12/7 - DAY TWO...

Well, this was day two with Don and Louis.  The forecast "COULDN'T" have been any more different than yesterday.
The front.....first it pushed the warm air and perfect blue skies over us. That was yesterday, then came today.

20+ knot SW winds, and clear skies is how we started the morning. The guys wanted to hit the "big water", so to the jetties we went. I couldn't even anchor on the inside of the north jetty, my anchor kept slipping as we headed straight for the 10 tom granite boulders. So I headed over to the inside of the south jetty.

I got anchored exactly perfectly. Right where I wanted to be. And we weren't on the spot but a few minutes and Louis slams the hook on a Big Fish.  The Ugly Stik bent and the Shimano TRN reel let drag go.

Ya' may even say this was "I.G" - instantaneous gratification!  

A real nice 8 pound Black Drum...
NOT EVEN CLOSELY RELATED to a fresh water Drum fish. Which Don thought it was, which is considered a junk fish in some parts.

I told him, "this is a Redfishes ugly cousin, that's all." 

Our Drum come in Red and Black...

So, we kept fishing. But between the wicked SW wind blowing, and then the building full moon falling tide. My anchor was severly over worked, and we kept slipping backwards. And if you have any experience, you know that a dragging anchor is an anchor that can quickly turn into an anchor you'll never see again. When it gets jammed into something and you loose it.  So I'm  pulling it and re-anchoring too many times as the wind got nothing but worse.

So we headed up river. Tried bottom fishing two more spots with NADA.....and the last time we got blown off the spot I said,
"Hell with this....let's go float-rig fishing!!!!!!!!"

And after yesterday's big Trout day, I didn't get a arguement from Don or Louis.

Yes, the current was heinous at times, and so was the wind as we huddled up close to the bank. But the real nice fat Trout  up to 20 inchers, and a Redbass at 22".

The skies darkened as we fished and the wind never let up, but got stronger and stronger. And it looked like rain.

Plus, I still had a box of fish to clean. So I  heading back to the dock as fast as I could, tied off and held on. Here came the Pre-rain gusts.

And as I cleaned the fish the light rain caught up to us, coming eastward from the SW.

These guys knew how to do it RIGHT!
Picking the RIGHT time of year, and booking two days during the RIGHT time of year. And as you can see they were rewarded with two days full of great fishing. One day with primo perfect weather and the next with weather not so good, but fishable. And I can tell ya things would have been much tougher with more than 2 persons. The three of us worked like a well oiled machine.  And that makes for a quality trip(s).

Thanks fellas. Hope to see you next year! 



NEXT UP:

On Thursday a Husband and wife duo. The forecast isn't great, with 20 knot NE winds, "POST FRONT", but then again I don't know how to fish in any other weather.

12/6 - Day One.....

I had Don and Louis aboartd today from Tennessee. Today was day one of two. We're heading out again on Wednesday.
Before we left the dock I shot this pic of some actual F-O-G.

I LOVE F-O-G!
It's one of those kinda things that we get frequently in the winter and especially in the months of December through February.  It's been a bit infrequent lately, because all we've had was W-I-N-D!

With foggy morning usually comes BLUE-BIRD-SKIES.  And I told the guys that with no wind, blue skies and warm temps, I won't know what to do with myself.

The first area we tried was for Crap!  The current was all wrong, and all we did was spin around in a vortex from hell. We were up in a creek and it was a quick reminder why I hate fishing creeks sometimes.  We kept moving around, and then around some more.
It was a BAIT STEALER BONANZA!

Between Bluefish and Pinfish "WE" couldn't even fish!  So after only a Blue and one small trout, we had to move on.

The second spot was nearly perfection. As we float-rig fished all was great. We pullled in there, because I wanted the guys to tangle with some Reds. But all the reds were just small "puppers". But they did slam dunk some nice Trout.

We played with the pup Redbass and some small Trout and then it was time to move on. Get out in the BIG RIVER, and leave that mud and marsh behind.  So we picked up and made a run.  We weren't on the spot but a few minutes when Don goes for 3 drifts, 3 Trout.....Louis needed to start playing catch up. Don had a hot rod!

He even nailed this 25", 5-1/2 pounder!! 

The guys caught a few more pup reds as the Trout came in waves.....



Boxing "LIMITS" had me really happy!!
And Louis caught up quickly.

LOOK at Louis... "he's ready for the cover of Florida Sportsman Magazine!" 

I love a Big Box O' Troutz.
GET THE SKILLET, PEANUT OIL, AND ZATERAINS CRUNCHY FISH FRY MIX READY!

I believe the guys wanna try the jetties on Wednesday.

The forecast is saying this right now:

...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON
THROUGH LATE WEDNESDAY NIGHT...

Guess we better catch alot of fish really quick in the morning then..."we'll see".

WEDNESDAY
SOUTHWEST WINDS 15 TO 20 KNOTS BECOMING WEST 20 TO
25 KNOTS LATE IN THE AFTERNOON. SEAS 3 TO 5 FEET. INLAND WATERS
CHOPPY. ISOLATED SHOWERS IN THE AFTERNOON.

Earlier in the season, TWO FISTED "RB" ACTION

As I said in my last report, there's a new Hunting and Fishing web site out there called On One Outdoors.
And Clay, Billy, Myself and Doc Miller did some video on this past Saturday.

CHECK OUT THIS REDBASS FOOTAGE OF CLAY AND BILLY ON:  http://www.ononeoutdoors.com/

"SIMPLE REDFISHING, AND NEEDING MORE HANDS"

Jus' great stuff, here LOCALLY!!

It's on the home page right now.

A fine example of  put the bait out there and catch some whoppers.

Next up for me:

Tuesday & Wednesday with a couple from up north, and then Thursday with a couple from Maryland.

12/3 & 4 - You Name It!

Had a rescheduled trip on Saturday. And because it was 4 small kids and one adult, it was almost a good thing. Because as usual every single weekend. The wind was howling!

So I gave Clay a call......

Clay and friends have started a  new web site http://www.ononeoutdoors.com/ and his site is where you can see video shows of local fishing, duck hunting, deer hunting, you name it.

We've been trying to get out and do some footage of winter "float-rig fishing". So I gave Clay a call friday evening. He grabbed a buddy, and a small bass boat to use as a camera boat and we did hours of footage of Doc Miller and myself, doing what we do best, "Float-riggin".

Only problem is, the morning bite was a tough one, and then it went from calm to all out blowing 20 knots.

I'll be sending ya'll over to http://www.ononeoutdoors.com/  as soon as I know that our show is up on the website. I won't tell you what we did, so as not to spoil all the fun.  

--------------------------------------------

Then on Sunday, I had a four passenger charter, that actually turned out to be a 3 person. I picked my guys up at Sisters creek at 7:30am and since the wind was calm. We headed straight to the jetties.

Let me jus' interject a fact here....Do you know that by this time last year I was having an absolute ball fishing the jetties catching Reds and Black Drum. The action right about now started to be so damn good, I about hung up the float-rig rods and gave it up because the bottom bite was so good.

Well, today was only the second day since the 12th of November that I have actually anchored up at the jetties. And even on the 12th it was a some what calm day, directly after several days of gale force winds. We hardly could get a bite back then, and today I actually dropped anchor!

The rollers were huge in between the rocks, it was real slow going heading out to the end of the jetties. And my guys had wide eyes as we rolled over the huge swells. But we went out to the end of the north rocks. And caught one Seabass and one small Yellowmouth trout on live shrimp bottom fishing. AND THAT WAS THE ONLY TWO BITES WE HAD!

YEP, raining offshore. Cloudy all over.

Too bad the big swells don't show up in pics.















Not a single boat but "us" ventured out at the end, in the JETTYWOLF. And the dredge heading out to dump.

Guess what else is upsetting me? The last time I actually got to trout fish the jetties was back on OCTOBER 13th!!!!

The reason for all of this is because every weekend and every time I head out there on a charter, it's rough as a COB.

I sure hope this changes. Because did you know that we're almost 1/2 way through the winter season already?????????
Yep, Christmas marks the half way mark through the best inshore fishing season.

BLINK TWICE, CROSS YOUR ARMS THREE TIMES AND SPIN AROUND THREE TIMES AND GUESS WHAT?  It'll be 90 degrees again, and there it goes, another winter gone, and a boring hot summer to live through.

I love this time of year. It's what keeps me going. And jetty fishing keeps me going. So you can see why my nose is all outa joint.

Whewwww......never is one year ever like another.  At least it's not below 32 degrees every morning, this winter so far. But the wind and big seas, are the problem for me. Or maybe it's the days my customers pick to go?????? 

Well, needless to say. Today, we didn't hang at the jetties much. I had one fella feeling seasick of course. And the rest of the day was full of just a bunch of small fish, no trout, no reds. It was a struggle all day long.

I guess the Jettywolf will fish the water's that are left......The Jetties always seem too rough. We can't fish along the Navy base, Blount Island any more...so the list is growing!

BTW, I plan on doing a video of where YOU as a citizen of the USA, in Jacksonville Florida cannot fish any more. And I'll send it along to the Newspaper, News stations, and maybe even a Congressman or two.  It'll be my personal campaign.