11/6 - Weathered OUT!

Got to boat ramp this morning and the rain was falling pretty damn good. And the wind was blowing pretty damn good too.

SMALL CRAFT EXERCISE CAUTION
TODAY
NORTH WINDS 15 TO 20 KNOTS. SEAS 3 TO 5 FEET. INLAND
WATERS A MODERATE CHOP. SHOWERS AND ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS.

Knew Dave and his two sons who I had yesterday and was supoosed to have today didn't have complete foul weather gear. And we were just doing a 1/2 day trip, so they could get to the airport this afternoon.

So we cancelled it.

BUT. Of course by 9:30-10:00am it was back to really nice again.

Open this week till Saturday. The Drum are a chewin.....14"-24"  (5) per person!

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Everything is usually perspective, especially on ELECTION DAY. Well, here's some perspective for ya!

Some people think the Mayport Jetties, is rough fishing. I believe the girl hanging on for dear life is saying to herself,
"Oh I think I jus' stained my new Bikini bottom"

Reminders:

When reserving any charter from Oct. 1 till at least April 30th.

I reccomend, very strongly:

* of course a $100 deposit has to be made in advance.
* cash balances are near mandatory....unless you want to loose 10% if I have to credit you due to a cancellation.
* remember, "charters over!" when I throw a dock-line around the dock cleat.
* so...."any fish cleaning is done on a gratuity basis" 10% of charter fee is good, for cleaning alot. Fish cleaning is NOT included in charter rates.
* Typically boat and I receive $50 an hour. And fish cleaning has to be done on the boat = a mess!
* always READ my policies, and they are even posted here along the right "side bar". 
* ALWAYS be 15 minutes early, stated time of departure means pulling away from dock, not into the parking lot.
* Bring foul weather clothing, just incase! And leave a cooler in vehicle, if you choose to clean your own fish.
* "less is more" when it comes to light tackle Float-rigging. Best day is (2) persons, because I have two sides of the boat.

11/5 - Back again.....

Had Dave Z. aboard the Jettywolf  spring of 2011. And he came back again, and brought his two sons from Los Angeles California.

We departed at 7am and headed straight to the Jetties. I was rigged and ready for Float-rig fishing, and  bottom fishing. Well the bottom fishing was what worked.

Yellowmouth Trout, Croakers, Whiting, a small Blacktip Shark, and a just over sized Redbass were caught at first...not to forget a monster Toadfish, and even a 2 foot long eel!


We moved around a bit looking for an even  better bite. So with that said, we found the Black Drum, and a 20 pound Redbass.

Perfect eater sized Black Drum.

Second Redbass on just a piece of dead shrimp! No special baits needed. Not this time of year!

Smoked the Shimano TRN-100G reel and bent the Ugly Stik "stiper rod". Jessies arm was hurting.

We ended the bottom fishing (so I thought) on a good note and a big azz fish. So we packed up the bottom rods and tried a few float-rig spots for Trout. Between the 2 areas, all that was caught was one Jack Crevalle, by Dad, Dave.

 

It was a rising tide and it was flooding in pretty fast, and I didn't want to waste time searching around especially at high water, for a trout bite. So we packed in the Float-rigs and live shrimp and went back to bottom fishing. A few more small fish were caught, and then another Black Drum came aboard (no photo). With the high water, a box of good eater fish, we packed it in so I could clean up the fish and the guys could head over to Singleton's Seafood Shack for a late lunch.

 

It was nice and cool out there. The winds weren't light,  out of the north. But work'able.

 

Now I have the same crew tomarrow. I still have a livewell full of shrimp. So we may have to head into the river and hunt up some Trout and Reds float-rig fishing.

 

The Marine forecast is:

 

TUESDAY
NORTH WINDS 15 TO 20 KNOTS. SEAS 3 TO 5 FEET. INLAND
WATERS A MODERATE CHOP. SHOWERS AND ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS.

 

The "could be 20 knots" is a good reason to head in the river and look for a Trout bite, with an early morning falling tide. 

Let's Re-interate, once again

Its that time of year again. And I'm getting e-mails "again", about Float-rig set up.
Well, this video has been on my YOUTUBE channel a long time....Yes, I even used YOUTUBE to learn how to fix my dryer a few months ago. USE IT. Its a great resource!

MY CHANNEL- link

From 11/1 - short & messy, Solo Redbass mayhem

11/1/2012 -  My camera battery was low, my memory card was full, the camera angle was too low. I got Trout footage, but it was crap. This is all I could salvage from Thursday, after 7 days of Sandy's wind! In the midst of all out Jetty fishing mayhem, and being out solo. Video'ing wasn't easy. This is all I could salvage.

SEE REPORT BELOW FROM 11/1

11/2- Two "float freaks" at it

My buddy and fellow float fishing freak is back in town, for the winter, Doc Miller. After yesterday's solo trip I called him and said "Doc, where are you because if you're not here in J-ville you need to be!"

He said, "I'm here. I'm getting my boat bottom painted and maintenance done." I tell him that we have to go tomarrow. I was just out float-rig fishing and it was a blast, plus I dropped to the bottom and had massive action on just dead shrimp and cut mullet.

Well, he couldn't say no. So we headed out around 8:00am and worked the same area I had fished the day before.
That right there was a Jacksonville fishing, "too much to ask" situation going on!

It was also, "In and out" constant Navy traffic all day long!

After all my years fishing the Jetties I should always know better. NOTHING around here can be repeated the next day. Especially when Trout are concerned!  It's a J-ville phenomenom.

But, we did pull a pupper Redbass and one really nice Trout out of the same spot......"But certainly not 30 Trout and 2 limits in an hour and a half!"

But we tried....and tried.

 

So we moved on, because when fishing around here. You fish "windows of opportunity". Because that's all you get. If you fish here and haven't realized that yet. Oh boy, you need to put more water under your boat.

-SAY HELLO TO MY LITL REDBASS.......

Moving quickly and with purpose we dropped anchor on a different spot but in the same zip code. First drift of the float Doc sweeps his float-rog rod and sets the hook on a good fish. A Redbass!

My turn, and I come back with the seasons first float-rig caught Sheepshead.

We repeated the hook-ups back and forth for about an hour (the window) catching Reds and Trout back and forth. Big Red, small Reds, but sweetheart sized trout. (it's always about the Trout.....the thinkin man's perfect fish)

After the first hour though, it all quit. (Window over!) But it was amazing. The current was still running, but all of a sudden, the reds quit and the Trout went to 14 inches, versus 17-20 inches. I caught a left-over Jack Crevalle too.

I saw my third Tripletail swim by in the last two days, never stopping just swimming straight south.

We made a few more moves and all the windows of this tide were over, so we caught a Piggy Perch on the bottom and used it for cut bait and filled the cracks in the fish box with Yellowmouth Trout. And then we headed in. I had fish to clean and get ready for Saturday morning.

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I had a Saturday charter 11/3

Had regular customer Erica with her two daughters out today and her daughters best friend. We fished the jetties and the kids had a ball catching Croakers, Whiting, Yellowmouth Trout, and they had two big Reds hooked up, that eventually pulled the hook. Yes, the big Reds usually aren't for the first timers, that are young girls. But heck they had the feel of them. We filled the box with fish fry fish and everyone by days end was laying down sleeping, while Erica and I did some drifts for Whiting far from the jetties. But most were really small. 

NEXT UP: 3 guys on Monday & Tuesday. Same crew for 2 days. 

BOOK YOUR DAY NOW!

NOVEMBER 1 - INSANITY

I received a comment posted from someone....."no name was given", about Trout in Mayport. On the post I did about being stir crazy with this weather.

OH YEAH!
I'M ON TOP OF IT.

It was pure insanity today. Upon the Jettywolf, doing R&D for up coming charters. I did make a video, but have no time to spend hours editing it till maybe Weds.......or Sunday.

So I'll just throw up this report:

West winds were quite HARD (15 kts) and in my book WEST is the worst! I hate a west wind....and can't even fish a east wind, most of the time. But I faired okay.

Trout limit to 4 pounds by 9:30am, started fishing around 8:00am. Had to find them first, but once I did, easily caught 30- 40 fish, a 27" Redbass, and a 17-3/4" Redbass, and had a few Yellowmouth Trout too. And one Mangrove Snapper at 11".

Then, as the tide turned I moved locales. Got in position for some EZ drop shrimp (dead) to the bottom. Yellowmouth Trout, Croakers, more Specks, and even had a nice pupper Black Drum. The bite was crazy, fun.

Then it happened, the anchor slipped. So I pulled it and looked carefully around where I was fishing. "I could mark the giant Reds on the bottom, they were all over!"

I re-positioned, fired down a piece of dead shrimp and that's when a 20+ pound Redbass sucked it up. I was fishing my super Fairy Wand rod, it doubled over and of course, this wasn't what I was wanting, by no means.

Afterwards, waves of Mullet and pods of Pogies were all around me. I caught some Mullet super easily, and tried a few.

Two Thursdays ago it was wild fishing in this same spot, with Yellowmouths 12-14" eating 3-4" Mullet, along with small 14" Specks, and of course hundreds of pounds of Redbass.....Hurricane Sandy didn't change any of that!

I caught small Specks and Yellowmouth Trout on the live Mullet, again. And then, FOUR more 20-25 pound Reds on the ole Fairy-wand Ugly Stik. What an ass kicking it was on the mega-light rod.

(SEE VIDEO ABOVE IN 11/4 REPORT)

It was insane, light tackle "solo" fishing.

I was all alone, not a soul around and I was wacking fish like crazy! Filling the fish box, and having a ball.

UP COMING PRE-BOOKED, CHARTERS:

Saturday, and then a "double day" with the same folks on Monday and Tuesday.

Just wish I took photos rather than doing a video. Video's take forever to edit and get done. And after reviewing what I had, the camera angle was wrong 1/2 the time and doing video's in the midst of a EPIC bite of fish had me loose some, too.

I'M ADDICTED TO TROUT. So, this morning Doc Miller, who's back in town and myself are heading out to go wack us a few limits of Specks and come home. He's been up in N.C. all summer, so he's ready. Another limit for the freezer is what I have in mind.

BOOK YOUR DAYS NOW. I have some days left in the middle of the month, and the very end.

NOVEMBER IS THE #1 MONTH OF THE YEAR IN MY BOOK. NO SWEATING, JUST FISHING.