Incredible Weekend
Capt. John McDow
May 22, 2012
Port St. Joe - Saltwater Fishing Report
This past weekend a couple of my old high school buddies came down from Montgomery,AL for two full days of fishing. We hit the water early Saturday morning with overcast skies and winds from the East gusting to 20kts. Choppy seas and a little wind didn't keep us from finding fish though. We scooted across the bay and found a little shelter on the west side of Black's Island and immediately began beating up on the trout with Pop-R s and Zara Spooks. By mid day the wind died down and the sun tried to peak out. We continued to nail the trout on suspending twitch baits and curly tails under cajun thunders. After filling the cooler with trout and a few flounder that we picked up along the way we decided to head to the edge and play with a few sharks. It didn't take 10 minutes of drifting back a couple of lady fish and we had hooked up. In only 2 hours of sharkin' we managed to land 6 sharks with the two largest around 70#. Both of these larger sharks were tagged for NOAA and NMFS and then released.
The next morning was beautiful. We hit the water around 8am and it was sunny with no wind and the water was as smooth as glass. We ran wide open to our first spot and got ready to put some more trout in the cooler. One problem, the trout were not as cooperative this morning. The bite was slow for the first 2 hours with only a few undersized trout. Drifting across the calm flats was a lot of fun though. We watched a Manta Ray in the bay, a few dolphins in the channel, a lot of sting rays and some cow nosed rays, and a few sea turtles. Then, we were once again distracted from our nature viewing when the fish decided to show up again. First it was a school of jacks, then we got a shot at a small cobia but he didn't want to bite. We also jumped a small tarpon that threw it on the first jump. Sunday afternoon we caught a little bit of everything though. We managed to land over 100 fish for the two days. The fish included: bluefish, pinfish, grunts, needlefish, trout (to 24.5"), flounder, spanish mackerel, ladyfish, sea robin, spinner sharks (to 6.5' and 130#), finetooth sharks, and sharpnose sharks. Considering these guys had never fished saltwater before, I'm guessing that they enjoyed their weekend. I know that I did.
If you are interested in booking a fishing trip with me just give me a call at 732-278-2672 or email me at [email protected] I still have openings in late June and July.
Port St. Joe Fishing Forecast:
Excellent trout fishing! Big Sharks in the bay.
Target Species:
redfish, sharks, flounder, trout
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