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Fishin.com is better when we post about our fishing trips, tell everyone about the fun, unusual or terrible things that happened to us. What’s not all that interesting is seeing posts asking about fishing, where to fish, what’s biting. I am not opposed to such posts, but I’d rather read about what actual fisherman are seeing and doing that we might enjoy reading about. I am committing to posting more about my fishing trips this year. I hope I have good tales to share.
Last 5 years I’ve taken my bass boat to Panama City. I have a 17 foot bass tracker with a 70 hp engine. I fish the bay all the way out near the jetties. Fishing is fantastic. The bay is bigger than Barren Lake but is shallow. Depths I Fish are normally 6-8 foot. Deepest parts are the channel cut for navigation
maybe 49 foot. Most of the bay is less than 15 foot deep. What makes fishing there so good is the grass flats. Speckled trout and redfish are what I’m looking to catch and eat. Lady fish are not great eating fish but I usually catch a few every trip and they are called a poor mans tarpon. They fight hard, jump, and can get pretty big. Depending on the year, Spanish makeral school in the bay and at times you can slay them. Lastly, an occasional king makeral will hit your line. Nothing better in life than getting hooked up with one of these. Normally I’ve only caught them trolling the channels, and more times than not they have broken me off since I seldom use Steel leaders.
I store my boat while there at storage place near shipwreck island for $70. For a month. There is another place north or Hathaway Bridge you can store it and they will put it in the water for you the night before and you can just show up and launch. Not too expensive either. My boat leaks a little so I don’t think putting in in overnight was a good idea!! I flush out my engine every day I use it. I wash the boat down thoroughly too. The storage place has a hose they let you use.
Tackle you need is regular spinning gear. Light tackle is great. A cheap rod and reel that you don’t mind tossing might be the way to go the first time. Salt water will ruin most reels. I eventually bought a couple Penn reels that are made for salt water but I still use a couple fresh water rods that hold up for a few trips before getting stiff. Best fishing involves top water, live or shrimp lures on a jig head. Half the time I fish with a bobber with a gulp shrimp on a jig head in 6 foot of water on grass beds. I don’t think I’m a great fisherman, I struggle on lakes. But in Florida, I do pretty well. Even a slow day you will see dolphins, rays, occasional sea turtle, or beach bunny!! I don’t target sharks but I’m sure you could catch some. I’ve never seen a shark swim by though. Weird I haven’t. I used to kayak fish down there and I was looking pretty hard back then.
My boat has held up well. The wiring to the batteries corroded because that was an area I wasn’t washing down, but that was an easy fix. Now before I leave Florida, I pull the batteries and wash down that area too.
Anyway if you have a boat, and wondered if that would be fun, and have any other questions, please ask.
Good thread. It will be better to post with catch pictures.;)
[QUOTE=huntingteacher;566472]Fishin.com is better when we post about our fishing trips, tell everyone about the fun, unusual or terrible things that happened to us. What’s not all that interesting is seeing posts asking about fishing, where to fish, what’s biting. I am not opposed to such posts, but I’d rather read about what actual fisherman are seeing and doing that we might enjoy reading about. I am committing to posting more about my fishing trips this year. I hope I have good tales to share.[/QUOTE]
This may sound harsh, but whenever I see a post asking for help, and I may actually *have* some help, which is rare LOL, I always look back at that person's history of posts. If all I see are "help" posts and never "report" posts, I'll pass.
Happens over half the time.
Went down to Cumberland yesterday from Louisville (128 miles) mainly to start my boat but also the do some fishing if I could catch some bait midday. So it was also a bait exploring expedition midwinter. I have never tried to net Gizzards in the winter. Got there about 2 pm. On the way up to the head of the creek I did not see many signs of life under the boat. The surface temperature was pretty stable all the way up the creek at about 47 but dropped to about 41 near where the ice started.
I try netting some bait on the way up throwing the net about six times. I didn't really see a whole lot of bait and I theorized they would be in the warmer water. But… The surface temperature was fairly consistent all the way up until you got near the ice.
So I went back down the creek a bit and threw the net six more times and headed further down the creek because things did not look very promising. When I got near the mouth I talked to two fellows on a boat and they did not have many good reports. They did mention that a fellow I know thats a very good fisherman fished the last two days and decided to go down to Alabama to do some hunting the rest of the week. That pretty much solidified my decision to head back home at 6 pm. It was a quick trip but I will not have to worry about the boat carburetors clogging up since I just gave it a good run. Home by 8:30.
On the flip side a friend emailed me some nice photos of a 15 and 27 pounder caught Saturday.
[QUOTE=peter;566483]Went down to Cumberland yesterday from Louisville (128 miles) mainly to start my boat but also the do some fishing if I could catch some bait midday. So it was also a bait exploring expedition midwinter. I have never tried to net Gizzards in the winter. Got there about 2 pm. On the way up to the head of the creek I did not see many signs of life under the boat. The surface temperature was pretty stable all the way up the creek at about 47 but dropped to about 41 near where the ice started.
I try netting some bait on the way up throwing the net about six times. I didn't really see a whole lot of bait and I theorized they would be in the warmer water. But… The surface temperature was fairly consistent all the way up until you got near the ice.
So I went back down the creek a bit and threw the net six more times and headed further down the creek because things did not look very promising. When I got near the mouth I talked to two fellows on a boat and they did not have many good reports. They did mention that a fellow I know thats a very good fisherman fished the last two days and decided to go down to Alabama to do some hunting the rest of the week. That pretty much solidified my decision to head back home at 6 pm. It was a quick trip but I will not have to worry about the boat carburetors clogging up since I just gave it a good run. Home by 8:30.
On the flip side a friend emailed me some nice photos of a 15 and 27 pounder caught Saturday.[/QUOTE]
That 41 temp should get a nice bump this week.
This would require you to go fishing, which I can’t seem to ever do!!!
My 3 oldest grandsons 10,9 and 7 are key west hurricane refugees and are loving kentucky. Over Christmas break we made a chart for each boy that is a list of each species of fish they catch. We started checking off boxes last friday by going to the hatchery creek and catching 3 different strains of rainbow trout. They caught over 20 and we kept 15 fot dinner, they were very proud to provide dinner. Besides the trout they caught they also caught the north american sweat pants fish, the southern hoodie fish and the creekside earlobe fish , and had strong hook sets on all the above, poppy did a lot of surgery that day lol.
Stripers and other big species will be later this summer when school is out.
I still cant believe i am so lucky to have my little buddies here in kentucky. I think they are adjusting well and we have many adventures planned