And last Thursday in 2012, that day it was a high of 91 degrees!
Radical difference between what Ray, little 9 year old Mathew, and myself felt while struggling to catch any decent fish.......THE WHOLE DAY!!!
We started at the jetties. It was a bit sloppy. I had Mathew drift a float with a live shrimp behind the boat and 10 feet off the stern. His float..."bobbed". Hit by either a Bluefish or a small Spanish Mackerel. He reels in and YEP, the shrimp was clipped like it was cut with scissors.
2nd try - same
3rd try - same
4th try - same
They don't have to eat alot of my expensive live shrimp for me to get the message;
It's over as far as float-rig fishing shrimp at the inlet. If there was a Trout out there. You'll never catch it, anyhow.
That's when my "winter" Trout fishing buddy, Doc Miller heads North. Oh, he was actually out here on Wednesday. Back to N.C. and he won't pick up a rod and reel again till fall. Or when the frost starts in the mountains of North Carolina. Then, he'll quietly slip back into J-ville put the boat in the water and rig up his float fishing rods once again.
So what's the morale of this story?
You guessed it......Dave's favorite part of the year is over. Just like it is for Doc.
In the last few trips it's been like an invasion of an alien race, in that river. Mother Nature is so outa whack it's incredible.
I say this every single year; "Someone needs to find a lucrative market use for a 6-12" Bluefish. Put a price on their heads. And then, it would be as if they never existed. It would be worth bringing back inshore gill nets just to see these fish extinguished from our waters."
(actually....UN wanted)
Sounds harsh I know. But, I absolutely hate them. With every bone in my body!
Yesterday. I had a great crew...Rich, Kerry, Scott, local folks. No Kids. I made the effort to run 12-14 miles on way from the boat ramp away from the Mayport area. Just with hope, that I may...just may get far enough away from the Bluefish to actually catch some quality Trout.
NO DICE! The bluefish ate our live shrimp, and Matrix shads off our jigs from the first spot to the last spot, and when there's all these teeth around the Speckled Sea Trout aren't coming out to play either. We caught a few trout. But it was a struggle. And we even saw Spanish Mackerel jumping out of the water in the river, 14 miles from the inlet, also.
Now, I'm booked: April 17-18-19-20....(a good thing after Tax day)
By Sunday the 21st, "pour me in a Dixie cup, I'm already looking forward to next November!"
