Thursday, June 7, 2012

6/7 - Mystical Morning....

Well, I had plans to go do a little fishing this morning, before the burial at sea I was doing for some folks at 9am.
So I get to the boat ramp and talk to my customer......

(Yeah, I do all kinds of other boat for hire services. From Burials at sea to taking construction companies out to inspect bridges, surveyors, land buyers, you name it. The Jettywolf can usually do it.)

I tell him, "It looks like it's about to rain any minute." As he said, "well, we'll probably be early ,instead of 9am." So I figured I best not go toss a bait. But as soon as the boat floated off the trailer he came some serious rain. So I sat and waited. Rain jacket on, shoes soaking wet, I sat under the benches with the roofs next to the dumpster and watched the ever dilegent Seagulls pick and eat the Maggots that were crawling out of a drain hole at the bottom of the dumpster. Real boat ramp entertainment, huh??

Then, my folks arrived. We eventually took off towards the jetties to head out offshore a bit. But as we went, the sky opened and the blue shined through. And as I broke the jetties the sun shined and it got warm. My crew did what they had to do. A double burial at Sea. And let go some flowers also. And right then, two Dolphins came up.  And headed straight for my boat. It was kind of amazing! The sun, and then the Dolphins, and we watched as they swam right up under my drifting boat.

Hmmmmm...a somber day. But it made me think, this was something more than just good timing.
There was a complete circle around the inlet of clouds and rain.















With a hole of blue and that was right above us.

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On another note and as my continuing devotion to Alloy Education on this blog. I present to you the METAL SHARK 40 FEARLESS

Yeah, "IT'S ALLOY", aluminum for you layman. And of all places.......Florida Sportsman!

Yellowfin's maybe all over the TV and all over the magazines. But I have the guts to say, they're just another "Florida Bitch Magnet boat".

I stood in AWE, when I saw this boat in Venice La. last Feb. TUFF hardly discribes this boat. The "double consoles" is what kicked me into if I had the casholla, I'd have one in my stable for sure!

Check it out here



 

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

6/6 - everyone is the same? Usually.

No charters lately. Because every one wants the exact same dates......and that was Friday thru Monday.
So reports are coming. Crossed fingers for good weather and a bite?

Thought I'd toss this out there. A gimmick? You be the judge. Personally, I like Floundering with a float-rig, or a carolina rig. Egg sinker and very short leader.

Check this out:

FLOUNDER JIG

RIGGING

Monday, June 4, 2012

6/3 - South, still s-l-o-w

Spent all day between the Buchman Bridge and the Fuller Warren Bridge on Sunday and it was really slow all morning.
Then I lucked into a nice 21" Trout on a Mullet chunk. Prior to that it wasn't till 8:30am before I caught even a Yellowmouth Trout. Otr a bite!

Had some Whiting and more yellowmouth, small ones after the tide turned during the late afternoon. But basically, it's not worth fishing down there, still

IT WAS!  Till tropical Storm Beryl blew through. And really ruined it.

So, maybe later in the fall it'll be worth fishing. Or if the Tarpon show up down there thick.

No lack of Mullet down there. Saw no one shrimping.  NO JACK CREVALLES, but of course I caught 3 Bluefish!

Here's a few pics:
 



























































Friday, June 1, 2012

5/31 & 6/1 - Where's the ___? Fill in the blank

Had a great, and I mean great crew on Thursday. Brad R. his dad from Chicago and Brad's 9 year old son Logan.
Yeah, it was day two after the storm. I had planned to fish from now on, down river out of Goodby's Creek. But after spending a 1/2 day down that way and couldn't even give away a live shrimp. I had to call Brad and tell him, forget about that!

So we departed out of Mayport. And ran to where I've always caught trout, especially after a major storm. About 10 miles south of Mayport. But as we fished down that way it was very evident, that there was NO difference between down river at the Buchman bridge, or south of the Dames Point in Arlington!  Zero action.

My crew were fishing newbies, although Stan, from Chicago Bass fished back home. Add difficult conditions and this style of fishing being your first time........well, there's always a learning curve. So we went to Float-rig fishing and were on a decent trout spot.  Stan hooks up  BIG TIME, and I see a "swoosh" in the water. I'm thinking  the storm had 40 pound Redfish cruising this bank????  No, that was dream land. Instead Stan was hooked up on a Manatee!!  They sure can swim fast when they want too. And it took off with several of it's buddies.  If we were somewhere else, in another land, it would have been that "kicker fish of the day" and actually been a BIG fish, rather than a 1200 pound mammal!!

Then, later I was casting for Logan and he hooked up on a really nice fish. But it got off the hook. Then we tried several other places, had a run in with some asswipe in a Ranger bass boat who believed the river belonged to him, (and pay back do come) and then I was seriously fed up and ran all the way back to the north jetty. That was a total waste. All that running and fuel.

Fishing shrimp on the bottom keeping it as simple as it gets, just to prove to myself that the storm really had the waters all messed up. We had a Croaker or two. Which weren't at the rocks before the storm. Had  a Croaker eaten by a shark.
Then had a 27" Redbass, caught by Brad. And then Stan had a good hook-up and had a shark eat his fish below the boat.
Logan holding the Redbass.

Brad and Logan and the Redbass
Brad, Stan and Logan and the Redbass





















Friday June 1st:

Had a one man solo trip. And with what I know now. It was stay at the jetties and hunt for action. Turned out that Stanley C. had some time on his hands before heading home to Texas.

So we made a b-line straight to the jetties. No need to go up river and chase, WHAT?

The morning got cloudy fast, then cloudy and windy. But we stuck to it. I wanted some live mullet, because the day before they were everywhere. Other boats milled around looking for bait, I gave it maybe 15 minutes and said forget it lets anchor up. I brought the heavy duty tackle. And of course while just bottom fishing with shrimp, we had fish bit in half.

So after being able to catch no live baits, we fished for baits. Catching a Croaker and 4 Whiting. Then, we used these for cut bait. Catching several nurse sharks, and having many a fish hooked up on 200# mono leaders and 16/0 circle hooks and they still broke us off like we were fishing bluegill tackle. Every time, the 65# braid was broke.

Then later we finally hooked up a really big fish? (sharks are sharks, they aren't fish!)
Stan had the shark spooling him and never stopping. I pushed the drag lever on my Accurate twin drag reel up to about 30 pounds of drag pressure and it just kept going. Stan thumbed the spool and the line parted.

The wind and waves were pretty sporty as we tried to stay anchored, which was a chore. But that was really it at the jetties. It was a really nastified day out there. Compared to 24 hrs earlier.

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REAL WORLD:
The Buoys that sit at the ends of the south Jetty and north Jetty are not there any more. They were picked up and moved by Beryl.

The red north can is over where the south green can usually is, and the south green can is off to the south west in the sand.

That's how strong T.S. Beryl was at the end of the Mayport Jetties. No surprise there's no fish around. The sharks are fierce and it'll be awhile before the trout can be found again, I guess. EVERY single storm is different. I remember storms where it pushed all the fish to the inlets. I remember storms that had the Trout chewing like no tomarrow in the river.

If life on the St. Johns ain't tough enough already. Now I have to deal with this. My life isn't the same as the every other Saturday fisherman. I depend on that river and it gives up nothing easy especially this time of year.

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Right after "Tropical Storm Beryl" : (finished this day at Hooters!)