7/25 - Back In Jax

Had Steve Williams and family that were on vacation in Jax. Steve was back, because he used to live here. And wanted a day of "sharkin" with his wife Jana and the boys.

It was day number three in a row for me. After the Greater Jax Kingfish tournament week, that I try and avoid charter fishing during. Just don't want the hassles of being out there while all that is going on.

So of course three days quickly piled up. Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

Saturday I had Tim and his nephew Quint. We fished the river at first heading straight down towards the Dames Point bridge in hopes of Trout, Drum, Croakers and maybe a few over sized Redbass.

Well, the very "non-flowing" tide was a pain because we didn't have much current. And as we tried everything from bottom fishing to float-rig fishing the guys just got ate alive by bait-stealers, along the structure. It was un-real. And at the same time we could barely get even a Croaker bite. I tried cut Croaker for large Reds and they sat untouched on the bottom.

Not good!! And just 5 days earlier I had big Trout and Reds on the same spot on my "solo" trip down there.

So we worked around the area, still nothing and ended up at the Lil Jetties, where the current was better, but only caught Seabass, a Whiting and a yellowmouth Trout, and one Nurse shark.....Yeah, the saltwater intrusion has pushed the Nurses up to the lil Jetties now. That was the first Nurse at the Lil Jetties in my 28 years of fishing there.

We then ended up at the big Jetties, where I caught a netfull of big Mullet and couldn't even give one away on the bottom along the rocks.

On Sunday, I took three guys who were working here in Jax. Up to Nassua Sound area for a bit of chum fishing. Targeted species was of course Tarpon. Since out of most of the Tarpon catches I've made with customers, they've mostly come from up in the slews between the bars at Nassua Sound. Being all sand, it's easy anchoring, shallow and when we do hook one up, there's no other boats in our way.

But again, no current and not much going on. The guys did hook up with a small Blacktip right off the bat, and a stingray before the tide gave out. Which forced us to go make some open water drifts as I worked my chum chopper and a bag of 30 pounds of Pogies. Numerous drifts had us hook up one really big shark, but it jumped throwing a giant splash of water and then it was gone.

On the rising tide it was a futile operation back in between the bars. Big dead Mullet out on the bottom, as I chummed with Pogies in my chopper brought schools of Ladyfish in that ate all our chum as Bluefish ate all our Mullet on the bottom.

The skies started to darken to the south of us, so we high-tailed back through the ocean and in the jetties and back to the boat ramp before any high winds or down pours. Which did cut loose as I got home, 5 minutes from the boat ramp.

So, Steve, Jana and the kids from Dallas were wanting a shark trip huh?????  Well, I went north the day before, so I guess I'll go south today on Monday.

"If whatever your doing is wrong, the the opposite must be correct, huh?"

I worked really hard on our way to Nassau Sound on Sunday to get enough Pogies for chum while finding them out in 40 feet of water. And it did us no good at all.

There was no way I was gonna do that again on Monday. And from the looks of it, I wouldn't have too.

The shrimp boats were out in force. The chum hole, the S.E. Hole, all had shrimpers working the areas. So I went to the S.E. Hole, and the first boat we got behind instantly hooked us up on a double-header of smaller sharp-nosed Sharks.

After the morning "some what" coolness wore off, and the shrimp boats all anchored up. Everyone had a chance on a Shark while boating 9 of them.

So we headed back to the jetties and anchored up along the rocks to burn a few dead shrimp on the bottom. Catching a few Whiting, and yellowmouth Trout.

And I knew something was up as we were out behind the shrimp boats, because the Coasties buzzed "AND WAKED US", and every other boat out there. They were on "terrorist watch", I assumed.

Come to find out, a AirCraft Carrier popped up from the horizon, and every goverment pay check was out there in the ocean and river, on patrol.

Turned out to be a great day of catching, drag burning, packed with lots of action. Which only took 3 days to find.

But, I'm still wanting to switch and get in that river and fill that fish box full of Drum, Trout and big Croakers. Because nothing says success like the smell of a fish fry for me.

And remember, I have a Havalon "surgical scapel" Fillet knife now (http://www.havalon.com/) So filleting fish for me, is sooooo easy and enjoyable. 

Best trip and most affordable, for light tackle river fishing aboard the Jettywolf, is two persons.
http://www.fish-jacksonville-fishing.com/

7/25 - NEW REEF

There will be a new reef deployed off Ponte Vedra beach on Wednesday (weather permitting) an enhancement to Floyd's Folly.

Here's the info:

http://www.tisiri.org/concrete-artificial-reef-deployed-ponte-verdra/

7/22 - Ethanol Testing

REALLY, what % of Ethanol is in the gas you buy on the street?

"LESS THAN 10%" is what the pump says.

Well, like many. I'm of a curious nature. And wanted to know myself, from the gas stations I use, for my truck and my Honda 225 outboard.

You can find loads of useful tests and info on Youtube. But again, I'm a do it yourself'er.

I'm using a tester distributed by Honda Marine, for $9.00. In my opinion, a cheap investment to spend, to jus' know.

Every Marine mechanic is all over "Ethanol Problems". Well, I use my boat all the time, every two days put new fuel in the tank. Been using StarTron ethanol treatment (??needed??)

And now, I know the facts of the percentage of ethanol, in the fuel I buy. Sooo, I shouldn't have any problems right?

Honda Marine engines can run and are built to run on 10% or less ethanol.



Here's another helper. You don't know if your gas is "dirty or wet", either.
Before it hits your fuel filters, be a RACOR or the ones in under your cowling.
You can get rid of it!


Check out this from "ShipShape TV":

7/18 - More Monday R&D

Don't know what's wrong. But you folks that call for Mondays don't know what your missing.
But this isn't "party boat" kind of fishing. Rather light tackle sport fishing.

7/18 - REEFS, inshore?

Artificial reefs built inside 3 miles???
Wow, now there's a wacky idea. (sarcasm)

An idea I have always wondered, "Why not?"

Sure there's secret double whammy places that'll hold fish inside 3 miles. But they are usually tiny little spots.

Wouldn't you like to make a short run just out off the beach and fish an area that is large, that would possibly hold some bait schools, schools of Spanish Macs, or even a Snapper??

I know I would. Seeing that a long ride 20 miles offshore anymore isn't my "forte". And many of my clients are not interested in that.
Being that I like to specialize in NO-LONG-BOAT-RIDES. Close in artificial reef placements would be great!

E-mail   Dana Morton at  -  dmorton@coj.net - or Call his office at 904-255-7213 and let him know that you would like to see some Artificial Reefs built  within the 3 mile State waters off Jacksonville. 

When asked about this he said there didn't appear to be any interest in doing any reefs near shore as he hadn’t been contacted about it at all.  (I believe he just hasn't asked the right people!!)

Let him know we really would love to see some close-in reefs.   Remember you can still catch Red Snapper and keep 2,  Twenty inches or larger,  within state waters!
        
Pass this info on to everyone that fishes even if they are not members of the JOSFC.  It just plain makes sense, More reefs = more fish!   Don't assume someone else will do it, get off your chair and send the E-mail or make that call!

I certainly did.

Tell him your reasons for thinking it's a good idea. 

7/13 - Replay?

Was pleased to have Robert L. and his son Jason aboard the Jettywolf, today. Especially, since he was the man I was talking to on the phone while making the video on Monday, while doing some solo R&D.

He's a new J-ville resident and has a wonderful home on the river, which I pass by very frequently. Also has a nice boat hanging from the docks lift. He wanted to just go out and get some "heads-up" on some fishing techniques. Which is one of those things that every fishing guide will tell you is a good idea, when you move to a new area.

I also sent him the video I made. So after picking them up at Sister Creek. I told him and Jason, "let's go see if we can replay the day I had, on Monday."  

So we blasted down river.

The differences between Monday and today were that we would actually have a breeze today. And the tide would be  a bit stronger, being that we were a few days closer to the full moon on Friday.

Nothing fancy, is what this fishing is.  Have "pounds" of dead shrimp, catch a ton of Croakers. Save the smallest ones for live or cut bait. Get along some rocks. And let the falling tide work it's magic.

But we had to wait for the falling tide. So in the mean time we just plain, fished. Catching everything that schools up in the deep water of the river, from Seabass to Croakers. All the while looking for that first Black Drum.

It's JULY. And nothing is fall off the stump, easy. And I told Robert and Jason that. There's a whole lot of difference between "deep, deep" summer and let's say.....December, for example.

But that action on jus' bending a rod was steady, as long as we had the last of the rising tide. Then of course as the current slows, so does the bites.

Eventually, we made it over to the "rock line" that I like to fish. The tide was ebbing and it was time to put some groceries in the cooler. And we did.

Pup Black Drum. The targeted species! Goal is to get on the bite and get as many as we could.
Today, they were a bit smaller than on Monday.
They were right behind the boat.

But, detecting that bite of a Drum, versus the ever present Croakers is a challenge, for most.
I can tell easily. As they don't "pop, pop" the bait, but rather "sand bag" the bait.  And it's not like I expect everyone on board to know everything. THAT'S WHY I'M THERE. THAT'S WHY THEY HIRE ME. I'm going to help you.  There's a ton of fish that bite and they all bite different according to the situation.

At the jetties this past winter, we had an epic Black Drum bite. And once everyone on board learned to feel that sand bagging, hang on the bait kinda bite. They never forgot it.  Drum are not fearsome predators, with huge mouths and speedy shaped bodies. So as the swim along the bottom, hunting by "smell" and "taste", when they eat a bait with their rubbery lips. They give you a bit of what I call...."hang-time".  That's the sand bag feeling you get on your rod tip. Just weight!  You can even lift the rod tip ever so slightly against the weight, and they will pull and ask for more. After doing that twice, I CLEAN THEIR CLOCK!

I laid out a rod with a half a Croaker on it with a circle hook and left it in the rod holder. Just for a big Redbass. But we never had the rod double over. Which, was amazing. We should have had a few big Reds come by and suck up that bait.

Instead, we caught a few MICRO Reds. Smaller than I'd ever call "pups". I mean, the size of small Croakers. 

The tide was a bit stronger than on Monday. And at one point we got slammed by a very inconsiderate ship pilot. That flew by us and generated a wake so large that it pulled 50 feet of water off the bank!! Knocking us off anchor, muddying up the water and generally causing severe havoc.  "Gotta love the St. Johns!"

After awhile, the Drum seemed harder to catch. The bites fell off, as we kept at it. They're all along this area. And I know I'll come back in this area some day soon, and absolutely way-lay them. My goal is a fish box of 10-15. Since, for me getting "keeper sized" Redbass seems futile. And I'd just as soon have  my 5-Drum, for the table.

I'm gonna keep a close eye on this area, and even poke around a bit more, as summer wears on.

The only real problem is, that fishing around here for these Drum is a tackle eating situation. Hooks, leaders, entire rigs, sinkers are so easily lost. The bottom is VELCRO!
And you have to be ever vigilant that the next "bump" on your rod tip is between a rock and a hard place.

There's absolutely NO way I can bring 4 people, (add in some kids) and fish the way we did today. I'd have to own a very well stocked tackle shop! 

Robert and Jason learned allot, caught fish and felt the deep summer's intense heat. By the time the tide just started to slow a bit. They were "cooked" and ready to kick their feet up in the A/C with a cold drink.

It was a fun day. Just wished the big Reds would have bit. (next time!!)

7/11 - Great R&D (research and development)

Isn't it funny, how fisherman can call standing in the heat all day F-U-N???

R&D, some multi-tasking, alittle more sweating, but on a Monday.....PRICELESS!

7/10 - Almost half way point.

SUMMER...it can be a love/hate relationship.

I love those super wet years, but am not all that fond of these drought years.

I say, "bring on the storms, I love 'em".

Did you know there's shrimp so far up the Nassua River right now they're hunkered down in the cypress swamps?

Heck, if that's not a "here's yer sign" for the need of a huge storm or serious regular rain fall, what is???????

Good thing is, the shrimp in the River in downtown Jax are huge. And they're killing them.

The fish are also down that way. The direct opposite way on the river than I depart from.

I live 5 minutes from the Mayport Boat ramp. And I'm not trailering my boat down the traffic choked streets to use another ramp closer to down town. I will if the price was right, though.

But, I ain't holding my breath for that.

So I can go about as far as the Dames Point Bridge if need be via boat.

This is the usual standard practice for me, and the way things roll in the river during the DEEP summer anyhow.

The bait and fish couldn't be in my own back yard, not unless we had some serious storms.
AND WHAT ARE THEY????

Were outa the swing in climate that brings us "WET" summers, anymore.

But when we did have them. I was knee deep in my favorite fishing. Float-rigging for Speckled Trout, and Jacks and such.

Hell, there's not hardly a Jack in all of the river near Mayport, is there??

I can say honestly I've had 3 caught all year on my boat, and only two Ladyfish. Which is totally NUTZ!

So the morale of this story is, "Go down river!" That's what the Jettywolf has done and we've caught some and at the same time struggled.

But, Erica's 46 pound Redbass, made one trip perfectly worth it all, and she lost another and had a 35 pounder also. Then, there's was Ed's 21 Pounder, and Seth's 9 pound Black Drum which was sweet.

The problem this summer so far is, NUMBERS. We get tossed some bones....hell, I don't even pick the days, the tides, or anything.

So right there I have my hands tied a bit, already. Those rising tides have been brutal on me.

If I was planning on fishing. I'd let the Captain pick my day for me.

But the word "planning" isn't in most peoples vocabulary during their visit to J-ville.

I just had a call for 6 passengers offshore for tomarrow...Now I don't do 6 and I don't do way offshore anyhow. But calling at 2pm on a Sunday for a Monday morning at 7am is a bit like NO planning at all.

Personally, I don't live that way, and never will. I'm a survivor, a planner, and think ahead 10 moves at a time. So you'd think I'd be a Chess Player, huh?

Not really. Jus' like a plan during the summer months.

Because ya have to be "rigidily flexible", ready to have plan A-B-C.

I plan so much I'm gonna do some Monday morning R&D myself tomarrow. All in prep for next week and the week after, as the Greater Jax Kingfish Tournament takes up 4 days with tournaments this year rather than just 3 days.

Ya' have the Jr. Angler, then the Redfish, and then the General Tournament this year. That's 4 days.

If a cop tells me where and how to park at the Mayport Boat ramp again this year, I'm gonna freak! They have Cops at the Mayport Boat ramp telling people what to do, as if no one's ever been there on a Memorial Day at 7am!! Which is no different than any Tournament day.
As if they're doing us a huge favor.

Pleaze?????

7/9 - EVER WONDER???

Been interested in really "how much Ethanol is in the gas I buy".  We all know that gas with Ethanol is giving you worse and worse fuel mileage right? And for you that let your boat's sit for along time especially with a 1/4 tank, you're certainly not doing yourself any favors, either.

I'm a want to know, for at least gee-wiz reasons, kinda guy. Honda Marine is adamant about not using any fuel with more than 10% Ethanol.

Here's a quick video that sold me on this simple testing procedure:

Ethanol Testing:



Or instead of buying a graduated container (but it does make it easier) you can;

-Find a glass jar. (figure out the 10% mark via the ounces it holds exactly)
-Place water in it: about 10% - 20% of the jar's capacity.
-Mark the jar where the water line is.
-Fill the jar the rest of the way with gasoline.
-Shake vigorously.
-Check the amount of water in the jar to see if it is higher than when you started.

THEN, "HERE'S YER SIGN" IF THE WATER NOW LOOKS HIGHER THAN THE MARK YOU MADE ON THE JAR.....THAT'S NOT WATER THAT MADE IT HIGHER. IT'S YOU FUELS ETHANOL CONTENT!!!!!!

Of course all these tests are in concentrated form, but 10% or less of a jar, is the same 10% or less ethanol in your fuel tank.

-there should "always" be less than 10% ethanol in the fuel you buy. The key word is, "less".

I was watching C-span while partaking in lunch the other day and the (USDA) Agriculture guru was at some University talking and he said that if it wasn't for Ethanol, YOUR fuel per gallon cost in the USA would be NINETY CENTS MORE, per gallon. Holy crap, really?
So I'd be paying right now $4.40 per gallon??????

Hmmmm, I don't think so. No one would buy it. And for the thousandth time in the last decade. America would probably grind to a halt, once again.

7/7 - Jus' Jetties

Had Carl S. and his nephew Noah aboard the JettyWolf. Plan was to just fish live baits at the jetties. No running around...."so I thought!"

So, we headed out in search of the now illusive Pogie school.  "Yep, it's almost mid July so that means a thermocline, and scattered pogies."

I'll take May, any day.

We spent at least an hour and a half in search of a dozen and a half Pogies......and never seen a one! I say a dozen and a half, because that's all I'd really need.

Instead, we found big (too big) Mullet schooled up on the south-side of the south Jetty. I made a banana cast of the net in haste, and still got a dozen of them.

I'm not one to spend this kind of "fishing time", in search of live baits. Because I like lines in the water right away. But we really didn't have much choice. The other alternative is the mini-Croakers that are carpeting the botttom. But nothing says "EAT ME" like a little stinker Pogie, that's for sure.

We or I wanted Redbass. But again, as I anchored up and tossed big live Mullet out and on the bottom some 35' deep. It was all too apparent that Redbass wasn't gonna be the fish we'd hook up. But rather SHARKS.

The buzz has been that there's no Sharks worth a damn behind the Shrimp boats out in the chum-hole area. That's because they are at the end of the jetty rocks on a falling tide!

Immediately, we were hooked up to animals that our Jr. Angler, Noah wasn't gonna be able to stop. But then again, the Sharks were eating the hooks off the line, or just ripping the Mullet off the hooks. But, Noah did get a chance to battle his largest Quarry ever, a 5 foot Nurse shark with a really bad attitude.

Our young angler did very well, with some coaching from his Uncle and myself. He didn't believe he could get it to the boat. But he eventually did. This Nurse wore him slap out and was all he needed. There is no 5 foot Nurse Sharks, that eat whole 12" live Mullet and pull like that in Pennsylvania!

(and there's another thing I'd like to mention. I do not believe that when Shakespeare decided to build a rod and name it the "Catfish" rod, that they had any intentions for it to catch Redbass up to 46 pounds, 100 pound Nurse Sharks, or be bent over with 100 pound Spinner Sharks flying through the air. But, I'll tell ya here, that for a whopping $30 "YOU will never fish a stronger rod!" I cannot believe the paces, I have put these rods through.)

The true evidence is after Noah boated the all muscle Nurse Sharks, that wore him completely out, and after a few more "other shark" hook-ups. It was Uncle Carl's turn on a rod.

I believe this was our REDBASS!!!  Finally, a big Red. Throbbing the rod tip like one should. Running and staying deep. Yes, a truly targeted species, finally.

Only problem I could see is that Carl gave the fish absolutely NO QUARTER!!!!!!!
If there's a big Redbass on, take it easy on it.
But Carl gave the fish hell on the Ugly Stik. And I was almost thinking that it would be a broke in half Ugly Stik!!

Once the fish is out on the open water side of the boat and starting to come to the surface. Fight the fish gently. Because with all these Shark teeth around. If I was a Redbass, I'd be nervous to eat a bait and thrash around too much. So always take it easy. This maybe our only Red, and we want it in whole condition, too!

The fish pulled off the 7/0 circle hook. And as it turned out,  that was probably our only big Redbass bite of the day.

The Croakers were infesting the north jetty. I don't know how many were caught, as we kept out a live mullet or mini-Croaker out behind the boat most of the day.

Yes, the water temp out there has fallen significantly. The highest temp was on the falling tide at 77 degrees and on the flood tide it went down to 74 degrees. With that, I'm sure it brought in two of the weirdest fish the guys caught. Guitar Fish. Half shark, half Stingray.

And Carl even caught a big egg carrying Stone Crab.

I believe, I may go back down river next time around. And take some fiddler crabs and maybe some blue crabs. And see if we can get more of those Black Drum, Yellowmouth Trout, and larger Croakers and maybe another giant Redbass.

From day to day, it's a "stay flexible" kind of thing.

7/6 - The Blue Crue....

Pleased to have aboard again, Ed Blue and his two sons, Seth and Conner. I started out thinking S-H-A-R-K fishin'. Only because we'd have some nice falling tide right off the git-go this morning. And I wanted to see how the guys fared on a monster spinner or blacktip.

So I wasted no time at all. We anchored up and I handed each one of them a rod baited with just dead shrimp pieces. "FOR SHARK FISHING?", you may ask. Yep, because first we had to catch us some mini-Croakers for live bait.

Sure we could have ran around looking for Pogies, while wasting absolutely precious falling tide. So why not anchor up, get some fishing under our belts, catch some Croakers, maybe luck into something else while were at it, and drop out a shark rig.

All makes very good sense to me.

B-U-T, and there's always a but. The Croakers were difficult to catch. Yeah they were down there. But the guys weren't "slayin' them" by any means. After awhile, we had enough to commence to laying out a Shark line on the bottom. And as the tide started to slow quickly, the big Shark rod bowed over.

I could tell right away, it wasn't our "TARGETED SPECIES". But rather the slower, but very powerful Nurse Shark, that ate one of our Croaker baits.  Seth was standing right there, so he got on the rod and landed the Nurse.

Here he is bowing the monster fish rod.......

The Nurse Shark was about a 30 pounder. What I was hoping for was one of those 100 pound Blacktips that was eating the Croakers like fun size Snickers bars, off our hooks last week.

We continued without any of the big boys hooking up. And come later in the day I found out that the VHF radio was buzzing with "Where are all the sharks??" As other boats did the run and gun behind the Shrimp boats. So far for even myself. The shrimp boat fishing has been mostly a big ZERO this year, on the Sharks. With a low tide at the jetties being "where the action is at." But at the same time. This also comes and goes like the wind.

Plus, I heard that the incoming tide has cooled off and was around 74 degrees, today. THERMOCLINE, of cool water? Yep, that's the buzz.

I say, "of course...this is bazzaro world in the summer around here, plus the Kingfish tournament is coming up. The water has to go cold, and then all the Pogies disappear too. It's a July Ritual, isn't it?"   

Of course, I'm being highly sarcastic. Only to ease the wackiness of what goes on here in the summer.

Okay, well nothing was happening where we were, after the Nurse Shark. So I decided to "run the tide". By chasing the ebbing flow of the river. All the way down to the Dames Point area. But first we stopped off at the Lil' jetties. Caught a few more Croakers, Seabass and such as I layed out a few lines baited up with mini-croak's for a big Redbass.

No Reds, and not much else. So we ended up at the Dames Point area. The Croakers were chewing pretty good, not great but okay with Ed boating the years FIRST "keep'able" Croaker worth filleting. Dang, I'd love to run into a heavy school of fat Yellowmouth Trout down that way.

Ever since they made the limit 100 pounds per person per day. Catching more than 5 pounds of Yellowmouth's for me has been  a struggle. And with NO JACKS or Ladyfish in the river from the jetties to at least the Dames Point area. I'd like to find a school of yellowmouths at least, to add to the Croaker catchin'. Right now, the Croakers are just free and plentiful live baits for really big Redbass.

Seth baited up with a small piece of dead shrimp dropped his baited hook over the side and then set the hook on something that he thought was a Croaker larger than his dad's....."at first".  But as I watched, "this wasn't no Croaker!!"

Up pop's a big fat Black Drum.

At nine pounds, this is what we came here for.
And I wish these were allot thicker. I believe the next time I head that way. I'll bring some fiddlers or blue crabs, so to stay away from the shrimp eating Croakers, and hopefully target more Black Drum, like these.

The HEAT eventually poured on heavy. There was not a breath of breeze down that way. As you can see the water was slick calm.
We tried another spot on the rising tide, with out much luck. So we packed it in and headed back to Mayport.......where it was breezy and cooler.

As we neared the ICW, is where we ran into the wind, like a wall.

Ed always likes some take home fillets. So I cleaned up his large Croaker and Seth's Black Drum. I guess the guys were heading to the Waffle House, since Seth got on the boat hungry this morning. That's okay, he's a growing 16 year old with the largest fish of the day.....times two!


HERE'S THE LAST TIME THE BLUE CRUE WAS ON THE JETTYWOLF, LAST WINTER....doin' some sheep herding in the cold weather. ( I LOVE IT!!)

7/5 - jus' an FYI

Needed new trailer tires, so today was a long time coming. Figured I share how to fix, replace, patch, or add a tube, to your boat trailer tires. Especially over a Holiday, or after business hours. When you need to be on the road, and in the water the next day no matter what.

MANUALLY CHANGE TIRES and some FYI's:

7/2 & 7/3 - two days, during the holiday

Had Ed and Melissa, aboard today. Vacationing in J-ville from NY. Actually they said they were heading to the "thousand islands"

but, ended up in Jacksonville, Florida instead!
Wow, that was a difference of a few hours driving!

Either way, I was glad to have them aboard the Jettywolf, because they were fun to have out for two days.

So, day one. We went "sharkin". Started out behind the shrimp boats. And all that was there were some "smaller" sharks.

Depending on who you are, they're smaller. I had plans for Ed to hook-up on a monster "spinner". Yeah, a cork screwing jumping through the air Blacktip, also known  as a "spinner shark". They usually range from 50 to well over 100 pounds.

A Hundred Pounder is what I had in mind. BUT, the tide was a rising one. Not exactly what I wanted for those jetty maulers that we were hooking last Wednesday. The ones that were eating small Croakers that were being reeled in by Erica and her daughter, and myself.

So I know exactly where the monster drag smokers were. Just needed the tide to get to them......the last half of the falling tide. But that wouldn't be till very late in the day.

So we tried everything you could do.  And finally, the tide turned. But the first of the falling tide isn't exactly perfect. So getting in postion was a challenge. But after awhile, the current pushed just right and one of the big fish rods bent over and there it is, Ed's hooked up to a monster. The shark runs, then runs at the boat, then runs away, then as Ed's having to play the game of the shark's terms, the shark jumps out of the water, get's a half a "spin" on the heavy drag of the Accurate reel, and POPS the line.

OHHHHHHH, the agony of defeat! It hit all three of us, hard. We were actually packing it in for the day. Tossing the bait away, stowing the rods, packing up, and that's when the shark bit, and it was the ONE.

Ed and Melissa surprised me. They said they wanted to go again the next day, too. I had a possible for the next day. And told them, "if that dude doesn't do his deposit, we'll go". Well, the dude never did his deposit. It's funny how some people will jerk you around on a holiday weekend. And at the same time want the world on a platter too. So, I was glad to take out Ed and Melissa again.

I pondered all night. What should we do, next? Again, the tide's the complete opposite of what I'd want for fishing for the Big Redbass. But then again, "Heck, they're BIG. And Ed deserves BIG."  Ed said he was a Muskie and Pike fisherman back home in up state NY. So....he's a big fish kinda guy.

So we met up at 7am again and headed down river, where we caught monster Reds last week....But on the last of the falling tide!
We wouldn't have that, TODAY!

I anchored up and we caught FREE bait. The bottom was carpeted with mini-Croakers. And BIG RB's like to eat, mini-Croakers. So as the tide started to flood, with a livewell full of free bait, I tossed out some live Croakers. We had some takers, but they weren't Big Reds.

Ed caught two "into the fish box" Yellowmouth Trout, as we waited for that rod bender. And as we waited, I made a move to where I've caught incoming tide big Reds before.

And at 11am, the rod bent over and the rest was history. Ed got a trophy sized Redbass.

Here's the footage:  (I went with captions and music, because the sound got messed up somehow along the way.)  

NICE!!!!!!!!
TARGETED SIZE AND SPECIES IN THE BOAT!

It was challenging to say the least. I had the tide that Momma Nature gives me to work with.
That's why I like a plan. If you're coming with FISHING a 100% in mind. Let me select the days for you during the summer months. I can do that. I know how to pick'em.

I guess now, with the holiday all over, next up is the Greater Jax Kingfish Tournament on the 20th thru the 22nd. Fishing those day is a real pain. So book ahead, or after those dates. There's your, heads-up.

6/29 - The Redbass Queen!

Had Erica J. and her daughter aboard the Jettywolf today. The morning started out, overcast and at the Mayport Jetties. Then, the hunt for live baits. Then, after drifting the early morning pogie pods for a possible giant Redbass up under them, with no success. It was back to the jetty rocks.

Two spots and anchoring later, we had lost numerous rigs, had the drag smoked by un-stoppables. And only a few Whiting in the fish box. And plenty of tiny Croakers caught and stolen by JAWS.

It wasn't too much of a mystery any longer what the jetties are full of right now. As Erica was reeling in a tiny Croaker and had it all of a sudden take off 40 miles per hour. Yep, a Shark followed up her Croaker off the bottom then ate it and took off.

It wasn't till we lost 10 rigs, that I said, "I've had it...time to HD this!"  HD, meaning- Heavy Duty!!!  I crimped together a 200 pound mono rig, to a 7/0 Redbass circle hook, dropped over a live Croaker, and it didn't make it to the bottom. I was hooked up, using my thumb to add pressure to the drag, and put the screws down as hard as I could to this Shark (100 pound Blacktips!!) And it came to the surface and boiled the water and then, SNAP. I lost the whole rig.

"Okay, the jetties has not been the hot spot for anything except bait, and now I know why!" As a school of mullet exploded along the jetty rocks. Being attacked like a Austrailian surfer, from the deep.

We packed it up, and as long as we had a falling tide. We were good. And we had plenty of tide left. So it was time to make a zip code change. We made a long 10-12 miles ride way down river.

I anchored up, in 42 feet of water while being stared at by two guys along the bank in a small boat. As I readied the rods, broke out the dead shrimp, and got the girls set up. Then same boat had come off anchor and then circled us. Still staring as if they've never seen another boat before. Here's my deal....."if ya got something on your mind, say it....or GO AWAY." They went away.

Now, with not another boat in sight, the girls dropped some shrimp down to find out we were in the same situation. Mini-Croakers, galore littered the bottom. The only difference is, they weren't eaten off the hook.  This would be fine for one of my small "Kids Trips", but not for us.

So we save some of the croak's in the livewell and gave up on this. Time to just sit back, and put out some live croak's and pogies on circle hooks and wait for a big RB.....Redbass!

The baits sat, and sat, and sat. Hmmmm. That's funny, usually the ole wives tale, or rule of thumb, depending on who you are usually is; "when there's small Croakers ganged up in one spot, there will be big RB's coming in to feed on the weaklings."

So when LIVE doesn't work, I don't give up till I put the knife to my live ones. So we reeled all the lines in, bumped the lead up to 6 ounces, and put CUT Croakers and Pogies on the 7/0 circle hooks.

It didn't take long, before one of the rods bent to the shape of a horse shoe and the small Shimano TRN-100 graphite reel spool started to smoke. Erica jumped on the rod, had the fish on for a moment and then POP!! Erica reeled in a rig with a broke 40 pound test leader. Understandable, 100%. The area we were fishing is velcro bottom. Anything could be down there for a big Red to turn on and pop a leader.

The next bite, the rod doubled again. Oh boy this is a stud! And no less than 15 minutes later on what I'd refer to as Light Tackle for a monster Redbass, Erica reels in a Red that smashes my 30 pound Boga-Grip Scale. We called it 30 pounds. But it was way past the 30 pound mark.  And we needed to quickly get some pics and then the fish back in for a healthy release.

The next bite...(this was unbelievable) Erica's daughter reeled in. The rod tip bobbed and kept bobbing. So she just picked up the rod and started reeling. And what pop's up to the surface on a 7/0 circle hook and a half a pogie, down on the bottom some 42 feet, held fast by a 6 ounce bank sinker??  A 17" Speckled Trout!!!!!!!!!!

Being a float freak, wacko Trout angler, I was AMAZED!  A Speckled Trout!!!

Things cooled off for awhile, and I even asked, "Ya'll want to stay and try it for a little while longer?" And it wasn't long, and I was glad I asked and we did.

Because here's what happened next.

The Video Footage:



The Redbass Queen!

Blacktip sharks? Arm straining battles?  I know exactly where and when to be there. With my super heavy duty tackle (Accurate twin drag reels), of course.

The monster Redbass?   I found them again. And it's a bit longer boat ride.

Let's Go!

Bored...so I went "archiving"

I'm sitting here kinda bored. Ready for Erica J. and her daughter tomarrow. ALWAYS look forward to Erica on board the Jettywolf.

There's so much info and "stuff" here on this blog, that sometimes I don't even remember all the posts or links that have graced these pages that are done for YOUR benefit.

I love this video, of myself and "RKA, Nick" goofing around on one hell of a windy November day. (My #1 favorite month of the entire year.)

One thing is, I haven't seen but tiny 3" Croakers so far this year, and just a handful of Yellowmouth Trout, too. Wow, how things change around here.

Thank goodness for all my "archives" (located on the right side bar, by the month) which enables me to see changes easily.

Nick is a busy guy. And man do we need to get together again real soon. We always have so much fun. Even if he looses his only fish.

Enjoy...again (I did)
 
If you know ME. I cannot fish without my Jus' Grab It Glove. And don't know how I ever did without.
I hate chasing a nasty rag arund the boat all the time. The owner of the JGIG is from Mandeville, La.
Where the JGIG is like having a  fishing rod. For some reason, J-ville fisherman, jus don't get it, I guess.
Because I don't see  many out there, even though they're availible locally at Academy Sports.

Go-figure....I gave Dave Workman at Strike Zone a chance at being a dealer a long time ago. He has everything else in that shop, and allot that's not neccessary to go fishing either. He didn't pick-up on the idea. I guess I'm the weirdo. Like a Louisianian.

6/28 - The largest of the Large:

Now called Goliath Grouper, but always known as Jewfish. These fish are monster Grouper. They inhabit shallow waters on our coast. Occasionally caught in the river, at the jetties, and even in the ICW.

Here's a reported dead one estimated at 300 pounds that was found on Hugonaut Park beach, river side. A few weeks ago.
"a shame".

Not quality photos, but ya get the idea..."wonder if anyone examined this fish to see if there was a spear hole in it or something."

Where we are NO longer allowed to fish anymore, along the Navy Base past the Mayport Boat Ramp. I caught two small Jewfish one time. A 7.5 pounder and on my next cast, a Lil' 2 pounder.

Here is the larger one laying on a 72Qt. cooler. On super light tackle, the fish really whooped up on me.

It's too bad we can't fish where I caught these Jewfish.....the Navy of course owns "OUR" river, ya know. Because on the same spot where the two small Jewfish came from I've caught everything from 10 Pound Speckled Trout, to Cobia. And everything in between.

Now?

Not anymore.

Offshore it's "species" the goverment is taking away. Inshore, it's just "shoreline".

  

6/27 - TIDES, live and breath them. The fish do.

Here's a trivia question for ya'll to ponder; "Do tides go in or out, or up and down?"


I've made mention I don't know how many times, that I do not book a single charter without consulting my Florida Sportsman Tide Planner Book.

A good fisherman should "study" our tides like they are taking a self guided college course in NE Florida tides. Because everything you do is dependent on it, when you go fishing.

Being one of those "study like it's a college course" kinda anglers. I ran across a portion of the Marine weather website that I look at that was really and "eye opener".

Tides on that free card at the bait shop, in the newspaper, , on your tide watch or whever is a "PREDICTED" tide.

Reality is it's not a perfect science. Like fishing!

Variables that change the way that tides flow up and down, are barometric pressure. The atmosphere weighing more or less each day pushes down on the water, squeezing it out as if you pour water on your counter top at home, and then take your hand and lay it on the water and push down. The water will squirt from under your hand. Same thing...barometric pressure forces the water to move horizonally, beyond the control of the moon. Wind direction, another consideration. We've all seen how fast the tide flows as it ebbs at the jetties when there's a hard west wind. The tide or at least water on the surface is hauling butt!

Well, here's proof that the tides aren't always what they were predicted to be.
St. John's River Operational Forecast System (SJOFS)

-Mayport

SISTERS CREEK/ST. JOHNS RIVER

Here you can see the "now cast" versus the predicted is quit different.

Here's another graph that shows actual and predicted/forecasted.

Historic Tide Data - Mayport Bar Pilot Dock.

http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/geo.shtml?location=8720218

If you want to have a nice log book full of tide predictions for the whole state.  I highly reccomend the Florida Sportsman Tide Planner. Found at local bait shops, and Strike Zone. I get a new one every Thanksgiving. So I'm ready to start the new year off right.


Trivia Question Answer: Tides DO NOT go in and out. They "rise and fall". The by product, I guess you could say is that they create allot of current in a place like the dreadged to the hilt, St. Johns River. So when I talk about the fast or slow current in the river, while fishing, I'm refering to the strength of the tide. Actual, or being helped by other earthly forces, like wind and barometric pressure etc.

Here's some "tide animation" to help you out:

More helpful "pictures" if you're interested, with really nice simple explanations.

6/26 - Blast from the past.....

Was surfing one of my favorite sites.....EBAY and came upon this:

(link) Capt Dave's Redfish tapes

Yepper, that my Mom holding her largest ever Redfish, that had no less than 150 spots on it on the cover of that video.
Back in 2000, I made two instructional; type video's. Using the two day seminar I gave at the Florida Sportsman Magazine Fishing Expo, downtown at the Prime Osborne Convention center.

Ohhhh....was that the good ole days.

Florida Sportsman would invite local guides to do seminars and at the same time, for doing so give you a booth to set up and talk to people about charters, techniques, show photos/videos, and just plain swap fish tales.

It was a really good time. So my dad set up a tri-pod, in the back of the crowd as I stood up on a flats boat floating in a fake pond, and talked about jetty fishing, from A-Z in 20 minutes or so.

We used the seminar as part of the video we produced. It took well over a year and we had tons of fishing footage. Then, we ran it all through Adobe Premier editing software and still had one big video. My dad got in touch with Bennett Marine Video out in California. And we used them as the video duplicator, and distributor. And Mr. Bennett suggested we take our "too long of a video" and cut it into two videos.

One on just Redfish, and another on Sheepshead, Drum, Trout and Flounder. The Flounder fishing section we did was my favorite, because by the time we got to covering the Flounder fishing in the late summer early fall, I was allot better at being on camera.

Can you believe, that this was all before super braid line? And back then, not everyone owned a cell phone!!  Seems like 100 years ago. And many of the clients I take fishing are out fooling with their handheld computers while on the boat. And back then, no one had all that stuff. And in reality, it wasn't all that long ago.

Things sure change. It wasn't long after I did the expo's for two years, that Florida Sportsman Magazine started charging everyone for a booth at their sportsman's show. Local yokal guides doing seminars with free booths were replaced by the Florida Sportsman Radio Show team of hosts from around the state. And in my humble opinion, the seminars got really generic.

How's a guy from S. Florida gonna answer questions about "our" jetties.....the #1 fishing area in all of J-ville Florida???

You either had to be a radio show sponsor, a magazine advertiser, or in the right crowd to be invited to the Expo.

But hell, I squeezed everything I could out of what I did there. Probably way more than most Guides ever did. Thanks to my dad, business manager and best bud. He used the opportunity to learn how to edit video, market it, and made some money on it too. For the hours he spent working on the projects, the camera and sound equipment, and the software he bought, he probably earned about .50 cents an hour, with the royalties he received. But it was a great learning experience for sure.

Now, I see my old video on Ebay. And wow has the last 15 years flew by. Yes, I'm on my 16th year of being a 100% full-time fishing guide, in Jacksonville, Florida.  NOT an easy task.

I've learned allot since those days, and things sure have changed allot too.  I ought to sit down with Dad and watch our old copies of the video, which we also had made into DVD's...... again having to change with the times, over the years.

6/25 - Mystery hook-ups

Today's tide was one of those that can be expected during the deep summer months. Very weak, and when the flow stops, IT STOPS!

Had Robert and his grandfather out today. Robert was 16 years old, and his Pop's was from Baton Rouge, La.

Louisiana, the World Series of Speckled Trout fishing and only second to them is, everything else. When talking inshore fishing.
No trout here worth going after. So I tried my best to get young Robert on as many monster Redbass as I could. The slow tide would be a major factor. 

First thing we needed, Bait. Keeping my ear to the VHF radio. They were reported to be out deep past the jetties. So we blasted out there and yes, there was an acre of them. Someone said they saw Tarpon rolling in those deep schools. But I didn't see any. And  I was right there. But we tried a few drifts through them with Pogies on a few floats.

It would be "too much" like the good ole days to pull up to a pogie pod and start hooking Tarpon. So we headed back to the jetties.

We had no less than 4 really big fish hooked up. But each one either came off the hook or broke the 40 pound leaders right at the swivel every time. We actually had I.G. - instantaneous gratification. Because we weren't on location 10 minutes when the first rod bender came, while dropping pogies to the bottom some 50 feet below.

Frustrated, I picked up anchor and headed down river. The same spot "again" I tried where the twin 35 pounders came from about 10 days ago. All we had there was Bluefish eating our baits....the green scourge fish are back!

So we picked up and headed back to the jetties once again. 

It didn't take all that long and we were back into the fish that gave us a 2 second thrill.....the rod bounces, bends over, drag smokes and then a broke leader. All I could think was that it was Sharks. The area was alive with threadfin herring, and small Spanish Mackerel jumping all over the place.

We saw a few Tarpon back come out of the water, so they were definately there. When the rod doubles over and I see a Tarpon about 50-70 pounds go flying threw the air. Grandpa's, hooked up! But as the fish came toward the boat it got off the hook.

Next up, was young Robert on a Nurse Shark. That kicked his butt so bad Grandpa had to finish the job.

 
The action started to slow as the tide started to slow down. We were only going to have decent current so long today. When there's hardly 4 feet of tide in the St. Johns be prepared for no water movemement.

FINALLY, a rod bowed over I set the hook and made sure this fish was on and stayed on. And it was finally our targeted species, a over sized Redbass. But Grandpa was on the rod. So he made quick work of what was clearly a Redbass.

It was a pretty 13 pounder on the scale, that had the distinct yellowish "deep river" look to it.

As the tide finished flowing. so did we and headed back to the dock.

6/22 - Triple Tarpon...Solo.

Tarpon AKA “Silver King”:

Believe it or not, the Tarpon is really a giant saltwater bait fish called “Thread Herring”.

Since no one wanted to go. I headed out myself today. Really didn't have much of a plan. The only thing I knew was that I didn't want to contend with any river current, or deep water anchoring. Need to save my back for Saturday's charter.

Yeah, it was hot and boy was it smokey. The wind had the forest fire smoke blowing in and the whole area looked like an over cast winter day. But I didn't care. It didn't bother me none.

Had three Tarpon hook ups today and landed one about 30 pounds. (they are very hard to estimate) Boatside release, had the gaff in it's mouth and tried to haul it over the gunnel hold rod and 6 foot gaff. My hand gaff was locked up in my console dry storage and could'nt get to it. Let alone try and film or photo. Tried that too, but the camera wasn't ON, when I thought it was. (dammit!!!!!)

So, No photos, no video.
It was like this one caught by Anne Quigley of Virginia

I tried to video and photo, but solo it was really hard to do it all.

Big Mullet on a float near Mullet schools at the jetties.

I saw another boat hook up and reel one in too.

No chumming, no pogies, no drifting.....jus' as I used to say...."why run around looking for Tarpon when they're all around the jetty rocks."

4th of July week

4th of July week, is coming fast.

As with all summer holidays.

BOOK NOW. Do not wait till the last minute as it can get more expensive that way.

I live by the motto; "When ya fail to plan, you plan to fail."  But then again, I'm always early everywhere I go, too.

I'm at the dock no less than an hour before every charter. Other people just assume that my charter's late, because they always say to me, "Your folks not showing??" As if they get satisfaction out of making that comment.

They don't know I'm obsessed with being, E-A-R-L-Y.

6/20 - Aluminum boat education:

"Dat's the largest aluminum boat I've ever seen..."

Yep, I get that daily from people at the bait shop. Which is wrong, because they see at least the Pilot boats in Mayport and they're all plate aluminum.

The Mary P.

She's the second largest Sportfisherman in the world at 122', and was built by Trinity Yachts based in Gulfport, Mississippi. She was actually built at Trinity's New Orleans yard and launched in 2008. She's owned by a Louisiana oilman, Daryl Pennington, which is a good thing since she uses a whole lot of what he sells. I read that she holds 7000 gallons of fuel so you could buy a nice boat for $30,000 OR top off the Mary P,  ONCE, for the same cash!

MORE, to see how the other half lives?
http://www.trinityyachts.com/t044.asp