FL Panhandle Bream Busters

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Comment by Mike Stacy on May 17, 2011 at 7:14pm

Howdy! @ JB: Good work on the trailer! Hope I have someone so patient along when I finally get a boat on the road... I'll make sure to have a lug wrench, and the air pump... Murpheys law: whatever can go wrong, WILL go wrong...

@Clint Johnson: I want those flatheads! I'll eat 'em UP! What's the scoop on "poachers"? Is it a fish trap thing? Netters? I hate both... but I have to respect a licensed fish trap operator who puts a tag on their line, because I fish for my dinner too... but an unlicensed trap might be a different story...

The word on a mullet run makes me think of flatheads! They'll eat 'em up, and get FAT. Good news for me, cuz I can't eat mullet... the one and only fish I'm allergic to. I can put them on a hook, but I can't even get near a cut fish. The smell will make me swell up like a poisoned pup...

And I'm happy to hear tips on the red ears! That's my quest... a BIG shellcracker! 

Any tips on hot shellcracker water near P'cola?

Comment by clint johnson on May 17, 2011 at 7:08pm

What a day!  Suprised you would try it again so soon after that. I hope yall will be going on your boat this time, you can get there a little bit earlier. think im headed to wewa fri afternoon. hope you have better luck on your next trip. I did get a good laugh!

Comment by J. B. Hillard on May 17, 2011 at 6:47pm

Excuse the typos. So far I haven't found how to edit errors.

Comment by J. B. Hillard on May 17, 2011 at 6:44pm

Just back from Holmes Creek, Shell landing. Man, what a day. The important part first - we did poorly, one 1 1/2 bass, one small butter cat, one nice shellcrack, and one decent bream. Several throw backs.  However, the shellcrackers were biting big time at a one spot where  2 guys were bank fishing. Will send PM.

 

We left DFS at 5:30.  Got about a mile east of the Ponce DeLeon exit and had a flat on the boat trailer.  Was on my friends Joe's truck and boat. We had no lug wrench that would fit the spare tire lugs so Joe took off to fine one. His hydrolic jack woudl not work but he has a half-assed one that we adapted. It was a screw type jack and there was no T bar to turn the dark thing. Luckly we had a vice-grips that we adapted and eventualy got the trailer jacked up high enough to change the tire.

 

 I sat on I10 with the boat when Joe went looking for a lug wrench in PDL. . He returned and we got the spare off the trailer . It had no air. Luckly Joe has one of those emergency battery power packs with air pump. Pumped up the spare and mounted. Got to Shell Landing about 8 AM.  Fished until about 3PM.

On the way home the mounted spare went flat. So I sat on I10 with the boat again and Joe went for another tire. We were between DFS and PDL.   Found one at Walmart in DFS.  finally got home about 7PM.   Man O Man, what a day to remember.

 

The up side is I love Holmes Creek. The water needs to come up a couple of feet but now you can see all the cover when it does. It's amaging how those cypress roots can provice so much cover for fish to spawn and hide.

The was was in good shape. There were a number of boats out but none were setting world on fire but they had a few. We did run into a guy abou 1PM who had just launced and he told us he could do nothing wrong yesterday afternoon on the bass. He hit  them about a mile up stream from the Holmes Creek Bridge on hwy 284. He was going back for another try.

 

Anyway, the creek no doubt is an outstanding fishery when the water is a little bit higher. There are so many little creek runs connecting, little slews off the main creek, excellent habitat is everywhere.  I was amazed how deep the water was even at the current low level. In mid stream it was about 4 to 5, and up to 15+ in places.

 

I may go back Friday for another shot since I learned a little about deep water fishing for shell cracker.

 

 

Comment by clint johnson on May 17, 2011 at 4:00pm

just had a report on dead lakes in wewa, had a good hatch of may flies and the bream are biting good

Comment by clint johnson on May 17, 2011 at 2:06pm

That's about as big of a boat you want to fish out of in holmes creek. 14' is perfect,

Comment by J. B. Hillard on May 15, 2011 at 7:30pm

Ramp at Cerrogordo is in good shape even with low water. 

I'm headed out Tuesday but not sure where, but probably Holmes Creek just for something different.

The guy who reported 100 fish today said about 30 were caught on flyrod, but mostly small.  I get the impression they caught a lot of fish but most were small.

After seeing Holmes Creek I can see why people like it. It's a draw for swimmers, canoe and yakers, and fishermen.  At the landing right near the bridge in Vernon there were a good many people in the river. About 6 or 7 rigs in parking lot.

Where every I saw trailer rigs at the various landings you could tell there were not big boat launched.  The trailers were for 12 to 16 ft max.

I

Comment by clint johnson on May 15, 2011 at 7:20pm

Had time after work this afternoon to fish in grassy pond in greenhead this afternoon. Caught a few small fish, I think the cold night sat. Had a negative effect on the fish activity. I'm affraid with the next few nights being cold its going to slow down the fish again this year. Gap pond has a good landing ,gin pond concrete out of the water may need 4 whl. Drv by now. I don't mind the poachers as long as they keep taking flatheads out of the river, I don't think the game wardens mind a lot either.I haven't fished up past cerrogoro in years how is the landing there now? I know where the mullet hole is below smokehouse, you can't miss it there is people fishin there most of the time for mullet,boats lined up back to back.I like my mullet to come out of the salt water ,I. Like the flavor better.still haven't had a good word from wewa at dead lakes.at brothers river th fishing was pickin up

Comment by J. B. Hillard on May 15, 2011 at 7:10pm

Made a scouting trip to Washington County, Holmes Creek, this afternoon. Never realized the creek was so clear up stream from Vernon.  Shell Landing looked like the best place to launch for fishing.  Upstream ramps had a lot of swimmers

At the Brunson Ramp the was was slightly stained compared to very clear water but it was still clear.  There were several people there picniking at the Choctaw Ramp and a lot of trash. Unsavory looking crowd so not sure about what to expect there during the week. But, it looked like good fishing. This is not far below Vernon. 

Went on up to the Billy Lee Ram near Douglas Ferry. This is on the river and about 4 miles upstream of Morrison Springs. Three boats were coming in and had a good catch of blue cat and shellcrackers, they said these were actually caught below Cowford yesterday and they just kept them on ice until today. They had about 20 nice shellcrackers.

Neighbor called me this after noon about trip this morning to Cowford. His boat caught their limit of 100 and second boat had 78. They got on a bed of stumpknockers and loaded up. Said most of the catch was just medium had size.  I believe the report for Ithe people well.  Both are in my church but played hookey and went fishing this morning.They kept to the limit because both are government officials in De Funiak

Appears the catch may be improving. Maybe he cooler weather and full moon has something to do with it.

Comment by J. B. Hillard on May 13, 2011 at 5:44am

Thanks for the Wewa tips.  Cox would be a good start. Will do a little google earth on that area.  Almost went to Gin Pond earlier int he week but ended up at Cowford. Got a rally neat map put out by Washtington County Tourist Development Council. They promote their boat landings and the sand hill lakes a great deal. Many of the ponds are named but there are so many not all have names on the map.  Gap looks like to really good size pod, much larger than Gin.

I had to go to Dothan yesterday so went through Bonifay. Stopped at Caryville. There were 5 rigs parked there at noon. big sandbar is under the bridge on east side and several bars out in the river below the bridge.

 

On way home I stopped at the Baker Landing on 179A north of Westville. One rig was there. River very shallow and sandbars could be seen.

 

Then went on down to the Cerrogordo Landing. Met a young local there doing the same as me, checking the river. He really knows the river and gave me several pointers on how to navigate out of the landing without running aground. We talked about the situation for about half an hour when a guy arrived with his boat. He had been to bay mullet fishing with cast net. Had 50 in a huge ice check.   Said a friend was with him in another boat and got 48.  Also said folks were cleaning up with snatch hooks at "The stump", down below Smokehouse. They use sinking dog food for chum.  Mullet folks know where that is, I don't.   BTW, he came to the landing to run his motor  to flush it in the river.

 

He also said about 5 years ago when the river was even lower than now (I remember that) there was an algae bloom at the Baker Landing area and people caught hundreds of mullet snatching from the bank and wading out in the river. That's a long way up the river but the conditions were unusual which may have brought them that far north. 

 

We had a good three-way conversation and  they talked about how bad shocking is going on now in the upper river. The poachers are taking loads of flatheads and other fish by shocking the deep holes. They said if there are 2 or 3 boats close together they are probably shocking.  They are doing it at night as well as in broad daylight. They talked about one case where two guys loaded the back of their pickup and the boat was half full of flatheads. They got checked by the Game Warden but he could not make a case. Could not find the shocker. It had been hidden in the woods.  No telling what all goes on in the woods and waters up there.     They did say flatheads had got so bad up there it was impacting the bream fishing.

 

  Nothing but a small light weight 12 or 14 ft flat boat with small motor  can handle the river up there.  Huge sandbars on the bends as well as out in the river.  stumps and rocks showing. Really low.  One rig was parked at Cerrogordo.

 

 

 

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