Whiskey George Sentinel

I knew it was a good sign , when we headed into Whiskey George and there was an eagle watching the confluence with Cash's Creek. The morning was overcast and a pleasant temperature. Typical fall weather in Apalachicola. There were birds working schools of shrimp, being pushed to the top by trout. We stopped and caught a dozen short fish before we headed up the creek.

We picked up 8-10 more small trout on top water plugs, but not the quality of fish I was after. I was basically scouting for trips this week and I wanted some bigger fish.

Our clouds went away and so did our top water bite. The tide had turned and better trout started blasting LYs all around us. We switched over to sub surface MirrorLures and started catching better trout.

I'd accomplished my goal to locate some fish in an area that i hadn't fished in a couple of weeks and we had caught 20+ trout in the 2 hours that we'd been out...now it was lunch time and time to watch a ball game.

Manatees Love Apalachicola

Well... I saw a first today and didn't have my camera with me...just my luck.

As I started across the causeway to Apalachicola, there were about 10 vehicles pulled off the south side of  Hwy 98, with the drivers and occupants looking at the bay. After stopping I could see something splashing about 50 yards out in the bay and realized that it was a manatee breeding.

It seems that manatees are indiscriminate breeders and when a cow goes into heat, all the males in the neighborhood show up. Today there were 9or 10 in attendance when  I stopped, but I was told they had been there for several hours.

Oyster Radio's Blog

Here are some photos that John took.

John's photos

Here are some photos Laura took of the manatees.

East Bay Manatees

TS Bonnie

Currently it appears that Bonnie will stay well to the south and west of Apalachicola, but hopefully we'll get some rain out of it.

Best wishes to our neighbors to the west.

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.