# St.Marks Fishing/Scalloping 7/21/12



## Hit-n-Miss (Jul 22, 2012)

Daniel and I decided to go to St.Marks yesterday to check out the scallops there. Have been going to Keaton but they aren't reliable there yet. My brother and daughter are coming in a couple weeks and we want to put them on some scallops. We got to the fort ramp at 7:15 and got a choice parking space and headed out. Was very suprised at how calm it was. 

Uploaded with ImageShack.usHeaded east and fished near the stake line till 9:30 and wound up with 3 trout and many shorts. Daniel had a 4' shark try to eat his only keeper at the boat. We moved in shallow to look for scallops and found with the overcast and slight stain you could not see them from the boat. So I got into the water and Daniel idled along till we found them.

Uploaded with ImageShack.usThe visability was pretty good and we got our limit pretty easily. Did not see anything to spear though. There was a ton of boats out there and as usual I saw several boats plane between boats that had flags up and were 150 yards apart. We watched as we cleaned our scallops on the boat.

Uploaded with ImageShack.usWe headed up the Wakulla to see how far we would need to go to find manatees(my wife loves manatees) to take the family to go see in a couple of weeks. Sure is a beautiful place.


Uploaded with ImageShack.usAfter swimming it was time to head in for some boat ramp follies. It took 30 minutes to get out. Had another great day on the water. 

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Uploaded with ImageShack.us We swam around and rinsed out the gear. I found a pair of glasses on the bottom.



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## Hit-n-Miss (Jul 22, 2012)

A couple more pics...



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## Shine Runner (Jul 22, 2012)

Glad ya'll had a good trip.  We went to Keaton again this weekend, but not so good.  Friday and Saturday picked up 0 scallops.  Went from Adams to 9 mile sand bar looking.  Most of the area from the 1st bird rack South to 9 mile were dirty.  3 FOW at 9 Mile before I could see grass.  North was much better visibility, but scallops were really scattered.  Ended up just fishing.  No keeper trout, but did have a school of reds come by us while looking for scallops.  No hookups, but did try with everything I had and followed them for several hundred yards.  Saturday we ran up on the largest school of ladyfish and blues I have ever seen.  We chased them for 2 hours.  Caught more ladyfish and blues than I care to remember.  Good fun for the kids.  Most of the time we had triples all the time.  Also took a few ladyfish out to 15 FOW to chunk up for sharks.  Lots of 4-7' bulls and other sharks burned out +/- 200 yds of line before we got them turned.  Some leaped completely out of the water and made a great show while some of them just stayed down and ran around the boat several laps.  Light tackle fun at it's best.  Way to much chaos for pics, but wish some one had been on the boat to video.  By the way, this was all from my Triton TS18 with a 60HP  Etec which is my crappie fishing boat!!!!  Saw a Xpress HD22 that I want really bad.  Anyone got one for sale?  Perfect multi species boat that I could fresh and saltwater fish from with the whole family.  Cleaning this carpeted boat is getting old quick.


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## Hit-n-Miss (Jul 23, 2012)

Shine Runner said:


> Glad ya'll had a good trip.  We went to Keaton again this weekend, but not so good.  Friday and Saturday picked up 0 scallops.  Went from Adams to 9 mile sand bar looking.  Most of the area from the 1st bird rack South to 9 mile were dirty.  3 FOW at 9 Mile before I could see grass.  North was much better visibility, but scallops were really scattered.  Ended up just fishing.  No keeper trout, but did have a school of reds come by us while looking for scallops.  No hookups, but did try with everything I had and followed them for several hundred yards.  Saturday we ran up on the largest school of ladyfish and blues I have ever seen.  We chased them for 2 hours.  Caught more ladyfish and blues than I care to remember.  Good fun for the kids.  Most of the time we had triples all the time.  Also took a few ladyfish out to 15 FOW to chunk up for sharks.  Lots of 4-7' bulls and other sharks burned out +/- 200 yds of line before we got them turned.  Some leaped completely out of the water and made a great show while some of them just stayed down and ran around the boat several laps.  Light tackle fun at it's best.  Way to much chaos for pics, but wish some one had been on the boat to video.  By the way, this was all from my Triton TS18 with a 60HP  Etec which is my crappie fishing boat!!!!  Saw a Xpress HD22 that I want really bad.  Anyone got one for sale?  Perfect multi species boat that I could fresh and saltwater fish from with the whole family.  Cleaning this carpeted boat is getting old quick.


Wow that stinks on the scallops but at least you had fast action for the kids. You should give St Marks a try for scallops.


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## MudDucker (Jul 23, 2012)

Hit-n-Miss said:


> Wow that stinks on the scallops but at least you had fast action for the kids. You should give St Marks a try for scallops.




You forgot to mention the fact that lots of tiger sharks have been spotted at St. Marks recently.  They were attacking the bull sharks that were about to attack the swimmers.


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## Shine Runner (Jul 23, 2012)

MudDucker said:


> You forgot to mention the fact that lots of tiger sharks have been spotted at St. Marks recently. They were attacking the bull sharks that were about to attack the swimmers.


 
??? Really???  I have heard of a few tigers being spotted offshore,  but not heard of any attacking bull sharks.  You got a link to those reports?  If just kiddng, then you got me.  Kinda makes that pic of HitnMiss scary since he is trolling live bait like that!!!


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## Shine Runner (Jul 23, 2012)

Hit-n-Miss said:


> Wow that stinks on the scallops but at least you had fast action for the kids. You should give St Marks a try for scallops.


 
Yep, never thought I would be glad to catch ladyfish.  But when any fish are schooling like that it is fun.  Kids are still smiling and talking about it!  Thought for sure there would have been some spanish mixed in, but we never got one to the boat or for sure saw one jumping among the others rocketing out of the water slashing up the bait.


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## Hit-n-Miss (Jul 24, 2012)

MudDucker said:


> You forgot to mention the fact that lots of tiger sharks have been spotted at St. Marks recently.  They were attacking the bull sharks that were about to attack the swimmers.


At  least the tigers are protecting the swimmers.


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## blindhog (Jul 24, 2012)

We scalloped sunday about 2 miles from grey mare.  Sharks were helping us find the scallops.


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