Gulf Coast Kayak Fishing Association
Capt. John McDow
May 2, 2012
Port St. Joe - Saltwater Fishing Report
This week was a little different for me. I decided to take a vacation from taking people fishing so I could do some fishing. My brother in law Mike Martinez also took a break from working charters in the St. Marys, GA area and drove over to fish the 7th annual Gulf Coast Kayak Fishing Association Tournament with me. Saturday we fished the first few hours inshore and only managed to find a lot of ladyfish, bluefish, and a small trout. The only exception was one stud Spanish mackerel that weighed in at 6.2#!
For the late morning and early afternoon we paddled out a couple of miles off of the beach in search of some kings but only found a cooler full of Spanish. We did manage to win first place for our division in the tournament, and there was a great turn out this year with around 200 anglers!
After the tournament is was back to "work" with a full day charter, half inshore/half nearshore with some great guys from Birmingham, AL. They had already managed to catch a slot red and a sheepshead under the bridge before I even showed up. We quickly put some spanish in the boat as we were heading out the pass and continued to catch Spanish and a small king trolling a mile or two off of the beach. By lunch time we headed back inshore and beat up on the trout for a while but didn't manage to find any monsters. Most of the trout were barely making 15". Even though we didn't find any trophy fish on Sunday, it was a great time. The guys headed back to Birmingham with a cooler full of sheepshead, redfish, trout, Spanish mackerel, and king mackerel.
It was a great weekend with a great tournament, beautiful weather, and a fun charter trip!
Port St. Joe Fishing Forecast:
Big Spanish mackerel, Kings off the beach, Big Trout
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