# Graduation fishing



## doomtrpr_z71 (Aug 10, 2017)

On August the 7th I completed my PhD and finished my research at the University of Ga, what better to do to to celebrate than go fishing, right? So on the 8th my retired fishing buddy Wayne made the trek from north Ga to pick me and the boat up in Wilcox Co. Our destination was Steinhatchee by way of St. Marks, I broke a thermostat spring and needed a replacement from Shields. After a detour to MSI to start the trip off right, we got the motor right and launched from the lighthouse. We fished around Grey Mare and I caught my first post doc trout 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





 and a big ole sailcat. Apparently since my last serious fishing trip in April I have forgotten how to fish and that was all I caught that afternoon while my partner caught 15 or so short trout and a huge ladyfish. But it was a beautiful afternoon on the water  
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




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I did have a moment coming up the channel since the gate closes at 9, I didnt know the gate will open if you pull up to it. We stayed in Tallahassee that night after swinging by whataburger since not much is open around 10 at night. 8/9 found us headed to the hatch and after grabbing an early lunch at Kathis Krab Shack we hit the flats and I proceeded to find my first post doc scallops




while Wayne fished. Grass was too thick, so I decided to move to a different spot to scallop and proceeded to loose a rod in the process. Stopped the boat but no luck in finding it so there is now a daiwa coastal zillion on a st criox rod out in 6ft of water near rocky creek. But I did catch my first post doc keeper, a nice 17in trout 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	



 but then more bad luck struck when I went to scallop again. When I threw out the anchor the clevis had rusted through and the anchor came loose to be lost at sea even with me diving in to try and find it so scalloping was over. But it was another beautiful day on the water 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




. We did end up catching 25+ shorts apiece and a few sail cats so while we only ended up with 2 keepers, it was still a fun day. Its hard to complain when your thumb looks like this 





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The fish all seemed to be in 4-5ft of water, deeper water in the 8-10ft range yielded nothing to us.  Pink shine gulp and chartreuse tailed gulp was what did the best for us. We rested our heads at Good times and headed back to Ga on the 10th, luckily avoiding loosing anything else.


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## slow motion (Aug 11, 2017)

Congratulations on your accomplishment Dr., as well as what appears to have been an enjoyable, albeit challenging, trip.


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## doomtrpr_z71 (Aug 14, 2017)

Thanks, the real accomplishment will be employment now, it was fun, but considering how busy seatow was for a weekday, I'll take my issues over what some other endured.


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## jdgator (Aug 28, 2017)

Great photos & stories.

heck I remember fishing Graymare rock in the 1980s before GPS when nobody ever made it out there.


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## doomtrpr_z71 (Aug 28, 2017)

Greymare is a place I'll never forget, I caught my first red there. In fact, I had the same fishing partner as this trip and we got into a school of reds. Caught over 20 and then had the adventure of going back in in the dark with no spotlight.


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## sea trout (Aug 28, 2017)

Congrats Doc! 

Awesome pictures!!!


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