Thursday, April 26, 2007
4/26 - The man has good balance!
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
4/25 - Late 1/2 day with FMA group charter
Monday, April 23, 2007
4/23 - Only on a falling tide?????
Sunday, April 22, 2007
4/22 - More winds,East or Noreast (BARK...BARK)
Friday, April 20, 2007
4/20 - Another windy weekend
04/20 - 12:00 pm,
04/20 - 11:54 am,
Thursday, April 19, 2007
4/19 - Very interesting web site
Georgia's, close enough to fish....close enough for us to pay attention to what they are doing!
* Tournament
*Redfish facts
*Stocking program
*Why & when they spawn
*Pollution....effects them
*Degrading of habitat (something Jacksonville needs to care more about!)
Personally, I have made an effort that I will only keep a Redfish every once in a blue moon, myself. I don't really care to eat them...and especially do not care to clean them (like a Sheepshead).
Ya'll know what fish cleans easier and the fish I'm always looking for!
It has "speckles" rather than "spots".....but then again the one pictured here could have been refered to as a "Speckled Redfish", caught by a member of the Campbell Clan on a charter many moons ago. When we used to actually have a CONGREGATION of fish in the river during the fall.
I'd love to find an article about the Redfish of the St. Johns River, since this area was mentioned as one of the TOP 5, in Saltwater Sportsman Magazine (Feb of 2007). And why sometimes the fish are here spawning and sometimes not.
Angler lore is; Salinity Levels - no rain, Pollution...IE: "Green Algae", the US Navy, gone to Georgia for a one night stand. I'd like to read what the scientists say.
http://www.peachstatereds.org/index.html
P.S.
Keep some fingers crossed "about this weekend".
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
4/18 - Is this really April?????
Friday, April 13, 2007
4/13 - a 1/4 mile stretch -revised-
Abu Garcia Ambassador 6500 Trophy Series reels for sale.
New: $95 to $105 a piece.
Mine: cleaned, Oiled & in fine working order - $35 each
or buy all (4) for $130.00 ....Lasted one day, SOLD ALREADY, sorry.
If your interested, just call me or email me.
904-642-9546
reels@captdaves.com
I'd just love to let all (4) go at the same time, of course. From time to time I do a liquidation, I guess you could say of tackle I'm not using.
BTW...I also have (2) Penn Performance Tackle (PPT) 13'6" Neil MacKellow (famed British long caster designed) "Stinger" model Surf casting rods. Yes, key word is "CASTING".....what real surf casters use. Meaning; the the opposite of a "Spinner"......YUK! Can Handle large casting reel with supplied "Coaster Clips" to attach reel. Handles casting up to 5 oz. easily. (I think I did my best ever with these rods at 400 feet.) 2-piece, in cloth storage bag - $75 each and like brand new. Can handle Sharks, big Reds or Whiting and Pompano. Versatile rods.
Can be seen at B&M Bait & Tackle A1A north Atlanitic beach where they are on consignment or just call me.
Okay...back to the fishing.
Went out today with a game plan in mind. As you may or may not know, when I go by my lonesome, I call it R&D. Short for "research and development". First off, going and putting the boat in the water was a great excuse to burn the giganticus live shrimp I still had in my live well, and I had to go put fuel in the boat, anyhow. (FYI: Honda...So far so good. I have not a single negative thing to say about my new outboard. The fuel economy is very good. On average I burn thru all RPM ranges a measly 2 gallons an hour, or as I like to think of it; about 10-12 fishing trips on 60 gallons. Granted my fishing trips are not 4 hour runs to the ledge and then troll all damn day. But I do haul-ass from spot to spot, starting and stopping, idling and with varying loads of people, day to day. I'm very happy so far...)
So if I needed to burn some expensive live shrimp because I don't think I'm doing my charter on Sunday because of the weather report, and while putting $150 worth of fuel in the boat, I might as well go do some R&D.
I went to the south-side of the south jetty, that was the game plan. Do not burn much of that $150 worth of fuel, and spent all day there. (MISTAKE #1)
I do stuff like that all the time. I pick an area and never really leave. Working a 1/4 mile stretch, while attempting to learn all I can about it. Although over the 25 years worth of fishing the jetties I have probably learned about all I can about that side of the rocks. But I stayed there, thru thick and thin. But today was mighty THIN!
I caught 4 Speckled Trout, WHOOPEE! And 10 Jack Cravalles of various sizes. The Trout were not what I was hunting for, with them ranging from 14-3/4 inches to 17 inches.
I fished in 3 feet up in the jam, and out at the tip, and in between. And there was no rhyme or reason to where the Trout were, out of the whopping 4, one came from 3 feet of water while the rest were in 10' or 18' or 1 foot. It was serious pot luck. There was zero current, and I knew that going in. What I didn't know is that no one really works anymore on Friday's either.
Back in February, I could be out doing a lil' R&D on a Friday and never see a soul. But that's all changed now.
I call staying there at the south side of the south Jetty all day Mistake #1, because I really should have done some R&D elsewhere. But since I just dumped $150 dollars into the fuel tank. It was a nice economical place to venture too.
I'll repeat a saying an associate of mine used to say about fishing in Jacksonville versus when he grew up in South Miami back in the 60's and 70's.
"Fishing in Jacksonville, you better be rigidly flexible."
Claiming that in Miami back when, you could basically do the same ole thing week after week and always catch fish. I think he meant.
But, he does have a point. The weather here is the number one reason I do R&D. Because one day is never the same as the next. (I wore a light weight rain jacket all day today!) I don't really care if I'm catching a lot of fish when I'm out there by myself. I just like "being", and not having to attend to anyone or anything. And can try crazy crap like working a 1/4 mile of rocks with various float rigs, for 6 hours.
But it sure would be nice to find that giant "ocean run" 9 pound Speck. Ya' know the one that I have day dreams of? And the one that makes me go spend money, I do not have.
I often wonder, does that Trout even exist? I say 9 pounder, not to be greedy. Sure a ten pounder would be nice, but C'mon this is J-ville Florida, not south west Texas, on the Laguna Madre where 10 pounders are common place. So I'm always conservative.
Either way. That's the story.
-And thanks to Dave Lashbrook, a reader of this blog/report and a fella I had on a charter a few years ago with his family. He e-mailed me today, with his own fishing report. I'm not gonna give away his confidential findings. But thanks to Dave, I probably should have done some R&D to the west rather than going east, and being a "cheap skate" on myself. (REMEMBER YA' HAVE TO BE....RIGIDLY FLEXIBLE!!!)
Oh well, I'm sure after this big blow that's coming this weekend. I'll have another R&D day afterwards, because bad weather scares everyone off for at least 2-3 days.
Is there a pool going on how many "spots" will win this year' Redfish spots tourney?
I'm gonna gamble like a sissy and say because of the weather and possible winds Saturday, I'll go with 30 spots or under will take it. (You can tell I don't know how to make a real bet)
Thursday, April 12, 2007
4/11 - The Weekend Update
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
4/11 - My obvious week off?
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
4/10 - Let's make note of this!!
Thursday, April 5, 2007
4/5 - New weather, New challenges.......
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
4/4 - Now today was, a "PERFECT" 80 degrees
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
4/3 - Super weather.....doesn't anyone go to work?
Had Allen & Cliff Giddens on board today while in Jax with their parents. The boat ramp looked like a July 4th weekend, on an ordinary Tuesday.
Monday, April 2, 2007
4/2 - Species sampler...to include Green Sea Turtle
Sunday, April 1, 2007
4/1 - ...."its blowin again"....April fools!
It was Brian & Matt, wanting to go fishing.
They said they were hung-over, had a wild night but really wanted to go fishing. They called around and ended up with my phone number, from a friend already out fishing.
Well, ya know how I love "last minute" phone calls for charters. So I told them I too am sitting here waking up slowly while still in my BVD's.
But they didn't hem or haw, they wanted to go and laid a Visa on me with no gripes. (usually these types of calls never work out....not because of me, but because fishing was just a whim)
But not these two guys.
So I said, "Okay, meet me at 11am at the dock". I scurried and got my act together, loaded the boat and just knew it was gonna be a cone-a-rama out on the river, and it was! The ramp was full, the river was full, and there was people wall to wall everywhere you looked.
And ya know how I just love fishing in and around other people. I DON'T, I HATE IT!
(It's heredity. My Grand father was incredibly unsocialable when he fished so my dad tells me and he says; "you're just like your grandfather, if he saw a single body standing on the beach when he went surf fishing, he'd pack up and leave that entire stretch of ocean.")
But that was back in the 1950's, he'd just flip if he was alive and trying to fish these days, without seeing a soul.
I got a good word that the jetties were heinous, big seas and big wind. And yes, it was windy when we left, too. So my 2 crew members didn't want any parts of rockin & rollin' so we turned left out of the boat ramp towards inshore waters.
My options were pretty limited starting late and with so many people everywhere, so we went to the closest place I know we can hide-out.
We were early on the spot, but I didn't care. I had to stake claim or loose it to the unknowing weekend crowds.
The tide started to drop, and the bites came.
First fish was a small 14" pup Redfish. Then a Flounder, then a good pull on the rod lost to a user error. Then another Redfish, a 22 incher. Then more traffic coming thru screwing us over, then some small Trout, then a keeper, then another lost good puller, then a few more small trout.
Then our current died....Time to move on.
But as we were fishing the wind was worse and worse. South at a good 20 knots easy!
April fools!!!!! Ya'll who listened to the weather guessers, really got bent over the rail today. (personally I never even looked at it and didn't care. I had a feeling nothing would change from the rest of the last 30 days.)
Is that why the river was a July like festival of boats, because the weather guessers, said it was gonna be nice? Sure was nice. NICE AND WINDY.
So we looked around, and it got to the point where a boat was on every spot, the wind was bad everywhere, and the river was so rough it was like being offshore during a gale.
So we pretty much went back to the creek, caught a few more dinks at dead low tide, and then headed in.
We had a pretty good day considering a late start, too many people, and to much south wind. Keeping one Trout, one Flounder and one Redfish for take home.
Now I have Monday thru Thursday reserved...and will not be fishing next weekend probably.
5 days in a row, and if I have to fight the wind I'll really be tired of it. But according to the forecast:
- MONDAY AND MONDAY NIGHT SOUTHWEST WINDS 10 KNOTS. SEAS 2 FEET OR LESS. INLAND WATERS A LIGHT CHOP.
I guess I may get a breather from the wind burn.Because as of now the whole week looks good.
My News page is where you can find what dates are "pre-reserved", in case your interested in booking a day of float-riggin, aboard the CaptDaves.com boat. Along with other pertinent dates.
Saturday, March 31, 2007
3/31 - Blustery, overcast, WHO CARES?
Friday, March 30, 2007
3/30 - Ya' should have been here...a few days ago.
I'd hate to know the ratio of reserved trips on "Iffy" versus "good" weather days, so far in 2007.
So, the theme of this weekend and UGLY MARCH is the photo to the right. Because calm waters....slick seas, and low wind, where the fish are has been hit & miss this month. I no sooner have a big time game plan and then get shut out, for Friday (rescheduled to Monday) and I'll have to see what's up for tomorrow......but we're going anyhow.
I truly believe I have rescheduled more trips in March that I ever did in January & February.
I think we're on the 17 day with Easterly or N.E. winds, and tough fishing conditions.
"and people ask why I do not fish offshore any more", include me in a trust fund and I'll go right back to it any time. It's hard enough making a living fishing the river. I'm not a part-timer! This is what I do.
But, each month has it's challenges. And so, I procceed on.
This is just a weather FYI, incase your trapped in a cubical with no windows. (UHG)
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
3/27 - They came ready to rumble!!!!!!
Friday, March 23, 2007
3/23 - Renewed Vitality "Spring has Sprung"
Alrighty...Finally a day where the East winds weren't the center of my world! The wind was there, a bit more N.E. and not as strong as it has been. We could actually F-I-S-H.