3/6 - The hunt in the deep...

Supposedly, today was the last day of the so called "good weather" for the next few days. But, in my mind today wasn't all that damn good. The forecast was for Northwest winds 10 knots.

Which was total BS. It was NE at 10-15. Especially at the jetties! Being it's just the beginning of March, I guess I could deal with it. But I'm really over N.E. winds.

At the jetties it was just plain aggravating. Since Nick Watson and I were out hunting the deep water for BIG fish. So we didn't break out a single Float-rigged rod at any time. But I threatened too...I can't believe I went a whole day with out working my float-rig.

Hours and hours went by without a single big fish bite on this new moon, tidal day. We just left way too early. And shouldn't have even bothered going till it was nearer to the low water.

With the jetties being just one aggravation after another; I.E. - Smoking current, wakes from tugs, and stiff NE wind. I decided it was just plain time to leave and go somewhere workable.

Because nothing was going our way out there.

So I ran down river to an old spot. But when we got there, we essentially missed the falling tide current. But, bumped into a fella who stopped us and told me he just found and read this blog, and my web site. Needing some help, since he's a Gulf Coast fisherman really. Yep, it's like night and day I'm sure. Between here and there. But on days like today, even the big St. Johns can be a real pain in the ass, even when you know it.

We tried the spot anyhow, and was into the yellowmouth Trout bites fast and furious. I knew they were there, but I had also caught Drum, Sheepshead and Reds here. But not today. So we moved on.

Next spot, about a 1/2 mile away. Serious H-A-R-D = F-I-S-H area. Hard bottom, lots of shell, ledges and rock. But we sat there for what seemed like over an hour before getting a real bite.

I had the idea of bottom fishing in the deep water, because I wanted to use my new 8' Biscayne rods, that I had built just for bottom fishing big fish, heavy current, with heavy lead.

And man, this 32" Redbass felt good on them.

Just what I was looking for, "Control in the trenches" with plain ole E-Glass type action and durability. These rigs are not replacing my Loomis backbounce rods matched with my Accurate twin drags, they're just different for a change.

Well, Nick and I had big plans for Black Drum, and Sheepshead in the deep, swift water. For the freezer. But for a sea trial with the rods, the big Red worked.

At least we didn't have anyone near us, bothering us, had good current, and could just sit and be happy, waiting for the next bite. Which didn't take very long.

Nick was up next. The 8 foot rod doubled over into a horseshoe shape, as the drag pulled hard.

I could tell Nick was a bit shocked, usually creek fish don't pull like this. And Nick spends most of his time in his own boat in smaller water. That's what is so much fun about dropping into the deep water out in the river.

The fish are bigger!

I almost had to remind myself that yes it's that time of year again, when the big Reds roam the channel edges. Because I catch myself many times still being stuck in the wintry January, February mode.

Like the top right hand corner on the home page of my web site states; "Florida's largest Trophy Size Redfish, April 1st- November 30th".

But yeah, those dates are not etched in stone, either!

Nick's Redfish was way bigger than mine....pushing 37 inches. He said, "Dave, I believe that's the biggest Redfish or Fish, I've ever caught!" That's good, I can add Nick to the long, long list of others who have told me the same thing.....

Next it was my turn. So Nick grabbed the camera and was gonna do some video of it.

I could tell it was a good fish, but not like the one Nick just caught. Then it popped up to the surface......"AH HAH!!!!! A Redfishes Ugly Cousin", a nice Black Drum was at boat side.

Now, things were starting to be worth the too early departure, the jetty conditions, and the second guessing.

"we need about 4 or 5 of these", I said to Nick.

At least that was my intentions when I got up this morning, and called him. Actually, that's not true. It was the intention I had yesterday when I emailed him and said, "Lets go fishing Thursday!"

Bait was nothing exotic. Just live shrimp.

And we were starting to run out of the big ones, that I like to use for bottom bait.

We did have to sit through some river traffic. They may get close, but at least this kind of river traffic doesn't come over and anchor on top of you, or drive by staring at you. Although intimidating, I'll take this kind of river traffic over what I sat in last weekend!

I waited, then waited some more, to get this photo. These two ships were passing.....

Even though it may look as if they are about to collide. Which actually counter balanced the surge from their displacement that we encountered earlier, from a single passing ship.

The St. Johns River. Never a dull moment.

There's always someone, or something to watch, be disturbed by, or amazed by.

We had an Osprey obviously watching us.

Because when I un-hooked a small Yellowmouth Trout and tossed it over the side, it floated for a minute in the current. And that was a minute too long. It was immediately scooped up off the surface by the watching bird from over head. As if it was just waiting for me to toss it over board.

I was waiting for the bite to drop off any minute, because the current was now 'coming in' on the bottom of the river, but still flowing east on the surface. Which most of the time means, "game over, time to move." But Nick got another shot, when his rod doubled over again in the rod holder.

Another Big Red! And this time I videoed Nick.

But come to find out, I hit the wrong button on his camera and it never took.....Oh Well!

It really wasn't the operator, but rather the instructor......lol!

Looks like Saturday's charter will have to be a re-scheduled trip. The forecast is for west winds 20-25 knots!!

So I guess today was the last good day for a couple days. Glad I got in my fishing fix.

We had such a slow start this morning, it had me wondering were we ever gonna fish fish big enough to pull hard against my new rods.

I'm glad we did. And so was Nick.

3/5 - RATHKELTAIR LIVE

I had the rare opportunity of seeing my favorite band last night...In which fishing buddy, Nick Watson is the drummer. Because they played at
7 Bridges restaurant & brewery at 7:00pm rather than starting at 10:00pm when they're at Lynches Irish Pub in Jax beach. 10pm, is kinda late for me.

Yeah, I'm not a late night kinda guy. By 10pm, I'm usually falling asleep in my Lazyboy recliner.

Believe it or not, my mother and I went. We had a good dinner and a few beers, and then sat and listened to a few sets of Celtic rock sounds that has made Nick, Trevor, and Neil -"the Antipypr" famous. Mom loved it! I wish I brought my camera. so I could have taken a few pics.

You've never heard a Highland Bagpipe, till you listen to Neil Anderson!

I hope that more restaurants will hear about last nights show, and the band gets to perform at more places like the 7-Bridges.

Their web site: http://www.rathkeltair.com/ - "Winner of 2006 Celtic Music Awards."


And if you love this kind of sound, you can get to hear much more at the 2nd annual Jax Irish Music fest, at the Jax Fair grounds on April 26th.

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Heard something else yesterday......My neighbor told me he took someone fishing on his companies boat. And this person said that they read a Reports BLOG everyday. He said, "WHO"? This person replied, Capt Dave's. My neighbor said, "hmmm...what's his last name?"
And this person replied, "don't know, be he has a big metal boat!"
He responded..."That's my neighbor, Dave!"

The moral of this story is, that ole subject that is dear to me. "The Power of Observation!"
I talk about it all the time. Being aware of your surroundings, especially as a fisherman.
What I found very funny, is that across the entire top of this BLOG is the "title"... CAPT. DAVE SIPLER'S SPORT FISHING BLOG.

It's okay though. I once had a call from a guy looking for a charter/guide. And happened upon this blog. Called me and everything. And had NO idea that I was in the charter business. And just thought that I was a "weekend enthusiast" that wrote alot, for my health. The funny thing about this story is, "what do people actually see and read?" I know Google has studied what and how people see when they read a search page. Talk about an interesting article. Google's got it going on!

I find myself practicing, memorization of small details, and the truly obscure. Because in my world. I find it helps me. But I'm sure even my attentiveness is very selective.

C'C'mon....what are ya waiting for. Let's go fishing! We waited all of February to get to this point.
It's starting to really get HOT!


Next day up to bat for me is Saturday, with the Donelenko's.

Sheeps in da deeps....March & April to do list.

DO NOT LET ANYONE KID YOU!
You don't have to hug a rock this time of year to catch plenty of Sheepshead. See that boat dwarfed by the ship passing under the Dames Point Bridge?
He was absolutely killing the Sheepshead, (toss in a few Drum) out there damn near in the channel.
Don't ask me how I know that.

In my opinion, the jetties get pummeled very hard. And like a reef offshore are only going to hold so many fish at a given time. Sure fish are constantly on the move, but if you could have seen the south tip of the jetty rocks on Saturday afternoon, and then again on Sunday afternoon, like I did you would have seen the same boats anchored there for the entire falling tide both days.

Do not think for a minute that this doesn't hurt the population there. And how about the constant traffic over head. I know for a fact I have had my Speckled Trout catches diminish rapidly between a Thursday and a Saturday. Do solely to incessant boat traffic, especially in the shallower areas.

Just like an offshore fisherman, the key is; "H-A-R-D = F-I-S-H". I've never heard of someone blasting offshore to spend $200 in fuel, $100 in bait, just to fish out in the middle of the desert over soft sand. Reefs, can be wrecks, ledges, concrete piles, barges, all with hardness that attracts organisms, soft corals, barnacles, and provides places for small little "food" critters a place to live.
Same goes for the river. About the only thing that "progress" has accomplished with all the river dredging, is that it has exposed the natural lime rock "hard bottom" areas. Especially on the edges of the channel. Along with the river's current, many of these places are no different than the jetty rocks when it comes to a big fat Sheepshead.

Then there's places that have hard shell bottom. Where are these places? Many of them are just historically good fishing spots, such as under the Dames Point Bridge. A really good sounder/bottom finder will point those areas out to you when you go over them. My machine is a 12" RayMarine color LCD. When I pass over a hard bottom area the bottom indicated in bright red will be very thick. And when I see a green fuzz just off the bottom I refer to that as just
"bio-mass". Be it shrimp, plankton, whatever...when I see that green fuzz, in conjunction with a deep red bottom, I'm looking at usually a good hard bottom spot.

That contains LIFE. Which in turn means food, which means FISH. And possibly Sheepshead!
I got to thinking yesterday that I NEVER fish vertically for Sheepshead up and down on the jetty rocks. I float-rig them, and I jig them. But I never sit and dab them. Maybe because I find it boring, I don't know. But I never do what I see hundreds doing.


But I do prefer to fish in good current, with several rods in the pole holders. Usually with just live shrimp. Getting the right size bank sinker to hold bottom, and utilize a sinker slider, and a short leader with either a small circle hook or something like a wide bend Eagle Claw 1/0. Now I find this enjoyable sometimes. You may have read that I don't like "bait-n- wait" fishing. But if there's something to actually catch, as in this time of year. I enjoy just kick'n back and watching a rod tip for a bounce.

There's no mangrove snappers yet, the pinfish have backed off a bit, there's no lil' croakers to eat everything in sight, and the Sheepshead and Drum are on the move.

The point is that you don't have to be in that crowd of bumper boats at the end of the rocks to catch some quality Sheepshead. Being that I fish the jetties alot, I could be at the bait shop and people ask me, "been catchin' the sheepshead out there huh?" And I usually respond, "No not really....."

You would be so surprised that there's an entire world of Sheepshead just along some hard bottom areas in the river. And no one fishes those areas. I have tried and still cannot hit all of them. Just as there's alot of Sheepshead up in the flooded grass at the excessive high tides.

Here's a spawning brood stock size 11 pounder that wasn't caught along the jetties but rather in the river, from deep water.

I use shrimp as bait, but do a few things to hopefully make my presentation a whole lot better. I take a big live shrimp. I cut off the tail fins. Clipping them off, not tearing them off.

I then thread my hook through the shrimp from the open tail end, like a rubber worm. Then half way through the shrimps body, I pull the hooks bend out, turn the hook and stick it in the walking legs of the shrimp.

This keeps the shrimp from spinning in the current. I've never seen a shrimp act like a Roland Martin as only seen on TV Helicopter lure! Shrimp lay on the bottom, they don't spin in the current. I think this matters, and never do it any other way.

Hooking the shrimp in this fashion makes the Sheepshead or any fish go through the hook to get the shrimp. And doubles the hook area to keep the shrimp from spinning. On my last charter with the Kossak family, I did this and each and every Sheepshead was hooked in the throat. Because it ate it's way up the shrimp and into the hook. Meaning a sure hook-up, for a guaranteed catch from the deep water.

Here's another definite
"spawning" size and colored Sheeps
that I caught no where near the jetty
rocks, but rather on some hard bottom
in the river. At 10 pounds in swift current,
in water from 35-50 feet, you can bet this
fish pulled!

7-Striped Jetty Snappers, aren't necessarily caught this time of year just at the jetties or off piling. Hard bottom areas that may take just a little more time to find and fish, can be just as productive. And just think, if these areas aren't beat to death, can ya imagine the size of the "River mule" you could catch??

3/3 - Power of Observation....things that make ya go Hmmmm.

Just remembered.

I was sitting along the jetties yesterday catching me some yellermouth Trout, and having my hook crushed by Sheepshead bites, after my morning charter with the Kossak Family, when I looked over and saw something that was interesting.

Being a serious G. Loomis guy.....a Pro-staff member for many, many years now. (BTW, ya can't go wrong with a Loomis rod)

And one who is always looking for an edge in my float-rig fishing. Being a long-time user of Premier plastic inc. "Salmon Stalker" EVA floats.

I see a boat pull up along the jetties, just one guy and a kid. First, I notice that there's a rod rigged up with a Salmon Stalker float! Only a few that I know of use these....they are not something the average joe uses. Unless they've seen mine or maybe even been with me on a trip.

Then the guy starts casting his float out. And I see he is using what looks like a G. Loomis "Greenwater" long rod, maybe a 8'2 incher????
Hmmmmm......that interesting. That's the rod I use. It's a $250 rod. And one fine float-rigging rod too.

I strained my eyes looking to see if he had a Shimano Curado 300DSV on the rod, but could not tell......because if so. That's what I use!!!!

So, what's the deal?

This isn't like you can go to Wally's World and buy a long Loomis "greenwater" rod and a pack of Salmon Stalker 1 oz. EVA floats. I told Sam the fishing dept. manager at Gander Mountain about them, but doubt they'll carry them either.

It's takes a bit of...in my case "tweeking", or in his case OBSERVING??? (maybe we've talked??)

But, just by seeing what he was using I can tell this fella has fine taste. Not that any ole rod and reel can't catch a Trout, Sheepshead, or a Redfish. But there's those of us who enjoy some of the finer things in life. I don't do fine dining, vacations to Maui, or live in an exclusive area. It's all about nice tackle, boats, and having fun fishing to me.

Either way, I was the observer. And can't say I recognized the fella, or the boat.

Maybe he's a blog reader?

Here's links to what I'm talking about. If anyone is "EVER" interested in any tackle that I discuss, please contact me first. I have ideas on where to find it the cheapest, if that interests you.

• http://products.gloomis.com/gl/products/alltackle/detail.jsp?PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=845524441760233&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374302032515&ASSORTMENT%3C%3East_id=1408474395181201&bmUID=1204561995065
• http://www.premierplasticsinc.com/bobbers/stalkers/salmon.asp
• http://fish.shimano.com/catalog/fish/products/group_detail.jsp?FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374302036641&ASSORTMENT%3C%3East_id=1408474395181270&bmUID=1204562079400

It's just stuff that works for me, and that I like.

Here's a "must read" if your into the Shimano Curado's, as I am:

• http://www.tackletour.com/reviewshimanocurado300dhsv.html - notice they are using a butter fly jigging rod. Yep, that's next up for me. Light duty butterfly jigging offshore for Kings, Seabass, Snapper...and whatever else this summer.

3/1 & 3/2

3/1 - well it was 80 degrees again, and like an blooming' idiot I went out on a Saturday. "Holy Walmart parking lot", Batman. There was just way too many people out on the water for me.

Is it that I am an anti-socialist, I guess so. I really like people, hell I'm in the people business! But what's that ole saying one is fine two is okay, and three's a crowd....Now try that with waking boats and people who just don't care about you, times 1000!!!

But, it's a tradition. I have to go fishing on the first day of Trout opening. Most of the time I know what to expect. I've stood in the wind and rain, been freezing, and due to Small Craft Advisories never made March 1st's opening day. But this was one for the records books, being it fell on a Saturday. And was damn near if not 80 degree's on land....a tad cooler on the water. And if they owned a boat, they (Jacksonville) was out fishing.

I gave the opening day a half heart try. I asked a few friends and couldn't even get anyone to go with me. I went to basically one spot where I thought maybe I'd hit a few Specks. But only caught Bluefish. Watched the lure tossers working the same area and they came up empty too. The tide really sucked. Water movement in the river was really slow on the falling tide with only 2.9 feet of water movement, and the incoming tide was a whopping 2.3 feet. Not what I'd consider being an Epic Trout tide, for what I do and where I fish.

So I went to the jetties and found I couldn't get near any of my spots there. So I just pulled out my big deck chair, dropped over the 1/2 cider block anchor chucked out a piece of cut bluefish, and drifted off the beach all the out to the green buoy on the south jetty catching whiting.
Then, finally saw and opening and went for it!

I pulled in dropped anchor an in 5 casts of the float-rig had 5 Yellowmouth Trout, and lost a Sheepshead behind the boat. Packed it up and went to the boat ramp.

That was my whole Saturday.

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3/2 - Had Dave Kossak and family out for a morning half day trip. With his 11 yr. old son, and 7 year old daughter and wife. I saw some good things as I explored around on Saturday afternoon waiting my turn to get a anchoring permit to fish my spot. So I had a good game plan for the kids. BOTTOM FISH!

Real easy, but where to do it was the best decision. We left out about 7:30am on another CRAZY DAY, just like Saturday. We went to one spot, anchored up, and was incessantly waked, but the fish were there. And it was I.G. - (instaneous gratification)

I no sooner pitched out a 6oz. bank sinker with a short leadered hook and an impaled live shrimp and we were onto the first Sheepshead. She worked hard on this fish in 50 feet of water (with help from her dad of course) and here hair kept getting caught in the reel as she turned the reel handle.

I never seen that happen before....but she never gave up, and caught the largest Sheepshead at 6.5 pounds. They caught more Sheepshead and even a Black Drum, and a few healthy deep water Seabass that would have been legal a year ago. Mmmm, even 11-1/2" Seabass have some nice white fillets.

It was tough staying anchored as the inconsiderate's run down the side of my boat and between us and the jetties. But the kids had a ball I think. And that's all that mattered to me.

Dave said when we got back and as I cleaned their fish. He'll have to do this again, as an "adult trip". He caught a nice Black Drum. And would have liked a Big ole Redbass. So I guess there has to be a next time for that. Good thing we caught some "deep water fish". Because I was using my new Biscayne Rods I just had built, by Eddie Carman and crew. And since I never really used them on Saturday for their intended purpose. It was a good trial for them. They worked out splendidly. Now, I these rods need a 20 pound Redbass or a 60 pound Drum!