offshore fishing

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

yep my main area is St Simmons Island, GA
It's just up the road from Jax, so fished pretty much the same water, started there in the late 80's though.
To me, you cant beat that are for inshore fishing, some of the biggest trout and reds you'll ever see, and shake and tarpon out the wazoo in the summer. If ya aint never caught a tarpon...well you need too... it took me years to finally give in and try it, I always wanted the eating fish, but Lord after the first one, I was hooked and kicked myself for all those wasted years...


Oh and we run into those big old Nuke Subs out there off shore from time to time that are coming out of Jacksonville. All I can say is MY GOD those things are HUGE.... and they can keep pase with a big center console boat too!!!

 

[Florida_country_boy]

nice trout and I bet that crevelle was a bugger on light tackle. We catch them offshore a lot in the 25-40 pound range, and aside from amber jacks, I dont think theres a harder pulling fish out there pound for pound.

havent been on the site for awhile, just replying now. But that Crevelle was probably the hardest fighting fish I've ever landed on light tackle. This bonnet-head shark also took awhile to land, and I was standing in chest-high water when I caught it!




and here is my son's Red-fish, you can see the Sky-way bridge in the background.

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

yep,
It's Gulf Stream season now....just wish the wind knew that. Dying to go just not in 10 footers...

 

[wekiva bird]

The wind and the weather has been bad.

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

sure has, this was the best weekend we've had in a long time and it was still too rough for me to go 80+ miles to the stream!!! and the dolphin of course are pilled up out there right now

 

[wekiva bird]

DH and I are working on the boat putting in a Baystar Hydraulic steering kit in. The other do not last long in salt water the freeze up. Hope this works better. Has any body put one in them self?

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

havent myself, good luck with it, hope it works good for you.

Havent posted on here for a while, actually been off a lot fishing for a change and havent been on the computer. Just got back from St. Simons today. They actually opened up Atlantic snapper this week end and last weekend for a bio study on the fish. Of course we went and 1-2 ft seas actually were heavy 3 with no intervals . Stunk! Mopped up in the Gulf this year though, all the snapper you could stand, decent wahoo and dolphin, and even a sail. all in all was a pretty good season. Waiting on the cold weather to bring the tuna back now

 

[wekiva bird]

havent myself, good luck with it, hope it works good for you.

Havent posted on here for a while, actually been off a lot fishing for a change and havent been on the computer. Just got back from St. Simons today. They actually opened up Atlantic snapper this week end and last weekend for a bio study on the fish. Of course we went and 1-2 ft seas actually were heavy 3 with no intervals . Stunk! Mopped up in the Gulf this year though, all the snapper you could stand, decent wahoo and dolphin, and even a sail. all in all was a pretty good season. Waiting on the cold weather to bring the tuna back now

Where and How far out you go for tuna?

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

on the east coast
I go out of St Simons Island GA
Got to hit the gulf stream for them. It's edge is 75 kts from St Simons. In Fl and SC it's a bit closer though. We're just stuck in that deep coastal bend in GA so we have a long run to the curve ( stream), but we also have miles and miles of bottom fishing because of it unlike FL.

Best time for them is late fall threw early spring. They start showing up around Dec get thick by Feb and last strong threw April.
water temps around 70-75 with 72 seeming to be the magic number is best as they are a somewhat warm blooded fish and dont like hot temps. All this is for yellow fin now. Also you need to be there at the crack of day light, an hour before is even better. Once the sun gets up, they go back down to get in the cooler water again.

Black fin show up around the same time, but hang out threw the early summer and like 75 - 78 degree water and are in much bigger schools, but smaller of course. They average 10-30 pounds.
We also catch a lot of the yellow and black fin around the farthest navy towers in March, little closer in then, 55-64 kts. Just watch the water charts. If you see a eddy of warm water coming off the stream inshore to the towers, with all the bait those things hold, you can bet the tuna and wahoo will be in there too.


In the Gulf, we go out of Mexico Beach FL and usually run over to the Spur or Nipple out of Pensacola- Destin area. It's an 80 kts run from there, but only 50ish from Pensacola.

August for some reason seems to be the best yellow fin month over there, with blackfin around most of the year.

If you can make the oil rigs off to the west of the panhandle you can really mop up on them, but that's a heck of a ride in a truck or a boat to get there from here.

 

[wekiva bird]

on the east coast
I go out of St Simons Island GA
Got to hit the gulf stream for them. It's edge is 75 kts from St Simons. In Fl and SC it's a bit closer though. We're just stuck in that deep coastal bend in GA so we have a long run to the curve ( stream), but we also have miles and miles of bottom fishing because of it unlike FL.

Best time for them is late fall threw early spring. They start showing up around Dec get thick by Feb and last strong threw April.
water temps around 70-75 with 72 seeming to be the magic number is best as they are a somewhat warm blooded fish and dont like hot temps. All this is for yellow fin now. Also you need to be there at the crack of day light, an hour before is even better. Once the sun gets up, they go back down to get in the cooler water again.

Black fin show up around the same time, but hang out threw the early summer and like 75 - 78 degree water and are in much bigger schools, but smaller of course. They average 10-30 pounds.
We also catch a lot of the yellow and black fin around the farthest navy towers in March, little closer in then, 55-64 kts. Just watch the water charts. If you see a eddy of warm water coming off the stream inshore to the towers, with all the bait those things hold, you can bet the tuna and wahoo will be in there too.


In the Gulf, we go out of Mexico Beach FL and usually run over to the Spur or Nipple out of Pensacola- Destin area. It's an 80 kts run from there, but only 50ish from Pensacola.

August for some reason seems to be the best yellow fin month over there, with blackfin around most of the year.

If you can make the oil rigs off to the west of the panhandle you can really mop up on them, but that's a heck of a ride in a truck or a boat to get there from here.

That is to far for our boat. You must go out in a larger boat than ours.