Well lucky me! I get to make another trip to the Gulf coast this year. I leave Tuesday and will be on the water Wendsday thru Monday, weather permitting.
Hopefully this time is better than last time...but it is December, and I am shorebound this time.
What will you be fishing for,,,, ;D
Plan is to hunt down some sheepshead, I got to recon a few spots I think I can get to from shore that looked like they may hold fish.
From the beach? Who knows. I don't know what kind of fish I'll find on the shore in december. Maybe some spanish from the jetty?
I hear there are some big black snapper coming into the bay and harbor area in december, and some black/red drum are supposed to be around.
It's supposed to be seventy degrees out during the day so that's gonna be nice compared to the -6 it was here yesterday.
Find a natural spring if you want reds n snook in the winter. Can't keep the snook this time of year but that's where to find them.
Also I find lots of flounder in the winter in places with moving water.
I've just never had luck with flounder, other than gigging the one time. Found a BUNCH of them in the shallow flats on the inshore side of Okaloosa island. I'd love to find a few of them around somewhere.
Equipment I'm taking this time:
10ft medium/light surf rod, 20lb setup (whatever I find on the beach)
6ft 6 inch spinning rod, 20lb medium action (sheeps, mackerel, flounder if I'm lucky)
6ft 6 inch spinning rod, 10lbs light action (sabiki/baitfishing)
I got a new Engel 13qt bait cooler for christmas, and a nice Plano fishing backpack to carry gear in.
I have a few sheepshead jigs, 3/8oz football leads with a #6 J-hook free-swinging below them
2 1/2oz hex head jigs with silicone skirts, we'll see how fast I hang these in a rock
a dozen of my hand-carved, spray-bombed wooden lures, some are poppers, some are spook-ish, some are 8ft slow-floating divers, all are between 4-7 inches long
A handful of soft plastics, mostly whites, some green and gold flake, curly-tails and some shrimp simulants.
A sand flea rake, fillet knife, and my cut-resistant gloves. (I like the gloves for both fish spines and braided line cut prevention-they work pretty dang good for braid!)
Finally made it to the gulf. I can hear the surf crashing-hopefully it will calm down by morning. We will see.
Good Luck! Looking forward to hearing about the adventure! - john
you'll just have to throw past it. That's half the fun.
Can't get a 3oz sinker more than 40ft off the beach, the wind is so bad. Threw so hard I snapped the pompano rig in half 3 times, tied with 25lb fluoro. Seeing as the bar is almost 50 yards away, this just isn't my game today.
And of course, all the docks are posted "NO FISHING" or are private now. Gonna have to find a less gentrified city to fish in the future or find a boat I can afford to rent.
Ouch. Ive been known to choose between competing beaches based on which one puts the wind at my back. Or at least not in my face. I've also been known to wade out as deep as I can stand and cast from there when conditions call for it. Cold water be damned.
Quote from: JasonGotaProblem on December 29, 2022, 01:37:34 PMCold water be damned.
That's the spirit! Sounds like you've had your waders flooded before.
Quote from: Shellbelly on December 29, 2022, 06:09:57 PMQuote from: JasonGotaProblem on December 29, 2022, 01:37:34 PMCold water be damned.
That's the spirit! Sounds like you've had your waders flooded before.
I don't have waders! I just bring a towel. But this thread isn't about me.
The water is 65 degrees, and I don't mind getting wet, but 65* water + 30mph winds in 65* air is asking for a problem.
Spent the afternoon trying to find some sheepshead, but since all the harbor docks are posted no fishing (idiotic, advertise your city as a "fishing village" but then prohibit fishing the best shore areas!) and I don't have a boat, I didn't find any fish. The steady wind didn't help, either. To top it all, the local bait shops left all their live bait outside during the freeze over Christmas and now no one has live bait-it's all frozen. Had to drive 45 minutes to find a bait shop who doesn't store their live bait outside.
I still have a dozen fiddler crabs to drown in the morning, hopefully I can find a beach where the tourists don't feel like 6AM beach runs INTO MY LINES!
Yeah, today was a frustrating day trying to fish. It'll rain tomorrow, but that won't stop me. I'll be out there, trying again.
Got out early, on Beasley beach. (Okaloosa island) Great beach conditions, except for the side-on wind from the east. Very few beachgoers and no runners.
I tied on a second 3oz pyramid sinker, so a 2 hook pompano rig with two 3oz sinkers and was able to get out much better, although it wasn't enough weight to keep the line from slowly sweeping to shore over about 10 minutes. Well more than double the distance out into the surf but still well inside the sand bar-I was afraid of snapping the 25lb fluoro rig again.
Fished with my leftover fiddler crabs til they were gone and switched to fresh dead shrimp, cut and peeled to just fit on the hook. Had one good hit and got it in close enough to see it was a real fish but he got off in the heavy surf.
Photo was taken about 10AM, the salt was so heavy in the air it was crystalizing out on the rod and on the plastic of the bait cooler!IMG_20221230_102755.jpg
That's terrible fishing conditions.
Up here in he Florida panhandle we get blessed with bridges to fish off of. The sheepshead are all on the pilings
Quote from: handi2 on December 31, 2022, 02:58:17 AMThat's terrible fishing conditions.
Up here in he Florida panhandle we get blessed with bridges to fish off of. The sheepshead are all on the pilings
Hook him up with places to try , he is in your old stomping grounds ..
Yeah, I'm up in Destin. Been fishing Destin east jetty and norigo point, opposite the harbor, got one good hit but never got the hook in.
Choctawahatchee bay is nice but it's all private property except a few public parks with 2ft of crystal clear water as far out as I can throw. I was hoping for maybe a cruising redfish or drum, but nothing yet.
Fished off the 331 bridge in pilchard park with fiddler crabs, hitting bridge and dock pilings but no luck. Same at the Destin-okaloosa island bridge.
Been trying these in the surf since Thursday:
live sand fleas
Cut fresh shrimp
Fiddler crabs
On the destin easy jetty I tried cut shrimp on a 2 hook rig and on a Carolina rig, got the one hit on the Carolina rigged shrimp in 3 hours
Noreigo point is where I am writing this now, been up and down harbor side and pass side for 2 hours, no luck.
Even tried the sabiki out in the pass-thats where the charter boats catch their bait on the way out to the gulf-not one cigar minnow or alewive or glass minnow.
I figure if I post that I'm headed somewhere to go fishing, you gents should head somewhere else if you wanna catch fish! ;D
We believe in you dude.
Maybe try whole live shrimp instead of cut shrimp? I've noticed I get much better results.
Went out for another few hours this evening, right out on the beach. The surf calmed down considerably while I was out there, but still no hits. There were 7 lines in the water, about every 30ft, with shrimp, sand fleas, mullet, and cut mackerel, none of us got a bite.
I am not seeing any bird activity on the water either, except for just a few when I was out on the jetty.
Tomorrow is supposed to be the classic sunny Florida day, with a calm surf and a tide rising from 750AM until high tide at 650PM.
Well it was sunny for a bit but not on the beach!
Fog rolled in and never left, all day. I did go out and try some live shrimp off the beach and in the pass again, got another good hit but never got anything to stay on the hook.
Switched to a gold colored spoon and threw it off the jetty for a while, until the fog had soaked through. When I came back to the house I'm staying in, my grandmother asked if I fell in!
Still no luck this trip. I am planning another fishing trip this summer but I have to explore options and save up some more money before I know where/when.IMG_20230101_165123.jpg