10/18 - I'LL LET PHOTO'S SPEAK

PAUL M. WAS ON BOARD TODAY.

....IT WAS A BLAST!!!!!!!!

PAUL PULLED UP AT THE BOAT RAMP COMING STRAIGHT FROM THE AIRPORT.

IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A 4 PERSON 1/2 DAY LATE TRIP. THE OTHER 3 GUYS PUNKED OUT.....THEIR LOSS.

BY 3:10pm WE WERE INTO YELLOWMOUTH TROUT, AND BY 3:30 IT WAS 25-30" REDFISH GALORE!! AND THE WEATHER TURNED PERFECT, AS THE LATE DAY SUN SHINED AND THE AIR COOLED.

AND THE REDBASS CHEWED FAST AND FURIOUS, AND PAUL WAS FREAKIN OUT.

WE FISHED MAYBE 3-1/2 HOURS.

EACH PHOTO IS A REDBASS CAUGHT. AND PAUL EVEN LET ME CATCH A FEW.

(nice guy)

THANKS PAUL...LET'S DO IT AGAIN SOON.

(PHOTO'S SAY A THOUSAND WORDS)

10/16 - I.G. all day long!

Man, what a day we had Thursday. I had the pleasure of having Jeff P. and his father Harry aboard again. It's been too long.
Well, not all that long....Just feels that way.

We had Instantaneous Gratification from start to finish!

And like that ole Yellow Mustard at the Chinese Restaurants, it was not only a HOT day of fishing, but an exciting one too. (kinda an inside metaphor)

We started off Float-rigging for Trout. And on Jeff's first drift of the morning. He connected on a Yellowmouth Trout, and then Harry hooked up.

This is the way the entire day went.

WHY ARE YOU MISSING THIS?
That's the big question.

The full moon "incoming tide" was a super gusher. The water's moving slowly, and then you could just hear it coming. The noise it made around pilings and around the boat was clearly a louder audible tone. Jeff noticed it. Usually, I'm the only one that has "Batman or Spidey" senses enough to detect what Momma Natures telling us.

So we sat there and caught as many small Specks and yellowmouths as we could, till the current got to bad and moved on. The next spot was super flooded, and yep, instantly we caught Specks but they were small, so we headed to guess where????

My home, where the Jettywolf's roam...the big Mayport Rocks. (inlet)

And there was a good sized swell pouring in with the last of the incoming tide.

But no fear, the Jettywolf's here.

I anchored up and we all tossed out our float-rigs and sent them drifting down the granite boulders. Being the "ringer", I instantly hooked up a big fish.

I handed it to Jeff. Harry said he's paying so make sure he gets the big one this time.


Usually Harry, Jeff's dad, catches the biggest fish.

So Jeff battles him a nice Red along the rocks. A perfect 26 incher.



















We go at it again, and on my next drift of my rig, I hook yet another Redbass.
Another perfect keeper at 24 inches.


Then, Jeff tangles with this years first Float-rig caught Jetty Sheepshead. A nice 5 pound, 7-striped jetty Snapper.

And a Black Margate...which we hardly ever capture more than one or two a trip, this time of year. But are such nice fish.


Then we get some big Mangrove Snappers, really nice ones worth taking their sides off. A few Jacks in the 4 pound range, too.

All is going great, we're getting bites, the box is already full of fish. And Harry and Jeff are concentrating on the area where the Reds just came from. So I walk to the stern and pitch out a my float-rig behind the boat, up in the rocks.

My float goes down, so I do exactly what your supposed to do. Reel, Reel, Reel......Lift.
Yeah baby. I'm hooked up to a smoker! Drag's pulling and the rod is bowed. But no matter what I did in those first few seconds the spool never stops ripping out line. I yell to Harry, "Come here, take this rod!!!", he does. I start the engine, pull the anchor, and am ready to give chase.

I could tell, something on the other end was just not gonna stop. Harry's holding the rod, trying to stop whatever it is, as I drop the engine in reverse. And he yells "I see metal!"......and then we hear a POP!

All in about 60 seconds, whatever that fish was smoked off 200 yards of line, never broke the leader (15# test mono) and took the float, the lead, everything. Harry hands me the rod and the POP we heard was the line breaking off the spool.

HOLY SHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

EMPTY SPOOL.












Guess I'm outa commission.
Oh no..."the ringers down for the count".
So what was that fish?

It's any ones guess. But my guess would be a Jack Crevalle so big, that it was no ones business to catch it. But now trailing 200 yards of Berkley
Stealth Super Braid, a 2 oz trout lead, and a Salmon Stalker float.

By the time we re-anchored again. The tide had faded so we moved to the tip of the jetty looking for one more keeper sized Redfish. And never caught one.

So back into the river we went. The tide just started to fall. I passed a friend with an over sized Redbass he and his charter just caught. And of course his folks thought I was the Police man in my BIG METAL boat. So we laughed and joked about that, as he released a healthy 30+ incher.

We pulled up into what could either be Speck land or Yellowmouth land. It changes day by day. Today, it seemed to be pinfish land in the shallower water, but out in the deeper water it was I.G. on the big Yellowmouth that rip drag and freak out all the way to the net.

But the float-rig wasn't doing all the well on them, and I found them out a bit deeper,
"tight-line" fishing them.
That's what I call when
using just enough weight
to stay on the bottom,
and keep a real taunt line
and lift every so often,
teasing them. And it works
so good on these
Yellowmouth Trout
it's unbelievable.

We were stroking nice fat ones at first doing this. And then came the absolute mother load!

Just cast out, and before you even hit the bottom you'd feel a tap and your hooked up!
So Jeff and Harry used two of my super fairy wands....Loomis "greenwater" rods and stroked one yellowmouth after another.

Harry put it mildly. "This ought to be almost illegal...this is legalized stealing!!" That's how fast a furious the fish were biting. I stood there tying new knots, with mono-leaders in one hand and the net in the other. I couldn't keep up with these guys. And there was maybe 2 small Specks in the whole bunch. But that was okay. We only kept the largest fish and had our 3 man limit of 12 fish in minutes.

Then, Harry sets the hook on a really good fish. Now, remember. This is a falling tide. A 6+ foot falling tide. The current is ripping! And Harry's got another drag burner hooked up that's utilizing every bit of the current to get a head of steam behind it. We laughed saying, "OH NO...not another take all the line fish??" But Harry with fairy wand rod in hand finally put the breaks to the fish, and it was a large Redbass at 30 inches. Wheww...Harry got worked.

And yet another year, Harry catches the largest fish (Redbass) off the day. (just like last spring)

Man what a day. Again, we went through 12 dozen live shrimp and used every single dead one, live one on the boat.

Folks, ya know what that means?
It means fishing is so damn good it's ridicules!

But of course we had a rare "PERFECT" weather day also.

We left to head back to the boat ramp tired of catching. But it was time for Cappy Dave to make the donuts. My code lingo for, "time for me to get the fillet knife out and sit on down and get busy once again."

Jeff came really prepared. He brought a kitchen garbage can sized plastic bag. And when it was all over the bottom of that bag was a foot deep in fillets.

"And like sands through the hour glass, these are the best days in Capt Dave's life."

(Jeff, Harry...hand me some more of that yellow Chinese Mustard, please??)

10/15 - 6 foot tide and a N.E. breeze

Not a bad day at all.....Had Dave C. on the boat again, with friend/relative Ron and his wife.

Dave's still all full of the memories of the Yellowmouth Trout slaughter we had back in September. Which was really fun, but it was only after a morning hunt for big Specks that really didn't pan out.

Although they too, are Trout they are not what I'm normally hunting. Stronger, meaner, and willing to chew many times when the Specks aren't, sure does make them pretty desirable. Dave C. says, loves 'em.

We left the dock and headed to where we caught some decent keepers in the gale force winds on Monday. They caught some Trout, but we only "boxed" 2 - 16 inchers.

So we moved on. The wind in the river was not all that strong, but the jetties were a mess. So we stayed comfortably in the "hub". And with the tide still pouring in real strong, started catching a mix of Specks and Yellowmouths.

There was many 14 inch Specks, and small yellowsmouths. But the fish were coming to the boat one after another. I stood by Net ready!

Here's what I mean....
By 10:30am we had almost run right through 12 DOZEN
LIVE SHRIMP!!

Holy crap....

FYI: The new policy is, when I bring that many shrimp and they are burned up early.

We head back to the dock. I bring more than enough shrimp. There's no way I can account for how many get used "not" catching a fish!





















OR: I will give you the option to pay more for your charter, and I'll bring some many we'll have them left in the livewell at the end of the trip.

At dead high slack water I insisted it be lunch time, break time, whatever... Just so no more shrimp were used up during a super non-fish catching stage of the tide.

In Louisiana, they say, catch a limit of Specks and Reds....trips over, time to head in. Well, this ain't Louisiana. So my rule will be use all the bait, playing feed the bait stealers? Time to head in.

So after a 10 minute break for lunch a stop at the boat ramp for a rest room break, we moved on to try a different spot at the absolute first of the falling tide current. Two Jacks and a Mangrove Snapper, no trout. So we picked up and headed to where we caught Trout earlier, but now had maybe 2 dozen shrimp left. So while Ron and his wife float-rigged, Dave and I dropped bottom rigs with cut Croaker and caught more Yellowmouths, and a Black Drum.




















We finished up the day with no shrimp, used a whole Croaker for small pieces of cut bait, used every shrimp that died. And left for the boat ramp to clean 1-Drum, 8-Specks, and 9-Yellowmouth.

So that goes to show ya, how many fish we released, lost, and how many bait stealers were fed.
I kinda blame fishing the mega- incoming full moon tide.
But, the wind wasn't all that bad, it was warm and sunny. Water temp. 76 degrees.

I'll be at it again tomorrow with another regular customer, Jeff P. and his dad. Always fun to fish with.

10/14 - what the heck?

I cannot believe October is about 1/2 way over all ready. I guess time fly's when your having fun!

And so far, October has been FUN.

Now, start thinking about November folks...The fishing is awesome!!

Here's a day from last year (Nov. 14) with my buddy Nick and I at the jetties. This is just what we kept and took home. We released a bunch of Reds, Trout and Drum...(two 72 qt. coolers full)

And some of you even received a notice about my 1-3 passenger Monday-Tuesday-Weds. charters where I provide lunch, in October. And ya' never took me up on the offer!! I suppose the drop in Monday thru Weds. charters is that everyone is afraid to loose their J-O-B if they get caught taking off a day. A sure sign of the times, I guess.

Don M. reminded me of this on yesterday's charter (he did not receive such a deal, because he already received a multi-day reserved price. He's been out with me twice a month for 2 months.)

Yep, it was for the folks in my "rates schedule" database. People who have signed up to receive deals. Not in conjunction with any other so called "deal" I have out there. Not offered for everyone, that's for sure.

The "I bring lunch" is for you folks who are signed up. And includes, Publixs subs and drinks. With advanced reservation deposit for a 1-3 person charter, in October only.

10/13 - Great windy day?

Don M. and myself were really sitting on the fence about today, reshedule or not? When we talked yesterday afternoon. All because of the forecast. But Don's friend Eric was coming along, and he works for the Jacksonville Jaguars, and was in Denver with the team. So we couldn't ask him. And Don was starting a new job this week, so we just agreed....."let's go fishing, who cares what the forecast is"

The forecast was for a sunny day, occasional showers, with winds building from the east up to 25 knots with the visit of gale force winds here and there. And believe it or not, the forecast was dead on!

This morning at 0730 hrs. we took off from the dock and things were pretty damn nice. The tide was high, and with the east breeze pushing the river even higher. The parking lot of the boat ramp was getting wet.

Okay, high water, east winds......"hmmm, were do I go?"

I stopped and anchored up on a spot near Chico-pit bay, where there's a long shallow shell bar.
And we float-rigged along it and over it. Catching Trout right away.
Problem was, many of them were small, with only 2 good keepers out of 8 or more.


Then came the Pinfish bites. It's as if they just found us. And my theory is; "if bait stealers are the only fish biting, then they are the only fish there." So we moved on.

We did a short "world tour" of the river down towards Mill Cove. But the wind was just too strong to be anywhere near open water. So I headed back to the Mayport Hub. (aka: boat ramp up to the little jetties area)

(commencing, sarcasm) We sure were weak on the 10 DOZEN LIVE SHRIMP I thought I bought. Strangely, I sure hope all these dead mutilated shrimp that were in my livewell, weren't part of the 10 dozen live I forked over $30 bucks for. Because I know these shrimp didn't get this way after a few hours in my livewell. (end of sarcasm)

We worked an area at the Little Jetties where the current was absolutely unbelievable. So strong I couldn't even anchor. I finally tied off to a piling, and we caught those dreaded 4" Mangrove Snapper bait stealing bastards, and one healthy Croaker before it was once again time to move on.

Low on bait, already...we moved looking for some action in the gale force gusts. So I went shallow, along another shell bar. One more keeper Trout, and then all of a sudden it was "pupper time". Small Reds, I think Don and Eric caught the whole school. They were 12" to 18".

Then my
"suppose to be"
10 dozen live
shrimp were
all gone.








Overall, a decent day for how hard the wind was blowing.



Ended up with a nice bag of fillets for the guys to eat. And I was glad to get the heck out of the wind and head home.















By the way: I'll be casting my VOTE, to get that damn Bill Nelson out of office the first chance I can. He wants a 5ooo person nuke aircraft carrier in Mayport, add in the city wanting (2) 2000 people cruise ships(?) in Mayport and again as like everything this city does, it does it with no infrustructure!! GIVE ME A DAMN BREAK!
He lives no where near Mayport. He needs to live near Mayport,thats for damn sure. So he can sit in the traffic, and hear the Navy dragsters go over the Wonderwood bridge, and sit in a mile long line of cars to get to the ferry or boat ramp. It's been easy getting to the boat ramp in the morning for the last year or so and now this big mouth bureaucrat is at it again.

10/11 - One spot, fishing.

Had John C. and his wife aboard. Nice calm folks, ready to learn. John's a bass fisherman, so this was all pretty knew to him. So I gathered.

We left the dock good and early. The rain was falling, the skies were overcast with dark clouds all over, and the river was dead calm...but that didn't last long! After the rain passed, here came the winds, NE winds.

We had already rescheduled this trip from Sept. 20th. That day it was 25 knots from the east, and raining hard that morning, and when I made my way to the boat ramp to take a look. We would have been one of two boats out that morning. So rescheduling was a good idea.

But as luck would have it, today didn't seem that much better.

After the rain, the wind started blowing pretty damn good. And since I've been finding fish really close, we just stuck it out there all day.

We could have ran around trying spot after spot that was out of the wind, but why? This area was just as good as any of those, and better. Because I've been fishing here for two weeks.

I know the pattern. Only thing that's different is the advancement of the tide an hour each day and boat traffic .

H-A-R-D B-O-T-T-O-M = F-I-S-H, is an ole saying from my offshore bottom fishing days. And it still applies in the river too. Plus every morning the schools of bait come pouring through this area and with it comes flocks of birds. But right then, is when the current is the strongest. And I cannot even describe to you how hard it is to get anchored on this bottom, between the current, wind, and the concrete like river floor.

I must have anchored no less than 10-12 times! Add in all the inconsiderate weekend crowd, who come flying past you while hanging on your anchor by a thread. And there ya have it...getting waked, means having to re-anchor, once again. (Thanks, BELDAR)

On the high water it's always Ladyfish, a few Trout, Mangroves, and lost shrimp. But as the tide goes down I usually try out deep for some big Reds. We tried today. But between the wind and the wakes, my gut was telling me, "this is a waste of time." So back to the float-rig we went.

I can easily deal with the fishing and the hard bottom. But the wind and the weekend wakers, that's the challenge in this area.

But then all of a sudden, the other boats just went away. The anchor miraculously stuck good and we were into a bite of Yellowmouth Trout with a mix of Jacks and Specks, like last Thursday.

EVERY SINGLE DRIFT OF THE FLOAT-RIG WAS A BITE!
My crew was having a ball! And I just stood ready with the net.

I love this. It rivals the big bites I will be into of Yellowmouths & Specks come this winter at the Jetties.

Same exact thing. But add in Reds and
Sheepshead then. When the water's cooler.

We didn't and usually do not get into GATOR sized Trout here. But that's okay. There's hardly a throw-back fish. Just good keepers up to 18-19 inches.

My crew put their limit in the box in a matter of minutes (12) Yellowmouths and a few Specks. Played with some Jacks in the high speed current on the small hooks. And then we just played catch and release, till all the shrimp (10) dozen were gone.


Basically, any day that we go out and burn every single shrimp in the live well, and some dead ones, on Trout is a good day no matter what the weather's like.

I always bring a lot of bait!

And I'm glad I stuck with it.
I could have moved, done more bottom fishing for Reds, float-rigged
some different spots. But it just didn't make any sense to me. We might have just been wasting time.




Finally, this week I have some
weekday trips. But then of course
Monday's supposed to be heinous.
But if we can switch to another day, later in the week. I believe we'll be okay.

As long as the "weather" starts to
clear out by Tuesday. Because I'll be out again Weds. Thurs. Friday, and Saturday. Pour me in a Dixie Cup, by Sunday!


I'd really start thinking about November, folks.

It's probably #1 on the list of favorite months. Because it's all about JETTY-TIME! Get a calm day, with a 2 passenger trip for versatility, and man ya' never know what can happen.

John and his wife went home today with a big ole bag O' fillets...Fish Fry! I hope they enjoyed a rainy, windy, weekend day, enough to come on back on a non-rainy, windy....weekday, sometime in the near future. Because this is just the start of my favorite season, fishing, and species.

10/10 - like sands through the hour glass........

"Like sands through the hour glass these are the days of my life"....That's the theme to an old Soap Opera "Days of our lives".

And that statement goes through my head every time I bust some serious fish "azz" and then try the same thing the next day with customers.

Not that I expect them to be masters of their domain, such as I...."but I'd like to see a glimmer of the previous day's Trout slaughter happen."

So here I got Ron, Bob, and John out with me on the boat as we pulled away from the dock before the sun was up. I go to where Nick and I wore the trout out yesterday, not exactly during the same hour (we were earlier today) on the spot. We set up, get chewed like wolves knawling on raw meat by the gnats, go over the finer points of "the float" technique....and what do they catch?
Ladyfish......nasty lil' ones. That just went into the cooler for cut bait.

And not all that many, either. Oh, I see, this is a "ya should have been here yesterday", kinda deal momma nature wants to play on me.

Well Ron really came to catch a Redfish. So we pull out of the bug chew zone. And set up for some bottom fishing for a big Red. We get two right off the git-go. And one has 66 spots. Caught by Bob.

















Then it was Ron's turn, and he gets one a tad smaller.
















After a few kitty kat fish bites, we were out there.
And I've noticed the croakers have kinda moved on to happier hunting grounds too.

Off to the jetties...

Man, that place was a dead zone. Big swells outside the inlet and huge rollers inside, and never saw anyone hook up, and neither did we. So I pulled anchor and ran to the beach, because maybe we could catch some POGIES, I thought.

And it was all the slimy lil' bastards you'd ever want. And by the way, these were the first pogies I have cast my net over in the year of 2008...it only took 10 months for me to find a pogie with out spending gallons of fuel to find them.

I remember years ago when it was like this. Pogies everywhere, and giant Reds all around them.
So I pitched out some Pog's and we drifted around the flipping schools.
NO REDS. But there was no lack of small Blacktip sharks that would scarf up a Pog on the bottom. All this free food and no Reds? Seems really stupid, huh?

Ron also wanted to catch a shark.......okay that was easy, his two requests finished by 10am. Only problem is the sharks were babies. 2-1/2 feet long each one. I'd guess Ron really wants a "man-sized" Shark. Too bad, I was all over them in June & July. Easy to catch, any one of those 100 pounders then, would put a notch in his belt.

Okay, time to move on again.

Up into the river. A great spot. Always catch a 20 plus pound Red here......

And what did we get? A 23-25 pounder. Then, it was one trash can lid after another! Rays, I call these kind butterflies. They have the shape of a butterfly, and their top side has a marbley look. I've never caught these in the river before this year. I usually caught these up in the Nassau River. But either way, they are a shit fish in my book. So after John pulled in three of these damn things, and then a kittykat fish...."I done had enough."

In the back of my mind I really wanted to go pitch a few floats for Trout again, but instead we tried bottom fishing one more spot. Nothing there, so we pulled out the floats one mo' time.

And caught a few Trout and a Croaker to end the day, as the tide went slack.

The big bite of Reds is many times an evening thing, and a buddy of mine was into them pretty good about this time as the tide changed where he was. But I was up at 0500 hrs loading the boat, so it was a long day, by now. I had reports to write, dinner to eat, phone calls to make, and had to get some fuel into the boat. All before 9pm....my serious bewitching hour.

It's now 8:45pm and I'm ready to hit the sack. Need all my fortitude for yet another Saturday on the St. Johns River tomorrow. Man, I love weekends.........NOT!

I wanna get back on those Trout again. Maybe tomorrow. I only have a husband and wife aboard.

Can't stop thinking about what a screwed up year it was for those pogies. And just now I get them in October, near the jetties. Because I'm not running to Ponte Vedre or Amelia Island for bait, that's for sure. Close or no cigar.....I have Shrimp 100% of the time.

10/9 - IN FULL SWING..."their here"

Their Here.....

What the hell do I mean by that?

Well, if you're like me you look forward to this time of year because it's not only cooler, and the Big Reds are chewin'. But there's so much more than that. It'sa great time for my favorite style of fishing. And that's drifting a float-rigged live shrimp behind the boat, and now I don't have to travel far to it, with good success.

I'll admit it, I love turning RIGHT, out of the boat ramp dock. Which heads me EAST.

Today, Nick W. and myself had such a great day that if I told you where we caught our fish, I'd be shooting myself in the foot.

I did have two photos to post, but in the process of fooling with my camera trying to take some short video, I screwed everything up and lost the photos I took.

But for some reason these two photos some how got hidden in my camera's memory. And they were the only two on the memory chip. They're dated 6/22/08...I remember that day! We went and caught some Blacktip Sharks and then made a quick run offshore and pulled Drone spoons for these two exotic species...


Cuda's and Kings, the two fish that will inhale
a Drone Spoon without thinking about it.

Okay, enough about them HOT summer, non-river fishing days, which are are now behind us.

Today, Nick and I caught no less that 40 Speckled Trout. (this is what I mean!!!)

It was ever single drift of the float rig that hooked a beautiful Trout. In about an hour we had our limit of 10 in the box, up to 19".

Toss in some big mean Yellowmouth Trout, and talk about just plain F-U-N. Then, add in some 2-3 pound Jacks, mutant sized Pinfish, a few Ladyfish, and a handful of those pesky 4" Mangrove Snappers, and you get what Nick said "You mean we just went through 100 live shrimp??" "Yes, my drum beating friend, that's a sign of one great day," I replied. (Nick's the drummer for the local Celtic Rock Band, "RATHKELTAIR")

And the great thing about the whole day is we never burned a gallon of fuel, I'd bet on that.
We just burned shrimp like cord wood, and they turned into a cooler of Trout. Then we went back to the ramp and cleaned our 10 Trout and a half dozen big Yellowmouths.

I'll admit it. We went today to actually get some footage for a future Float-rig fishing video tape, I want to do. But the actual tape in the camera got messed up somehow and that idea was scrapped. So then I got out the snap shot digital camera and found out that I really didn't know how to use the video feature. So, that whole idea was tossed out the window. And we just kept pulling in the Trout.

So, the poop is. These fish are stacked up. For how long in this location, it's any ones guess. But I know I sure like it. And so does my fuel budget/wallet.

I also noticed. My Raymarine C-120's "calibrated" temperature gauge read, 76 DEGREES!

Does this mean no more 80 degree water? I hope so, because as the water temp falls, here comes more heaven...

Friday, Saturday & Monday I'll be out making more reports. But Monday's looking iffy. 20 knot EAST winds on a falling tide...OUCH!

That's not good for anyone.

10/7 - Gotta love our system

In case you missed it.......




and I bet he doesn't even F-I-S-H for fun, let alone a good meal.
hahahahahah

10/4 - A Tougher Saturday.....but nice and sunny.

Had Katrina and her friend Damon on the boat Saturday, for a bit of R&R. The wind was up compared to Friday. But it still was a beautiful morning.

BUT.... "Things were a bit off, compared top Friday."

Since my success was so great the day before I sort of followed the same "path".

First off, was catching some bait, Lil Croakers. So after going through all the details with Katrina and Damon, I anchored up on a hard bottom spot in the river. They dropped shrimp down and immediately caught some Croak's. I took those Croak's and cut them into pieces and pitched them out the stern, and waited for Brutus T. Redbass.

"Remember, back in the days when there were Pogies all over the beach? Back then, I'd run out the inlet, searching for them, while scanning the skies for diving birds, and usually catch way more than I needed. In today's world, it's not worth the fuel spent looking, because they just are not there. I can't even say I've caught a Pogie in all of 2008, that I can remember. I'm real sensitive to spending hours and miles looking for them......it's been a snipe hunt, each time I've tried. So, with the abundance of lil' Croakers, even though not nearly as good a bait as a stinky Pogie, and cheaper and more durable than a cut crab, I go with them. They're usually right where I'm fishing anyhow, that means no wasting time."

Damon and Katrina were in "Full Croaker Mode" when one of the stern cut bait rods doubled over. It was Brutas T! Katrina fought the fish, but at the last second, next to the boat it came off the hook.

So we kept trying. And unlike the day before the Croakers were smaller, and there were only a few small Yellowmouth Trout mixed in them. So as the tide faded, it was time to hit the inlet and fish outside the jetty rocks.

The wind was stronger then Friday and the water was a bit sloppier. The current was going one way, and the boat laid another, just like Friday. We caught more Croakers, and one medium sized Nurse shark. And that was it. So we headed back into the river.

By now the crowds were thick! Flats boats buzzing all over the place, and for some reason ever single flats boat that was on the river came by to fish the same locale I was at......"except in the shallows", while I was deeper. There had to be one of those Mosquito Fleet tournaments going on, with Flounder as a fish species. And if each line of flats boats only knew how beat up that area had been since yesterday, and all morning long today they might take the time to find new Flounder spots????

That's the problem with weekends!!! There's hardly anywhere around the Mayport "hub" that you can fish, that someone has not been on before you or after you.

I know I get so damn tired of it, myself.

So as we fished and had one boat after another run directly over the top of my lines to my stern, or over my anchor off my bow. It's a "here's yer sign", that the fishing will suffer. And hell if you want to catch big Trout. Boat traffic is my #1 enemy, when it comes to them.

But since we did so great on Friday, I stuck with my plan.

We ended up a handful of keeper Croakers, a large Seabass, 4 - pup Drum, and another Redbass....28 inches. I so badly wanted Damon to catch either giant, or a keeper. And we get an in between size, instead.



But we ended up with some decent "stringer" fish, in the box for Katrina to cook up.







And the current? It was a lot stronger so it seemed compared to yesterday. Probably because of the N.E. wind strength. We took off back to the dock, just as the current faded enough. Because of course a boat that came in and "Beldar Conehead'ed" us caught two over sized Reds in a bit deeper water.

















In the last two days, here some weird things I've seen:

Friday, my customer Don pointed out a 18" Flounder swimming on the surface toward the boat out off the end of the jetties as we were anchored up. It was 40 feet deep, and the Flounder was just 2 inches under the surface, swimming right at us. I tried to get the net out and scoop it up, but the net was secured and I couldn't get it out fast enough.

Damon's 28" Redfish we caught today, was trailing about 10 feet of green Berkley solar line, and had swallowed what looked like a circle hook. Damon also caught a small Yellowmouth Trout, that had no tail at all. It was either bit off clean, or amputated by some idiot.

10/3 - Perfect Day....Perfect Fish

There's an ole saying that most happy go lucky married men, usually in their 60's live by and don't even know it.....or do they.

Happy Wife = Happy Life.

Well, the same goes for FISHING.

A Perfect Day=Perfect Fish. (and in the charter biz, a good crew on board is also a big plus)

So I don't have to tell ya' much, about today. Other than, along the side bar of this report blog, I updated my "philosophy" section last week, and part of it goes like this..."There's no perfect day fishing. But if there is, I'll be sure to tell ya about it right here on this report blog."

So here it is. A perfect day, with the Brandt family that have been fishing for me for years and years. Which is another reason the day was so perfect. The Brandt's are fun folks.
























We even had Bill in a neck brace from neck surgery, if ya can believe that!

He's the one that caught the largest Redbass, because he's addicted!

So I had to oblige.

Lots of I.G. "you know what that means", Instantaneous Gratification!

A stringer of Croakers, Yellowmouth Trout, and only one Redbass small enough to keep, but we had them up to 18 pounds, and all in between.

Shrimp to catch Croakers, and then Croaker to catch Redbass....a 14 inch Seabass, and the largest of the yellowmouth.

A big part of what made today so good is that it was cool, sunny, light breezes, and no boat traffic around us.

10/2- For Curious Onlookers......

Mine is a 26 footer.

LET'S GO FISHIN'

9/30 - GOOD BYE......September!

Finally, it's over. One more month closer to cooler weather.














(five minutes from the dock......in "winter".)

WHY? Doesn't anyone reserve a weekday anymore? Is it the sign of the times? Because as far as I'm concerned "the times" have been "not good" for a long while.

Here's why: (check this weekends winds which includes Fridays too...versus the week days! My notes are "Highlighted")

REST OF TODAY VARIABLE WINDS....this means GOOD! 10 KNOTS OR LESS. SEAS 2 TO 3 FEET IN A NORTHEAST SWELL. INLAND WATERS A LIGHT CHOP. ISOLATED SHOWERS.

WEDNESDAY SOUTHWEST WINDS 10 KNOTS, also really good. SEAS 2 TO 3 FEET. INLAND WATERS A LIGHT CHOP.

THURSDAY AND THURSDAY NIGHT NORTH WINDS 10 KNOTS, "the switch". SEAS 2 TO 3 FEET. INLAND WATERS A LIGHT CHOP.

FRIDAY AND FRIDAY NIGHT NORTHEAST WINDS 10 TO 15 KNOTS. SEAS 2 TO 3 FEET. INLAND WATERS A LIGHT CHOP. ISOLATED SHOWERS.

SATURDAY AND SATURDAY NIGHT NORTHEAST WINDS 15 KNOTS. SEAS 3 TO 5 FEET. INLAND WATERS A MODERATE CHOP. SCATTERED SHOWERS. Jetty fishing??? NOT???

--------------------------------------------

Remember the Abu Garcia 6500 Chrome Rocket reels I had here for sale for next to nothing?

Well, as usual Jacksonville let's me down.

Here's where they sit now on Ebay......

Current bid:
US $400.00

Your maximum bid:
US $ ___________
Place Bid >
(Enter US $405.00 or more)

End time:
4 hours 36 mins (Sep-30-08 10:24:18 PDT)

Shipping costs:
US $18.00 UPS Ground Service to United States

Ships to:
United States

Item location:
Jacksonville, FL, United States

History:
10 bids

Starting bid:
$200.00

As you can plainly see, Ebay sure works better than.......here, Florida Sportsman MarketPlace, and all other web sites.
Who ever gets these reels sure is getting a deal.

UPDATE: on reels......

SOLD $438.35 with UPS Ground shipping!!!
-------------------
I have gone all "Low-Pro" ...aka: Low Profile bait casting.

I strive for YOU my customers to be using only the best and what I have tweeked for you.
Low-Pro reels are lighter, have higher speed retieves, and many time cast better.

My reels of choice are:

Either the Shimano
Curado 300DSV
or the near similar
Shimano Citica 200DSV





Fast and strong, and perfect
for all river species.

Soon to be matched up with 8' Fiberglass Rods
I have designed as my "Speck Specials."

Fiberglass for overall durability, and for a parabolic action, when hooked up to large head shaking Speckled Trout on a float-rig using the smallest of hooks. I wanted a rod that also sported EVA foam grips, that are more durable than cork. Go ahead....try and find a one piece glass rod thats 8 feet, with a HD trigger reel seat in a catalog or store. There is no such animal...until now. And it's my "Speck Special."

Designed from the blank up, The blanks are even made by hand, for Float-rig fishing! After testing the proto-type, I will have these availible to you if you'd like one or more.