# St George Island Trout Festival 7/18-7/24/11 (pic heavy)



## wharfrat (Jul 24, 2011)

Michelle and I finally got away for a short, kid-free vacation down on St. George Island, FL.  We fished Thursday and yesterday morning on some beautiful grass flats in the bay at the east end of SGI.  Our game plan was pretty simple, as we either drifted or used the trolling motor to stay in water 3'-5' deep.  Our baits were topwaters, Mirrolure 52M, lipdivers and soft plastic jerk baits.  We made long casts and worked the lures back to the boat.  We never fished the same place twice, and just kept moving and drifting different sections looking for that elusive 5 lb or plus gator.  We ended up catching just over 30 on Thursday and just over 20 on Saturday.  Most of the fish were in the 13"-16" range, but did have 10 or 12 over 16" and 4 over 20", including a 23" and a 24".  The Apalachicola Bay system is an awesome fishery, and we will be back one day in search of that gator!  At last count we were at around 144 raw oysters washed down with about half that in ice cold beverages.  It was pretty neat to see the guys harvesting the oysters every morning.  We had an absolute blast and I even blew out my flip-flop, stepped on a pop-top, cut my heel (toe) had to cruise on back home...

I'm so lucky my sweetie loves beating up the water as much as I do.  Thanks Michelle!


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## Dustin Pate (Jul 24, 2011)

Awesome job. I think that is one of the better trout fisheries in the Gulf. There are so many young fish in the system to keep replenishing. I guarantee if you keep fishing it you will get your gator..there are plenty of them lurking around.

You get your oysters at Teach's?


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## wharfrat (Jul 24, 2011)

Thanks Dustin.  10-4 on Teach's, couldn't lay off the 3:30-4:30 Happy Hour...$4.50/doz!!!!  I knocked a couple big ones off Michelle's bomber with the net, but I don't think they would've gone 5.  The most consistent big trout fishery I've found is the Indian River system from Titusville down to Ft. Pierce with Jax, FL being a close second.


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## milltown (Jul 25, 2011)

Great pics, thanks for sharing.


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## ryanwhit (Jul 25, 2011)

one of my favorite places.  we were down last month and ate 90 lbs of oysters in 2 weeks.  next time your down with your wife, there's some great eats in apalach.  I mean great - as in it don't get no better.


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## 4HAND (Jul 25, 2011)

ryanwhit said:


> one of my favorite places.  we were down last month and ate 90 lbs of oysters in 2 weeks.  next time your down with your wife, there's some great eats in apalach.  I mean great - as in it don't get no better.




Amen. Papa Joe's is our favorite!


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## basscatcher (Jul 25, 2011)

Nice fish!  If you don't mind me asking where did you put in to get there?  The state park, carrabelle, bridge?


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## ryanwhit (Jul 25, 2011)

4HAND said:


> Amen. Papa Joe's is our favorite!



Lots of folks like papa joe's.  In my experience they have the coldest beer in town.  That place off 98 is my favorite.  Excellent food.


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## Dustin Pate (Jul 25, 2011)

Papa Joe's is up at the top of my list as well!


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## Capt. TJ Cheek (Jul 25, 2011)

Thanks... now I want some oysters. I don't want the one that is growing out of your toe though.


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## wharfrat (Jul 25, 2011)

4HAND said:


> Amen. Papa Joe's is our favorite!


Downed a few here:







ryanwhit said:


> Lots of folks like papa joe's.  In my experience they have the coldest beer in town.  That place off 98 is my favorite.  Excellent food.


And here too:







basscatcher said:


> Nice fish!  If you don't mind me asking where did you put in to get there?  The state park, carrabelle, bridge?


Basscatcher-we put in at the new ramp at the base of the bridge on SGI.  Head east to the grass flats and start fishing!


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## killswitch (Jul 25, 2011)

Those east end flats have always been excellent during the summer months.  We used to vacation on SGI almost every year back in the late 90's and early 2000's and the trout bite was always strong.  We would launch at the state park at the crack of dawn and fish til 10 or 11, then go back in the evening from 6 to dark.  Back then, if you bought a weekly pass for the state park, they gave you the gate combo so you could launch anytime of day or night.   The weekly pass also gave you access to the second gate, which accessed the east pass beach. That was some excellent beach fishing.  However,if you didn't have 4wd, you didn't make it to the east end.  Need to get back down there......lots of fun times.


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## kevincox (Jul 30, 2011)

Im headed down there in about 30mins. Got a house rented on the Bay and going to do a little fishing as well!


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## Double Alt (Jul 30, 2011)

Awesome.  Eddie Teach's on SGI has some world class oysters and ice cold beer as well!


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