Hi Micanopy !

I live in a St Augustine address, but am about 35 to 40 min from the beach. My wife and I used to fish the shore, the Vilano pier, and the Vilano boat ramp area. Our favorite place to saltwater fish, before we got the boat, was the Fort Clinch Pier. It is gone now due to hurricanes, but my wife and I drove about 90 min to get there stopping for bait along the way. Fort Clinch was the last step before the boat because the bridges piers and other places were becoming overwhelmed with the anglers that showed up with 30 poles, kept every fish they caught and had one evening a group of people showed up with stolen construction generators and lighting making the Talbot island bridge more of a disco that a fishing pier. So we moved to a boat fishing in the intercoastal and offshore. To be honest with $300 gas bills for a day trip it was not hard to sell the boat to get a new camper.

I do remember driving to get to my destination only to find a handful of people with more rods in the water than I could count and no room for me and my wife. Real bummer when that happens, not to mention a day ruiner!

We had a dam (locks they were called) where I grew up, and the catfishing was phenomenal!! Haven't tried for the cats there yet, but have seen a few 20"+ pulled out of the dams tailwaters.

Thanks, and good luck!