never really fished freshwater but am trying to figure things out here in TN. It's easy when you can just grab sea water.... I can't imagine bringing salt on the boat to do this locally... maybe though.
 
Pilchard":25areola said:
WTM":25areola said:
Pilchard":25areola said:
For your ice discussion— the proper way to do it is to make a saltwater slurry. Take a bag of ice and add a bucket of saltwater to it in the cooler. This is the way to get the best quality food product. The fish will also be much colder and therefore easier to fillet.
Click to expand...

works on freshwater fish as well, especially white bass and stripers(if keeping them to eat) and crappie caught in the backwater. seems to pull a lot of the blood out of the flesh.
Click to expand...

It does as long as you submerge them alive. The internal organs pull blood into the vitals to survive.

I've never really fished freshwater but am trying to figure things out here in TN. It's easy when you can just grab sea water.... I can't imagine bringing salt on the boat to do this locally... maybe though.
Click to expand...

i only use a small amount of sea salt in the live well to keep them alive until im done fishing then i just dump a cooler full of ice in the live well after im done and while they are still alive.
 
TNReb":oesguvil said:
Any luck today?

I surf fished a bit at sunset. Ladyfish, about an 8" pompano, and about a 2ft black tip shark. Not much to brag about.

Any idea where to get bull minnows? A buddy told me a spot where he caught a bunch of flounder and such on them last week.
Click to expand...
Yes. A fishing buddy from Murfreesboro came down and is fishing with me for the next few days in the mornings. We both managed limits today on specks plus a bonus flounder. Lot's of short specks. A few sharks but all small ones.

As far as bull minnows, I have been catching them in a minnow trap baited with a chicken drumsticks. Freeline them in sandy areas on the edge of grass beds.

Here is some of today's catch.

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