# St. Joseph Bay 9/22-9/23



## nolefisher33 (Feb 26, 2007)

Well, i've been out of the fishing game for a few months while I was in Alabama for the summer. :--| But I finally got back to the salt waters this weekend. We did a little cheating this weekend and took a charter out into St. Joseph Bay in Port St. Joe, FL. 

Yesterday we went out at about 2:30 in the afternoon and did a little fishing. The waters were rough from the storm that just moved through. We spent about half an hour looking for bait and then had to head for cover because a stormed moved through. When the storm passed we headed back out. We got onto a school of Ladyfish, Sharks, and Catfish in the first spot so we decided to move on along the shore. When we first got to our new spot we caught some Speckled Trout right off the bat, but it quickly turned back into the Cats and sharks before we could catch any keeper sized trout. We fished for a bit longer moving around, but couldn't seem to get away from the shark/cat bite. So we headed in and called it a day. The captain of our charter told us he'd take us out again in the morning for no charge because he said we didn't catch what we were supposed to. Very nice guy and very knowledgeable of the area. (http://doghousecharters.com/ if you want to check him out, he also does deep sea charters.)

We went out again this morning to try and catch some reds/trout again. We met our Captain at 8:30 and set off again. We caught bait quickly this morning and got to fishing. We headed near an old mill and fished by the wall there for about 45 minutes. (Which is accessible to fish by land, but I don't know quite how to get there) Caught a lot of Croakers, which I happen to need a recipe for  We were going for Flounder, but couldn't seem to hook them although the bite was there. I ended up hooking up with one, but it was too small to keep. We moved along the shore and found a spot where the trout bite was nice for a few minutes. Caught a couple of keepers and moved along. We stopped and found a nice school of reds, which we only managed to bring one legal sized fish into the boat. We moved along some more and caught a few more trout, then decided to head out for some lunch. We decided to do another afternoon session (Payed for this one). Afternoon wasn't as successful but still very fun. We caught about 3 more keeper trout and 2 nice flounder. Also snagged a lizard fish according to the captain. Looked just like a lizard... how ironic.  But all in all it was a great trip. Returned back home to Tallahassee with enough fish to eat for at least a week.

If you have never been to the Port St. Joe area, it is very nice. You can do a lot of fishing out there. The whole bay is VERY shallow. You could almost walk across the entire thing. I saw a lot of people wade fishing. Just park along the road near the water and you can literally walk out hundreds of yards. The captain said you can be very successful fishing there without a boat if you're not afraid to get wet. I highly suggest the area and Captain Kenny Lemieux if you're interested in a charter.


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## emanuel (Apr 2, 2002)

I've moved this to the boating board since this was a boat report. You should get more replies this way also. Sounds like a good time out in St. Joe. I haven't fished down there yet, but I'll have to now.


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