To see, CLICK, here. Go to bottom of report. Chris Coleman nailed it in detail. Tom (last name withheld) backed him up.
I may have to to try this again, and work on a harder "place to guess" via just a simple video shot.
Was out yesterday, with a great crew. Chad and his son Andrew from Illinois. Andrew, 17 was a fisherman. He picked up my Shimano Citica's and had no problem pitchin and flipping the "hard earned" finger Mullet, that took awhile to capture. His Dad and I also worked hard using the Mullet, around rock piles in search of a Flounder or Redbass.............WITHOUT a single bite on them. This is now two times in two weeks that I spent alot of time and effort getting a brimming livewell full of perfect sized Mullet and used them up and down the river, in search of a keeper sized or near keeper size Redbass, in hopes of stumbling into some Flounder. And came out the other side, extremely disappointed.
It's absolutely amazing, how three lines can bump perfect finger Mullet along edges and rocks and never get a single fish! While also fighting the tide/current, as an added bonus to the frustration.
At the bottom of the tide, I gave up. And went and fished fresh steaks of big Mullet on the bottom, with the heavy tackle and Andrew caught ONE of these:
A 25 pound, 39 spot Redbass. But still, back home he's caught larger Catfish! I wanting him to catch a monster....a 45 pounder. Or at least a bunch of 20's!!!!!
But seeing we caught the fish just as the current slowed, and the N.E. breeze started swing the boat around. We'd have to try later. So I picked up and we hit a few more spots as the wind started to really kick. Back using the finger Mullet again.
Still, the Mullet brought NO bites at all.......I want us to C-A-T-C-H, so we gave up on the Mullet once again and busted out the dead shrimp and pulled into a bit deeper water, on a 6'drop, hard bottom, lime rock ledge, that was really close by. On my 12" Raymarine screen, it looks just like a ledge offshore. I re-anchored and we baited up with shrimp and it was an all out CROAKER-FEST.
Yep, once again. I had to resort to Croaks to break the spell of the St. Johns. Andrew started smiling again. Slam dunking one after another, as we boxed a dozen large enough to keep. I took a live mullet from the well again added a heavier lead, and chucked it out on a circle hook in the 45 feet of water, along the channel edge.
As our flooding current started to really move, it swung the boat off the Croaks so Chad and Andrew had to cast ahead of the boat to continue to hook'em. Nothing but Croaks, no yellowmouths, no Drum, nothing else.
And not a single taker in the deep water on the Mullet. So I tried a tiny live Croaker on one rod and a Mullet steak on another, and was back up to 8 ounces to hold the bottom as the tide flooded in.
It began to get harder and harder to hit the bottom and catch the Croaks in front of the boat, so we sat waiting on another big Red to eat the circle hooked baits in the deep water........but we never had a bite!
So?
Where were all these big Spawning Redbass?
Is this another year where if ya get 5 in a day you're killing them? I told the guys, I remember days years ago, when all ya needed was some Mullet, or Pogies, alive or cut to catch 20-40 on a tide.
The current was really flowing being pushed along, as the 15kt. wind blew from the N.E. So we packed it in and headed for the dock.
(you guess why) I'm going back to Float-rig fishing from now on. It's getting into the season again anyhow. I'm tired of hunting finger Mullet, and tired of sitting in current that takes 8-10 ounces to hit the bottom. My patience as I get older is wearing thinner.
At least when we float-rig fish, people are constantly staying busy, working their float. And it will "GET-BIT".
After today, I guess you can say I was inspired by a phone call I got yesterday. From my winter fishing partner Doc Miller, who summer's in North Carolina. He called me to say he'll be late getting back to Jax this fall, because he had a hip replacement...... "Doc, does that mean you're getting old?" And even though we did almost more Drum fishing than Trout fishing last year. Doc Miller is a total Float Freak, like me. Looking forward to the bone chilling cold winter weekdays out with Doc. When no one is around, because it's supposedly...too cold, and to us, it's "jus right".
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BTW, if ya have some kite boarding to do
this is a great rest of the week for it:
SMALL CRAFT EXERCISE CAUTION DUE TO WINDS
REST OF TODAY
NORTHEAST WINDS 15 TO 20 KNOTS. SEAS 3 TO 5
FEET. INLAND WATERS A MODERATE CHOP.
TONIGHT
NORTHEAST WINDS 15 TO 20 KNOTS. SEAS 4 TO 6 FEET.
INLAND WATERS A MODERATE CHOP. SHOWERS.
THURSDAY
NORTHEAST WINDS 20 TO 25 KNOTS. SEAS 5 TO 7 FEET.
INLAND WATERS CHOPPY. SCATTERED SHOWERS.
THURSDAY NIGHT
NORTHEAST WINDS 20 TO 25 KNOTS. SEAS 6 TO
8 FEET. INLAND WATERS CHOPPY. SCATTERED SHOWERS.
FRIDAY
NORTHEAST WINDS 20 TO 25 KNOTS. SEAS 6 TO 9 FEET.
INLAND WATERS CHOPPY. SCATTERED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS.
FRIDAY NIGHT
NORTHEAST WINDS 20 TO 25 KNOTS. SEAS 6 TO 9 FEET.
INLAND WATERS ROUGH. SCATTERED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS.
SATURDAY
EAST WINDS 20 TO 25 KNOTS WITH OCCASIONAL GUSTS TO
GALE FORCE. SEAS 7 TO 10 FEET. INLAND WATERS CHOPPY. SCATTERED
SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS.
SATURDAY NIGHT
EAST WINDS 20 TO 25 KNOTS WITH OCCASIONAL GUSTS
TO GALE FORCE. SEAS 7 TO 10 FEET. INLAND WATERS CHOPPY. SCATTERED
SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS.
SUNDAY
EAST WINDS 25 KNOTS WITH OCCASIONAL GUSTS TO GALE
FORCE. SEAS 7 TO 10 FEET. INLAND WATERS ROUGH. SCATTERED SHOWERS
AND THUNDERSTORMS.
WOW
