Apalachicola Bay

Working the Miles from Joe York on Vimeo.


Hopefully the oysters and oyster men will survive the mass of oil that BP and our government is allowing to slowly coat the gulf coast.St. George Island and Apalachicola Bay are still oil free and and life is going on as usual, but not without apprehension. As I sit on the flats waiting for the arrival of the early morning push of tarpon, I can't help but wonder if today may be the last day the bay will remain pristine.

Sunrise On A Tarpon Flat

 This is the view from the my office and it's 0630 and it's time to go to work. We had a few fish rolling and the third cast produced this little 60 pound fish.

We jumped off 2 more fish before the tide went slack and the fishing slowed. While we were waiting for the tide to turn and begin running out, the boat started rocking. I looked over the poling platform and found the culprit! A manatee was was scratching his back on my lower unit.

 

He hung around for another 10 minutes and then with a swipe of big tail he was off to continue feeding.

We finished up the day with one more jumped fish and 2 more manatees.

Tarpon fishing has been excellent for the past 6 weeks, with most days yielding multiple fish in the air, numerous manatee sightings and beautiful weather.

The BP's oil is still 50-60 miles away, but is slowly moving this way. keep your fingers crossed that we will be able to keep the oil out of the bay and are able to protect this magnificent estuary. In the meantime come on down!