Amazing! Ridiculous! Incredible! Sick! Off the Hook!
Pick your phrase for “the fishing is awesome”, but don’t spend too much time on it because you need to get your line in the water! The fishing is the best it’s been all year.

The water temp is up and the fish are the most active they’ve been. They are absolutely slamming the bait. No timidness, no reluctance – the fish are just going for it. There are bait balls all over the Intracoastal Waterway and large fish are tearing them up.

The Redfish, Black Drum and Yellow-mouth Trout bite is going crazy.
We dropped the boat in the water at Beach Marine around 6:40 AM Saturday morning. And thanks to a Yamaha 150 and 2 motivated anglers, our lines were wet at about 6:55 AM. The first Redfish was boated about 3 minutes later. Seriously! My first cast produced a Redfish … my second cast produced a Black Drum … and that’s pretty much how the day went.

We were fishing the water column with both live shrimp and fresh dead shrimp. We had planned on fishing some other baits as well, but honestly did not have time to think about it once we were in the action. I mean when it’s working, it’s working … and it was definitely working!

Fishing the tides
When our day started the tide had already turned and started to go out. We fished it all the way through the slack tide and the turn … amazingly we never stopped catching fish!

Yeah, it was like that. I’m not saying they were all keepers or anything. In fact, most of the redfish were in the 17” range, but they were all very healthy fish that put up an awesome fight.

The Last Cast
The last cast of the day pretty much illustrates the kind of action that is indicative of the fishing right now. It went like this: Tom hooked up with a fish (a 23” Redfish to be exact). So I grab the net with my right hand, holding my rod with my left. At the point which I am getting ready to net the Redfish (who was still a little green and decided to make another run) when I get a bite. I set the hook with my left hand, meanwhile netting the Redfish with my right. Once the Redfish was in the boat, I was able to engage with my reel and bring in a 17” + Black Drum. That’s when we realized it was 11:45 and we had promised to be in. So as hard as it was not to make one more cast, we packed it in and headed back to the boat ramp.

The Final Count
The total fish count was 15+ Redfish, 25+ Black Drum and a ½ dozen or so Yellow Mouth Trout.

With the air temperature and tide tables in harmonious balance, we headed to the boat ramp Sunday morning (Feb 22, 2009). The plan was to fish the “skinny water” and try to scare up some of the larger Black Drum Captain Kevin Faver had been reporting catching – the 10 pound variety.

Unfortunately, the one check that we didn’t make before launching was the wind. Wow, what an oversight that was!  It was honking. I don’t know what the official report was, but our guestimate was a constant 15 to 20 MPH with gusts in the range of 25+ MPH.

But of course that wasn’t going to be enough to make the boat turn around and point back toward the ramp. Once we arrived at the first location, we got our lines wet immediately and were greeted by some very eager Yellow Mouth Trout. They were on the short side of respectable, measuring in around 10” or so.

The Yellow Mouth Trout kept us pretty busy until the Black Drum decided to show up.  However, the Black Drum only showed up in small numbers and there were not any 10 pounders like Kevin Faver was reporting. The Black Drum were about 16” to 18” – very nice fish, but not the adrenaline creators that we were hoping for.

That said, we also had an appearance from the man in the red spotted suit … yep, the Redfish also showed up for a short time.  These guys were just about a 1/2” shy of the slot, measuring in at 17 and change. Nonetheless, the Redfish that showed up were beautiful fish, a lot of fun to catch and a welcome surprise.

After about 2 hours of letting the wind show us who was in charge, we decided to call it a day and head for some protection in doors.  We had caught several Yellow Mouth Trout (double digits), 2 nice Black Drum and a couple of Redfish. So it wasn’t a bad day or a phenomenal day, but it was a fishing day and that’s what counts the most.

THE 1ST TRIP OF ’09 SETS A HIGH PRECEDENT FOR THE REST OF THE YEAR.
No only were the conditions awesome (75+ degrees, very few clouds, light-to-no wind with moderate high tide registering in around 3.4) the fish were turned on. We caught Redfish, Black Drum, Yellow Mouth Trout and even a Tarpon.

SIGNS WERE GOOD EVEN AT THE BOAT RAMP
Because it was already the 4th day of the new year and we hadn’t been out fishing yet, we headed for the boat ramp at Jax Beach with several pounds of dead shrimp, a great outlook on the day and virtually no expectation of what the fishing was going to be like … afterall, the water temperature was 61 degrees.

When we arrived at the boat ramp in Jax Beach, we immediately backed the boat down into the water and found ourselves launching next to a guy in a Kayak, who was just completing his fishing day. This gentleman asked if we wanted some shrimp, which we gladly and graciously accepted. During the exchange we quickly chatted about the fishing. The Kayak guy said that he caught about 25 Redfish (all Rats no keepers) and a few Flounder. He picked up the Flounder that he was keeping which was a doormat. I didn’t measure it, but it was in the 24” PLUS range – a nice, nice fish.

THE BITE WAS ON IMMEDIATELY
When we arrived at the spot, we wasted all of about 10 seconds between anchoring the boat and getting our lines in the water. I went out with a live Shrimp, mono-filament leader and a 1.5oz. egg weight.  My fishing partner Tom went out with a fresh dead shrimp, mono-filament leader and a 1oz. egg weight.

Within 2 minutes my rod went off and I’m calling for the net, just to find that Tom’s rod has gone off as well and we’re looking at the possibility of a simultaneous catch on the 1st cast of the day. Unfortunately, Tom’s fish wasn’t hooked well enough and got off. However, that did work to my advantage because that freed him up to net my fish, which was a 16” Black Drum.

Not wanting to be out fished, Tom soon boated a Black Drum that was about the same size and then followed it up with a slotted Redfish that measured in about 23” inches – right in the slot.

And so the competition was on. It wasn’t long before I boated a couple of Redfish; however, they were both just a little short on one end, measuring in at about 17”. They weren’t keepers, but they sure were fun to catch.

A SURPRISE VISITOR
As the day progressed along with the number of 15” to 17” Black Drum caught, I hooked into a Tarpon. I was cranking a live shrimp in at a very fast pace (looking to re-cast for better positioning) when I got a decent hit that I felt like it was either a Bluefish or a Flounder – it demonstrated fighting characteristics of both.  So you can imagine my surprise when I got it up to the boat and discovered it was a Tarpon. It was a small dude that was only about 14” long and couldn’t have weighted much more than a pound, but it was certainly an unexpected catch.

Not long after high tide hit, the action slowed and it was time to make a small move. And we were glad we did because we started catching again soon after the move. In fact the Black Drum bite continued until we pulled anchor and headed for the doc.

AN EPIC JANUARY FINISH

This fishing day would be considered a great fishing day on any day of the year, much less on January 4th. We caught a total of 13 Black Drum, 5 Redfish, 1 Tarpon and a number of Yellow Mouth Trout (all very small). Dead shrimp seemed to be the bait of choice, though we did have some action on live Shrimp. We harvested 9 vs. 10 Black Drum (thanks to a math challenge – counting fish in a box) and 1 Redfish. The rest were released and are out there waiting.

It was an amazing day all the way around!

Once again, the weather was setting up for a simply ridiculous “Winter” day.

They were calling for NO rain, CLEAR skies and 78 DEGREES at the beach … add to it the light breeze out of the South and it was on.

So I headed back to the intracoastal (off the back-side of Guana State Park) looking for some more intense Yellow-mouth Trout action like I found there on Friday, December 26th.

Here are a few pics that I took at the boat ramp under the 210 Bridge:

I was fishing the same setup:
– 2oz barrel weight above the leader
- 20″, 40lb. monofilament leader with a red Laser Sharp Hook tied on the end
- dead shrimp was the bait (de-headed and pealed) 

Like the last trip, I found the fish to be hungry and in aggressive pursuit of the bait. It wasn’t long before I converted a few bites into catches – Yellow-mouth Trout to be specific (back in Texas we also called them Sand Trout).

I had Trout on the brain and got a little surprise

The surprise came after about 30 minutes of fishing. I got a hit that felt (comparatively) like a freight train. The fish just took the bait and started running. Because I had Trout on the brain, I was thinking that this is going to be a really nice trout.

At this point, I really hadn’t considered this could be something other than a Yellow-mouth Trout, which mid-fight started to behave differently. It didn’t just kind of give up 1/2 way through like trout tend to do. No instead, it continued to run. Once I got a visual, I realized that this was not a Yellow-mouth Trout and instead was a Bluefish (also referred to as Blue Runners). But that’s saltwater fishing … you never truly know exactly what’s going to end up on the other end of your line.

So in addition to finding the Yellow-mouth Trout to be pretty thick on the back side of Guana, I found the Bluefish to rival them in numbers. In fact, I caught a pretty equal number of both fishing the exact same spot. The schools seem to be running up and down the intracoastal tearing into whatever they encounter. So one minute your catching Trout and the next your catching Bluefish … ironically, I didn’t catch another specie of fish while I was out.

No record breaking fish, but certainly a day worth recording

The Yellow-mouth Trout today were about the same size I had found on the previous trip, ranging from 10″ on the low end on up to 15″. They were respectable, but nothing that is going to challenge any records.

As for the Bluefish, they were also on the smaller end of the scale, ranging in size from about 13″ to 18″ … but these fish can really put up a fight. They seems to be about 4 times as strong as a Trout of equal size and watch out for those teeth – they are sharp.

And though the fishing was good today, especially for late December, it was definitely dialed back a few notches from Friday. I believe all the boat traffic and people out fishing impact fishes’ behavior by the end of the weekend. It always seems that the bite during the week (when no one is out) is better that the bite on the weekend after all the boats have been churning the waters. But hey, most of us have to work during the week, so we’ll fish when we can.

The whole day was unbelievable! The skies were clear, the humidity was low, the temperature was 75+ degrees at the beach and the trout were absolutely tearing it up! Oh yeah, and it’s December 26th!

Today’s trip was an effort to get outside after two days of eating way too much holiday food and try to do a little fishing. It was one of those low involvement and low effort fishing trips … evidently those are some of the best.

Basically our preparation included:
- 3 minutes online checking the tide charts
- 5 minutes grabbing a few poles and tackle out of the garage
- a quick 7 minute stop at Publix for a bag of ice and some bottled water
- 30 seconds at the freezer grabbing a 1 pound bag of frozen shrimp

My point is we did very little strategizing or preparation … we just wanted to get our lines in the water and take advantage of what was setting up to be a very nice day.

It was about 9:45ish when we first put our lines in the water. (Low tide was suppose to hit about 1:00, so we were catching the last half of the outgoing tide.) Not really knowing what to expect from the day, the first hit surprised me … it was a HARD hit that was quickly converted into the 1st catch of the day. It was a Yellow-mouth Trout that measured out at about 14″. And it was a nice and thick Yellow-mouth Trout, who also appeared to eating very well for the Holiday Season.

My initial reaction to catching a nice Yellow Mouth Trout so quickly was that it was a fluke. I mean I like to think that I’m good and all, but it is December 26th and I know the reality of fishing in water that’s below 70 degrees – it can be SLOW. I told myself that I should expect some “quality me time” or “free time” before I hook up on another fish. However, I have no problem admitting that I am wrong and boy was I. The next strike came about 5 to 10 seconds after I got my bait back in the water – another Yellow-mouth Trout. This one was a bit smaller (11″ or so) , but still very aggressive and fun to catch.

We were fishing the West side of the ship channel in the intracoastal down where it is pretty narrow near Guana State Park, using a 1.5 oz. barrel weight tied above a swivel that connected to my 20″ mono-filament leader. The bait was dead shrimp (pealed of course).

The morning continued on with strikes almost every cast and a conversion about 75 percent of the time. It was one of those days that you found yourself needing to get the slack out of the line immediately upon hitting the water or you knew you would miss the hit.

It was a Yellow-mouth Trout on the other end of the line 4 out of 5 catches … Croakers, however, occasionally proved to be a bit quicker and beat the Trout to the punch. Within an hour and a half, we were into the dozens of catches (and releases). The only thing that kept us from continuing to rack up the number of fish caught was the fact that we ran out of bait. Yep, back to the whole planning and preparation thing! I guess we didn’t do enough of it. Or did we? We brough absolutely no food with us and it was about 11:45 when the bait ran out – Time for Lunch! That meant that we had to roll ‘em in, pack it up and head for home.

The day was action packed and tons of fun. And though we didn’t catch any “trophy fish”, the day is one for the 2008 trophy case. We were fishing cold water and catching a lot of nice fish. What could be better!

We had an an believable morning catching Black Drum!

You can’t ever plan on limiting out … at least I can’t and I think I’m among the majority of anglers. That said, we headed to the boat ramp with a couple of pounds of dead shrimp and a very specific plan to catch Black Drum.

We were going to one of our in-shore spots where some structure (fallen trees) is in the water. The plan was to bottom fish using a barrel weight above the leader, dead bait and the rod holders on the boat. I know, I know, it’s not something your going to see on REEL ADVENTURES, but it is December in North Florida (not Cabo or Costa). The other part of the plan was to catch the last of the outgoing and first of the incoming tide – for us this is the most productive fishing time regardless of daypart.

Upon arriving at the spot, we anchored up and started fishing immediately. Unfortunately, the fish were not quite as eager as we were, so we were off to a slow start. After catching a bunch of small Yellow Mouth Trout, we decided to reposition the boat and moved closer to the structure. And this was the difference maker for the day. Immediately after the move , we got our lines back in the water and BAM! two rods went off at the same time. We boated the first two Black Drum of the day, measuring in around the 16″ mark.

Not having a lot of ice on the boat, we decided to use the live well to keep the fish alive and ice what we decide to keep on the drive back from the boat ramp. We’ll it seems the ice situation ended up being a good thing because it wasn’t long before we had 10 nice Black Drum in the live well. They ranged in length from about 16″ to 18″. There we no monsters, but all very respectable fish.

“It’s not often that you fill your live well with 10 Black Drum and continue to catch more, swapping out the small ones for larger ones.”

If it wasn’t for the fact that we ran out of bait (2 pounds of dead shrimp) in less than 4 hours, we would have continued to fish and exceed the 14 keeper size Black Drum that we boated that day, not to mention serveral that we’re just a little short on one end.

I have to admit this day (half day to be more acccurate) set the boat record for Black Drum caught … I believe the total was somewhere near the 20 to 22 mark. And you know when you lose count of the total quality fish caught, it says somehing about how your day was going .

“A little learning for me was being able to distinguish between nothing happening and getting a bite.”

I’m use to really feeling the bite and knowing for sure that somthing is on the other end. Black Drum fishing, however, is a little different than fishing for Redfish or trout. The bite feels almost like your being crabbed vs. the way that Redfish, Trout and even Whiting or Flounder for that matter slam the bait. The trick is to let the small nibbles continue for a long moment, try to anticipate when you thing the hook is in the mouth and gently setting the hook. I’ve still got a little finessing work to do, but who doesn’t?

So when your fishing the colder season (particularly in North Florida) go out optimistic, grab some fresh dead shrimp and throw the style points to the wind. You’ll probably be glad you did.

Despite all the rational reasons not to go out fishing that morning(below normal cold temperatures, overcast skies and high wind to name a few)we headed for the boat ramp in JAX Beach with 2 pounds of dead shrimp and a whole lot of optimism.

The wind was HONKING! And it kept changing directions, sometimes coming from the Northeast, other times coming from the Northwest … the common denominator here was North which equals cold in my opinion.

When we got to the spot, the outgoing tide had been moving for an hour or more … it was ripping like a monster freight train with no breaks. So much so, just dropping the anchor required a downstream calculation of about 30 yards, so hitting the exact spot we wanted was near impossible. That, combined with the wind made it slow going for the first couple hours … or more accurately, no fish to speak of in the first couple hours – OUCH!

Before throwing in the towel and heading for a warm house with a hot meal, we decided to follow our own advice and make some short moves now that the current had settled down a bit.

The next spot we picked was about 50 yards from where we started and BAM!
The bite was on.

We caught five Black Drum and two Speckled Trout in about an hour. Three of the Black Drum were nice keepers – 17 inches plus. The other Black Drum were we legal, but just over the mark. The Speckled Trout were decent, measuring in at about 16 inches, but fortunately it was a catch-and-release day for Trout.

So all in all it turned out to be a pretty good fishing day, despite the questionable conditions.  But hey, that’s cold weather fishing in North Florida. The fish are slow to bite and technique is not going to land you on The Fishing Channel (bottom fishing with dead shrimp), but who’s going to argue with fish in the box.

Upon arriving at the the beach just after 9:00 AM Saturday morning (Jax Beach, 32nd Street South) I noticed there were no waves except those crashing right up against the shore. I wasn’t sure if it was a condition that would hold all morning or if it was a temporary condition created by the high tide, which had just peaked at about 15 minutes before my arrival. The sun was muted behind overcast skies, the air temperature was in the low 80′s and the water temperature seemed a little cooler.

And the surf fishing was nothing short of explosive!  The Whiting were biting! The Yellow-mouth Trout were biting! The Croakers were biting! The Bluefish were biting!   

Every single cast got a hit within about 30 seconds of being in the water. I’m not sure if I spent more time taking fish off my line or putting bait back on it. I’m not going to make a claim like I caught a fish every cast, but it was pretty close. The fish wouldn’t hardly let my rig hit the bottom before hitting the bait, which worked to the fish’s favor for a short while. In order to get the slack out of my line, I started closing my bail while my rig was still in the air … and this seemed to do the trick.

I don’t know exactly how many fish were caught because there was no time to count – all focus was on fishing. If I had to guess, I would estimate that over 50 fish were caught between 9:00 AM and 12:00 PM. The majority of the fish were Whiting, followed in number by Yellow-mouth Trout, then Croakers and lastly Bluefish (I do know that I only caught 7 or 8 Bluefish).

To sort of balance the equation a little, the size of the fish that were being produced were a little smaller than usual:

- The Whiting ranged from 8″ to 14″ … and there were certainly more small then large.

- The Yellow Mouth Trout averaged about 12″ +/- an inch or two

- The Bluefish also averaged about 14″ … smaller than surf fishing usually produces

- The Croaker were also small hitting in around a 10″ to 11″

I was fishing just the other side of the second sandbar which was very reachable – 75 yards or so. One key to making sure your casts go far is keeping new line on your reel and not exceeding the manufacturers spec. Old line or line that is too heavy will always shorten your throw, not to mention tangle more easily.

I was using fresh dead shrimp with my usual rig and because I was so busy catching fish and trying to keep my line in the water, I never got a chance to put a Krocodile Spoon on the line … I’m definitely regretting that oversight … that might have been the difference in catching large fish.  Next time!

The Whiting bite Sunday morning in the surf was a little slower than expected, but I was fishing the daypart, catching a little of the outgoing tide vs. focusing on straddling the low tide … but what are you to do when you’ve got only a small window of time to get in some fishing.

I was fishing Jax Beach, 32nd Street South, from about 8:00 AM to 10:00 AM and produced 6 Whiting averaging about 14″ in length, 3 Croakers that were about 12″ and a decent sized Bluefish approx. 20″. The thing about the Whiting is they were all skiney … they didn’t have much girth, volume or weight to them like the Whiting I’ve been catching the past few weeks.

It was a catch and release day for me because I had such a limited amount of time to invest. I figured I would rather spend the 2 hours surf fishing than 1 hour surf fishing and 1 hour cleaing fish. And based on the size of the fish, I think that decision served me well.

I was using peeled, dead shrimp for bait and found the key to catching was getting your bait way out there (100+ yards) … the churn was pretty tough in close and made the cast critical to getting a bite. I didn’t get a nibble and couldn’t give shrimp away on the shorter casts.

The big plus, however, is I didn’t catch a single Shark … I guess they were too busy playing with the surfers that were glad to see a few decent waves hanging around.

Overall the trip was decent (not great) … it was  definately dialed back a notch or two from prior trips. However, I did notice that the wind was coming out of the South pushing the really nice water in vs. the normal offshore breeze pushing the waved toward shore. I figure that was a factor in some degree.

While it appears the Black Drum have disappeared from the structures we usually fish near the Mayport area, the Redfish have not and the Mangrove Snapper are back. In fact the Mangrove Snapper are pretty nice size … yesterday’s average was about 15″ vs. the little 9″-10″ dudes we saw back in the early part of the Summer.

And as usual, the Redfish are all over the board, ranging yesterday from 19.5″ to 30″ … although I have to say they were not around in the same numbers that they were a few weeks back, but I believe (theorize) that yesterday’s storms had a lot to do with their temperament. 

We went out at about 4:30 PM under somewhat sketchy weather conditions. Storms were rolling through the area immediately to the North of us, which inevitably got us. When we first arrived at our spot it was hard to keep bait on the line, but when the first squall line passed over the bite absolutely shut down for about 30 minutes. The good news is it returned, but not quite at the same intensity.

In addition to the Redfish and Mangrove snapper, the Speckled Trout were around in reasonable numbers. Although they all seem to be a little short on one end, measuring in from 13.5″ to 14.5″.

Another fish that showed up yesterday was somthing that quite frankly I haven’t even seen since last season and that’s the Gaftops. There was a large-ish 6-7 pounder caught and more than a couple of small ones.  But what do you expect when your fishing with dead shrimp?  It comes with the territory.

Overall I have to say that fishing seemed a little different yesterday and I’m not sure if it is a sign of a seasonal shift, a result of the water temperature recovering to normal temperatures or a barometeric condition that supposedly impacts fishing. I guess I’ll have to go back out and try to get to the bottom if it.:)