gander
Junior Member
Posts: 12
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Post by gander on Apr 10, 2024 8:57:11 GMT -5
Greetings, Gentlemen of the Panhandle Forum!
Headed south last weekend for our annual SGI spring visit. Had a nice drive through some much greener country than home. Arrived Saturday, joined by our son and daughter-in-law from GA. Lines in the water for a couple hours outside any tidal activity gave us nothing but the joy of being on a Gulf beach.
Sunday was beautiful! Looked like a perfect pompano day but they never showed up. Not much else but a pair of small whiting went in the cooler for cut bait.
Wind came up overnight and a trip to the park found high surf and dirty water. The cut bait worked for a nice sharpnose shark for my son and I battled with a much larger sandbar shark. Both were released quickly. A return to the beach later in the evening tallied our first pompano.
Several hours on high dirty surf yesterday yield a trio of small black drum a couple more whiting and a pair of catfish.
Wind is really blowing today so will head to the bayside for a late afternoon high tide. Will keep you posted!
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Post by slough on Apr 10, 2024 11:54:56 GMT -5
Glad you made it down
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 10, 2024 13:47:02 GMT -5
Enjoy your time. Wish we were there.
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Post by ferris1248 on Apr 10, 2024 17:51:48 GMT -5
Great news Gander.
Look forward to your reports.
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Post by billybob on Apr 10, 2024 18:32:38 GMT -5
Nice. Enjoy and throw us some updates
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Post by familyfisher on Apr 11, 2024 7:33:36 GMT -5
Enjoy your break and catch em up!
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gander
Junior Member
Posts: 12
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Post by gander on Apr 13, 2024 16:04:02 GMT -5
Update: Saturday PM
After those nasty storms Wednesday — may have been a lightning strike that started a house fire on Gulf Beach Dr east of 12th — and even nastier conditions on the Gulf the next day, we got back on the sand yesterday morning. A few hours in the sunshine felt great! The waves were smaller but the dirty water went out a long way! Caught 1 pompano, 3 black drum 15-21”, and some croakers, grunts and whiting.
Today we had high hopes as the seas had calmed and water clarity improved throughout the morning. Missed one shark hit early, a few more grunts and croakers, and just one pompano for a long beautiful day on the beach.
We have a few days left and hope to finish with a flurry like last year. Fish just need to get the memo that everything is looking good on the beaches!!
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Post by nikonoclast on Apr 13, 2024 16:46:39 GMT -5
Go for it!
SGI is such a pleasure, with both surf and bay a short walk away.
"Tax day" used to be the unofficial start of the Pompano run.
You're close enough ... !
If the water is still off-color, try using Clam flavor Fishbites.
They have come through when the surf looked like latte'.
( Not "Coquina Clam" flavor ... though they might work. )
I've used the "regular" fast-acting Clam.
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Post by ferris1248 on Apr 14, 2024 6:12:11 GMT -5
Sounds a little slow compared to years past.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 14, 2024 17:35:08 GMT -5
👍
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gander
Junior Member
Posts: 12
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Post by gander on Apr 16, 2024 21:22:05 GMT -5
Update Tuesday PM
The weather is gorgeous but the fishing is still slow. Spent the day in the state park Sunday. 4 pompano and 1 whiting over 9 hours w 12 lines in the water (party of 4) across 3 tide changes. Different variations of fleas, shrimp, Fish bites and dead baits.
Yesterday beachfront near our rental. A nice ray and a 29”+ jack crevalle by 0900, then…NOTHING. NADA. ZIP.
Relaxed on the beach soaking baits. Til 1800. Dismal. Neighbors hit one pompano and a 14” whiting. Gave up a couple hours before us.
Park today from 0900-1430. Water beautiful. Surf was up and down. Midday high tide.1 whiting, 1 pompano and a very small ray. Neighbors stayed put and caught 8 pompano and 2 whiting at 16”. Spent the last hour of light on the beach and battled a 24” black drum to the sand!👍
Last hurrah tomorrow. Hoping for a late inning rally to improve our standings. 🤞
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 17, 2024 9:23:12 GMT -5
Good luck
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Post by ferris1248 on Apr 20, 2024 6:49:34 GMT -5
Did the fishing pick up?
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gander
Junior Member
Posts: 12
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Post by gander on Apr 21, 2024 7:15:53 GMT -5
Final Report:
Scratched out 2 more pompano and a large whiting in our last day + 1.5 hours. Never really got into a good bite. Family at other end of the block got into them w 13 on Thursday and 9 yesterday. Over 30 for their first week there.
Sadly, they first and we in the last day plus had to deal w some beach front property owners who were quite salty about having people fishing nearby. Neighbor lady to our family pitched a fit the first day they set up (on their own rental’s frontage and eastward) saying how inconsiderate they were to be fishing 10 rods—for 5 people—“like those other people down the beach” (us, running 8-10 for 4 us). That lady also borders the public access crossover so she’s probably got lots of sharing issues.
We put the last line of our set at the “boundary” next to an occupied house and my daughter had a lady tell her she had to remove it because she “might want to go swimming later”. Daughter told her the line wasn’t interfering that. Next (last) morning I was setting up in front of that house as only bite the day before was at that previous line, family down beach in that direction was doing better. Husband came out and yelled “You’ve got 14 miles of f-ing beach and you have to be right in front of my house!” Played the homeowner w guests card. (That house borders a bay-to-beach access mid block). I calmly explained that I was there because the fish seemed to be further east than where we’d been fishing and just then a rod went off with a double that my daughter reeled in. Told him we’d only be there for 1-1/2 hours before we had to leave and return to our lives in miserable Michigan. He calmed down when I said I was leaving that day. He also complained about the number of rods and I described that we have 4 people fishing and would likely take up more frontage if we were fishing individually than as a group. Seemed like a little bulb flickered there. Mostly just p-o’d he couldn’t have full control of his front yard. Private house on a public beach. Sorry folks.
Guess I should be happy that this is the only experience w this issue in 15 trips to SGI. Better if the park had been more productive.
Overall a fun trip with average to below fishing, mostly due to weather issues. Good times w two of our kids who could join us. Safe travel both ways. Got home in time Friday afternoon to roost a turkey and a buddy and I doubled up yesterday morning at 7 AM!
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Post by billybob on Apr 21, 2024 7:32:35 GMT -5
Thanks for sharing.
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Post by ferris1248 on Apr 21, 2024 12:46:17 GMT -5
I'll second that. Safe travels |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 21, 2024 13:58:36 GMT -5
Safe travels. Very glad you enjoyed yourselves. Some day I hope we are down at the same time so I could take your family offshore with us.
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Post by swampdog on Apr 21, 2024 18:20:32 GMT -5
When you average everything out you’ve had some great fishing down there over the years. We had annual trips with clean water and great fishing and yet we had a few tropical disturbances that sent us home with nothing to show except tremendous storm activity. Oh yes there’s also new folks that do not like us looking their way these days. Congrats on the turkey hunt!
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gander
Junior Member
Posts: 12
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Post by gander on Apr 22, 2024 5:35:59 GMT -5
Thank you all! Ken, that would def be fantastic! Haven’t had a chance to fish w Chris Sapp for the past couple years due to his work schedule. When we did we usually made a pass along the shoreline in front of your place. Swampdog, we have always considered ourselves blessed to spend time down on the Forgotten Coast. We’ve made a lot of great memories with friends and family. My 3 fishing trip objectives have always been to be safe, have fun, catch fish, in that order. We have had some leaner years in that third column but I’ll take the Meatloaf special and be happy “cuz 2 outta 3 ain’t bad”! We’ve brought home a couple meals of pompano and a bunch of shrimp to get us through until next spring.  |
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