# Port St. Joe Report.Fish Bites? Your experience and opinions



## Tugboat1 (Mar 24, 2013)

Just got back from two days of tough fishing in Port St. Joe. The initial plan was to kayak to Pompano Cove and camp. Surf and bay fishing from there. The weather was not conducive and me and my buddy were forced to make short excursions around the weather.

After years of hearing/reading about Fish Bites I bought a pack. Live and frozen bait can be expensive and quality, sometimes lacking. Our plan the first day was to check out the bay side at the rocks in the curve to the cape. Southeast winds had the bay whitecapping so we chose to fish the surf at the rocks. The road to the lighthouse and stumphole was closed, our preferred spot. The wind was strong at our backs but the surf was moderate and water clarity good. I used Fish Bites and my buddy used fresh shrimp.

I was impressed. In two hours I caught 12 whiting and a pinfish and never changed bait. The same two strips caught all of them.  My buddy caught 3 on shrimp. Interesting.

The wind was relentless so we decided to check out the marina and boat ramp in Port St Joe. Farting around with soft plastic jigs provided a keeper flounder (with three missed) in shallow water. We went to the bridge and fished a while with shrimp and artificials. No luck and the current was ripping.

Yesterday we loaded up early and were hit with a strong hail storm. Looking at weather radar we thought we might get a window and headed back to the cape. The winds were more favorable and we launched our kayaks on the bay side of the rock piles. Fog was heavy. We made it out to the drop off and found flounder pretty thick over sandy bottom in 8 - 10 feet. Multiple drifts yielded 9 flounder strikes on soft plastics but lost them all close to the boat, even allowing time for the fish to swallow. I boated the only fish using a small thin triangle of FB tipping the bait. Was that the difference?

Another line of squalls hit and we raced to the truck in the rain. The weather was very iffy but we decided to head to Crooked Island beach to fish the surf. According to weather radar this was a gap in the approaching weather. Fished for an hour before a wall cloud around Panama City and lightning forced us to retreat. During that time he fished shrimp and I fished the FB's.

Again, I was surprised. In those excursions I caught multiple whiting, a catfish, a pinfish, a flounder, a juvenile black drum, a pompano and a small perch-like fish I didn't recognize. I just wish I had added FB when we were first into the flounder.

Anyone else have experience using this bait? I used half of a six dollar pack and my buddy went through twelve bucks of shrimp. Kinda got me excited. No ice or aeration needed.

As a side note. No bait observed in the flats but flounder turned in the shallows. Lots of bird activity on the beach.


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## Mak-n-Memories (Mar 25, 2013)

My experince is the same as yours. It out fishes live or dead bait in the surf. In the bait using it as a tipper works great, by its self not so much. I have used it offshore catching BeeLiners,triggers, and Porgies.


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## fairweather (Mar 25, 2013)

I frequently fish the Cape and the bay area around the State Park. I was down about a week before you and had a similar experience dodging the weather. I fished the surf one nice day and tried an experiment with a double dropper rig. I put a frozen shrimp on one hook and a fishbite on the other. I was surprised that in many cases, too many to be coincidence, I got a whiting on the fishbites rather than the shrimp. I think it's good stuff.


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## fish hawk (Mar 26, 2013)

I've read a lot of good things about the fish bites.Gonna give some a try while in Fl. next week.


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## duckwacker (Mar 26, 2013)

I'm curious what color did you use. I have used the natural and orange FB with some success but not as good as you experienced.


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## biggabuck (Mar 27, 2013)

Well i guess i will have to use the Fishbites i have in my box.


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## backyard buck (Mar 27, 2013)

duckwacker said:


> I'm curious what color did you use. I have used the natural and orange FB with some success but not as good as you experienced.



I've read that the orange ones are good for tipping a pompano jig.The orange color imitates the eggs of the sand flea.


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## fairweather (Mar 27, 2013)

Like Buck said, I've used the orange strips on a pompano jig with good success for both pompano and whiting. Also have had good luck with the bright pink ones.

Just got some of the fishbites products that are shaped like shrimp and jerk shad. Looking forward to giving those a try next month. Haven't had a chance to give them a workout yet.


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