7/19 then the 20th

Signs of the times.....booking trips with hardly any notice. And you know by now I like to plan!

It was 8:30 pm I believe, when Adam booked his trip the 19th for himself and his buddy Skeeter. They dropped into J-ville Fla. from Texas. And wanted to go fishin'.


This new moon tide has been strong (and will be even stronger in the second half of this report)

Basically a 3.9' tide with a 0.4 negative on the low. I round this
out to be 4.3 feet of water that has to get out of the river in 6 hrs.

Well, far up river the green algae bloom is now in effect. I seen it for myself. Particulates of green algae in the water everywhere. And this was in the same part of the river that after checking was completely FRESH water on the surface. No salt water in my tests.

And do you remember what a green algae boom does?? To remind you, it's kind of like Red Tide.
Both really hurts Fishing.

We didn't catch anything far up river.....and basically caught nothing till almost noon. It's funny how things are. In the river for me it's usually not till low does the bite turn on, and at the jetties and on the beach, it's all about the incoming tide, lately. At least it's this way for this Float-rigger.
Well, we found the fish eventually and had 20-25 Trout to 4 pounds. A mini Sheepshead that bit because Adam was hung on the range marker. And when the rig came free the mini 7 -striped jetty snapper was there on his hook. Then, a few Redbass at the jetties, and a Tarpon hook-up. Plus Ladyfish, Jacks and Croakers and Mangrove Snappers, of course.























Pretty good day, even though we could have just cut our looses and went out for 4 hrs late in the day and done the same thing.

They left out with a nice bag of Trout fillets.


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

Then I had back on board, Monday the 20th the Richard H. crew. Richard, Richard, and 10 year old Ryan. Our last trip a few years ago was phenomenal. They caught Flounder, Trout, Reds, Drum, Croakers, Ladyfish, Jacks, you name it and all on one spot. But that was in June two years ago.


This year.....on the 20th.

Tide: 4.1' with a negative o.6 falling tide. I round that off. Add the two and come up with basically a 4.7' tide, that has to push out the jetties in 6 hrs.

Needless to say, we tried bottom fishing and float-rig fishing with minimal success. And really only had any decent bites at dead low tide. And most of them were Jacks and Ladyfish. One Speckled Trout and a couple okay sized Mangrove snappers hit the ice box. A lost "drag burner" Jack along the Navy base made things interesting, then we hit the jetties. And that's where a 19-1/2" Redbass got put in the fish box.

It was a really tough day with astronomical tides that really just plain screwed up things compared to yesterday. Then later in the day storm clouds loomed and we called it quits.

Now thanks to the Greater Jax Kingfish Tourney, I have a few days off. And as soon as it's over
I'll be right back in the thick of it, next weekend.

At least this week is the "1/2 way through the summer" marker for me. Usually things improve from here on out.

9/14 - Just not enough action

Had George and Peter back aboard today. The game plane was to go after Sharks and or Tarpon. Ran the shrimp boats right off the bat, ZERO. Then eventually caught a small "whatever" shark.
Then a buddy called me and said,

"Dave the Pogies are thick, all along Hanna Park."

We ran south and got Pogies on a scattered pod, filling a fish basket full. Then ran a bit further south and there was my friend Mike. Hooked up to a Tarpon already. We drifted the pogie pods (acres) and had Tarpon occasionally rolling the surface around us. I tried the bottom, the top, chumming, and not chumming. How the hell can you get 3-4 Tarpon's attention when the baits so thick. I don't know, but Mike was slow trolling the outsides of the Pogie pods with his trolling motor. We were engine off drifting through the pods.

We caught a few more sharks. Certainly not the 100 pounders I was wanting. So after hours of drifting around the Pogie pods with no big Sharks or Tarpon, we went back to the jetties.

The tide was almost high. So we fished the inside of the jetty. The tide was pretty high and the current pretty good as the sea breeze kicked up. At this point there wasn't much else to do or places to go, so we stuck out a near nonexistent fishery during this time of day at the inlet.

But did manage a 19-1/2 inch Redbass. And many lost sinkers and rigs in the jetty rocks.


So been there, done that....won't be doing it again. I may go and do some Kingfishing on the reefs. But I'll be hanging up my beach Shark and Tarpon, search. I just don't have the patience.

-------------------------------
It's official, barring any weather problems I will be heading to Venice, Louisiana for a week starting AUGUST 23rd. The mother-land....where the limit on Trout is 25 per person because they have that many Trout. Oil rig structure, and the Mississippi River providing fresh water 24/7 is the difference between here and there. Plus it's the Gulf of Mexico. A totally different animal then the Atlantic.........THEY CATCH LIMITS OF SPECKLED TROUT ALL SUMMER LONG IN THE HEAT!

------------------------------
Remember to come on by Dicks Wings & Grill, Beach Blvd at San Pablo rd. (next to old Walmart in shopping center) July 28th @ 7pm where the talk won't be Kingfish, but rather a seminar on, all you need to know about Float-rig fishing and probably more that ya want to know about Float-rig fishing. I'll be there to answer your questions, show you my rigs and we'll talk shop.

Here's a reminder of the why and how.......

I'd like to thank Jim Sutton of the Florida Times Union newspaper for the great article in the Sunday (12/21) "outdoors" section of the paper."ya just won't believe how long that article, or our day on the water took, to get right."

If you didn't see or read it, Jim pretty much hit the nail on the head! And damn we caught some seriously fine "jetty" specks that day. All in one spot! Many of my tackle secrets are out'a the bag, now......but, I still have a few things (tackle items) that I've kept to myself.

Already getting emails about the Salmon Stalker Floats, too. I guess that will be good for Premier Plastics Inc. But not me...they don't do anything for me. (Best place to purchase is Cabela's.)

One thing that he or we didn't touch on is that when you see someone like myself wackin the fatties along the rocks, breaking out your poppin' cork, or Cajun Thunder thing, isn't going to be the same.

We have a saying on my boat;

"OKAY, I SEE THE POPPING CORKS ARE NOW BUSTED OUT OF THE TACKLE BOX"

(these are not float-rigs!!)

Were referring to people in other boats, that may think that's it's all about some kind of float.When it really has to do with "where" your bait is, depth wise.I love the float-rig because my people can fish the rocks and not be hung up every two seconds.And they don't have to feel a bite, all they have to do is not see their float any longer and just reel, and they'll have the fish. Be it a Redbass, Trout, Sheepshead, or whatever.I'm not a trolling motor kinda guy either....I'm an "ANCHORER" .

Back when I had three boats at one time (aptly named: "my 3 wives") I did the trolling motor deal up and down the jetty rocks. And it was quite tiring. So I went back to the basics, when I gave all that up. "I always loved fishing my cork."

This nice lady from California never ever caught a fish before let alone handled any fishing tackle...

But the float-rig enabled her to do some whoop-ass, at the jetties!

One thing that Jim said in the article that's oh so true is...

"IT'S THE ZEN OF THE FLOAT IN WHICH SIPLER CAN PONTIFICATE FOR HOURS..."

That's why you should come on by Dicks Wings and Grill on July 28th at 7pm.

Here's Jim's article: "JUST DON'T CALL IT A BOBBER"

Link: http://jacksonville.com/sports/outdoors/2008-12-21/outdoors_just_dont_call_it_a_bobber

7/13 - Calm and Warm

Had Don Z. and his son Greg aboard today. It was Greg's Birthday present from Dad.

Fishin'.....Always a good Birthday idea. Greg had a plane to catch late in the day, so we rammed & jammed all we could into our day, and Don & Greg were on time, and we departed promptly at 7am.

Took off down river. Tried to catch a few Black Drum on the first spot just bottom bumping a bit. But the Croaker's were having their way with us. And wouldn't leave our shrimp alone, long enough for a Drum to find it. Also caught a few decent sized "Spots".

So we moved on. And got into a bunch of Specks. I caught the first one right behind the boat, and it was a "boxer". Then the guys figured out right where they were. But they were mostly "shorts". Small males, in the 14 - 14-1/2 inch range. So we picked through them and put about 4 in the box, with a few Yellowmouth Trout.

But, it just didn't look like we were going to pull a big Momma out this area, that's for sure.

But we didn't have enough time or live shrimp to waste them on other areas infested with 9" Mangrove Snappers. So I ran to the closest big Trout spot, that didn't produce but one small Trout and a.........Mangrove Snapper, of course!

For every rock, dock, or submerged structure in the river there's 1000 Mangrove Snapper's living there. Am I going crazy, or are these lil' bait stealers becoming more prevalent over the years?

Do other Trout Trackers like myself, feel the same way? I just don't know. Yeah, they sort of saved the day last Thursday with Kevin and Tom. But then again, we had them up to 16 inches also.

We went and tried a spot that one day in late June, Dave C. and I got into 6-8 big fat Specks, all in a row of consecutive drifts of the float. Trout up to 23 inches. Well, today we hit it on a tide the same as that day in June. Many times the current is so fast here, you have to wait till it slows. I think I pulled the only Trout from the structure, and again it was a short male fish. I'll keep trying it though. I know 2- guys who pulled 10 pounders from this one spot in 22 feet of water, so it has history. No doubt about that!

So we headed to the jetties. The water was clean, green, and we had good current. The water temp was back to 80 degrees. Last week, from either all the rain or another summer time cool water inversion, the ocean temp on the beach was 75-76 again. And I could tell, because the catching was tough to slim up on the jetty rocks with that cool water.

But today, you would have never have know that the water was warm again. Because the action was really slow. A Mangrove bite here, a Lookdown there.....and mostly Rock Blennies eating shrimp that cost almost a quarter a piece!!!

I hate to 2nd guess a decision, but I should have headed out that way while the tide was still falling and went to my Jack Crevalle spot on the near low tide. Like I did on Friday, when Will caught that 10 pound Jack, that made his day, and his whole year!

Greg would have loved tangling with one of those. He and his dad Don were both good fisherman and bait casters, too. Don's fished with me in March before, on a cool day and hung a 22 pound Red, and some big Sheepshead and caught several big Trout. So Don knows what it can be like. And I know, he can handle good fish.

I believe half of the bites we had today at the jetties were again, BLACK MARGATES.

Because you'd no sooner set the hook, they'd be on and then break us off. It doesn't take much with the 15# Ande leader, I use. That's probably more like 20#, really. I like light leaders, small hooks, and a lively shrimp. I refer to my live-well in the summer as the ICU - Intensive Care Unit. Keep them cool, well aerated, and out of the direct sun light. Because it's all about a shrimps presentation. Just like a lure or a fly for a fly flinger. Make it look the best you can. Especially when the going is tough already. Like in the deep summer months.

Don, after multiple break-off's finally got one of them rock dwellers to the boat. I SWEAR THESE MARGATES ARE THE ONES THAT WILL BREAK YOU OFF IN THE ROCKS IN A HEART BEAT.


















Don doesn't eat fish, so when we were back at the dock and I was cleaning the fish.
He took all the Speckled & Yellowmouth Trout and left me with the rest of the fish. Mangroves, Spots, a Margate and a Croaker.

I don't care what they are really, (although I do prefer nice fat Trout fillets) they all fry up real good with Zaterains Country Fish Fry Mix, and Olive oil. I had enough to make 4 small fish sandwiches tonight for dinner. And Mmm, they were good!




SHARK, TARPON, anything that pulls super hard......that's what is up next on Tuesday with George and Peter. They requested this trip after I told them about Runnin' and Gunnin' the shrimp boats out of Mayport last year in July. But this year there isn't many Shrimp boats in the chum hole right now. I saw a few today. I hope there is tomorrow.

7/10- Low pressure and no current

Had Maria and her son Will aboard that were visiting Jax from Virginia, and we took off around 7am. I knew there would be not much current to fish today since it was really slow yesterday too. But add in low barometric pressure, an air temp change this morning, another cool water thing going on in the ocean, a wind direction switch and looming dark clouds back and forth all day. And I knew I was in for a challenge.

Neither Maria or Will were die hard experienced anglers, like a few of my past trips were. So from the river to the jetties I struggled to get them into enough current to float-rig fish. Then after that wasn't working we tried bottom fishing, that wasn't working much either.

One cool thing was the sight of Jim Anderson in his fire engine red Shamrock hooked to a big fish flying through the air as we passed him at the tip of the South Jetty. Looked like he had a perfect crowd pleaser Tarpon hooked up, as the fish did back flips in the air, and was shiny silver.

I yelled, "man that's one of those crowd pleasers!!" And Jim was hard at play, with what was a big Barracuda, not a Tarpon. Wow, that was one pissed off snaggle toothed Ledge Trout!

He got it to the boat on a mono leader, so we went closer. He said he caught a small Seabass, and saw a dark figure swipe at it, so he sent the Seabass back down to the bottom and BAM....the Cuda took the bait. Jim went for the gaff, and came back to the rod, right then is when the teeth met the leader for the last time. And the Cuda swam away, a whole lot less frisky.

Either way, an excellent catch. Cuda's are definitely at the jetties. And very much on the prowl on the clean green incoming tide. I see them all the time.


We finally found a decent spot and Will caught a Ringtailed Porgie, and then a pup Black Drum.

But still the search was on for a place they didn't have to be master casters to fish properly.
Finally the tide started to turn around and fall....."oh what sweet relief!"

That's when Will's float vanished and he reeled in a nice Flounder.


The tide started to move along as it should and all they had to do is drop out the stern and let their float drift.

After a few small Mangroves, Blennies, and tiny Black Seabass, nothing was else was happening.

Heck we should of been hooking up some decent fish here. We had it all, now.

And not long after I said, "we should have some Jacks here, this spot is jack famous. They'll be that big fish that pulls real hard, for ya"


I was drifting Will's float out for him, because the action was slow and his attention was hard to keep on his float-rig. And that's when the float went under and I handed him the rod. This was a Ass-hander on my light float-rig rods that's for sure. The fish was fast and burned drag off the reel. Here is when the rubber meets the road for a Jr. Angler who's never caught a really big fish, let alone a big Saltwater fish. You just can't jerk this one to the boat. So I really had to coach him. I had to get into my commanding voice and have him react, when I told him too. Up under the boat, a few times. The fish tried it all. And after a wearing out of the fish and Will, a 10 pound Jack Crevalle came to the net....only after a long light tackle battle.


We ended the day on this big fish high note, and headed back to the dock.










Next up: Monday and Tuesday.

Not all the interested in this weekend, there's a wind switch at play to the east and no current.
I'll start again with a new week.

7/9 - wacky and wet!

Had Tom and Kevin aboard the Jettywolf today. Left out later around 8am. I knew going in the tide would be weak, and it sure was. Water movement for this Float-rig fisherman was near to none at the jetties. But we stuck with it, because and incoming tide most of the morning made for not a lot of choices.

In a nut shell, it was a Mangrove Snapper kinda day overall. Interrupted by moments of WOW.

The WOW first came as Kevin got his butt handed to him by a really big fish (probably a Redbass). It seems to be a trend, when people first get slam dunked, no one really realizes how strong these fish are on light tackle. The fish broke him off and the whole leader was gone.

Then, I had the same thing happen to me. And I couldn't even stop what ever I had hooked up.

The rod was horse shoed, my thumb was on the spool, the drag was peeling and that was it. My 15# leader gave.

Next up was Tom. His float goes down, he reels and hauls back, and a Tarpon in the 20-40 pound class flies from the jetty toward the boat and almost came in the boat!! The fish hit the water directly at my boats transom.......splashing all three of us. I know the water was running down my sunglasses afterwards. That was a close call. TARPON TERROR, Oh no!!

The Mangroves were almost chewin' and stealing alot of bait. As a few were caught here and there. Then Kevin hooks and get the only Red that made it to the boat. a 19 incher.

You can see the darkness in the sky in these photos, so guess what was the next WOW of the day??

If guessed rain, you were right. But this wasn't just rain, this was a Forest Gump Big rain.

We could see it coming from the SW. And we had plenty of prep time. So I re-anchored and put out lots of scope just in case 60 mph winds were with it. We got our rain gear on. I packed away the wallet cellphone and turned off the big Raymarine sounder and put the cover on it. We were ready, now. And it was sort of cool, because as we prepped, every one else around took off....they still got wet I'm sure.

Here we are and Kevin and Tom were still fishing! The rain came so hard and visibility went from 2-3 miles to 20-30 feet!

It went by us quickly, and headed offshore to the N.E. Then the sun came out and all was good again......time to make a move.

But still just a few Mangroves. So we changed up locales and ran up river to try something else.

But the tide was so damn weak, where we were. Heavy duty bottom fishing just wasn't working.

So we pitched out with lighter rods and tight-lined with 1oz. sinkers and long leaders, and live shrimp. And not long after Kevin turned into the Snappa' Stroka'.

He found them, and real good sized one too. Slam dunking one after another after another.

Then, a few Trout. No Black Drum, or Reds, which I thought we might have got tight lining the bottom and working the structure the way we did. Kevin was the big Hooker that's for sure.

Can you believe he caught a "nail"....yeah a 6 penny nail! A blue button up shirt, and then an ole coffee filter. No one ever, has caught such a weird "SLAM" before. This dang river has so much crap on the bottom, I'm not all that surprised sometimes at what gets drug up from the depths.

We ran out of shrimp and headed back to the boat ramp to clean 13 Mangrove Snappers to 16", a Redbass, 2 Trout and a Lookdown. Everyone says to me how great the Lookdowns meat is. But this will be my first and last one we ever keep. It really wasn't worth the work of filleting it.

It was a day full of all kinds of wackiness and lots of fun, that's for sure.

7/7 & 8 - GOT WET?

Had a charter booked for Tuesday. Weather looked windy and kinda nasty. Since the weather was windy and kinda nasty on Monday when I was out with Brian and Bob.

So we rescheduled for today. I was at B&M bait and tackle at 6am, and here came the rain, black skies and nastiness.

Rescheduled for Thursday. This better be it! Because I have a charter on Friday, so there's no more room to move it again, for a weekday trip.

I'm finally seeing sun out my window as I write this and it's now 2pm.

Stayed real busy hunting up a replacement for my broke Ugly Stik Inter coastal rod that blew up last week. Had to drive to St. Augustine this morning (since I had new found time to do so) and get a replacement down there and a spare. I love these rods for bottom fishing for my customers. They're tough, strong and have a gimbal butt, and only 6'6" so the kids can handle them too. Shorter rods are better for people less that 5 feet tall......LOL, LOL.............funny stuff huh?

Just got off the phone with Chip Davis. He used to fish all the Redfish tournaments around here, and did very well. He owns a Dicks Wings restaurant and asked if I'd come do a fishin' seminar on Float rig fishing, because he even wants to know more about it. He said his casting arm is wore out!

So this is the official announcement.
And like a good angler, planning is everything, right?? So here's enough "heads-up" time for you to plan to attend, if you'd like and are not worn out from all the Kingfish activity.

If you like to relax anchor on up and stay close and fish the river, then come on over to Dicks Wings; July 28th at 7:00 pm.

Here's a Google map page for where it's at:
http://maps.google.com/maps?sourceid=navclient&rlz=1T4GPEA_enUS294US295&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=Dicks+Wings+14286+Beach+Blvd.+Jacksonville+Florida&fb=1&split=1&gl=us&cid=0,0,13696242912456310217&ei=zttUSruHD9y_twed2O2tCA&sa=X&oi=local_result&ct=image&resnum=1
Chip wants me to bring the "Jettywolf" with me and I can do that. So look for the big Silver Center Console....."what do people say to me all the time", Oh that's right..."Man, dats the biggest aluminum boat I've eva seen?" Or better yet, " is that boat stainless steel?"

More funny stuff. But, that's another subject.

So if your into learning some more about local fishing, then come on by Dicks Wings
http://www.dickswingsandgrill.com/index.html on Beach Blvd. at 7pm July 28th.



Topic of discussion. St. Johns River Float-rig fishing, tackle, how-to, fish species, what to look for, boat anchoring, and LOTS of stories and fishing tales. I've got plenty!!


Hope to see ya'll there!

7/6 - Good Morning!!

Had two great guys today. Brian C. and his dad Bob. I said, "meet me at the boat ramp at 0630 hrs. " And as I pulled in to the parking lot at 0620 hrs. There they were! Man, that was great.

Backed the Jettywolf into the water, parked the truck and we took off......for the Jetties of course. It was windy, 10-15, and choppy. And there sure was a bunch of traffic for a Monday morning. Thought the "holiday" was over????

Lots of fast action today. And lot's of "hub caps".....aka: "Lookdowns". Some small ones and then Brian caught an enormous one. 2-3 Redbass, mostly smaller fish, with one keeper for the box. Mangroves, and many hook-ups and break-off's too. But that's all good. The action was fast. And Brian never used a bait caster before, and after 5 minutes of instruction and you should have seen him pitch and flip like Bill Dance or Roland Martin!! Some people can just learn fast. And I'd put money down on Brian as a fast learner. Between him and Dad, they never skipped a beat, never had any backlashes.

The action slowed as the incoming tide faded, so we beat feet up river. Pulled up on a great Trout spot, and all my shrimp had died. Earlier I got some live Croakers from a friend and when I put them into the live-well and turned on the pump, I think I bumped the switch to the shrimp tanks bait pump to the "off" position. "_ _ _ _ happens." Nothing I can do about it now. So we hung up our Float-rig rods and moved on to bottom fish. Which I was going to do later anyhow. I wanted to catch a few more of those perfect eater Black Drum we caught on the 1st of July. So we moved on to that same spot.

The skies to the west were darkening....."REAL DARK". But we had enough time to try it.

I grabbed the bottom rods, pinned on a shrimp and cast both on out. It wasn't 20 seconds later one of the rods doubled over, and Brian grabbed it. It was a big fish!!

The second rod went off, so Bob grabbed that one. It was a keeper Mangrove Snapper, not a huge one, but a grease tester size. Brian was battling a good fish, and we kept looking westward as he fought it. His biggest fish ever! A seriously multi-spotted Redbass, a 30 incher at about 10 pounds. I said, "now that was what I was wanting you to catch at the jetties". But right here and now was okay too.

The wind started to pick up, the temperature changed right after a healthy release and a photo that needed the "flash" on the camera because of how dark it was getting.

We quickly put everything away, and I dragged up the anchor. And took off back towards the boat ramp, and stayed just ahead of the clouds, for a minute. Till they came over us.

And I snapped this photo to send to Mike Buresh on Fox 30 News for a First Alert Weather Photo, for today. I send him a lot of on the water storm photos so he can show them on the air.

This is what beat us to the boat ramp, and was the front of the storm towards the Atlantic.

Yeah, we got a bit wet. And the lightning was popping around us at the dock, so we called it a day.

Ending on a big Redbass, and a high note.

Wish we could have fished together longer. But sometimes ya just have to surrender to Momma Nature. Next time we'll get the whole day in. And maybe next time a box of fat Trout.

Thanks Brian & Bob.

7/2 - Summer days are never the same.

After yesterday with the young kids catching the Black Drum, I figured what the heck that's what we'll try today. Well, it's summer in J-ville Fla. and I should have known that just because you do one thing one day that it certainly doesn't mean that you can do it the next day.

So I had the Richard S. family aboard. Mom and the two boys and dad. What could be better than a little bottom fishing, and pulling in good eater sized Black Drum, with maybe a Redbass and a few Trout, Mangroves, and Croakers tossed in the mix.

I can tell you whats worse.......

Catching Toadfish and Stingrays!

The same tide, the same spot, the same current, the same shrimp, the same rods.....BUT not the same fishing, that for sure.

So after giving it all the time I could stand to produce, I pulled anchor and said heck with that we're going Float-rig fishing. So I gave the two boys a fast crash course in using the float rig. And they were right on top of it. And doing great!! I love it when I have young boys that are ready to fish, just like when I was their age.

First spot was a tuffy. The wind was blowing hard, and so was the current. But they got the hang of it, and boxed a Yellowmouth about 13 inches. The fishing was difficult here, so we moved on one more time.

Next spot, was right on the money. I believe it was the first or second drift when one of the boys was hooked up immediately. And it was a nice fat Speck!!
















A pretty over 18 incher for the box! The boys were really into it, and running their float rigs back and forth like ole pros. Then, another big fattie, came to the net.

















Man, I'll take these all day long. Serious "boxer" over 20 inches.
Glad to of had 4 people aboard, so we can keep them all because they just kept coming!!

















These were 3-5 pound Trout!
And now Mom and dad were wanting to get into a few, too.
































We had a few Croakers, Mangroves, only one Ladyfish, and one "pup" Black Drum.


















We ended the day with 2-Yellowmouths to 20", and 5-Specks to 23", Croakers, Spots, Mangroves, a Stingray, a Ladyfish, and a pup Black Drum, using up all 12 dozen live shrimp. So we headed back to clean the fish. And I bagged them up so they could go straight over to Singletons Seafood Shack and have a early dinner of FRESH fried Trout.

Turned out to be a great day, after all. And I really enjoyed having these two boys aboard.




NEXT UP: Monday and Tuesday. I'm taking a break during the Holiday, because usually the river is just plain insanity, anyhow.

7/1 - Good Customers, come year after year....

Had Greg T. and family out today.....three kids and two adults, 1/2 day. Greg comes to Amelia Island every year about this time. And since his boy was 5 we've been going fishing before or after the 4th of July Holiday.

Here's a photo of a few years ago, when Will was just a begginer.


















Then, the next year when he was reaching big game angler status:



















So this year he was the Veteran on board. But had to share the bites with his Lil' brother and cousin. So I decided instead of float-rig fishing, we'd do some bottom bumping in the river, keeping it close to maximize our fishing time. And it really worked out.

From Black Drum to Croakers, Mangrove Snappers, Speckled Trout and a 29 inch Redbass. The boys pulled on fish for most of the 1/2 day trip.



































































A good time was had by all, with fresh fish dinner on ice. And I just can't imagine
what will happen in a few more years.

Blacktip Sharks behind the shrimp boats??

Thanks again Greg, nice seeing you again.

6/30 - Good bye June....you sure were hot!

But today, with overcast skies till at least 3:00 pm, Roger L. and I had a "cooler" day on the Big St. Johns River. We also had a good breeze from the SW which really had us basking in good fishing glory on my last stop of the day. Where we sat for hours wackin' and stackin', while also having our asses handed to us, also.

We started late this morning. Fishing the tides. No need to leave at the crack o' dawn.

We fished the river and it wasn't like we were burning down the house by no means. That last of the falling tide hasn't done me any super favors lately. Lots of bait stealing Croakers, Mangroves and pinfish, in the same spot where Chris and Zach and I caught several Trout on Saturday, while boxing 3-4 keepers. So instead of making a radical move, I made a 50 foot move and Roger was rewarded with this 21" Yellowmouth Trout, that was glowing it was so yellow from the brackish waters up river.

We had several good bites, and lost a few. But only boated this one. Time to make a move.


Next spot, two Specks with one 18 incher, and one
14-1/2 incher.



Again, today the falling tide was a real screamer, so we headed to the jetties for the flood tide and as scheduled when it got right it got nice and right!


Nice fat Mangrove Snapper's to 16", 6-Redbass from 16-22" boxing our two keepers. A few lost big Reds that smoked the drag and broke Roger off.

I told Roger that many times, people who fish once a year say to me, "Dave, all I want is BIG fish" as if I can order them up for the day like Cheeseburgers at Hardees. But the deal is, it's all relative, when fishing light tackle. Because if you hook a 33 inch Redbass up in the jetty rocks, let's see if a fish that size makes it to the boat first.

We kept hooking really good fish up in the jetties that would really stroke us. Have them coming to the boat, and then they'd get off. This happened at least 5-6 times. In between the Mangrove Snappers, Redbass, and even a Speckled Trout!!! Yeah, a Speck! Roger caught the first Speck caught at the jetties on my boat since May. A 15 incher.








I had out a brand spanking new Ugly Stik "inter-coastal" rod with a piece of cut Croaker for bait. I liked the rods, because of price and that they had a gimble on the butt for putting them in the rod holder. I've had at least 5 broke rods in that past year. So I've resorted to all Ugly Stiks, because people are so hard on my premium tackle.

Well, the rod went off, and I picked it up, reeled down, and lifted the rod, when it broke in half right in my face, while the fish was on the other end. HOLY.....&%&@#!!!!! This rod was brand new, never used except for today, and it broke as if snapping on command.

Between lost and bent anchors. Rods broke in half, I seem to not go a month without replacing one or the other. Needless to say, the fish was lost too.



The spot was really getting right and the bites were steady and the action between Reds, Mangroves, and that mystery fish that both Roger and I were hooking and loosing constantly.


Well, I was ready, and the next bite up tight in the rocks came and I got really ready and got the fish out of the rocks. I mean, these fish felt like Reds diving for the deep when you hooked one.


So I finally got one out of the rocks, and up to the boat and it again came off the hook. But this time I saw it! It was a monster sized Black Margate! Mystery solved. But still not one in the fish box, yet. Then, again we got real ready and the next bite, and here it comes to the boat.

YES....MONSTER BLACK MARGATES. The largest I have ever seen.


I've caught lots of Margates before, usually bottom fishing the end of the jetty rocks.


But let me tell ya, these fish were handing Roger and I our asses on a silver platter, on the float-rig! We'd hook them, they'd rip us down into the rocks while we were bowing the rods over trying to keep them moving towards the boat. Loosing all of them except this one. Keeping them hooked up, was the problem.



Even though...... it was FUN - FUN - FUN.


We easily went through 10 dozen live shrimp, and used ever single one. It was a really good day, not as hot and lots of action on the float-rig all day long. I loved it. And I think Roger had a really good time too. At days end he went home with a big bag of really nice fillets, ready for the pan.




Next up: Half day kids trip on 7/1.

6/28 - Changes today.

Had Chuck & Susanne B. aboard today. Following the same game plan as yesterday with Chris and Zach, we started in the river on the last of the falling tide. And again it was one heck of a belly washer of a ebb tide.

Big difference was the CHANGE in wind. I haven't seen wind that hard in a few weeks. Being from the west at what seemed to be 10-15 knots with the occasional 20 gust thrown in for good measure. It wreaked havoc for some people right off the "git-go" in the morning at the boat ramp.

WHY, you ask? Because the week end crowd is #1: impatient, and #2: it all ME, ME, ME.

Or they just don't pay attention to the conditions. The boat ramp(s) had not much water. The ebb tide, along with the west wind was pushing the water out the river hard. So instead of waiting their turn, I saw people using the side ramps.

They should have seen the boat ramp before the new one was built. We used to have to get in line and wait your turn. We all have it made now compared to back then. Even though the new ramp gets all sanded in on the sides and IS NOT the 6 boat boat ramp they intended it to be, it's only a two boat boat ramp with all the sand. But people back down o0n the sand anyhow, and then get stuck. They should know better by now.

Trucks stuck in the sand, trailers falling into holes, it was a real cinematic moment.

Boats running down the side of mine....not a fiberglass friendly maneuver. People pushing the boat off their trailer without starting the motor first, and boats being blow up onto the concrete

because of the wind. Really fun stuff to watch.

We departed at 8am, that's why I got to see so much of the follies.

Of course because it was a weekend. I pulled up to where I wanted to go over float-rig fishing with my crew out of the wind and there was already a boat there, bottom fishing. If we could have gotten in there we could have caught some Trout, like yesterday.

So I opted for another area where the current was a bit too strong, but a good acclimation spot, to show them what to do. Susanne was new to the fishing game. So I wanted to go over everything. Chuck, he fished with me once before last year.

The wind was a bit of a bear. But after awhile she got the hang of it. So we moved on. Next spot

way too windy, but lets give it a try. And that's where Susanne caught her first small Trout.

The bites were very lean. Something (the wind I believe) had really changed the whole attitude of the day compared to yesterday.

So we headed to the jetties.

Anchoring on a dime, like I usually do was really hard. I was getting blown all over the place. The wind out in the open was unruly and making it very difficult for me to position the boat just right, seeing I had a beginner bait caster on board. So pitchin' flipping and putting the float 25 feet away from the boat was something that wasn't going to happen. Boat placement becomes very important.

We got bites, but they were Mangrove Snapper bites, blenny bites and basically Lil' fish bites. The current pushed by the breeze was roaring. I certainly wasn't going to give up though. This is the spot, and we're gonna fish it. So after one attempt after another I kept working on getting the boat positioned where I needed it. And the tide got high and slowed down.

First came some of those big Mangrove Snappers, 12-15 inches.....and if you can hook them, you can catch anything. So we were doing good. A small Redbass or two. But still there really wasn't much action at all. The tattle-tale fish, like Jacks and Ladyfish weren't even here. Saw maybe one or two small Tarpon, and no schools of mullet, like yesterday.

THERE WAS A BIG CHANGE, TODAY.

So we just kept working the are hard. I had confidence something would turn around. Putting in your time and being patient, is all we could do. A few good fish were hooked and lost. But as conditions improved is when a few bites came from decent fish.

A 4 pound Black Drum. Was added to the fish box along with the Mangrove Snappers.

This was Susanne's largest fish ever.

Then, I a few more large Mangroves, again. One hooked Cow nosed Ray foul hooked, and then the fish we were looking for.

A 27 inch Redbass! This one kinda whooped her, and good!
By now live shrimp were getting mighty lean out of our 10 dozen, so we used up the rest of the shrimp Chuck hooked a big fish that got off, I boxed a Mangrove, then Chuck boxed a Mangrove and we headed in to clean the catch.

We ended up with 5 Mangroves, the Red, and the Black Drum, tossing back a small Red or two and a small Trout. Whewwwww....I was whooped! Each day has it's challenges, but today really took it out of me. And the wind was to blame.

Next up: A one person trip on Tuesday. Yes, Tuesday. No one around, back to my my kind of day. Then, a kids trip on Wednesday, then a whole family on Thursday.

6/26 & 6/27 - ITS HOT!

On the 26th I had Richard, Ryan & 10 year old Jude, aboard. We started in the river float rig fishing and caught some Jacks, and one keeper Trout.

Then on to the jetties we headed. The tide started to flood and the green water was getting just right. Ryan got his butt handed to him by a big Jack that caused all kinds of problems in which I do not have time enough to describe, but let me just say, "it was like Chinese yellow mustard.....not hot, it's just exciting".

Then Jude got seasick. It wasn't like it was sporty at the jetties, by no means. The tide was getting really right for some Redfish. We moved on into the river, but that didn't do it. So we went back and called it a day.

Then on the 27th I had Chris and Zach S. aboard. Just one look at this father and son team and I knew we would have a exciting day. Zach reminded me of myself at 14 years old. Pitching and flipping with the low pro bait casting reel like he was Bill Dance or Roland Martin. Yeah, me too...When I was a kid I used only bait casting equipment because that's what the "pros" used.

So I knew we were gonna catch some good fish today. Half of the hitch in light tackle inshore fishing is using the equipment and knowing how to handle your fish, big or small. When I go Golfing, I know what I'm in for. I just don't Golf enough. So it's O.J.T. - "on the job training". And I like Golf!!

We started in the river this morning catching about 10 Trout, boxing only 3-4, and a small Redbass. Most of the Trout were 14" males. But Chris and Zach also wanted to learn some techniques. And catching on to Float-rigging was easy for them.

The tide was a real screamer. And about everywhere I wanted to go the water was ripping eastward way to fast. So we headed eastward to the jetties.

Yesterday, after I dropped off Richard and his crew I went back out and caught a 26" Redbass, and a 16" Mangrove Snapper, and 4 Jacks, right where we were, when Jude got seasick.

I looked out into the ocean and the Pogies were everywhere, and the Tarpon were everywhere too.

I just couldn't stand it. I had to go for it. So I pulled anchor and went to the Pogie pods and cast a Pogie on a leader with a 2 oz. sinker into the pod. And no sooner the Pogie hit the bottom, and I was hooked up to a Tarpon. All I saw was the rear-end of the Tarpon flying through the air twice away from me as I held on. My leader was only a 25# piece of mono that was already rigged up on a light rod. And the Tarpon broke off after the second jump.

So this is what I wanted to try with Chris and Zach. But here in bazaaro world, where no single day is ever the same. Today the Pogies didn't come down the jetty rocks, and the Tarpon were no where around the same area of the jetty. Today we had a stiff breeze from the west. And that's all it may take to have everything 180 degrees from yesterday.

So today on the incoming tide, I had to go hunt up some Pogies, way down the beach, near the end of Hanna park. Severely scattered and most likely tossed on all day long. They were a pain to catch. I had to make at least 5 tosses of the cast net before we had enough to chum-fish with.

We headed back to the jetties and anchored up. I tossed out a chum bag, plus we cut dead Pogies and dropped them out the stern while fishing to big rods with dead Pogies on the bottom.

I saw one Tarpon the whole time. And yesterday I saw 100 Tarpon!!

We ended up catching two sharks. And one got tangled up in something on the bottom and I had to jiggle and jerk on the line for Chris because the fish wouldn't budge off the bottom. Never had this happen before, and probably may never have such a weird thing happen ever again. But the shark got loose, and we got it to the boat. (I was leadering the fish so I got no photos)

With no signs of Tarpon in our future I kept looking over at the jetty rocks and was seeing nice green water. So we packed up the chum fishing and went back to float-rigging.

No sooner did we get on the spot, and Chris hooks a good sized Redbass, that lays the wood to him and got him down in the jetties and broke him off. Then on his next drift he catches a small 18.5 inch Red. Then, came all the Mangrove Snappers.

And good sized ones up to 16". Now that's a Mangrove worth boxing!! 10 Mangroves later, from 12 to 16", a 25" Redbass, and a few more 17 inchers. We were about out of 10 dozen shrimp. The action on the high clean water was gang-busters. And the fish box was filling up.

So it was time to head in and clean the fish.

And feed my Egret buddy who comes and stands on my boat every day. Never have I seen a Egret as tame. And today we even had a rare Wood Stork come and get in on the free fish trimmings.