4/5 - New weather, New challenges.......

Well, today certainly wasn't yesterday, by no means. Weather wise. Over cast, a tad breezy at times, cool, and I could just feel the change, in my bones. And so did the fish obviously. Because it was a rather tough day. Take a tough weather day with a huge weather change dropped upon us add in some kids who you want to really slay'em, and what do ya have?

A Captain wracking his brain and doing alot of anchoring and re-anchoring.

But it all worked out after all.

I had Jim Cunningham, a previous customer from years ago come on back for another go 'round. And this time he brought the "boys", Jimmy & Chris. Two well mannered, Jr. Anglers who I had a lot of fun with, and I think they had fun as well. As they learned a bunch too.

We started out at high tide working a shell bar up in a creek, catching some small Specks and a few Bluefish (Them chompers, are just everywhere aren't they?) So the boys could get acclimated to the tackle and technique of Float-rig fishing. But the supposed NORTH wind wasn't NORTH at all.......not according to my compass. It was EAST. The tide took what seemed like way too long to get low. Which was screwing me up, since I needed lower water when I went to my Redfish "go-to" spot for the boys to get one. But time was ticking by and as the tide slowly fell we weren't catching anything, or even getting any decent bites. Chris did pick up a Bluefish or two and a small Flounder, but it was deadly slow. So I picked up and tried a spot where it wasn't all that easy to just send the float out and reel it back. I said, "we're kicking this up a notch, fellas."

But we only got one bit shrimp on this next spot, where it's a level 9.5 out of 0-10 in difficulty, fishing the float-rig. Last March this same area was on fire for monster specks. And this year it's zilch. But I continue to try it, because one day it's gonna produce, again.

So off to the BIG water we went. With the tide falling, it was time to hit the jetties. First spot, ZERO.

Second spot........F-I-S-H!!!!

Finally, we picked up some keeper sized Trout. Then came a 4 pound Yellowmouth, and then a 4 pound Speck. It wasn't like the boys were in a fish riot, but at least the boys were getting bit.

No one was trying any less harder where ever we went, it was just the day. One with a radical weather change versus yesterday. This is what these fronts can do. And they really seem to affect the Trout fishing especially.

I'm absolutely spent. And will take the next few days to do some boat maintenance, a visit to my book keeper, and tackle cleaning.

It was a good run of trips this last 6 days. My clients caught everything from Big Trout, too Pompano, too Big Reds, Flounder, Black Drum, and Sheepshead. In the course of just 6 days I fished in perfect conditions, not so perfect conditions, to just good enough conditions.

Spring time is such a transitional time of year, it's unbelieveable how radically things can be from one day to another. Give it 2 hours or 12 hours, and nothing will be the same!

But after 11 years of fishing for a living and constantly reviewing what I like better, I still have to say my favorite time of year is October, November thru January. There's just something about that cool down portion of a N.E. Florida year that makes me really look forward to it.

Either way, this isn't our last "front" passing thru with a radical weather change......we're into the spring now, and even though I'm sometimes challenged because of it. We'll always CATCH us some fish, just ask the Cunningham Clan. Those smiling kids, makes me smile too.

The rest of thier recent catch photos are on catch page #1:

http://www.captdaves.com/Catch1.htm

4/4 - Now today was, a "PERFECT" 80 degrees

Redfish, Speckled Trout, Flounder, Sheepshead, and Black Drum......AND WE LEFT THEM BITING!!!!!!!

Wow what a beautiful day. This is how it's supposed to be. No B.S., just three Amigos, shooting the bull telling stories, out catching some fish, and nice ones I might add. On a beautiful day, soaking up the sun, getting some great bites, a variety of species, not having to fight Momma Nature, 20 knot winds or crowds of people out to ruin your day with clients, with inconsideration.

Jake & Jeff had their trip planned for late March. But as you may know if you're a frequent reader of these pages, the end of March was heinous! Jake said, "I do not want to fish in the winds...so pick another day Dave and call me." So I picked today April 4th, for the soul reason Jeff was coming from Gainesville, and a 10:30am High Tide gave him some wiggle room, to get to Mayport. And avid Gulf Coast fisherman himself, Jeff hadn't ever went float rigging before. But then again it wasn't your average Float-rigging day. We never really did any long drifts, because the fish were all around us. Plus, we were in such shallow waters, that I could have just as well had on the ole Cajun Thunder clickin' corks. (have a I told ya'll how much I LOVE my new boat, lately??? If not let just say, It's the best boat I have ever fished on, EVER!)

And really lets face it. Some of the simplistic most relaxing fishing in saltwater is when all ya do is set the float a drifting, and watch that baby disappear......FISH ON! And anyone can do it. I think that it's obvious that this "blog" and my "recent catch pages" prove that!

There's not much else to tell other than Jake is wanting to learn more about the ways of the float, and I think he learned just enough to make him dangerous today, but he'll need some more reel time still.

We had 4 Sheepshead to 6 pounds, a 5 pound Flounder, a 4 pound Trout, and a 4 pound Black Drum, and a small 17" Redfish, too many Bluefish. And for Jake it was all he needed to fill up on some fresh fish fillets.

And again, I'll say it. WE LEFT THEM BITING!

Jeff and I both knew that. But there's hopefully more days like the one we had today still to come.

It was an awesome day, with great guys.

________________________________

So....I think a Front is coming. The weather guessers are saying. I have a family affair tomorrow, 4 people, 2 are kids. And of course the weather report is for SCC - "small craft caution", winds 15 knots from the north, which actually means to us on the water 20 knots out of the North!

And of course I have a 4 passenger, instead of just maybe 2 people which makes life a lot easier when the weathers tough.

________________________________

The rest of todays photos are on my recent catch page(s) #2

4/3 - Super weather.....doesn't anyone go to work?

Had Allen & Cliff Giddens on board today while in Jax with their parents. The boat ramp looked like a July 4th weekend, on an ordinary Tuesday.

Thank goodness, it's all the slick sea starved offshore warriors, that haven't been able to do anything, because of the 21 days worth of incessant east winds.

I'm more than happy to do just what I do and that's, no long boat rides.

So the boys met me at the dock at 8:30am. I decided to fish the incoming tide at the big rocks for a change. Drifting our floats straight down the jetty with not a single sniff.

It just wasn't happening, so I waited for the tide to turn by anchoring up and using some finger mullet about 4" that I had in my second live well pinned to a leader and a 4oz bank sinker pitched out on the bottom along the south tip.

That's where Cliff caught a 12 pound, 31" Redfish. We tired for a second one, but the dullness of bottom fishing was more than I could take, and the boys seemed restless too.

I did all I could to roust a smile or a conversation out of them, but they were the quite types. The exact opposite of me, which for 6 hours is tough.

So we went back to the trusty float-rig. We went back to where we first started, because I do not give up, and I do not run around all over chasing a bite. Patience and the tides timing will bring what it brings. We ended up nailing 5-giant Yellowmouths in a row, 2-3 pounds a piece. Then, the Specks showed and we boxed 3 of them, and that was about it. Everything shut down.

So I moved no more than 200 yards, but to a very difficult area to fish. And Cliff, nailed a 4 pound Speck. We got waked, knocked off anchor twice. And the difficulty of float-fishing this spot forced me to make a run down river.

We stopped by the river/ICW intersection and worked an area that I can't wait to actually have fish on it again. Last year I could go in there, bang 5-10 healthy Specks on almost any falling tide. But not this Spring.....not so far. Yesterday Mike pulled one nice Speck off it and that was it. So we slid into a Redfish "go to spot", before packing it in for the day.

Looking for that perfect 18-27 incher that does swim this area, Cliff hooked up a nice 18" Speck instead, and Allen hooked that pupper 14" Redfish.

If we had enough time to possibly sit there and work the area hard for another hour or two we could have probably picked up a keeper Redbass or Flounder, but it was getting late.

So I ended up cleaning 5 Specks to 4 pounds and 5 yellowmouths to 3 pounds at the end of the day. I think the boys will have a good fish fry.

The photo outside the boat was taken by Ron Brooks from http://www.saltfishing.about.com/ Ron's and outdoor writer and does some great local fishing articles. Plus I knew of him because I used to buy mass amounts of my "Capt Dave's Jetty-Jigs", that I used to sell in my online tackle shop from his cousin in Tennessee. Ron was out fishing solo on his flats boat, loading up for a fish fry. So you may see the CaptDaves.com-Sportfishing boat in an article someday soon on Ron's ABOUT.com site. (thanks for the pics, Ron)

2 more days to go.......till I get a days rest. And the oil changed in the Honda outboard, and my Taxes sent to the IRS.

Whewwwwwwwww

4/2 - Species sampler...to include Green Sea Turtle

Whewwww....I be wore out!

But had a fun day with Mike and Gary today. Always good to see them again.

They did a sampling of species today. Speckled Trout, Yellowmouth Trout, Redfish, Flounder, Jack Crevalle, Bluefish, and a lil Green Sea Turtle we'll called, "Goat Roped". But now is afraid of Float fisherman....hahahah...

Although the wind was light to moderate, I thought as we pulled up on at the jetties we were gonna be into them. Mike right off the bat hooks a big Yellermouth, and then right afterwards a Sheepshead. And that was it. The incoming tide quit. We had no current. So we kept trying.

Moved around, re-anchored, and still nothing. I even caught some Mullet and put them in my second live well. Only to feed a big nasty Bluefish.

On the full moon the tide falls and falls fast, but not on the banks. It falls, but produces no real current. But look out in the middle of the river and the tide is screaming. The best example of a full moon tide is when you have a full pool. So full it's outside the rim of the pool on the grass. When you go down and pull the plug...the water goes out but you do not see that whirlpool till the waters half gone. And that's the way it is at the jetties and in the river many times on a full moon. The current really comes and you feel it everywhere, when the tides at least half out.

That being said, we bagged it and headed inshore. Caught a nice Speck at a spot that should have given up 4-5 of them, then moved to my staple "go to" spot. And instantly had Reds and a Flounder and some small trout. Good action for awhile and then all of a sudden the tide was super low and we were sitting anchored in a pool of water left.

The rest of the pics are on Catch page 8 of my recent catch pages.

I hate comparing things to last year, but there's a place "I GOTTA GET TOO", and fish it hard.

Because this time last year it was BIG Trout and Reds...doing the "Snap-crack-pop" with your line.

But it can't be done on a full moon tide, I need a slower tide at regular fishing hours, to try it.

Plus I have a new G. Loomis 9 foot float rigging rod I really want to try there, if those reds show up under a certain dock. Because this rod will put them in their place!

Next up tomorrow is two Jr. Anglers a dad is dropping off with me. 13 & 16 years old??

This will certainly be different.

Gary, I found your shirt!

4/1 - ...."its blowin again"....April fools!

I lazily rolled out of bed at 7:30am, (really sleeping in for me) back aching, burry-eyed and made some strong Java this morning. Sat down at my desk and went to work updating my NEWS page on my web site with the new pre-reserved days on the calendar. And then the phone rang around 9am.

It was Brian & Matt, wanting to go fishing.
They said they were hung-over, had a wild night but really wanted to go fishing. They called around and ended up with my phone number, from a friend already out fishing.

Well, ya know how I love "last minute" phone calls for charters. So I told them I too am sitting here waking up slowly while still in my BVD's.

But they didn't hem or haw, they wanted to go and laid a Visa on me with no gripes. (usually these types of calls never work out....not because of me, but because fishing was just a whim)
But not these two guys.

So I said, "Okay, meet me at 11am at the dock". I scurried and got my act together, loaded the boat and just knew it was gonna be a cone-a-rama out on the river, and it was! The ramp was full, the river was full, and there was people wall to wall everywhere you looked.

And ya know how I just love fishing in and around other people. I DON'T, I HATE IT!
(It's heredity. My Grand father was incredibly unsocialable when he fished so my dad tells me and he says; "you're just like your grandfather, if he saw a single body standing on the beach when he went surf fishing, he'd pack up and leave that entire stretch of ocean.")

But that was back in the 1950's, he'd just flip if he was alive and trying to fish these days, without seeing a soul.

I got a good word that the jetties were heinous, big seas and big wind. And yes, it was windy when we left, too. So my 2 crew members didn't want any parts of rockin & rollin' so we turned left out of the boat ramp towards inshore waters.

My options were pretty limited starting late and with so many people everywhere, so we went to the closest place I know we can hide-out.
We were early on the spot, but I didn't care. I had to stake claim or loose it to the unknowing weekend crowds.
The tide started to drop, and the bites came.

First fish was a small 14" pup Redfish. Then a Flounder, then a good pull on the rod lost to a user error. Then another Redfish, a 22 incher. Then more traffic coming thru screwing us over, then some small Trout, then a keeper, then another lost good puller, then a few more small trout.
Then our current died....Time to move on.

But as we were fishing the wind was worse and worse. South at a good 20 knots easy!

April fools!!!!! Ya'll who listened to the weather guessers, really got bent over the rail today. (personally I never even looked at it and didn't care. I had a feeling nothing would change from the rest of the last 30 days.)

Is that why the river was a July like festival of boats, because the weather guessers, said it was gonna be nice? Sure was nice. NICE AND WINDY.

So we looked around, and it got to the point where a boat was on every spot, the wind was bad everywhere, and the river was so rough it was like being offshore during a gale.

So we pretty much went back to the creek, caught a few more dinks at dead low tide, and then headed in.

We had a pretty good day considering a late start, too many people, and to much south wind. Keeping one Trout, one Flounder and one Redfish for take home.

Now I have Monday thru Thursday reserved...and will not be fishing next weekend probably.
5 days in a row, and if I have to fight the wind I'll really be tired of it. But according to the forecast:
- MONDAY AND MONDAY NIGHT SOUTHWEST WINDS 10 KNOTS. SEAS 2 FEET OR LESS. INLAND WATERS A LIGHT CHOP.
I guess I may get a breather from the wind burn.Because as of now the whole week looks good.

My News page is where you can find what dates are "pre-reserved", in case your interested in booking a day of float-riggin, aboard the CaptDaves.com boat. Along with other pertinent dates.