I'm learning "NOT" to pay much attention to the marine forecast, that's for sure. As I passed over the bridge heading to the bait shop the fog was thick. "YA CAN'T HAVE WIND AND FOG, TOGETHER....THEY DON'T MIX."
But, the ever changing Marine Forecast said 10-15 kts out of the N.E. So one expects to arrive river side and feel the wind, right?
By the time I got to the boat ramp the fog was burning off, and still no wind. "JUS ANOTHER WONDERFUL DAY!"
TIDES FOR TODAY WERE:
LOW: 9:30am Mayport time
HIGH: 3:40pm Mayport time
So we started at 9am. I didn't want to deal with too much of the falling tide. And for good reason, "it hasn't been all that good to me." And it was evident. As I had Matt & Chris on the spinner rods, and we three worked jigs and shrimp along some spots that shpuld have produced the first slam dunk Redbass of the day.
There was a learning curve, for my guys today. They haven't done much of this style fishing. As in monster "structure".
So we moved around working the jigs, only picking up some tiny Yellowmouth Trout and a Bluefish or two.
As soon as the rising tide just started to "show". And I mean barely......we ditched the jigs and picked up the float-rigs and began casting the floats. "PUSHING IT", means you're really early on the tide. But we "pushed" it anyhow.
I don't like casting long distance with the float rigs, because unless you're really into fish, it beats the shrimp up, we get tangled rigs and not enough "show time" along the jetty rocks.
But, it was good for Matt, as he wanted to learn all that could be learned out there today. And he recieved a boat full of info.
As usual, there was fish caught and fish lost. "It all comes with the first time doing this."
Not all fish hooked up, will make it to the net. ( I call it the stuff that makes people come back to do it all again.)
Over sized Reds were hooked up, burned off line, wallowed on the surface and pulled the hooks.
Chris was the first to get a perfect Brutus T. Redbass to the net. (keeper!)
A few spots along the rocks produced, and some areas just didn't. And as I told the guys, "I'm a spot fisherman." I work an area during a certain part of the tide and let it show me what it has, and as the tide moves and it doesn't produce that's when I make a move. But I don't run-&-gun. I'll make a move 50 feet or 50 yards and work it all over again. And certainly not camp out, waiting and hoping for bites, as I see alot of boats doing. A move 50 yards sometimes can make all the difference at the big jetties!
As the tide rose, the action really kicked into gear. I made a move to a spot that I call the "May spot", because in the month of May one time we caught Redbass one after another and I hooked up to something so big that it dumped all the line off my reel..."some 200 yards of line!" Obviously a GIANT Jack Cravalle. Against the rocks, is what that was. But talk about a shock!
The May spot produced Reds and allot of Trout. No big whopper Trout today. But enough that at the end of the day we had 16 keepers in the fish box. Only releasing 2-3 small 14 inchers. We had a few yellowmouth, and one larger one in the group.
Two Sheepshead were also caught on the float-rigs. But, we had a butt-load of fish. So Matt made the right decision to release them. Because they're worth more swimming then the little sliver of fillet that come off them. The sheeps were 3-4 pounders.
I'd say that by days end, the nreeze was from the N.E. as predicted, and maybe 10 knots. And as you can see it was a beautiful day at the jetties.
Boats were everywhere! Way too many for my liking. That's why I LOVE those nasty cold winter days on the JETTYWOLF, along the rocks. Because all the fair weather fisherman are no where to be found. And we can sit anywhere we want and have the inlet pretty much to ourselves. She's built for the "slop", and has no problems fishing it, when the going gets tough.
The largest Red was caught by Chris at 30 inches. And was the kicker fish, right before we were out of bait. Ten dozen frisky river crickets, were used and as we pulled up on the spot, I said, "Work this area here....there's a BIG Red in there..." And I was right, because it wasn't 5 minutes later, Chris was hooked up and battling the largest one of the day!
Here's our box, and it was full of prime eatin'......
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