11/8 - Mo' WIND....and I mean Mo'.

Holy crap...Now that was some seriously aggravating wind on Sunday. Got a email from Kelly W. from California on Saturday morning, he was wanting to do some fishing on Sunday, with his wife and daughter.

I knew what we'd be in store for, there was no doubt. Basically, an incoming tide all day, 20 knot sustained (feeling) winds from the N.E. and yep....some serious K.O.D. But man. what "troopers" they were.

Dressed properly and ready and on time. I had so many live shrimp in the bait well I could get into anything and not run out.......unlike earlier in the week and last weekend.

We tried float-rig fishing, we tried bumping the bottom, we tried heading to the jetties, whoa that was fun....it was heinous outside the rocks. We tried fishing down the river. And went HOURS without a single fish. We had loads of bait stealer bites, and not a single connection with a hook into a decent fishes lips.

Yes, my friends. A serious K.O.D. situation is what I had on my hands here. Light tackle pitchin' and flipping just wasn't cutting it. Kelly was the real fisherman. And I wanted to so badly get him hooked up on something after all that we tried. So I said, I guess we're gonna have to do some bait-n-wait fishing, deep and with the heavier tackle. Sort of heavier....my Tiger Lite custom rods and Curado 300 DSV low profile reels. As light as I could go and still chunk 6 ounces.

Really, big Reds don't need giant reels and telephone pole rods. It's way more fun to tangle with them on adequate tackle....that's light to the feel and on the fish, just a tad. And this is what we used.

So we went and anchored up barely, on a spot that has consistently produced big Reds for me at the high tide. But we were still a few hours away from actual high. So we waited it out. Monster 8" whole dead shrimp works great here normally. It's all ya need. But when the game fish are sort of off the feed bag, the bait stealers are on the feed bag. And the jumbo shrimp was just getting chewed, as it sat down on the patch of hard bottom, 33 feet below.

We tried to hook them, but it took forever to catch one. And when we did, it was a small Whiting.

I said, "this will work!" So I cut the Whiting's head off, pinned it on and cast it out. It wasn't long before the rod doubled over and Kelly was FINALLY on a decent fish. But we had a scare.

As he was working the Red to the boat it ran down deep and got hung up in something. The fish just stopped. The line was hung up. So Kelly handed me the rod and I threw slack to it and the Red quickly became "un-stuck". To the boat it came, and on the light tackle it sure put up a hell of a battle.

















A nice one at 16 pounds for the first real bite.













We re-baited and used more cut Whiting and had more action.















Marla on her largest fish ever, let alone ever held.


















Her Redfish was the largest at 26 pounds, I believe.


I thought I was over having to do the ole "bait-n-wait" fishing. Because last week and weekend it was all about working the real light tackle for them Specks and Mangrove Snappers, Sheephead and big Yellowmouth Trout. Which is way more my forte.

I'm not all that happy when I have to sit watching pole tips. But ya have to do what ya have to do, sometimes.

No one had to kick me in the ass too hard to figure out that we really had to conform to something that was more wind friendly fishing, today.


I had to fight the images of a cooler full of beautiful specks that was in my head,, all morning....ahhhh how I love that. But we made the day with some Brutus T. Redbass in the boat. So after the last one, the tide completely went slack and the last fish was a Toadfish......Whoops, time to go. "Here's your sign" as they say. Toad's are a definite sign, time to go home.

Now, I have a few days till Wednesday that I won't be out in the wind. I sure hope we can float-rig and find some eaters Wednesday through Friday.

I'm not counting on it with the forecast. But ya never know.

I may hit it "solo" on Tuesday, seeing I have a livewell full of shrimp, still. Just to try my more expert hand at it.

11/7 - Same Wind?

I did a Burial at Sea, with some folks from Texas at 4:00 today. I was early, and sat at the boat ramp dock waiting on them. And was not shocked, but amazed how the wind can blow from the same direction for days on end.

One of my passengers was a 90 year old man, that when I'm 90 years old, I hope I'm as sprightly as he is.

As the damn Air show winded down, loads of large boats came in from the Ocean, I guess. Wakes in the river at the boat ramp made it a real mess. As the N.E. wind blew against the falling late day tide.

Needless to say as I approached the tip of the north Jetty, the swell kept growing. And one of my passengers said, "we're good right here Dave". So I turned around and held position at way above idle speed, so they could say a prayer and scatter the ashes, and drop a few flowers.

I try to get out no less to the second set of buoys, normally. Or on days like this make my way across the river and hide up behind the south Jetty.

But they had enough, and saw enough I suppose. Which it was a shame because of the seas and winds, that I couldn't make it out with them further into the "sea".

Looks like all next week is going to be N.E. or due East winds. Not making the "JETTYWOLF" boat very happy.....she wants to head east of the boat ramp.

I'll know a whole lot more. Because I have a K.O.D. charter on Sunday, (aka: incoming tide all day long with a stiff N.E. wind equals, Kiss of Death; hence the K.O.D. ) The nick name for these conditions came to me one day as I had bunch of faces looking at me, speaking without saying a word...."where's the fish, Capt Dave?"

So, it'll be a challenge for me, I'm sure. And I have no clue to the fishing abilities of the 3 crew members aboard.

So, how many of ya'll still want my job?

Yeah I thought so...I'll swap ya, in July at 9am when it's already 98 degrees. And we haven't even seen a Pogie flip the surface yet, and we're already 12 miles down the beach. While your office A/C kicks into high gear.

Damn, I love this time of year, though....even if the wind blows 20 knots from the East or Northeast every single day. Only thing I do miss, is all the tiny bikini's, everywhere

The talking heads on the local news say,"its gonna be a Beautiful Weekend!"

I guess they're just talking to people watching Football on the tube, that the wind doesn't effect.


Except the wind these couch potato's are passing.

11/6 - BIG WIND.....you ain't kidding!

As soon as I dropped the boat in the water and backed off the trailer I could tell, this wasn't like the parking lot at B&M bait and tackle!!

Here's a photo of the Pilot station next to the boat ramp. I always look at their flag, and say "oh it's gonna be a toughie, or Oh, it's gonna be a easy day".

Take a wild guess what I said to myself, today?



I got the call early this morning before our 9am departure that Travis was bringing his 6 yr. old son. Right then, I said to myself...."don't think I'll attempt a jetty trip, today!" Because if I just had two rough and tumble adults ya know I'd do it, but not when I have a kid that young on board. I got enough on my mind when anchoring out there in a 20 knot North East wind, let alone having to keep one eye on a 6 year old, too.

Of course, I had planned on it. I got two calls from friends that sat at the Jetties yesterday and did quite well, float-riggin the rocks. One was in a 17' jon-boat!! And no Jon-boat was going out there this morning. Not where I wanted to fish.

We departed with several hours of the incoming tide still ahead of us. And with the wind and tide all going essentially the same way.....it was near heinous in the river. And about non-Float rig fishable, where I wanted to go. Hell, we went and looked twice even, and I didn't want to anchor there even. So we took some time and just fished the bottom. So Trevor the 6 year old could catch some fish. Since I knew it would be awhile before we could go do the "adult fishing" that I wanted to do, on a certain spot.

So I went to an area that's usually covered up with Yellowmouth Trout. And it wasn't completely balls to the wall today, but they were there. Just way too small. But we let the boy reel in some fish and he had fun. It was just that 90% of the yellowmouths were 12-13 inches, instead of 14-18 inches.

Needless, to say as you'll see this is about where my normal shutter-bug self, stopped. I was just too busy, it was just so windy and I just wanted fish in the box. So, I too fished along with Travis and Darren.

When the going gets tough, Dave needs to know what's going on, too. So after we caught a bunch of small yellowmouths for the boy, we moved on and the tide was now falling. The wind backed off a bit and all was better.


I'm not the only one that knows this. But I'll say it anyway, in case you don't know. Basically, the river tide carries an atmosphere with it. When the tide changes, many times the winds change too. It's the air mass that gets carried along with the moving cooler or warmer river water. Same thing happens out in the Gulf Stream.

So, now that all was better.....but still windy as all hell. We ended up where I wanted to go in the first place. And usually "I am your ringer". I can find the bite fast. But today, Darren was Johnny rod bender. He was the fella who works on the Marlin Oil Rig in the Gulf of Mexico 150 miles offshore of Louisiana. We no sooner got anchored and he started bailing the Speckled Trout over the side of the boat.

We weren't float-rig fishing but rather tight-lining again with a light weight egg sinker and a real long leader and live shrimp. Between the 14-18 inchers and Mangrove Snapper he was waylaying them, as Travis and I tried to keep up.

The current was perfect. But as the tide got down, all the good current went away. The tide dropped and the wind speed, took over. But that was okay, I made a few adjustments. And he still whacked them, picking off a few nice ones on each re-anchor. And even had two small Flounder. One in the boat and one "palm beach release" at boat side.

I brought 10 dozen live shrimp and again, and we barely made it. I tried one more spot and we had 4 shrimp left.

The bite was really good, for awhile there. That's now two trips in a row that ten dozen shrimp just don't last because of bites, fish, and released small Trout. We caught no less than 20 Speckled Trout and 10 Mangrove Snappers while the getting was good. Plus, all the small yellowmouths you could stand to have a kid reel in, earlier.

So not a bad day, for a 20 knot N.E. blower.

The Specks weren't huge. But between 15 and maybe 18 inches were the ones that hit the ice.
It was too bad it was just too windy to float-rig properly. Because we did loose a bunch of hooks and rigs to the bottom as we tight-lined them live river crickets to the Trout. But hey, ya can't just do one thing, I know that. But of course I wanted to keep it....really light tackle fishing.

It was once said, that if you fish the St. Johns, you'll learn that you have to be rigidly flexible. And on days when the tides a smokin' and the winds a honkin', and you get tossed a 6 year old on board. Being rigidly flexible is what I become, really fast!

Pre-booked fishing: next up because of a rescheduled day, not till Wednesday.

So I have Tuesday open. A half day Monday, and all weekend.





Kite fishin' anyone?

Your BIG ALLOY, for the month.....

US Navy shows the littoral combat ship Independence (LCS 2) underway during builder's trials on July 12, 2009.

The second of the Navy's new generation of speedy warships designed to operate close to shore topped 50 miles per hour in builder trials completed this month. Officials say the Independence, a 418-foot ship built in Alabama, traveled in excess of 45 knots, which equates to nearly 52 mph, and sustained 44 knots during a four-hour, full-speed sprint.

BIG ALLOY.....good enough for the Navy. Good enough for me!

Can imagine building a battleship like this out of Fiberglass.....hahahahah?

More info on builder:

http://www.austal.com/nextgeneration/

November reservations: It's Holiday Time!!

Reservations This & Next Week: (think ahead...holidays are coming)


6th, 7th evening , 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th...But I had a cancellation for the 12th. So that day is now open, unless something changes with the crew I had, that day.

Monday the 9th I'm open, till noon. So a 1/2 day is availible. Sun-up departure on the 9th.

It's time to REALLY start thinking about Thanksgiving week. Right now, a past customer has grabbed the day before Turkey day. The day after Turkey Day is usually very popular. So plan ahead....calls at 8pm for the next morning, isn't the best way to do it. You do want a Happy Captain don't ya?

All Holiday week scheduled Charter's should be reserved in advance as possible.




Fishing Forecast:

I believe, it's really "GO-TIME", when the jetties are fishable (calm). From limits of Reds to Trout, and many more. They're all chewin'. Just 2.5 miles from the dock, makes for a day when lines are in the water the longest. So we really just do a 3/4 day - 6 hours.

I'm even carrying on the boat now a nice florescent hand held 12 volt light, so if it gets dark on us quick, I can still clean your catch for you. Unlike cleaning fish in the dark, like I did on Nov. 1st.

THINK F-I-S-H, when it comes to Thankgiving dinner. http://fishcooking.about.com/b/2008/11/27/a-thanksgiving-fish-dish.htm

Wouldn't you think fish were a whole lot easier to catch/kill than a Turkey or Hog (Ham), if you were struggling for something to eat in this "new land". My perfect Thanksgiving dinner would be, fish a couple ways, and Oysters a couple ways. Steamed, Fried, and baked. Now that's a real Pilgrim feast, in my book.

















From what I have learned.....White Englishman sure screwed over the Wapanaw Indians! I guess if it wasn't them, it would eventually been the Spanish. If history happened a different way.

I bring up the fish idea to the Family each Holiday season. (not dried fish jerky, either) But, every one's so set in their ways. Maybe they all know, left overs would be slim afterwards.

Did you know Thanksgiving didn't become an official Holiday till around the Civil War?

If you are not a Tweeter person, you should sign up and follow my "tweets". I send out info about what's going on via Tweeter......although I'm not as into it all as some people. My tweeter posts are available on the right side bar of this blog, also.

-Hope to have you aboard this fall/winter season. Remember, this time of year is the best inshore fishing N.E. Florida has to offer. Oct. thru May is my favorite time of year. Not mid July and August.....It's just so hot, then.

11/2 - Give the gift of fishing, to a youngster.

Make the Pledge. Join many others through ANGLER'S LEGACY by down loading this simple coupon that you can give a young angler. http://www.takemefishing.org/assets/downloads/FishingTripcouponGen.pdf

Pledging to take a youngster fishing, it's not that hard. It'll mean he or she can count on you, to spend a quality day together sharing a wonderful past time....FISHING.

Things like XBOX, and PlayStations are a real problem with today's youth, and adults too. Believe me, I see it all the time. Kids that won't even touch a fish, are afraid of a shrimp. Kids that get bored way too easily, and have no patience.

I didn't have all that plug-in entertainment, when I was growing up. And am so much better for it, I believe. My playstation was the outdoors.

Real world, real activities, real challenges. Easily done with Mom, Dad, brother's or sister's, Aunt's Uncles, Grandpa's or Grandma's. In the outdoors, enjoying the planet we all live on!

Making Memories.....

11/1 - One sweet day!!

Had Don M. aboard. Was supposed to be Don and his girl friend. But she wasn't feeling well. So it was just Don and myself, that departed at 11am. I had big plans and was playing the tide, right.

Since this week hasn't been all that productive on the Trout, but I had a plan. Go back to where I was on Friday and do what we did then, and box our limit of Mangrove Snappers. Then see what happens on the incoming later on.

Believe it or not, we didn't float-rig fish for them on Friday. And we weren't going to do it today either. Tight-line....that's what has worked so well on this first spot. A long leader, really small hook, and very light sinker, that barely will hold the bottom and a live shrimp. Tight-lining, isn't like stereo-typical bottom fishing. Because you're really not baiting and waiting. But it's more like fishing a jig, with a way better presentation.

Well, Don was all over it. We weren't on the spot 2 minutes and he caught a Mangrove and a Trout, then another Trout, and another and another....... "DON'S IN THE MEAT!", I said while trying to keep up with him.

WOW, what a difference from Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday when I was in this same area.

Many of the specks were exactly 14 to 14-1/2 inches. But if we weeded through them and the tide got lower, we'll pull a few keepers out of here. I felt confident. And we eventually did.

YEAH......we did!!

I'm talking, every shrimp got slammed. It was a full blown fishing clinic. We were bailin' them! And loading our Mangrove Snapper limit into the cooler, too.

What's the deal? Why not on Tuesday or Wednesday, was it even remotely like this? Why did we not catch a single Trout on Friday?

I was amazed. But I was happy and so was Don. Because he came to catch fish as do all my customers. But this was shootin' fish in a barrel! Plus he caught 2 Sheepshead also.

I left the bait shop with at least 100 live shrimp. And as we boxed almost our limit of Speckled Trout out of the massive school of 14 inchers, we had our limit of Mangrove Snappers. WE WERE OUT OF BAIT! And we were only 2-1/2 hours into our 6 hour fishing trip. HOLY CRAP... "Don, I'll have to send you back to the bait shop to get more shrimp", I said.

So we ran back to the dock, and Don took off to B&M. Hell, if this was earlier in the week, we would still have bait. Because it was not only a struggle to find bites, let alone 14 inchers. But as usual I prevailed, everyone caught fish this week and went home with bags of fish. The difference today was these fish just arrived here. And no where were they this ravenous for me all week long. I keep track! I've been making extensive notes since October 1st, about the areas I usually fish for them this time of year. This week, I've been after them, 4 out of 7 days.

Don was back from the bait shop with more shrimp and we took off. The tide was just starting to push in and we were right on time. No sooner we came tight on the anchor and Don was waylaying Specks and now Yellowmouth Trout too. On the float-rig.

The action wasn't super fast. But these fish were no 14 inchers. Everyone was big, fat and full of spunk. We dropped the rest needed for our Speck limit in the cooler and began working on our Yellowmouth Trout limit, with fish up to 22 inches.

It was a float-rig fishing clinic all over again. And Don was wearing them out again, as I played catch up. The tide was perfection. The wind was near nothing, and the air temp was beautiful in the late day sun. Man, it just doesn't get much better than this!

It was such a glorious day. We easily caught 75 Trout, and probably 20 Mangrove Snappers, and two Sheepshead.

All on two spots, but with 15 dozen shrimp. We didn't use all the bait, but we had it. We finished up and went back to clean the catch. Basically in the dark by the shine of Don's Jeep head lights.

Giant bags of fillets were filling up. And my knife was dull. And it wasn't even late, but dark as all hell when I finally finished cleaning all the fish. No one was around. The boat ramp went quickly vacant.

Hmmm, am I on to something here? Late departures on Sunday's? No one around....I'm kinda liking this.

Was today the official "kick-off" to winter Trout fishing? It sure did feel like it.

Full moon in November. I better pencil that in.

10/30 - Is this really two days before November?

Had John G. and Jay aboard today. From Ohio and N.Y. They came down to J-ville for just a bit of messin' around and for a day of fishing. Well, we fished alright. Fished our tails off. Especially float-rigging, looking for some Speckley bastards....that's what I call them Trout when they're making me mad.


We fished and fished, moved around, sat in monster current, you name it. And never got the first Trout bite or Trout to the boat. It wasn't for a lack of trying or working hard. I know I worked hard on my end. I pulled my Achilles tendon behind my heel and it was throbbing with each step I took, and each time I yanked and cranked my giant length of chain and anchor back into the boat.


I swear it was noon or later, and we couldn't even give away a live shrimp to anything more than a Pinfish or tiny Jack. Which, this all started back last Tuesday when I was out with George and Tom, progressively got worse on Wednesday, with Mike and Phil, so it was no shock, that now by Friday, with the due east breeze and up coming full moon, that it may be a bit of a struggle finding quality Trout like species.


So I basically had to just give up. I was at the end of my line, by 1:00pm. So we sat on a spot, using 1 oz. egg sinkers, a real long leader, tiny hooks and light rods and the smallest live shrimp and pitched out behind the boat as it swung back and forth and caught about 20 Mangrove Snappers. With some really decent ones going into the fish box. We boxed 13 good fryers, 2 shy of our boat limit, before they shut off as the tide changed. Along with a Sheepshead and a small Black Drum adolescent Ladyfish.

I didn't want to attempt the jetties this morning, with the east wind and I'm sure, sloppy seas. But now as the tide changed and the wind laid down, I had no choice, but go look at it out there.


So we saved just enough live shrimp to go give a spot a try. We soft peddled our way out there. And once on the spot, it seemed we could easily fish.

With not a whole lot of sea legs, John and Jay could at least lean into the boat as we rolled in the swell, and froth. On the second anchor attempt, I was dead on where I need to be. We pitched out float rigs up to the rocks, and it didn't take long before John was hooked into something really nice.


Turned out to be a good size Redbass, that ran him straight to the bow. After a long day of no big pullers. Just the twitch, twitch of one pound Mangroves under his belt, he was a bit taken by the slam dunk and "see ya" attitude of the jetty junk yard dawg he had hooked up. It looked to be a Red anywhere from 26-30", it was hard to tell as it came near the surface....ONCE! Then, pop the hook let go and we had to quickly chock this one up to a "fishing experience".


Back at it we went. And again, it didn't take long before John was hooked up again. This time the fish went toward the stern, and then under the boat a few times. Coaching as much as I could, we really needed this one, "in the boat!"


After a good slug fest, John guided the Red to my waiting dip net. Unfortunately, depending on how ya look at it, the fish was 28-1/2 inches long. And a real beaut, with loads of spots.




Not a keeper, but a good catch none the less. Jay was ready to pack it in, or was a bit uncomfortable with the seas out there...."it was undetermined".

So we headed back to the dock to clean the Sheepshead and Mangroves.

Because John and Jay's fish had a date with the fryer at Singletons Seafood Shack. With 28 fillets they had almost 4 pounds of cleaned fish. And in my opinion, I'll take them nice small crunchy along the edge's fried fillets of Mangrove Snapper over a Redbass, any day!



So, the higher water falling tide in the morning has been a genuine struggle all week long. It's still so damn warm, and this weekend isn't going to help. Be it the backside of an El Nino year, no hurricanes, no tropical storms, or whatever it was that "didn't" happen this year. I'll take the latter, any day.



Because there's no way I should be out tracking Trout all week in the last days of October and not be able to find them where we fished. Last year at this time sure was a totally different story.

But no matter what, if you're willing to stick with me. We'll put fish in the boat, even if I have to anchor us up in the chop & slop, or take up Mangrove Snapper fishing.





Next up: Sunday with Don and Theresa.

10/29 - New blog Widget....

If ya scroll all the way down to the bottom of this page, You'll see I have a new "widget". Widgets are kind of like a new application on your Iphone, for us here in the Blogoshere.

It's my buddy Nick Watson's band Rathkeltair. You all have seen Nick here before, he fishes with me when I'm wanting to do some R&D (research and development).






















He's the percussionist/drummer of the band. Ya know, the sweaty guy in the back of the stage.....
















If you find yourself needing a bit of R&R (rest and relaxation) from all that Hip Hop, boy band and girly crap on the radio. Give a listen as your browse my daily reports


Your ears will say, "hey now.....that's some serious Celtic Rock fusion."

10/28 - REPEAT....less wind, but HOT.

Had Mike M. and his brother-in-law Phil aboard. Mike's wife is one of those rare wives that honored Mike back last Father's Day, with an private fishing charter for two, gift certificate.

I told her, to have Mike give me a call when it got to be "fall", because the fishing is better than, and it's not as hot as summer........."Well, the joke was on us, it was like a summer day."

It might as well been a tad cooler August day out there.

So we tried a good acclimation spot near the Navy base to start. We had a falling tide most of the day. Neither Mike or Phil had ever float-rigged before, but it didn't seem to matter. These guys were on top of it, like no tomorrow. Bait casters....no problem! Even though they admitted to being "egg beater" users in the past. So I could tell. Tackle handling wasn't going to be an issue today. And that was good.

The Jacks I believe pretty much have left us with the big mullet a few weeks ago. Around 10/7 when I was out at the jetties with Craig F. casting top water lures to them, and getting his butt handed to him. So what was the first catch today? A tiny 1/4 pound Jack or two. And a Lookdown fish. Lookdown's are some what tropical. So that says to me, I guess the water just isn't cool enough yet? I read 71 on my temp gauge.

I had yesterday's Trout spot in the forefront of my mind. If I could only judge when to be there with this west wind pushing the falling tide out pretty hard. It was warm, and the west wind had everything to do with that I'm sure.

So we pulled up stakes and hit the spot where the Trout came from on Tuesday. The current was so strong it was ridicules. My anchor got stuck on something too, as I went to rescue Doc Miller that was there with his anchor wrapped in his prop. The anchor "chain" was wrapped on some kind of junk on the bottom. But I did manage to finally get it off, and get over to Doc Miller who had his secondary anchor out. So we helped him. Then, headed on.

Had no plans of doing any big Redbass fishing in the deep today.......heck with that!! I wanted to stay on the float-rig and find some Trout.

I was replacing the water in my bait well every once in a while, and noticed I was getting a big time die off again! In the morning the shrimp were jumping out of the bait tank, and now they were hardly moving. I checked the river water and the salinity was super low. Around a 18 part per thousand. As the west wind blew this river water out, most likely the less salty the water became. Non-spunky shrimp makes for not a very good Trout bait.

We found some fish and weeded through a bunch of 14 inch male trout, and only boxed one or two good keepers. On a spot that even gave up 4 pound fish in July!!!!! So I'm really wondering where they are at, at this point.

So we moved on to basically the last spot of the day. No current, be we waited it out and finally the incoming tide (less than 4' on the tide charts) came and we had a chance. We boxed and released a decent amount of Specks and Yellowmouths.

And Mike even got rocked up, by a Black Grouper! His float went down, and he had a serious bend in the light trout rod. Then, the fish just quit. I said give it a little slack. And he did, and the fish swam out of it's hidey hole. A really decent size "inshore" Grouper, just as purty as a peach.

We ran out of bait on this spot and ended up catching a few more Yellowmouth Trout on dead shrimp. Then came the Pinfish. So we headed back to clean the catch.

Again, through hard work and diligence we had a decent bag of fillets so the guys could have a fish fry.

I'm back at it and it looks like I'll end October 2009 with a Friday the 30th charter with two guys.

It's at least around this weekend if nothing else that we get some cooler weather. It's not hard to forget about other "Florida vs. Georgia" football game weekend's in the past.

One that really stick in my mind was years ago with Wayne S. and his family from over off Hecksher drive. We departed early on a rising tide, and a N.E. wind blowing about 20 knots.

A big time K.O.D. kinda day.

The tide was coming up so fast that everything was underwater. It was freezing cold too, as I ripped up the river and into Mill Cove, where we tossed nothing but popping corks with 1/8th oz jigs and shrimp under them, and "BOXED" something like 20 trout, 4 Reds, 2 Sheepshead, and 5 Flounder, and 12 Black Drum, and released another 82 fish!!!!!!!!!!

Now that was my kind of "Florida vs. Georgia", kind of weekend!!

10/27- Really...is this October??

You'd never know it was the end of October on the last two days I fished. It was warm, to almost hot. And I felt as if I was going Trout fishing in July instead of October. Because the bite was slow. The wind on Tueday kickin us around, and the fishing labor intensive, no matter if we float-rig fished, or looked for big Reds on the bottom.

10/27

Had George M. on board again this week, with his friend Tom. We worked the falling tide as hard as we could. George is getting super comfortable with the baitcasting reels and float-rig and Tom picked it up real fast as if he'd been doing it all his life. So it wasn't from a lack of trying, that we went hours, before putting a good fish in the box. But when we did. They were outstanding size Trout, 17-20 inches every one. The bite on one spot was so good, it started to remind me of a real fall day, when limits could be caught with in minutes.

I told the guys, "stay on 'em", you just don't know when they'll quit. And as soon as the tide went almost dead, and the wind came around blowing across the spot. The bite ended as fast as it started. So I adjusted ourt anchor position, but it didn't matter. That was it! They were gone.

I played round up and down the river all morning. Looking at different spots. This bite of Trout wasn't till noon. Earlier, we tried some good trout areas with out much as a "sniff", and even tried to get Tom a big Redbass.

So, after these Trout quit. I ran back down river and got in a spot that's not as windy and we went back to the bottom, fishing big shrimp and cut Croakers, looking fror that monster Red.

And that didn't work. We did stop and had to wait for the tide change, which was like waiting for grass to grow. And caught some Yellowmouth Trout.

Don't know other than maybe the tides is why it was so tough of a day. But, all I know is I'm ready for less of this hot weather. Wind? That's part of winter fishing, I can deal with that.

But an endless summer? Naw, I'm seriously ready for a change. I believe, this was my second trip where I wanted to hit the jetties. But didn't because of the high winds. The last day I made it to where I want to fish out there was back on 10/7 .

We ended up with two bags of fillets for the guys for a Trout Fry. The healthy size of the Specks made for some mighty fine eating.

10/23 - NO JETTIES, for the Wolfie

Had a group charter with 6 guys on two boats. Myself and Capt Jeff the "magic Wansor". Picked them up at Sisters Creek Boat Ramp, and headed straight for the jetties wishing it would be calm and I could anchor on a certain spot and do EZ damage to maybe some of them sweet Black Margates, Big Mangroves, Black Drum and of course Redbass.

But as soon as I rounded the corner I could just tell that my best laid plans will probably need adjustment. The wind was stiff out of the S.E. and when I went over to where I had planned to fish, the "rollers" would have been way too uncomfortable for even me. Let alone, the crew.

Capt Jeff headed south on the I.C.W. and was going "creekin". So we came back on inside and tried the slow, first of the incoming tide with the float-rigs. What do I always say...?

Incoming tide and N.E. breeze is what? K.O.D, right? Kiss of Death. Well, it might not have been a N.E. stiff breeze blowin', but the velocity of the wind and the current wasn't doing me any favors where we were at, so I pulled up stakes and made a run for it. A run to where I know it'll be more fishable...."if the tides right, when I get there".

A good 8 miles, and we were there. And the current was sweet! Just right. The S.E. wind wasn't all that perfect. But we were so better off......But this was supposed to be a Jetty Trip! Not just in my mind, but that's the way it was booked, too.

Oh well, So I anchored up and the guys began working the spot on the float rigs. The same tide, same area, that Nick and myself wore out the nice fat Specks, two Monday's ago. But the bite was so slow.

Then, after awhile it picked up a bit, but just a bit. A few small Specks, and Yellowmouth's with mucho Mangrove Snapper bites, that the guys weren't connecting on. They were doing okay between the tangles. But three people who have never float-rigged before, along with the wind pushing all the lines together, it was bound to happen. I told them when we left the last spot, that I was going to "step it up a notch" on them. And degree of difficulty is usually what "I" mean, when I say that.

Then, we put a few specks and yellowmouths in the box, finally. With one real decent Speck at 18 inches. They were out for MEAT. And so was I. They had many mouths to feed, and wanted a fish fry. And then I got a call from Capt. Jeff. He had a whole bunch of pup reds released, a Trout and two keeper Black Drum. So that was good news for the frying pan.

I should have taken a photo or two of the Trout, but failed too. I was think too hard about, why they weren't catching more decent sized Trout, I guess. Then, we packed in the float rig rods, for a bit of bottom fishing. To liven up this party a bit.

The skies darkened, and we even got showered on for just a minute or two. Our over cast morning gave way to a dark afternoon.

I moved about 150 feet, broke out two out of three of my brand new Ugly Stik bottom rods, and found that the third ones reel was all hung up somehow. Oh, how I hate tackle failure. Especially, after all the TLC I give my tackle. Always using reel covers, and constant breaking down my reels for a good cleaning. So while we fished two of the bottom rigs, I tried to fix the third reel, which went against one of my cardinal rules. Never take a reel apart on board the boat! But, I half way did, and couldn't easily fix the lock-up. So we just fished the two Ugly Stik Tiger Lite Customs, with two Shimano Curado low profile reels. And it wasn't long before Brian got a chance to catch the first fish on the new rods.


















14 pound Redbass, that acted like it was 44 pounds!
















Then, on went a new bait, I cast out to the same spot and BAM...Another fish on...... Just that quick!



















A 30 incher at 8-9 pounds. But what a pretty Red, with its total of 35 spots.

We fished a bit more, ready for the next go round, and the anchor pulled loose. I quickly re-anchored, and we got more baits out. We had about 15 minutes before we needed to be back to the dock. So we gave it a few, and didn't get another Redbass right away so we packed it in and headed back to clean fish.


Capt Jeff was pulling up to the dock at the same time, and had the two Black Drum, a Yellowmouth, and a nice Flounder in the box. With our 4 or 5 Trout. The guys may all have a sandwich for the 7 of them staying at their rental house on the river. So I gave them the bit of jumbo dead shrimp I had left, so they could fish off the dock behind the house and maybe add something more to the fish fry.


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


I had a couple dozen live shrimp left, so afterwards I went back out and fished two spots real quick, on the now falling tide. I caught 5 Mangrove Snappers (all keepers to 12+ inches) and three Specks at 15-16 inches. And was out of bait.


I was happy, because I now had dinner myself. I went back to Mayport, cleaned the fish, fed the birds and went home and had myself a fresh fried fish sandwich (or two). Which rounded out a decent day for me even.


The wind never stopped, and the river was quit chopped up as I headed home. I guess the wind is gonna keep on blowing? So maybe I won't make it to the jetties on that perfect incoming tide with no wind, next week? We'll have to see. Either way, they're biting in the river.



Next up: Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.

10/19 & 20 - WEATHER CHANGE

Left out on Monday with Nick W. and it was "freezing". Don't know how cold it was, But it was cold enough that I had the heavy woolies on all day long. But that's not a bad thing. I wanted it and and I like it, though. Change is GOOD.


THE WIND....now that was another story!


Our faces were beat red, from the suns glare and wind. But we didn't see much sun till almost noon.

By days end it had to be gusting over 20 knots out of the NNE. And made for a serious struggle all day long. Anchoring was a real pain, and staying anchored was even tougher on many hard bottom spots. Then, the current of the New Moon was a real blaster. But we prevailed.

The big fish was a 23 inch Trout, that I caught. We worked from down river to the Mayport area. And later in the day we poked our way close enough to the jetties to see the North rocks being washed over with white water coming from the ocean side.

Here's a few pics of the day.





(yeah, two jackets, fleece pants!!)







We caught lots of "short" Trout, Yellowmouths, Mangroves, and a Flounder. Just enough for two fish fries for Nick and I. So when I got home. I fried up a few pounds of fish.

Not all that bad of a day for the first real cold morning of 2009 fall.

So at the end of the day I called George M. My charter for Tuesday. I wanted to warn him of the possible cold weather. I'd hate to see him show up in shorts and a T-shirt if it was going to be like this.

I didn't know, that on Tuesday the weather would change...more like the temp would change. But the wind was still going to be a factor.


















































10/20

So George was nice and early at the dock....I like that. And we took off on Tuesday right on time.

Just like Monday, the incoming tide and NE wind made for a real K.O.D - "kiss of death" morning.

We tried all the way past the Dames Point area. Working spots for a bite here and a bite there. On a real old Trout spot that I don't hit very often, I told George. "I come here to get my butt handed to me", it's usually Trout if you have good current. But working dock piling that are really close together mans "Danger, Will Robinson, Danger!!" if a big fish takes your live shrimp.

And that's just what happened to me. I drifted my float-rig up against a concrete piling close to shore and BAM...I was hooked up to something I couldn't stop. My float rod bent in the shape of a horse shoe as I reeled and pulled as hard as I could. Fish off! And when I reeled in to inspect the damage. George and I stared at a straightened out hook. Oh well, it's not like I didn't expect it. No other bites, so we moved on.

We caught a few Mangroves, Croakers and Yellowmouth Trout. Sheepshead. Bottom fished a spot for awhile looking for a Big Red for George, while waiting for the tide to turn.

Then, after it did we got into a few Specks, but they were small. The wind was really blowing now. At least 15-20. But we stuck it out.

Did I mention, it wasn't as cold either. I was back to shorts and a sweatshirt. Now this is what I like. Cooler, without the BURN.

We boxed a few Specks, a Sheepshead, some Mangroves and just before the current sort of died on the spot we were on George hooked into something massive. Drag burning runs, and heavy.













It was a Redbass. And a big one on the light Ugly Stik Striper rod. I pleaded with George to take it easy on the fish, no heavy drag and reel down and ease up on it. This is the fish of the day, so we don't want to loose it.

George was all smiles!















And after he finally got it to the boat it turned out to be a super nice fish on Light Tackle.

A 33 inch Redbass. And on the float-rig with a #6 hook and out of deep water!



I brought some fried Trout with me today, and let George have a few tastes. Even cold the fish is great. I gave him my simple procedure of how to fry fish up, and he was all about wanting to give it a try this evening.

So, I got a email from George just before I sat down to write this report and it read:

"Thanks for a great day. We had the most amazingly delicious, epic fish fry tonight - it was awesome!!!"

10/14 - Where, when and how

From the pages of my daily log book, straight to you....

You may have noticed that I'm sort of keeping track of when my Trout friends show up EAST of the boat ramp. Sort of? Hell, I'm gonna break out the "highlighter" and circle that day. So I was lying when I said, sort of.

As Anglers, we don't have much to go on other than seat of our pants gut feelings, or last years notes, or like here, "when someone tells you about a bite going on".

Either way, I keep last years Florida Sportsman Fishing Planner on my desk. So I can look back and see trends. And the differences from year to year. Because I keep relatively good notes on things that interest me.

I split areas up into sections in my mind, you may too. And when I mark down "Mayport ____"

Meaning as example "Mayport Reds", "Mayport Trout" etc. it means within sight of the boat ramp/shrimp boats etc.

Well, last year on October 9th, I have a big red circle around that date with a note saying "Mayport Trout"........yeah 40 of them off one spot!!!!!

Now not to give away the whole farm. I've been there, and NOT done that yet in the same area.

Key word: YET!

Then, I was out on a nasty blustery day in 2008 (have ya noticed we haven't had many of those "yet" this October??) I had out John C. and his lovely wife in and the two of them tore the Trout up. That's probably why it hasn't happened yet, this year (?) Because we haven't had that really nasty weather just yet.

This is just an example, of course. But from around Oct. 9th on, it was GAME on in Mayport.

Especially for my Trout friends.

These are the kinds of trends I track. And I don't care what other's might say or report. I go by what happens on my boat!

Don't know if any of you regular readers ever go back and look at the "archive" pages here. But if your out to learn something, like tracking a species, the when and whys and seasonal patterns of our fish. It behoves you to get to know the archives list.

I get emails asking me those same questions. And of course I actually do all this typing for prospective customers. But they don't seem to take the time to look at it, or use the archived months of reports. I would.

So what I do, is steer people to them instead.

Believe me, if I was looking for a charter guide.

I'd want to know what he can do for me, and what's his track record during the time frame in which I want to fish.

THAT'S THE REAL REASON I DO THESE REPORTS. It takes lots of extra effort, but I want people (customers) to see what's biting and when.

See ya out there.

10/13 - deep water T-routz

Had Nick W. on board with me today. We departed at 8am. And tried to float-rig fish within a mile of the boat ramp..."just checking to see if the fish think it's fall yet."

Tried two spots and the only thing we came up with was Nick getting slam dunked along some rocks by a "ass hander" which remained un-seen. And lost hook after hook from vicious strikes, that Nick said, as we started wondering "what the hell...." "Dave could these be Spanish Mac's?"

I said yeah, I bet they are. Because the float would go down with super speed, and no connection. Just lost hooks, via those small razor like teeth of the Spanish Mac's.

Oh did I mention the wind? It was blowing pretty good, overcast, zero sun shine, and yes "a lot more comfortable that the average October 2009 day, so far."

We were after one thing. Okay three things....

A box O' TROUT. We'd certainly take Flounder. And a brawl with a Redbass on the Float rig. Not much to ask for on a iffy weather morning.

But that's why I do what I do. I counted no less than 4-5 boats turn around that were heading offshore. And that included Capt Scott's 70' party boat!

That's why I have zero interest in offshore fishing. I went through all that for years with charters. And didn't care for it. And never looked back. No one has to worry about me crowding them on the reefs, that's for sure. Today, Nick and I were fishing, not catching, but fishing within 5 minutes after letting go the dock lines.

So after finding out that either the tide wasn't low enough, and the only willing fish smiling on our very sprightly live shrimp had too many teeth. I pulled anchor and headed down river.

We worked a real go-to spot, for when the tides low. Nothing. So we moved on one more time. The wind was a huge problem on a good "hard bottom" spot, plus there was another boat near that I didn't want to disturb. But, when I finally got anchored up, both Nick and I caught two good keeper Trout, right away. This is where they usually are, and we were fishing 22 feet of water. And a few Ladyfish. Then, my anchor kept pulling loose with the combined current and wind. "It's a tough place to anchor" I told Nick. "The bottom is like trying to get the anchor to stick into concrete." Many people discount the fact the Trout can be caught on the float-rig in 20 plus feet of water....."why not". That's why I use 2 oz. floats and two ounce leads on my rigs.

Works just as well in shallower water, and perfectly in the deep water too.

We left that zip code and as we pulled up a few miles away at another good spot. The current here was about slack. So we hung out for awhile and the tide then started to come on in. We re-anchored and adjusted our location, so to fish the spot better. The wind seemed to die down as it many times does, when the tide changes.

First drift of the float.......Yellowmouth Trout, second drift.....nice Speckled Trout! We were now in the "MEAT". And we were making our drifts in 20 plus feet of water and actually catching Trout in 26 feet.

Stan Milestone, previous owner of B&M bait and tackle and I were talking about Float-rig fishing one day. He's a master when it came to Trout, and back in the day before he found Pompano to his liking. I remember him saying that he rarely fishes over 12 feet deep. And yeah, that can be the case many times.

But not on these spots, and not today!

Personally, I find that if you want to get away from bait stealers, and them small Mangroves Snappers, many times going deeper on areas that you can, means, you'll find Trout. Where you didn't know they were. I like experimenting. And I liked what Nick and I were doing on this spot!

We soon caught our limit "plus" of really nice Trout, not having to even measure many of the fish.

Especially this one, that I nailed.

A sweet 5 pounder, that I was gingerly reeling in as I was talking to my fellow Trout fishing buddy D.O.A. Rob on the cell phone. He was heading south to Guana State Park in pursuit of none other than a big Trout from his Kayak.

Here's a bit of perspective.....for comparison.

Damn, I love catching Trout like this one after another and Nick sure did too. We ended up with 7 Yellowmouth Trout also, a few Croakers, then Nick had a deep water pole bender hooked up.

We were hoping for a keeper Redbass, but it turned out to be a 30 incher.
All on one spot, and in 26 feet of water.

The day may have started out slow, and Nick and I were wondering if maybe the weather had the fish off the bite. But as usual, we didn't give up. And just continued hunting around.

The air temp was glorious!! We never broke a sweat, the shrimp were frisky and happy as all hell till they were pinned on the hook, of course. We never saw the sun. And just didn't care.
After all the hot weather. I'd take weeks if not months more of these kinds of days.

And I hear more is on it's way. I can hardly wait!