I must be  jinxed no matter where I fish.  Went out on the Swoop today on a 5 hour trip. This is the fastest boat in Destin. We made it out 22 miles. Most of the other head boats don't go that far for they are slower and runs trips by the hour. Anyway, my friend Joe and I did get our limit of snapper with the largest 4.8 pounds.  The other 3 were small, maybe two pounds. Really too small to keep in my book but on a head boat you have to decide just what to keep and what to release. They don't say very long in a given spot and move around.  I did catch a gag grouper of about 7 or 8 pounds but the season is closed and he has to go back.

Joe and I made a pack today that our next trip on the Choctawhatchee we would take no live bait and concentrate on the fly rod and maybe a little bass casting if the fly rod does not work.

I haven't been doing anything with crickets and worms so may as well make a radical change and see what happens.

Clint,  here are a few photos of our trip on the Swoop.  

It has been wild in destin all this week of July 4th.  Calming down somewhat next week but still very busy. We are going out again on the Swoop.

http://s1207.photobucket.com/albums/bb480/fishwalton/Swoop/

Up early so watched Ron Jones on Sportsmans Lodge, WMBB out of Panama City. He was fishing from Shell Landing on Holmes Creek and catching nice bream. Water along shore looked low but not sure if this was recently or some time in the past. Sometimes these clips are made months ago
.

Anyway, it was good just watching nice bream being caught in neaby water.

I'm looking at the possibility of some night fly fishing this Thursday  or Friday down at Pine Log near Ebro. Full moon time so if the sky is clear I'm sure tempted.  Have been hearing about this technique down there for years. A friend has done this at Pine Log   and claims to have had good luck on the full moon.  One thing that is nice is you don't have to worry about the back cast, it's all open water.

Anyone here interested in meeting up to give this a shot?
I plan to get down there around 5 or 6 pm and fish a little before dark and up to may 10PM or so, depending on the bite.

J.B., Full moon fishing can be great, but you might want to take an afternoon nap!!! The fishing usually starts closer to midnight!!!!! Yes if you wern't so far away I would go with you!!!! Big Black flies, poppers fished at or below the surface can be EXPLOSIVE!!!! About 1400 miles west of you I will be doing the same thing!!!!!

But don't let Bruce know. He thinks NIGHT FLY FISHING is CRAZY!!!

Greg, thanks for the tip. I have never done this before so don't know a thing about it. I had better check with my friend a little more to see what time of night he goes.   I do have some black poppers and dark blue.

This is one of my all time favorites for fullmoon fishing!!! The LEACH!!!!

Don't have a leech fly like that but do have a botton of black Berkley leeches like these.  http://www.berkley-fishing.com/products/soft-bait/gulp/leech-gulp

They are one inch long. Mabe just a 6 or 8 hook in wide end would work.

Hunted and hunted today but did not find a single gil 20 miles off shore from Destin. But we did find red and vermillion shapper, red grouper, triggers, and ruby lips (considered bait fish). 

A glitch came up this evening that may require  a night trip Friday to PineLog to be postponed a day or two. Hope I can work it out. Really want to try this night full moon thing.

It's nice down there at Shell Landing. I want to hit it again soon.

Watching the weather here. Been drizzling rain for hours. Hope it stops and clears. Friend Joe and I plan to hit Pine Log about 6PM and do some night fishing for bream and bass.

Two trips on the Swoop into the gulf has helped stock the freezer with snapper, red grouper and trigger, but I'm out of bream. 

Maybe it will rain enough up in Alabama to help our rivers and creeks. NOAA prediction is showing about 4 ft starting Sunday thru Tuesday. That will help for sure.  If this hold I will be at Dear River Monday bright and early.

Started raining here sometime during the night Friday night, rained all day Saturday except about 2 hours, then all through the night until about 11am Sunday.  5 1/2 inches here at the house.

River predictions have been revised several time lower than originally through. Now the peak is about 7 ft and down to almost push pole depth by weekend. Crazy.....

I sort of planned to try a little salt water on Tuesday afternoon down at Alaqua but I think there may be too much fresh water coming down the creek into the bay.

Almost skunked today. 1 small bream, 2 warmouth (1 keeper) 1 10 inch bass.  Fished from about 5:45 to 11AM. Used crickets, worms, black buzz bait, several different popper flys, several bass worms. Fish were not feeding along shore line, few gar were observed, and only 3 or 4 jumping mullet were seen.

We set out from the Dead River Landing on hwy 81 just south of Red Bay. The north end of the upper lake has fairly clear water adn good bit of trash on surface. Lower half and lowe lake was sainted from high water.

We tried to get through the cut off in lower lake that goes to Boynton Cutoff. Wanted to try Holmes Creek where we felt there could be some clear water. Could not get throught cutoff from Dear River to Boyton due to fallen tree. Joe's Tracker was too big to go under the tree trunk. Needed my Jon boat. Current was running strong in the twisting cutoff passage and hard to handle the Tracker with steering wheel. Turned around and on way out current caught the boat and Joe hit the gas too much and put us up in the trees. Broke one of my heirloom rods....Ugh.

Finally got back into Dead River  and decided to go down to main river and try to access lower end of Boynton. GPS map was not working right. After several miles we didn't know where we were exactly so turned around and came back up to Dead River. Fished a known cappie hole .... not a single bite from anything, much less a crappie.

Came on back to the landing and found a flock of mermaids swimming at the ramp. Photos does not do them justice.  They were from Panama City and were camping with their guys. A lot of people camp at this landing.

http://s1207.photobucket.com/albums/bb480/fishwalton/Dead%20River%2...   My Friend Joe is the guy in the photos.

Backed the trailer in to load up and one of the bunk boards broke loose from the brackets. Finally got the boat loaded without any damage.

Stopped at Red Bay Grocery for lunch. On way home we stopped in at Commanders Landing just to check it out. The loading docks were under water.  Good day on the water but no fish. I'm going to Commanders tomorrow in my Jon boatand try some of the lakes off the river.

Went back to the river by myself this morning. Quite at 11am. Brougt home one 15 inch bass an one 8 inch blue gill which I'm going to eat for supper with an extra large pile of hush puppies.

Until the bite improves I'm going to dust off my salt water gear and start fishing the bay.

It's hardly worth the time and expense until there is a big improvement on beam.

That tactic may very well be one that can be used on Lake Jackson as well. The lake is full of heavy grass and pads with little holes here and there.

Last time I was over there I had to keep cleaning grass off the prop even with the motor jacked up in an angle. It was tough going in places.  Water was clear as spring water but heave vegitation made it look dark.  Thanks for the info.

Hey guys, anyone out there doing any fishing? 

I went down to Port St. Joe over the weekend and checked out the scalloping situation. We did not have enough or proper gear so that was a bust, but scores of boats were out there loading up.

Launched my little G3 1448 at the marina at the state park on Cape San Blas. St. Joe Bay is a lot different than the Choctawhatcheed. No freshwater rivers and streams entering the bay. The was is spring clear in some areas and you can see stuff in 6 to 7 feet of water in places. Grass beds everywhere and schooling bait fish being chased by feeders and birds. 

I can see now why so many people go down there to play. It's so accessable and most of the time the bay is calm for small boats

Now, what's going on in the bream world?  I'm crammed this week but next week I hope to be on the river. Maybe things have picked up a bit. 

Hi Jeff, what next of the woods will you be netting crabs. I had a report a lot are being caught in St. Joe Bay.

Good deal on Talquin. At least you got s nice mess for the table.

 Ochlocknee Bay is the closest place(about 45 min) for blue crabbing in my area. I have seen a few in the past at the first bridge south of Wakulla Springs(about 20 min) while cast netting for mullet

Went deep sea fishing about 10 - 12 years ago out of Ochlocknee Bay.

Thanks Jeffrey:  A good place a little closer to Talh is at the end of Bottoms Road. Turn left on Bottoms Road just before you get into Panacea.    There is a place to park about 1/2 mile before you get to the end of the road and another place at the end of the road.  Good area to wade fish  on high tide.

Monthly full moon shin-dig sounds really good.  We can make it inclusive for day and night or just night. Anyone out there willing to give it a shot and compare notes?  We can try to do it monthly for 2 or 3 months and see how it goes. Reports would be on the honor system since we are all highy honorable people....

Had a report from friend on Facebook today that the fish he's catching in the Choctawhatchee are poor. That was my experience 2 or 3 weeks ago as well. He said the quality is better in Holmes Creek over in Washington County. This is a beautiful body of water to fish and is usually clear from all the springs. It get's a little stained as you get closer to the Chotaw River.

Seems likeI haven't wet a hook in 2 weeks or more so looking forward to a moon light cruise on Pine Log this coming week.

Watched a bass tournement weigh-in online this afternon. It was down in Freeport. The top three winners were all in the 13 pound range and seperated by just a few 100ths. First price was $3,000. 

GThere is a bream tournament every July in Red Bay on Hwy 81 between Bruce and Ponce De Leon. It's already been held this year when the river was really low. They usually have about 30 boats. Registration is only $30.00 I believe.  Maybe next July some of us can meet up down there and partcipate. There is a fishfry included. 

 It's headquartered at the Red Bay Grocery.  They had a fire a few months ago and had to re-do the place. It's isn't the same but close. Also, management changed and apparently their website went down. You can now see them on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/RedBayGrocery  

That's it from here. Anyone out  there this week-end let us know if you caught anything or just hyperventilated and burned up from the heat.

My hoped for full moon night trip did not work out.......... ended up going this morning at daylight.   The moon was full and bright when I left the house.

Went with friend Bobby, launched out of Bozemans on the Choctawhatcheed River. Fish from about 6:15 to 12:30. The morning was much more pleasant than anticipated but about 10:00 it stated getting hot.  River was in good shape  with 5 ft reading at Ebro and it was pretty clear.  We were below the gauge which is located on the hwy 20 bridge at the Cowford Landng.

The bite was not all that great. We fished fly rods, crickets, and worms. Bobby caught one really nice big red breast on fly rod. We ended up with about 20 small bream and 3  small channel cats. I put two bream and one cat in the box. It was not my day.

We encountered two other fishermen when we came in at the landing. They didn't have anything in the box and they had a nice  batch  of catalba worms which are caviar to big bream.  Bobby knew these guys and said they know the river well.

It seems that except for the rare exception it's still difficult to make a good catch of big bream around this area.   I'm about ready to go visit family Tallahassee and drag the boat to Lake Talquin. At least I can use the excuse 'I don't know the lake' if I come up with an empty creel. ............

Now this is pretty darn cool.  It's certainly worth a try if you are so inclined.

http://bigbluegill.com/photo/flipfloppers-materials