7/7 - Great day...not far away.

Had Greg Tanner with his 5 year old son Will aboard today. To start out.....what the hell was going on?? The Mayport Boat ramp was an absolute ZOO. I haven't seen it like this in a long time. It's as if no one took off work for the holiday week and all of a sudden here comes Saturday, and if you had a boat, you were damn gonna use it today!

The Parking lot was utter mayhem.

Probably because of that Kingfish Karnival closing the Sisters creek boat ramp. I say let's all get together and do a kingfish a favor and make them get their own dang park to run the tournament.

It's such a disruption every single year. If you don't think so, then you're NUTZ! (I tried to capture the look of the parking lot at the Mayport Boat Ramp in this photo, because it looked like the local mall the day after Thanksgiving. But obviously the photo doesn't depict what I was seeing.)

B&M bait and tackle was crazy too. As I motored up there at 6:30am. GOD I LOVE MONDAY'S AT 7:00am!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I finally got in the water and had to pick up Greg at the Carlucci boat ramp off of the Hecksher drive area. What a zoo that was. I waited around and finally pulled up to tie off to the dock right when Greg said he'd be there. Answered the standard 10 questions a day about the greatest fishing boat ever, MY BOAT. Because over at that ramp, "We ain't never seen a boat just like dat"....I was told over and over again. Then, finally Greg and Will walked down.

I had plans to get this lil' boy hooked up and fast to some fish. And man, I surprised myself!

I wanted to just go see what the deal was over at the ship yard 200 yards away from the dock where I just picked them up. So I idled over there (NO LONG BOAT RIDE REQUIRED) and tossed the anchor. Showed Greg what we were going to do and we were off to the races!

Hooking fish after fish on the float-rig for lil' Will to reel in.

First it was Jacks, then came Trout, then some Croakers, and a giant Pinfish. It was fun! Me and Greg would hook'em, and Will would reel them in. This was an observant 5 year old. He could tell right away if the Trout were "keepers" or not. And we measured every one.

On one drift Greg hooked an ass-hander of a fish, torquing the rod hard, but it broke him off under the dock. These docks have a lot of "stuff" hanging in the water. Besides having oyster growth galore. So the fun is, getting them outa there!

Will was keeping a count of every fish, and we ended up with 21 or so that he caught. And we never left till all the bait was gone (approx: 4 dozen live shrimp) I had a ball hooking the lil guy up, and was so surprised that this area had so much to offer. The last time I fished this same spot was a week or so ago, and we hooked up a 10 pound Jack and boated it along those nasty pilings. But today, the spot yielded trout to 18 inches. I usually fish this area in the spring and fall for Trout, because that's when I've had 5 & 6 pounders there.

Go figure......instead of traveling 15 miles up river. We went 200 yards, down river and had a ball, almost all by mistake.

Next up:

Monday friends of Tom Coughlin's attending his daughters wedding (ex Jags head coach)

then Wednesday with just (2) anglers

and then Friday the 13th with (3) anglers.

(To say I'm not superstitious would be a lie!)

7/6 - what the hell happened.........?

My day started off B-A-D, right off the GIT-GO this morning at 6:00am.

NO SHRIMP

Which I was suspecting would happen after days of charters in a row, the holiday crowds, and the incoming tides with strong east winds by afternoon the last few days.

Hey, I'm sure ole Wade the shrimp man has his favorite tides & conditions up north in his shrimping grounds.

So to say I didn't expect a bad day after I was told there was NO shrimp, would be a lie.
I knew it was coming. And every single day the phone rings with more late noticers. IT COULD HAPPEN TO YOU, TOO.

So I bought 5 dozen mud minnows. I want shrimp. And HATE mud minnows, and never catch crap on them. But what am I suppose to do show up at the dock with NO BAIT?
Mud Minnows on a float-rig folks, just plain suck!

So I headed up river, to the same areas I have been fishing all week. NO BITES!
NO JUNKFISH, NO NOTHING. Can ya believe not a single Jack or Ladyfish??
James from B&M calls me about 9:30am and says the west coast shrimp are their way if I want them to run me some to the boat ramp. I was too far away.
But I put two and two together and called Browns Creek Fish camp. We picked up and ran to Brown's and I got 8 dozen and 4 more dozen for trading in my 5 dozen mud minnows.
Which was a great deal. I was hoping this would change our luck. Because at least I was happy now . And out almost $50 on bait alone at this point and haven't caught a single fish YET!!!!!!!
I was thinking....man I'm loosing out on this trip. Which was already kinda "discounted".

By now I missed the last of the falling tide, as we ran back to my area.
We tried it though and caught one trout.
Oh, BTW I had Mike & Jewel on board today from Atlanta. Mike wanted to ride and fish in my boat, because he was very curious about Black Lab Plate Alloy boats. So he received the royal treatment, because we did A LOT of riding around by this point. As any, if all profits were going down the toilet of this charter fast. The more I run around burning gas, and buying $25 worth of bait, time after time I'm loosing my ass on this trip!!

I went from spot to spot, at slack tide looking for some kind of current. We finally fished the incoming tide back by Blount Island and picked and poked up two small Flounder. No Trout, no Reds at the same places I fished yesterday. What the hell happened? I don't know.

Chock it up to a bad start, I guess.

And then I even went out of my way and took Mike and Jewel out to the inlet, and stayed out a bit longer letting them drive my boat. So it was a real sea-trial kind of trip.

I put it on the trailer at the end of the day and headed home thinking about today, and how I go out of my way sometimes, for so little. "Hills and Valleys......Hills and Valleys", is what my ole buddy Capt Randall would say. And he's usually right.
But those hills are much more Fun.

Next up tomorrow, having to do a Amelia Island customer pick-up at the Carlucci boat ramp because the Sisters Creek is closed due to the supposed getting ready for the "Kingfish Karnival" so they say...."they better be working on that place, on the weekend", is all I can say. I don't like picking folks up at the Carlucci Ramp, because the docks are too small and busy on a weekend.

I have a dad and a 5 year old for a 1/2 day.

7/5 - The day after......a good rest.

Had Dr. Jim and son-in-laws Mike and Scott aboard today.....Boys day out.

Jim was a fisherman, but Mike & Scott were admittedly "clean-slaters". A new term we coined today. Meaning, "I have not a single idea of what I'm supposed to do".

And that's a GOOD THANG! Why? Because I have that clean slate to work with, rather than some possible bad habits, like setting the hook like Bill Dance, and ripping the fish from the water like a Tournament Bass Fisherman.

And as you can see, "my Guys" caught them some FISHEZ. We really good time.

It was over cast again this morning, as big dark clouds passed by. But we stayed dry, as the guys started to catch some Trout in between Ladyfish attacks and bait snatching by those lil' bastard Mangrove snappers and small Jacks. Then as the brief window of falling tide we had slacked up, I decided to move toward the bank and anchor up in 3.5 feet of water and cast their lines up shallow. The float rigs barely drifted away with the last of the falling tide current. And that's when Scott set the hook on a nice fat 25" Redbass. From clean-slater to Mr. Angler, I think Scott was quickly thrown into that Angler status as line peeled off his reel. Great fish!! And then we moved on, but not after a few more pitches up into the shallows. Where their lively river shrimp attacked from below and sent snapping across the surface of the water, while attached by the leash we call a leader under their float rig. It's just too cool to watch that live river cricket get all nerves. And see those boils as the Trout misses the bait. "How does a Trout not catch a live shrimp, on a leash in 3 feet of water??

We moved on to the next spot, and got into ravenous monster Ladyfish, a few Mangrove Snappers and more Trout. Then we got rained on. But it didn't last all that long.

Hope to have Jim and the guys back again someday.

Friday, it's Mike from Georgia. A man who's wanting to check out what PLATE ALLOY is all about, aboard my Black Lab Marine Plate Alloy 26 footer. So he figured what's a better way than fishing on one.

And the falling tide in the morning will run for awhile longer. Which is a good thing.

So stayed tuned......Float Freak over and out.

7/3 - absolutely wonderful weather!

Wow, what a great day! It was overcast, then drizzling, then complete down pours, throw in some serious wind, add then add in more rain...

It was GREAT!

Here's the facts:
07/03 - 11:54 am wind direction: ENE @
18.1 knots sustained, 29.9 knot gusts.

I easily can go straight to my fishing report page and then to my National weather Service link and then scroll down and see hour by hour stats.

And man did it feel ever bit of "almost Gale Force winds".

But, I had some serious Troopers on board today. Mack, J.T. & Pete.

That's J.T. and Pete holding their Trout. Largest was 22 inches. From a place where the action was getting good with some Jacks, Mangrove snapper, Ladyfish and Trout as those asshole Coasties came by and ran us out of a great trout spot. This is getting to be a bit much.

The dock where we were fishing has a sign, and it says; "stay back 50 feet". But it's a private dock, has nothing to do with the feds. "WE", us Float-riggers fish it all the time. And even the guys who work there never say LEAVE. It's a place where a lot of Trout fisherman fish.

But the coasties make up the rules, as they go along. As Pete was reeling in his nice fat Trout, they hailed us on the load speaker and said we had to be 100 yards from the dock, and since a ship was coming had to leave. Then sped off straight between the docking ship and the dock (dangerous) and then ran close to the bank, through the Manatee Zone! (You try that!)

Every single day I'm battling to fish the places I've fished my whole life. Because I'm a Terrorism Suspect. I yelled to the "PUNK" sitting at the .50 caliber machine gun on the bow of the Coastie boat, as if he's ready to shoot us, "Yeah, I guess it's a bad day to try and make a living in this town." which is nothing but the truth, anymore.

Remember this: YOUR Freedom was LOST on 9/11, by the overboard "knee jerk reaction" of the US government. Not terrorism, but by your government.

And that was about it. No where else was productive, no where else was it not almost blowing a gale. The weather was getting worse, not better. We did experiment along an area and caught micro yellowmouth Trout in the driving rain. And tried a few other spots and picked off one small Puppy Black Drum.

But my guy's stayed into it. A lot longer than most other people would have.

We fished an incoming tide with help from a N.E. blowing wind that sent the tide higher and higher. Which made the fishing harder and harder.

I hope to have these guys out again, because they were really into it. But we had the cards stacked against us. By the weather and our own government agencies........"the land of the free".......LOL!!!!

I bet out in Louisiana the Coasties don't run ever fisherman away from every oil or gas rig. If they did they'd need more recruits. Because that's where they fish out there. The rigs are privately owned, and the companies don't mind.

JUST LIKE WHERE WE WERE FISHING TODAY. SO WHY DO THEY KEEP MESSING WITH US? It really makes someone like me despise the federal government even more than I already do. I'm a free bird, and do not like answering to anyone that's why I am a law abiding self employed small businessman, struggling to make a living while paying my taxes.

7/2 - In the Sound

Had Dave Hogan, Dan, Fran, and Lon on board today.

Lon looks really excited as he holds that big Pompano, huh?

That maybe because an hour later he was loosing his lunch!. It was pretty calm by Nassau Sound standards.

We left out at 7am, and ran the ICW up to the sound. Once I found the Whiting they were small. All of them. Although bountiful. But before we caught the first one, Lon caught that big Pompano.

We also had Jacks, a mini Spadefish, a few Ladyfish, and a few small sharks.

The name of the game was small fish. I just didn't get it. Everything was a copy of the next. But we had a good rally for a while. Since changing up our tactics and location was out of the question. When I got all the way up to Nassau Sound from the Mayport Boat ramp, we're there for the good, the bad or the ugly! Because once invested in the area, there's no, just leaving to try someplace else.

We ended up with 25 or more Whiting, and 4 Pompano that were our target species. Which yielded a big bag of small fillets. But fantastic fillets for the fryer, and some really good eatin'.

Came back via the Ocean instead of the ICW because it was nice and half the distance back to the boat ramp.

Incoming tide most of our day, 4 passengers, it was a Nassau Sound kinda day for sure.

Next up.... back to river fishing tomorrow. Another incoming tide morning.