Fish, fish, fish

Monday, February 18, 2002 Fish, fish, fish:  The fishing is usually better in the cooler months, but you can always find something to catch. Right off the beach in front of the house will work, but not as well as other places. Wade out into water knee to waist deep and cast into the deeper water to the southwest. Our previous house was located about 5 miles east in an area where muddy water sometimes stays behind a sand bar.  Menhaden, a bait fish hide in this muddy water and attract Tarpon. In past years we saw people catch Tarpon on the flats right in front of the old house, we have seen them in the water and be hooked within 100 ft of shore. The new house, Kate's Dream is located on clearer water, and the Tarpon are less plentiful here.  If you look carefully you will see them roll, and if you're lucky one may jump, they usually come in summer at medium to high tide. They will be following the menhaden; a 4 to 6-inch shinny sardine like fish. The menhaden are easy to see they jump a lot. What people seem to do is cast net for live fresh menhaden, and fish them live a few feet below a float, you need a clear monofilament leader to get one to bite. Menhaden are very hard to keep alive so you really do need to catch your own and often. Rob has fished for the wily Tarpon, and hooked several, but he is yet to figure out how to actually catch one. This is supposed to be one of the best and least known Tarpon fishing spots in Florida. We have seen a lot hooked, and a few caught, one well over 150 pounds, but by better fishermen than us. Most of the fishermen you will see, and you wont see many, will be fishing from boats, but you can easily wade fish for the Tarpon. Better fishing (for fishermen of our caliber anyway) can be found off of Bald Point. Bald Point is the opposite end of Alligator point, it is about 5 miles, as you leave Alligator Point, just after the road turns north away from the Gulf take a right to the south and east. Take the road to its end, this is Bald Point. Fish from the end of Bald point at the mouth of Ochlockonee Bay. At low tide you will see lots of oyster beds, cast towards them, you can wade a long way from here, and fishing around the oyster bays is good, but wear good shoes to protect your feet. The state of Florida has just purchased much of the land on Bald Point and is turning it into a small state park; it is nice place to go. Fishing is also usually better off the Alligator Point campground about 3 miles east of Kate's Dream; this is because of deeper water nearer to the shore. You can fish off the rock revetment or the rapidly eroding beach in front of it. As of this writing there is a small pier there you can fish on, but every hurricane washes it away, so it may or may not be there when you are. The most prolific bigger fish here is the black tipped shark.  These shark are generally in the 3 to 5 foot range and are not dangerous.  You can catch them in warmer weather on most any bait, we have the best luck with a smaller live fish, about 5 inches, on a hook a few feet below a large cork or float.  You can catch something for bait on a smaller hook or with a cast net or small seine.  As far as we can tell these things are inedible, but every few years Rob gives one a try.  The last one we attempted to eat was cooked by one of Rob's New Orleans cousins.  Immediately upon catching the shark we gutted and skinned it and put it on ice.  Then we took in home and soaked it for a few hours in milk.  Rob's cousin then made gumbo from it.  The most notable and probably only important ingredient was the copious quantities of beer that Rob and his relatives consumed as the shark was cooking.  Soon everyone who was not participating in the beer drinking left the house and Rob and company actually ate some of the gumbo.  It took several days to get the stench out of the house and neither Rob or his cousins are now allowed to bring shark home.  The problem is that shark have a primitive blood cleansing systems and ammonia or urea or something foul smelling builds up in their blood.  This is true to some degree of all sharks but the ones we catch here it is particularly true of.  Anyway they are fun to catch but we usually do catch and release. Other kinds of fishing include cast netting, seining and gill netting.  This is a good place to throw a cast net, it's a good way to catch bait and if you know what you are doing it can also be a good way to catch shrimp or mullet.  A 10 to 40 foot bait seine is fun and a good way to catch live bait.  You will catch lots of interesting things.  Gill netting is illegal, or we think it is check the Florida regulations before you try it, we know there is still a way you can use a shorter piece of net legally we just aren't sure how.  Most gill netting was outlawed a few years ago and it has improved sport fishing, but it has made for a lot of unhappy local commercial fishermen.  We hear that since the net ban has taken effect the gill netting is much improved, but now usually done at night. Florida requires a fishing license for any fishing (crabs included), and sells a separate one for salt water and fresh water, make sure you're legal. Florida also seems to have an ever-changing law on limits so get a copy of the latest regulations. You can buy your hunting or fishing license with a credit card by calling either 1-888-347-4356 or 1-888-486-8356 from anywhere in the United States or Canada, and within minutes you'll have a temporary license number enabling you to hunt or fish right away. Your permanent license will be mailed within 48 hours. One more new place for shore fishing, a new fishing pier. It is just to the north of Mashes Sands County Park. To get there from the house go to 98 east, and just after you cross the Ochlockonee Bay bridge take a right on Mashes Sands road and go about 3 miles, the pier should be on your left just before the road dead ends into the park. If you don't see it drive down any road towards the bay, and you should stumble on it. If there is an attendant at the Park (this is not very predictable) they can tell you about it. We've never fished there, but the pier  was built out into the Bay, near the mouth, at one of its deepest points; Fishing has often been good there from a boat or shore. You probably have to pay something to use the pier we're not sure. There are lots of places to buy bait, licenses and tackle. More places to buy bait than gas or groceries. We buy a lot of bait from the BP station just off 98 east of the Ochlockonee Bridge. But they don't sell fishing licenses anymore, you have to go into Panacea, to Crum’s to get one, and we think the new bait and tackle shop on the west side of town has them too. The Alligator Point campground store usually has a small selection of frozen bait. If you have a boat or are a serious fisherman this is an excellent place to fish the Gulf, one of the best in the state, for info on a fishing tournament out of nearby Carrabelle see http://www.saltwaterclassic.com. There is also very good freshwater fishing in nearby lakes and rivers. Catch crabs! (Blue crabs):  This is usually the easiest and most productive fishing you can do, try year round, warmer months tend to be better. You will need a salt water fishing license. The simplest way is to set a trap(s) right off the beach, setting them in knee deep water at low tide usually works. You can bait it with fish or chicken parts (necks and backs work fine). We try to keep a few traps around the house, if you can't find one you can buy one for $15 to $20 in Panacea. Please put our traps back so others can use them. You need a Florida Salt Water fishing license to do this! Charter a fishing boat, usually a better bet if you really want fish. My recommendation is David Gibbs "Captain Dave", he fishes inshore for Red Fish and Trout, and when conditions are right he goes a little out into the Gulf for Cobia. If you make arrangements in advance in season (summer, for these fish anyway, Dave and all the charters operate year round, best fishing is usually Fall and early Winter), he'll do a Tarpon or Shark trip. Last we knew he still charges only $200 per day (better ask to be sure) and can take 4 people comfortably. Call Dave at 984-5737, its a good idea to make reservations ahead of time. There are several offshore charters available, they usually cost $350 to $500 per day for 4 to 8 people. The fish are bigger and sometimes more plentiful offshore.  You'll catch mackerel and maybe grouper in summer and in winter the mackerel are gone, but the grouper fishing is much better. Got a boat? Bring it! There are 2 boat ramps on Alligator Point; one is about 3 miles east of the house on the bay side. It is a mediocre ramp at best; you can only launch anything bigger than a 14 foot Carolina skiff at medium to high tide. There is very limited parking. It is a little hard to spot if you don't know where it is, it's visible from the main road, and it just looks like a road turning to the north that leads into the bay. It is right across from the only public beach access you will pass, but this is not easy to spot either. If you want to look for it just explore a bit and you will find it. There is no charge for this ramp. The other ramp is at the marina almost within walking distance of the house on the bay side. It is located on the far side of the marina from the house down the dirt road that goes towards the bay. This is an even worse ramp at low tide, but depending on your boat size you should be able to get in and out most of the time. We have a 14 foot Carolina Skiff, and a 17 foot Sea Pro. We can always get the Carolina Skiff in and out at either ramp, and usually the Sea Pro as well, but at low tide we have to crank a lot. The marina launch is not always free, kind of depends on the current status of the marina. We understand that the road and ramp are on county property and that the county put in the launch, but that to turn around or park you have to drive on marina property. In the past this has sometimes lead to the marina charging as much as $10 to launch. We don't know what is fair, sometimes we pay, sometimes we don't, when we don't we don't park at the marina. The marina also has a launch lift that you can pay to use; we have never done that and don't know how much, read on about the marina below. The Marina: About 300 yards north east of the house is the "Pride of the Point Marina". It is on the bay side of the point, and if you look you can see it on the aerial photo at the end of this write up. The marina also has a restaurant and bar, they only have a restaurant's liquor license, so the bar is limited in it's sales they are only supposed to serve diners. Since we first started going down to the point the marina has never been economically viable. It seems to undergo annual bankruptcy followed by excited new management that then goes bankrupt again starting the whole cycle over. Maybe it is just too far away from a population center to make a go of it. The restaurant has been open no more than about 25% of the time over the last 10 years, and both it's food and service has varied from awful to good, so who knows what will be going on when you go down. There is also a small marina store that is intermittently open selling a few boating and fishing supplies and sometimes gas. In the summer of 2000 the store had some nice ocean kayaks for rent, but we have never seen anyone in a kayak at Alligator Point. The marina usually has someone operating it (or at least someone there collecting money) no matter what it's bankruptcy status you can usually make arrangements to tie your boat up there. In the early fall of 2000 a new owner bought it at a sheriff's foreclosure auction and since we don't know what has happened. So the marina may or may not offer you useful services, but you can count on it's business being slow enough not to bother you. Home