# New to East Bay



## Tomatoa (Dec 13, 2020)

Fairly new to the area and I am planning on fishing East Bay soon. Not looking for spots but I am looking for advice about navigating the water way and what to watch out for. The ramp by 90 before the bridge going into Milton is where I am planning to launch. How does one get the railroad bridge to spin? VHF or just get close? Also are there shallow spots to watch out for? Appreciate any help.


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## BananaTom (Feb 16, 2008)

Most of the time the bridge is open and only closes for a train, that is how it was during the summer. The river is deep, watch your channel markers. And once you get an East Bay it’s shallow and lots of places close to Shore


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## Tomatoa (Dec 13, 2020)

BananaTom said:


> Most of the time the bridge is open and only closes for a train, that is how it was during the summer. The river is deep, watch your channel markers. And once you get an East Bay it’s shallow and lots of places close to Shore


Thank you! East bay is shallow north of 10 or south of 10 outside of channel markers?


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## huntnflorida (May 24, 2008)

Relatively speaking east bay is shallow everywhere. Watch your machine and stay in the channel while running. Plenty of fish around the docks on the south side. Garcon bridge always holds some as well.


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## 60hertz (Oct 1, 2007)

JMO...if your boat is large enough to have to worry about getting under the RR bridge over the Blackwater River then you might want to rethink fishing East Bay.

While transiting to East Bay from East Milton, be sure to stay in the navigation channel.

The water can go from 5’ to 2’ in a boat length once you exit the channel.

East Bay is very shallow.


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## Tomatoa (Dec 13, 2020)

Okay- thank you. I have a T-top but my boat can get into skinny water. I live in Holt so I don’t want to go south and Milton is closer. I might try the ramp at Marquis Bay to avoid the RR


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## huntnflorida (May 24, 2008)

Tomatoa said:


> Okay- thank you. I have a T-top but my boat can get into skinny water. I live in Holt so I don’t want to go south and Milton is closer. I might try the ramp at Marquis Bay to avoid the RR


I have a 23’ offshore boat with t-top. I live at the foot of the Garcon point bridge on the south side. We run up the river pretty regular. The RR bridge is no problem. There’s someone manning it most of the day. There is hours posted on the sign. As mentioned stay in the nav channel. It’s a beautiful ride from my house in gulf Breeze to Hudson Beach. Be careful, be smart, have fun.


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## Tomatoa (Dec 13, 2020)

huntnflorida said:


> I have a 23’ offshore boat with t-top. I live at the foot of the Garcon point bridge on the south side. We run up the river pretty regular. The RR bridge is no problem. There’s someone manning it most of the day. There is hours posted on the sign. As mentioned stay in the nav channel. It’s a beautiful ride from my house in gulf Breeze to Hudson Beach. Be careful, be smart, have fun.


Awesome- thank you Sir!


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## SurfRidr (Apr 24, 2012)

The railroad bridge is typically only always-open on weekends. During the week, it's closed and you'd need to raise them on VHF or just call their number on your cell. They are not _always_ responsive to calls, seems to depend on the mood of the bridge tender. Usually they are cordial and open the bridge fairly quickly but I have had occasions where they didn't answer or took a bit to get around to opening it. 

If you specifically want to fish East Bay, depending where you're coming from, you might consider launching at the Holley boat ramp at Hwy 87, although parking is a little limited there. I have not launched there, but looking at it from the road it seems like it should be ok for a bay boat. There is also a launch in Marquis Basin that should suffice for a bay boat if you don't mind dipping your vehicle's rear wheels a little. I think if I were fishing during the week and didn't want to have to worry about the bridge I would launch there, but I'd lock my truck and not leave anything of value visible. Just sayin. 

If you come down Blackwater from Milton, I agree, stay close to or in the channel and you should be fine. Watch for floating logs, they do occur. Be prepared to do a little slolom around the crab pot buoys after you come around Bay point and turn south. The Yellow River mouth 'delta' area on the west side of lower Blackwater has some points that extend out from the visible grass a pretty good stretch, so be cautious if you're on the east side of the nav channel, especially during these low winter tides. As you come around Escribano point (the last big point on your left as you go from Blackwater into East Bay, leave plenty of room around that point, the water does get shallow on the south side of the point, as it extends further southwest under the surface than you might think.

In East Bay, you're generally ok if you're well offshore, but it is shallow when you approach the shorelines. Just keep an eye on your sonar and if you're reading 4ft or more you should be ok to be on plane but when get inside of that toward shore, you'll want to be ready to throttle down and trim your engine. The exception to it being clear out in the open out there ( AS FAR AS I HAVE SEEN, I CAN"T SWEAR THERE AREN'T ANY OBJECTS TO HIT) are some pilings in the eastern parts of east bay; they are just poles sticking up, I don't really know why they are there - some of them seem sorta close to the old oyster pile dumps that apparently were done some years back, but some seem random. They stick well up out of the water, so if you're running in daylight you should be ok, just keep your eyes open. 

If you approach Garcon Point itself, it shallows out a fair distance out from the visible shore line, so again, be cautious and give that point plenty of room as you come around it toward Garcon Point bridge.


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## SurfRidr (Apr 24, 2012)

Tomatoa said:


> Thank you! East bay is shallow north of 10 or south of 10 outside of channel markers?


Incidentally, to be clear, I-10 doesn't run over East Bay at all... if you're looking at northwest or southeast of I-10, you're talking about Blackwater, and you can just follow the nav channel, no problem. Lots of fishable water in Blackwater, although I am still working on cracking the code of being consistently successful with it... some days are good, some are head-scratchers but I guess that's fishing.


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## Tomatoa (Dec 13, 2020)

SurfRidr said:


> Incidentally, to be clear, I-10 doesn't run over East Bay at all... if you're looking at northwest or southeast of I-10, you're talking about Blackwater, and you can just follow the nav channel, no problem. Lots of fishable water in Blackwater, although I am still working on cracking the code of being consistently successful with it... some days are good, some are head-scratchers but I guess that's fishing.


Thank you- great detail! I was going by google and it shows “East Bay” north of I-10 but I was unclear as to where Blackwater begins and East Bay ends. I think I’ll take it slow when outside of the channel and watch for debris while in the channel. I appreciate the great info. Maybe I’ll see you out there one day!


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## SurfRidr (Apr 24, 2012)

Not tech savy so I had to just take a picture with my phone of my computer screen, but you can see the bottom section labeled East Bay, top part labeled Blackwater Bay, and most people consider above I-10 to be Blackwater River. What I consider the 'divide' between Blackwater and East Bay is where the mouse cursor is pointing, which is Escribano Point... sometimes referred to locally as 'Skeeban Point'  The collection of creeks in the upper right section is the Yellow River 'delta,' where the Yellow splits into several creek arms as it flows into the Blackwater. There are some shallow spots you really need to watch for if you're going into the Yellow, but those creeks can be good fishing at times for speckled trout, reds, and largemouth. If you pull up a recent satellite image of the area, you can get an idea of where the shallow spots are. Using that as reference, my earlier post might make a little more sense. 

And if you see me out there, this is what I'll be in:











Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## flappininthebreeze (Jul 13, 2009)

Since the hurricane, watch for debris and deadheads.


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## Tomatoa (Dec 13, 2020)

SurfRidr said:


> Not tech savy so I had to just take a picture with my phone of my computer screen, but you can see the bottom section labeled East Bay, top part labeled Blackwater Bay, and most people consider above I-10 to be Blackwater River. What I consider the 'divide' between Blackwater and East Bay is where the mouse cursor is pointing, which is Escribano Point... sometimes referred to locally as 'Skeeban Point'  The collection of creeks in the upper right section is the Yellow River 'delta,' where the Yellow splits into several creek arms as it flows into the Blackwater. There are some shallow spots you really need to watch for if you're going into the Yellow, but those creeks can be good fishing at times for speckled trout, reds, and largemouth. If you pull up a recent satellite image of the area, you can get an idea of where the shallow spots are. Using that as reference, my earlier post might make a little more sense.
> 
> And if you see me out there, this is what I'll be in:
> 
> ...


Nice ride! I have always been a big fan of NS boats! I will look for you when I am out there. I’ll be in a blue Cobia Bay.


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## Tomatoa (Dec 13, 2020)

flappininthebreeze said:


> Since the hurricane, watch for debris and deadheads.


Still? How long does it take for that stuff to wash ashore? What’s a deadhead?


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## SurfRidr (Apr 24, 2012)

Tomatoa said:


> Still? How long does it take for that stuff to wash ashore? What’s a deadhead?


It washed up, but then gets loosened up on the next high tide or wind direction change. Debris is not as bad as it was just after the storm but there still is some, especially if there is a heavy rain to bring stuff down out of the rivers. A deadhead is a piece of debris, usually a log or piling, that bobs just at or under the surface, typically something big enough to cause a lot of damage and injury if struck at any significant speed.


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