Piney Z and St Marks

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jholden
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Piney Z and St Marks

Post by jholden »

This is a couple reports, rolled into one. I'm home on pre deployment leave so I've been fishing every day damn near :mrgreen:

Piney Z, 27Apr

I actually started the day off by getting out to Lake Carr at sunrise, however I fished for a couple hours and that place was a bust. No fish activity, no nothing. One half ass strike on a buzzbait that I think was a pickerel... That was it. Even the guys in a bassboat there fished for an hour and said screw it, leaving shortly afterward. Well, I didn't want to let a trip to Tallahassee go to waste so I went over to Piney Z. Weather was overcast all day, perfect for topwater. Started fishing around the edges with my favorite Devil's Horse, got 5 fish in a couple hours. One dink, the rest were from 2-4.5lbs. Healthy, hard fighting all of them.

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Upper St Marks, 30Apr

Launched at the Natural Bridge Reenactment site and went upriver. I've fished this place from the bank for years because it was only a few miles from my house. Caught a ton of bass there, it gets a lot of pressure from the cane pole mafia from the bank but in all the years I've been there I've never seen a single person launch a canoe/yak/2 man bassboat and fish for bass which is a shame because there's quite a few to be had and they are super aggressive river fish. My total for the a couple hours fishing was 7, 4 on the trusty Devil's Horse with the rest coming on a white spinnerbait. Interestingly, everything I got on the spinnerbait was small. The topwater fish were all 2-3lb. As I was coming back I made a throwaway cast along the bank with my DH and had the most god awful washtub sized blowup, which missed. I kept retrieving it back and something that was every bit of 25" long came up to the surface, stared at it for a second, clobbered it 2 feet from the boat and stripped off 20 yards of drag before hanging me up in a snag. I should mention I was spooled with 10lb braid and a 20lb fluoro leader with the drag set fairly tight 8O I could only see the outline because the water was pretty dirty but it was either a monstrous bass or an equally monstrous mudfish.


I have plans to hit the Middle Aucilla and Wacissa before I leave. Scouted out the Aucilla up at Goose Pasture and that is one fine looking creek. I saw a lot of bream activity and a few bass strikes just watching one canoe launch site for a few minutes. The water is super high but hopefully it will settle down by next week. Eyeballed the upper Econfina on my way out to Hickory Mound and it was looking real sexy too, I've talked to some old timers that said there was some good bass fishing up there. A lot of these blackwater creeks are gold mines for bass because they have very little fishing pressure.
Last edited by jholden on Sun May 03, 2015 2:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.
bluecorners
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Re: Piney Z and St Marks

Post by bluecorners »

Nice pics!
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BackCast
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Re: Piney Z and St Marks

Post by BackCast »

Nice pictures and report. I've only fished Piney Z once and really enjoyed it that day.
jholden
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Re: Piney Z and St Marks

Post by jholden »

BackCast wrote:Nice pictures and report. I've only fished Piney Z once and really enjoyed it that day.
I've got a love-hate relationship with that place. I've probably fished there at least 50 times in my life, when I was going to TCC I'd hit it for the evening bite after I got out of class. This was before I got a kayak. Of those 50 trips I caught fish on maybe 7 or 8 trips and only twice did I ever "get into them" pretty good. When it was super dried up and windy as Sh*t and overcast, I jumped on them with a spinnerbait a couple times. Other than that, I might catch 1 or 2 if I was lucky. 90 plus percent of the people I've seen out there never caught anything. A yak does improve your chances though, lets you hit a lot of places that don't get heavily pressured like those fingers. There are some lunkers in there for sure, but it's a tricky place to fish.
GoodCall
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Re: Piney Z and St Marks

Post by GoodCall »

lol @ "Cane Pole Mafia" :lol: I'll have to steal that one.

Nice report, and thank you for your service!!
RockyG
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Re: Piney Z and St Marks

Post by RockyG »

Your mystery fish could have been a Striped Bass. They are in the upper St. Marks and they get BIG.
H_luciae
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Re: Piney Z and St Marks

Post by H_luciae »

For the St. Marks: if you went upriver- above the bridge at Natural Bridge Road- the mystery fish is not likely a striper since we hvae not seen them past the spring boil. If you were fishing south of the spring boil, then it could be a striper. There is a holding area in the upper river (sorry not telling where) that they have been found in the past. Either way- having something rip off a bunch of line is always fun. No matter what species it is!
jholden
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Re: Piney Z and St Marks

Post by jholden »

There's no telling, I've fished up there a lot and never seen a striper, doesn't mean they're not there though, all it would take is swimming down into the boil and going through a few hundred yards of underground river for any fish to make it from the boil to the Natural Bridge side. A friend whose judgement I trust and someone else with him claim to have seen a redfish swimming around the boil plain as day. Wouldn't surprise me, I know people who caught them bass fishing in the Wakulla well north of the 98 bridge.

An old neighbor of ours used to catch stripers in the St Marks just down from the rapids, he'd anchor on the rapids and it goes from a foot or two to a deep dropoff. He'd pitch a big diving plug, let it float over that edge downriver a ways and crank it back. I think the old state record striper came from someone fishing off the 98 bridge. Always meant to fish the St Marks up from there to the rapids but just never did.
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Re: Piney Z and St Marks

Post by BloodyChamp »

I've read this thread before but not since I registered here a short while ago. I must have found it while Googling previously.

I've discussed the upper St Marks several times here. I personally hope people stay out of there lol more for me!!!!! It certainly is a forgotten bass hotspot. The Aucilla and Wacissa are good for bass and anything else you want to catch. Those are my 3 favorite places to fish.
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bk
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Re: Piney Z and St Marks

Post by bk »

Great post! As for pz. It used to be one of my favorites. A great place to get out of the wind, and some great fishing. I've had some huge days out there. About 5 years or so ago after it flooded back in and there was a lot of grasses, sticks, and cover out there. Sadly, it became more of a mud bowl out there, and frankly, it became over fished in my opinion. I've caught some real monsters out there on topwater mostly. Strong strain of fish there. Hopefully, it'll get back to its better days, when and if the cover returns. Don't write it off, The fcka tourney winning freshwater fish came out of that place 3 years in a row.
"i said flotation is groovy and easy. Even a jellyfish would agree to that." - jimi
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kikstand454
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Re: Piney Z and St Marks

Post by kikstand454 »

I've noticed the lack of cover there as well bk. I still catch alot of fish there from shore. But none the size I used to.
Somehow I still haven't put my kayak in there......how is this even possible? What is wrong with me?!!
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