St. Joe -Incredible Fishing!

[Twill23]

This weekend we fished the Shu's summer challenge in St. Joe.

Unfortunately we didn't finish where we wanted to, but we had some absolutely outstanding fishing.

I won't bore everyone with the details, so here is the quick rundown.

Tuesday Afternoon Fished in the 15's-16's from noon till 1:30. Boated our ten fish, including an 18lb lake trout. 120-140fow NW troll rocked. 70ish down on the riggers with a white paddle, and also a glow back blue dolphin. 240 on the divers with paddles.

Thursday we went back to the same spot, and took our 15fish by 9am. Same spot, same baits. We had really decent fish that day also.

Friday morning(first day of the tournament) We set up in the same spot. Lemon berry SS on riggers, and divers with paddles back 240 were hot.

Rules of the tournement were, catch a boat limit(culling is allowed), but weigh 5. Friday we caught 45 fish. About 60-40 coho to kings. We just did not have the big bites like we had earlier in the week. 142fow was where the majority of the fish were. Lemonberry mini SS on a free slider was on fire, as well as the lemonberry as the main line down 69. Our big fish was only just over 7lbs, and we only weighed 31lbs for day 1.

Day 2 we had a whole new plan. To run farther, and catch bigger fish. Well the storms and lightning changed our mind. We ran back to the same spot.

Saturday we boated just over 50 fish. All but 5 of which were kings. All of these fish seemed to be brother/sister, weighing about 6lbs each. We did manage to boat one just over 11lbs and one just under 10. Giving us a 5 fish total of just over 41 pounds, moving us up 11 places. Lemonberry mini SS and Mixed veggie mini SS caught nearly 30 fish combined on free sliders with riggers down 63 and 66.

Fun fishing down there is absolutely unbelievable right now. I encourage you to get out there and fish! Nearly a hundred fish in two days is pretty unbelievable in my eyes! Get out while fishing is good! It's almost june!

I'd like to give a quick thanks to Sly Selea here on the forum(John). As well as Nick(can't remember your username buddy). Thanks a ton for fishin the tourney with us.

[fisf crazy]

very nice tj

[Twill23]

I forgot to mention how awesome this tournament is! The food alone is worth going for! They served us 3 great meals, including a prime rib dinner on the final day of the tournament. They also offered a breakfast buffet both days before the tournament for only $5dollars.

Also, West Basin marina offered FREEEEEE slips for a total of 4 nights for tournament participants. They even supplied FREEEE ice.

Everything ran extremely smooth, and we had an absolutely awesome time!

[Harperman9706]

Awesome. I'll have to get out there with you guys sometime....

[vielfras]

Wow! That is amazing guys. Thanks for the report.

[Casey II]

Good Job. Sounds like a great time.

[SUPERTRAMP]

St Joe is the best kept secret on the lake>

[Sly Selea]

St Joe is the best kept secret on the lake>

Shhhh. They'll all be gone by the time I get good at this.

I want to thank TJ, his dad and Nick for being patient with my noobness. I mostly tried to stay out of the way, but every day I learned a little more. Thanks especially to them, and Dave Ashe and this forum, I feel semi-confident now at getting out by myself. I had a blast, needless to say. The tournament experience is a load of fun, and TJ wasn't kidding, we couldn't keep the fish off the hooks. I never thought I'd be fishing and throwing back 6 pounders saying ehhhh, not big enough.

[hear fishy fishy]

Good Job!

[EdB]

Great catch!

[SCUM LINE]

fished the toureny too

BEST DAM TOURNEY FOOD EVER. THANK YOU ... SCHU'S

Lots of fish.. just could get on the large ones

I fish this tourney for years and it keeps getting better every year

AAAAAAA+++++

[Just Hook'n]

NICE work. Holy cow - 100 feeshes. Your arms must be ready to fall off.

Sounds like a lot of fun.

[Twill23]

NICE work. Holy cow - 100 feeshes. Your arms must be ready to fall off.

Sounds like a lot of fun.

Lol. Legs too.they never seemed to hit rods right next to each other. Boat is only 11ft wide, but I swear I ran 10 miles this weekend. Lol

[Rascal Trophy Fishing]

Nice to have fire drills like this so early on. What amazes me is the tourney organizing participants, free food, ice, and dockage, doesn't exist anywhere else I know of. Great post.

[Mushy's Dad]

Sweet!