# Sea Trout - St. Joe's Bay



## Georgia Boy (Jun 29, 2012)

I am planning on doing some sea trout fishing on St. Joe's Bay at the end of this month. What kind of rod and reel do I need? Line size? Types of bait and size hooks?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!


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## NoMoSurf (Oct 2, 2007)

I just got back from a week down there. You can fish squid or cut bait around an y of the deep holes or around any of the "inshore" reefs and catch Sand Trout by the dozens
30 or 40 size spinning reels on 6ft med/fast asction rods with 20lb braid is what we were using.

If looking for Speckled trout... We didn't catch any...


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## Yaksquatch (Mar 23, 2009)

Will you be fishing from shore/wading? If so, I'd recommend leaning towards a 7'6" medium rod with a fast tip action so you can get a little more distance out of your casts. Any inshore sized reel should be fine, I personally like 3000 size shimano reels i.e. sahara, symetre, stradic, etc. I like thin line for casting on the flats, the lighter the better. My favorite inshore setup has 8lbs braid on it. Anything from 8-15lbs braid or 6-10lbs mono will get the job done.

If you want to go simple, just pick up a few dozen live shrimp and put em in a flow-troll bucket to keep em alive while you wade. A cork with about 2 - 3ft of 15-20lbs fluorocarbon leader and a #1 hook (I prefer circles) should be plenty. 

However, you'll have a lot of by-catch from pinfish, croakers, and grunts. If this happens, up you hook size to a 1/0 and hook one of them in the back just in front of the dorsal fin. You'll get less bites but any bites you get will be bigger fish.

Also, don't neglect the art of topwater early in the morning and late in the evening. Once the sun gets higher in the late morning, switch to something deeper such as a sub-surface or shallow diving plug (ex: yozuri, rapala, etc.), or a 1/8 - 1/4 oz jighead and soft plastic (I like zoom flukes and DOA CAL jerk baits).

Good luck!
Alex


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## PCfisher66 (Oct 13, 2010)

If you are wading there are spots right off of 98 that are great.


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## Georgia Boy (Jun 29, 2012)

I will be fishing from my 15' center console. I bought some 3" and 4" Spooks and Some DOA plastic shrimp. Bought tons of diffrent colors. I plan to use them on my bass fishing rod set ups. I'll just have to clean the reels every night. I have 3 7' ugly sticks with shimano spin cast reels. 

When fishing from my boat I was planning on finding some deeper holes where the grass has openings and fishing across those openings.

Does that sound about right?


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## barefoot (Nov 3, 2011)

The rods/reels you have should work fine, just rinse them after each trip w/ clean water. Fishing the grass is a good game plan also.


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## johnboatjosh (May 19, 2008)

I like to fish topwater over the actual grassy parts of the grass flats early and then switch to fishing soft plastics like DOA Shrimp, flukes, etc. into the sandy pot holes located throughout the grassy flats. Also, work your soft plastics down any defined grass edges (where sand meets grass in a relatively straight line) It allows you to work a good area during the entire retrieve and also ups the chances that you might catch a flounder. (they like to lay in the sand just off the edge of the grass)
Be sure to wash those freshwater reels off really good after each trip! Also, if just looking for some fun fishing the small sharks are usually thick as thieves down there all over the bay. Also, I usually can keep my wife entertained with fishing down there this time of year by chasing the birds working in the bay. You'll find tons of ladyfish, bluefish, and spanish under them that are usually willing to try and chew the bottom out of the boat!


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## 850bayfish (Jun 22, 2008)

go by half hitch on 98 see frank tell him captain goodrich sent ya he will point ya in the direction you need to be heading half hitch is as you come int
o st joe on the left good luck fishing the bay


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