11/7 - Same Wind?

I did a Burial at Sea, with some folks from Texas at 4:00 today. I was early, and sat at the boat ramp dock waiting on them. And was not shocked, but amazed how the wind can blow from the same direction for days on end.

One of my passengers was a 90 year old man, that when I'm 90 years old, I hope I'm as sprightly as he is.

As the damn Air show winded down, loads of large boats came in from the Ocean, I guess. Wakes in the river at the boat ramp made it a real mess. As the N.E. wind blew against the falling late day tide.

Needless to say as I approached the tip of the north Jetty, the swell kept growing. And one of my passengers said, "we're good right here Dave". So I turned around and held position at way above idle speed, so they could say a prayer and scatter the ashes, and drop a few flowers.

I try to get out no less to the second set of buoys, normally. Or on days like this make my way across the river and hide up behind the south Jetty.

But they had enough, and saw enough I suppose. Which it was a shame because of the seas and winds, that I couldn't make it out with them further into the "sea".

Looks like all next week is going to be N.E. or due East winds. Not making the "JETTYWOLF" boat very happy.....she wants to head east of the boat ramp.

I'll know a whole lot more. Because I have a K.O.D. charter on Sunday, (aka: incoming tide all day long with a stiff N.E. wind equals, Kiss of Death; hence the K.O.D. ) The nick name for these conditions came to me one day as I had bunch of faces looking at me, speaking without saying a word...."where's the fish, Capt Dave?"

So, it'll be a challenge for me, I'm sure. And I have no clue to the fishing abilities of the 3 crew members aboard.

So, how many of ya'll still want my job?

Yeah I thought so...I'll swap ya, in July at 9am when it's already 98 degrees. And we haven't even seen a Pogie flip the surface yet, and we're already 12 miles down the beach. While your office A/C kicks into high gear.

Damn, I love this time of year, though....even if the wind blows 20 knots from the East or Northeast every single day. Only thing I do miss, is all the tiny bikini's, everywhere

The talking heads on the local news say,"its gonna be a Beautiful Weekend!"

I guess they're just talking to people watching Football on the tube, that the wind doesn't effect.


Except the wind these couch potato's are passing.

11/6 - BIG WIND.....you ain't kidding!

As soon as I dropped the boat in the water and backed off the trailer I could tell, this wasn't like the parking lot at B&M bait and tackle!!

Here's a photo of the Pilot station next to the boat ramp. I always look at their flag, and say "oh it's gonna be a toughie, or Oh, it's gonna be a easy day".

Take a wild guess what I said to myself, today?



I got the call early this morning before our 9am departure that Travis was bringing his 6 yr. old son. Right then, I said to myself...."don't think I'll attempt a jetty trip, today!" Because if I just had two rough and tumble adults ya know I'd do it, but not when I have a kid that young on board. I got enough on my mind when anchoring out there in a 20 knot North East wind, let alone having to keep one eye on a 6 year old, too.

Of course, I had planned on it. I got two calls from friends that sat at the Jetties yesterday and did quite well, float-riggin the rocks. One was in a 17' jon-boat!! And no Jon-boat was going out there this morning. Not where I wanted to fish.

We departed with several hours of the incoming tide still ahead of us. And with the wind and tide all going essentially the same way.....it was near heinous in the river. And about non-Float rig fishable, where I wanted to go. Hell, we went and looked twice even, and I didn't want to anchor there even. So we took some time and just fished the bottom. So Trevor the 6 year old could catch some fish. Since I knew it would be awhile before we could go do the "adult fishing" that I wanted to do, on a certain spot.

So I went to an area that's usually covered up with Yellowmouth Trout. And it wasn't completely balls to the wall today, but they were there. Just way too small. But we let the boy reel in some fish and he had fun. It was just that 90% of the yellowmouths were 12-13 inches, instead of 14-18 inches.

Needless, to say as you'll see this is about where my normal shutter-bug self, stopped. I was just too busy, it was just so windy and I just wanted fish in the box. So, I too fished along with Travis and Darren.

When the going gets tough, Dave needs to know what's going on, too. So after we caught a bunch of small yellowmouths for the boy, we moved on and the tide was now falling. The wind backed off a bit and all was better.


I'm not the only one that knows this. But I'll say it anyway, in case you don't know. Basically, the river tide carries an atmosphere with it. When the tide changes, many times the winds change too. It's the air mass that gets carried along with the moving cooler or warmer river water. Same thing happens out in the Gulf Stream.

So, now that all was better.....but still windy as all hell. We ended up where I wanted to go in the first place. And usually "I am your ringer". I can find the bite fast. But today, Darren was Johnny rod bender. He was the fella who works on the Marlin Oil Rig in the Gulf of Mexico 150 miles offshore of Louisiana. We no sooner got anchored and he started bailing the Speckled Trout over the side of the boat.

We weren't float-rig fishing but rather tight-lining again with a light weight egg sinker and a real long leader and live shrimp. Between the 14-18 inchers and Mangrove Snapper he was waylaying them, as Travis and I tried to keep up.

The current was perfect. But as the tide got down, all the good current went away. The tide dropped and the wind speed, took over. But that was okay, I made a few adjustments. And he still whacked them, picking off a few nice ones on each re-anchor. And even had two small Flounder. One in the boat and one "palm beach release" at boat side.

I brought 10 dozen live shrimp and again, and we barely made it. I tried one more spot and we had 4 shrimp left.

The bite was really good, for awhile there. That's now two trips in a row that ten dozen shrimp just don't last because of bites, fish, and released small Trout. We caught no less than 20 Speckled Trout and 10 Mangrove Snappers while the getting was good. Plus, all the small yellowmouths you could stand to have a kid reel in, earlier.

So not a bad day, for a 20 knot N.E. blower.

The Specks weren't huge. But between 15 and maybe 18 inches were the ones that hit the ice.
It was too bad it was just too windy to float-rig properly. Because we did loose a bunch of hooks and rigs to the bottom as we tight-lined them live river crickets to the Trout. But hey, ya can't just do one thing, I know that. But of course I wanted to keep it....really light tackle fishing.

It was once said, that if you fish the St. Johns, you'll learn that you have to be rigidly flexible. And on days when the tides a smokin' and the winds a honkin', and you get tossed a 6 year old on board. Being rigidly flexible is what I become, really fast!

Pre-booked fishing: next up because of a rescheduled day, not till Wednesday.

So I have Tuesday open. A half day Monday, and all weekend.





Kite fishin' anyone?

Your BIG ALLOY, for the month.....

US Navy shows the littoral combat ship Independence (LCS 2) underway during builder's trials on July 12, 2009.

The second of the Navy's new generation of speedy warships designed to operate close to shore topped 50 miles per hour in builder trials completed this month. Officials say the Independence, a 418-foot ship built in Alabama, traveled in excess of 45 knots, which equates to nearly 52 mph, and sustained 44 knots during a four-hour, full-speed sprint.

BIG ALLOY.....good enough for the Navy. Good enough for me!

Can imagine building a battleship like this out of Fiberglass.....hahahahah?

More info on builder:

http://www.austal.com/nextgeneration/

November reservations: It's Holiday Time!!

Reservations This & Next Week: (think ahead...holidays are coming)


6th, 7th evening , 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th...But I had a cancellation for the 12th. So that day is now open, unless something changes with the crew I had, that day.

Monday the 9th I'm open, till noon. So a 1/2 day is availible. Sun-up departure on the 9th.

It's time to REALLY start thinking about Thanksgiving week. Right now, a past customer has grabbed the day before Turkey day. The day after Turkey Day is usually very popular. So plan ahead....calls at 8pm for the next morning, isn't the best way to do it. You do want a Happy Captain don't ya?

All Holiday week scheduled Charter's should be reserved in advance as possible.




Fishing Forecast:

I believe, it's really "GO-TIME", when the jetties are fishable (calm). From limits of Reds to Trout, and many more. They're all chewin'. Just 2.5 miles from the dock, makes for a day when lines are in the water the longest. So we really just do a 3/4 day - 6 hours.

I'm even carrying on the boat now a nice florescent hand held 12 volt light, so if it gets dark on us quick, I can still clean your catch for you. Unlike cleaning fish in the dark, like I did on Nov. 1st.

THINK F-I-S-H, when it comes to Thankgiving dinner. http://fishcooking.about.com/b/2008/11/27/a-thanksgiving-fish-dish.htm

Wouldn't you think fish were a whole lot easier to catch/kill than a Turkey or Hog (Ham), if you were struggling for something to eat in this "new land". My perfect Thanksgiving dinner would be, fish a couple ways, and Oysters a couple ways. Steamed, Fried, and baked. Now that's a real Pilgrim feast, in my book.

















From what I have learned.....White Englishman sure screwed over the Wapanaw Indians! I guess if it wasn't them, it would eventually been the Spanish. If history happened a different way.

I bring up the fish idea to the Family each Holiday season. (not dried fish jerky, either) But, every one's so set in their ways. Maybe they all know, left overs would be slim afterwards.

Did you know Thanksgiving didn't become an official Holiday till around the Civil War?

If you are not a Tweeter person, you should sign up and follow my "tweets". I send out info about what's going on via Tweeter......although I'm not as into it all as some people. My tweeter posts are available on the right side bar of this blog, also.

-Hope to have you aboard this fall/winter season. Remember, this time of year is the best inshore fishing N.E. Florida has to offer. Oct. thru May is my favorite time of year. Not mid July and August.....It's just so hot, then.

11/2 - Give the gift of fishing, to a youngster.

Make the Pledge. Join many others through ANGLER'S LEGACY by down loading this simple coupon that you can give a young angler. http://www.takemefishing.org/assets/downloads/FishingTripcouponGen.pdf

Pledging to take a youngster fishing, it's not that hard. It'll mean he or she can count on you, to spend a quality day together sharing a wonderful past time....FISHING.

Things like XBOX, and PlayStations are a real problem with today's youth, and adults too. Believe me, I see it all the time. Kids that won't even touch a fish, are afraid of a shrimp. Kids that get bored way too easily, and have no patience.

I didn't have all that plug-in entertainment, when I was growing up. And am so much better for it, I believe. My playstation was the outdoors.

Real world, real activities, real challenges. Easily done with Mom, Dad, brother's or sister's, Aunt's Uncles, Grandpa's or Grandma's. In the outdoors, enjoying the planet we all live on!

Making Memories.....

11/1 - One sweet day!!

Had Don M. aboard. Was supposed to be Don and his girl friend. But she wasn't feeling well. So it was just Don and myself, that departed at 11am. I had big plans and was playing the tide, right.

Since this week hasn't been all that productive on the Trout, but I had a plan. Go back to where I was on Friday and do what we did then, and box our limit of Mangrove Snappers. Then see what happens on the incoming later on.

Believe it or not, we didn't float-rig fish for them on Friday. And we weren't going to do it today either. Tight-line....that's what has worked so well on this first spot. A long leader, really small hook, and very light sinker, that barely will hold the bottom and a live shrimp. Tight-lining, isn't like stereo-typical bottom fishing. Because you're really not baiting and waiting. But it's more like fishing a jig, with a way better presentation.

Well, Don was all over it. We weren't on the spot 2 minutes and he caught a Mangrove and a Trout, then another Trout, and another and another....... "DON'S IN THE MEAT!", I said while trying to keep up with him.

WOW, what a difference from Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday when I was in this same area.

Many of the specks were exactly 14 to 14-1/2 inches. But if we weeded through them and the tide got lower, we'll pull a few keepers out of here. I felt confident. And we eventually did.

YEAH......we did!!

I'm talking, every shrimp got slammed. It was a full blown fishing clinic. We were bailin' them! And loading our Mangrove Snapper limit into the cooler, too.

What's the deal? Why not on Tuesday or Wednesday, was it even remotely like this? Why did we not catch a single Trout on Friday?

I was amazed. But I was happy and so was Don. Because he came to catch fish as do all my customers. But this was shootin' fish in a barrel! Plus he caught 2 Sheepshead also.

I left the bait shop with at least 100 live shrimp. And as we boxed almost our limit of Speckled Trout out of the massive school of 14 inchers, we had our limit of Mangrove Snappers. WE WERE OUT OF BAIT! And we were only 2-1/2 hours into our 6 hour fishing trip. HOLY CRAP... "Don, I'll have to send you back to the bait shop to get more shrimp", I said.

So we ran back to the dock, and Don took off to B&M. Hell, if this was earlier in the week, we would still have bait. Because it was not only a struggle to find bites, let alone 14 inchers. But as usual I prevailed, everyone caught fish this week and went home with bags of fish. The difference today was these fish just arrived here. And no where were they this ravenous for me all week long. I keep track! I've been making extensive notes since October 1st, about the areas I usually fish for them this time of year. This week, I've been after them, 4 out of 7 days.

Don was back from the bait shop with more shrimp and we took off. The tide was just starting to push in and we were right on time. No sooner we came tight on the anchor and Don was waylaying Specks and now Yellowmouth Trout too. On the float-rig.

The action wasn't super fast. But these fish were no 14 inchers. Everyone was big, fat and full of spunk. We dropped the rest needed for our Speck limit in the cooler and began working on our Yellowmouth Trout limit, with fish up to 22 inches.

It was a float-rig fishing clinic all over again. And Don was wearing them out again, as I played catch up. The tide was perfection. The wind was near nothing, and the air temp was beautiful in the late day sun. Man, it just doesn't get much better than this!

It was such a glorious day. We easily caught 75 Trout, and probably 20 Mangrove Snappers, and two Sheepshead.

All on two spots, but with 15 dozen shrimp. We didn't use all the bait, but we had it. We finished up and went back to clean the catch. Basically in the dark by the shine of Don's Jeep head lights.

Giant bags of fillets were filling up. And my knife was dull. And it wasn't even late, but dark as all hell when I finally finished cleaning all the fish. No one was around. The boat ramp went quickly vacant.

Hmmm, am I on to something here? Late departures on Sunday's? No one around....I'm kinda liking this.

Was today the official "kick-off" to winter Trout fishing? It sure did feel like it.

Full moon in November. I better pencil that in.