11/6 - RECORD SETTERS & NOTES:

RECORD SETTING TEMPS AGAIN

NOT GOOD!!!!!
CAN YOU BELIEVE OUR LOW TEMP YESTERDAY WAS 18 DEGREES OVER WHAT IT SHOULD BE.
THE ONLY REASON I EVEN MENTION IT, IS BECAUSE THIS IS NOT GOOD FOR FISHING.

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BECAUSE THERE'S A MAJOR HOLIDAY IN THIS MONTH I GET A FORCED VACATION WITH NO ONE WANTING TO DO SHIT. UNLESS YOU'RE CALLING ME WITH SOME WACKO IDEA, OR THINK I'M A PARTY BOAT.
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My problem is I remember late October's when we all had to wear sweatshirts and jackets. Thats my problem...."I always remember."


THIS SUNDAYS WEATHER FORECAST:

SUNDAY
NORTHEAST WINDS 25 TO 30 KNOTS WITH OCCASIONAL GUSTS TO
GALE FORCE. SEAS 5 TO 7 FEET WITH OCCASIONAL SEAS UP TO 9 FEET
BUILDING TO 7 TO 10 FEET WITH OCCASIONAL SEAS UP TO 13 FEET IN THE
AFTERNOON. INLAND WATERS ROUGH. SCATTERED SHOWERS AND ISOLATED
THUNDERSTORMS.

YEAH ROLL TIDE......ROLL!! OVER THE THANKSGIVING DAY HOLIDAY.  FULL MOON, AGAIN.  BUT WHEN IT COMES TO TIDE HEIGHTS (BETWEEN LOW & HIGH TIDE) OCTOBER TOOK THE CAKE AND WON THE PRIZE.

EXPECT THE SAME OVER THE CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY. AS I TELL ALL FULL MOON BOOKING CHARTER CUSTOMERS, "HAVE PATIENCE PLEASE. HAVE PATIENCE!"

Planning a trip to "heaven on earth", Slidell, Louisiana for February. Not the typical vacation month. But if you're me, it's the only time I can afford to go ANYWHERE!
AIRBNB.com has some serious deals on places to stay. And we're just gonna rent a boat for a few days to fish and explore around. 

LATE NOVEMBER JETTY TROUT...."but ya better be salty if it's rough out there."





THINK CHRISTMAS

check out the coupon code here in this video for 25% off RUGGED SHARK MARINE FOOTWEAR!

YES, 25% OFF ALL ORDERS WITH THIS CODE AT CHECK OUT.
OFFERS GOOD TILL DECEMBER 31ST

10/4 - Tackle Junkie strikes again

COMING SOON:

Two rod reviews via Youtube Video on my channel (not yet subscribed? Well ya need too!) 

Anyone who knows me knows I'm facinated with catching fish on a small piece of metal, aka: Micro jig.  And I've been in "AWE" of the Daiwa Ryoga series of reels since the first one.

So, of course this leads to a progression.  Wanting to try out the real deal when it comes to quality jigging tackle, not found all that easily in the USA, for some unknown reason.  No trade agreements of something? 

So, the next video will educate you on The WIKI - Fire Ocean jigging rod in a unbelievable, xtra,xtra,xtra, ULTRA light action.

Here's a clip from the manufacture:

The jigging rod will be paired up with this reel:

Daiwa Ryoga 10/16 - 12 bearing on every friction point makes it utterly the smoothest reels I have ever held in my hand.

  

NEXT is a rod that for the price just blew me away!  The Wright & Mcgill S-curve 8' Tony Roach, bottom bouncer walleye rod.  Ya say Walleye rod for a saltwater guide?  Yep, but it has all the attributes I wanted in a long distance casting rod. Supple tip, with middle of the rod back bone, and 8 feet long rated up to 2 ounces. My use will be casting large trout plugs............. real far!

Yes, Speckled Sea Trout. My favorite fish of all.

Plus, the finer details of this rod (for the price) is utterly amazing!  It has a long rear grip that's like a Golf club grip. Super tactile. That soft touch black reel seat material that's again, a step UP, way UP.  And killer guides that have no ceramic at all, and look tuff as nails. 

-this photo does this rod zero justice

The reason the Video has to wait, is because I'm waiting on this:

THE DAIWA SHRAPNEL C300H.  Part of the Ryoga series of Ultimate baitcasters, this one can hold a lot of 50 pound plus braided line. Has all the attributes of a smaller Ryoga. But is a super caster, of large lures.  "Just what I have planned for it."

Again, you don't even realize what you're missing till you fish these Ryoga reels, but I at least should pass on the knowledge, so you know what's out there for if and when you become a "TACKLE JUNKIE".  I have personally tested out them all and tested them against some of the best, such as a Tatula, a Curado, a Lexa's. Sure they may not be of the same grade. But when you can cast effortlessly and almost into the direct wind with a 4" diving plug......I'm blown away! 

Here's about all you'll find on Youtube showing the Daiwa Ryoga Shrapnel 300:

So stay tuned. I have a feeling to do this review, or as I like to call them, A Show-N-Tell. This could take awhile. I need to get it all done before Thanksgiving, because of course thats a huge fishing holiday. For all the people that KNOW, it's too hot to go in July August and Sept.

11/1 - Cheap Chinese Ebay lures vs. Big Live Shrimp

Kinda hot today.  Not the way I'd like to see it.Years where it was very cold were always hugely successful Trout years. We actually set a new RECORD with the temp at 89 degrees day time high.

NOT GOOD!

Climate change must be real. Because the last year we had cold temps over this weekend was I believe 1996, and then 2008.  I like it because it makes for Epic Trout fishing.

Started this morning at the jetties, and it was dead on Trout where I tried. And, "I know where to try for them."

So, I changed zip codes quickly. Glad I did!

10/29 - Another 10

From the river to the Mayport Jetties. The fish of the week is the week is the 25 pound Redbass.
And where I was fishing today all ya really needed was some dead shrimp......catch a Croaker. Cut the Croaker into chuncks, and BAM...Your on!

And at times all it took was a piece of shrimp!

Same deal as last year, this time. About the only consistent thing I can say that goes on around here.

Makes for great days. Everyone is happy. (Even though it would be better if at the same time we had a chance at a 25 INCHER, too)  But the take home fish are giant Croakers, Whiting, Yellowmouth Trout, usually. No one wanted these fish today, so I cleaned them up and had them all fried up in Zaterains fish fry mix by 3pm!

See Greg here.....he was the camera man on Jose Wejebe's TV Fishing show, "The Spanish Fly".

This here was "almost" a TRIPLE-HEADER!

Probably from here on out, I'll ween off these Redbass trips and work on Float-rig fishing and jig fishing, in pursuit of the "keeper" Redbass, Black Drum and TROUT!

Unless, I get a part boat kinda trip (4 persons) and then I'm sort of forced to just bottom fish and keep it simple.

10/29 - OCTOBER BULL REDFISH, aboard the Jettywolf

10/29- Who let them dawgs out....

A perfect saying for FLA vs. GA. weekend......Florida better not let them DAWGS OUT!

FIRST "Junk yard dawg" done on the deck at 8:21am.

In between 14 Redbass, there were Yellowmouth Trout, Croakers, a 6' Nurse Shark, and Whiting.
Not bad at all.

"A VIDEO SHORT", forth coming....

10/29 - Float fishing tech tip: (terrible camera)

PROOF:  100% versatility. The float-rig  Deep or shallow.

If it's nasty the Jettywolf can handle it.
How 'bout you?

10/28 - Fishing Rod Racks; make your own cheap.

D.I.Y - rod racks.
NOT FURNITURE, it's not the Jettywolf's style.

10/27 - Jax Climate Change:

I have a saying...."If it's cold and blowin over the Fla./Georgia Game weekend. (I'm in heaven) It's gonna be a good winter season,"

Why do I say that?

Because when it "USED TOO", be cold and blowing by this up coming weekend. We always had a great winter fishing season. At least the "kick off" to the fall season was good.

If we're "sweating" on Halloween. It's not a good thing!

I remember when we had years that by now, we'd have bone chilling mornings. Could be cold (40) and crisp, and I'd still be in "shorts mode". But with the Grundens foul weather suit on. And I remember those charters, and they were great!

Alot of my career has to do with the climate. I'm like a Farmer. But my "crop" is the general public who wants to fish, and the fish in the water that I hope are easy to catch!

If I had a scanner I could fill this blog with photo after photo of those October days. Because that was before the "smart phones and digital age". But rest assured I cherish each and every hard copy photo I have, and love looking through them every couple years, especially with family and friends.

Yep, I've been doing this for awhile.

I kinda doubt that over Halloween it'll be 40 degrees in the morning. When condensation hovers over the surface of the water (water fog). But when it does happen.

IT'S  SO GO-TIME!

10/25 - Back to "active" fishing......

ACTIVE AS DEFINED AS;  "working your cork or jig"......Not just bait-n-waitin', fishing.

Beautiful sunrise of all places, while sitting at the boat ramp!

Look at that texture in the sky!  "Was it a red sky in the morning Sailors take warning"
NOPE, not till the afternoon when it went from dead calm, no wind, slick water, to rough water , loads of wind and even rain!

Had Rob and Tommy aboard today. Game plan....go shallow, fish the simple corks and a 1/8th ounce jighead and dead shrimp. For.....IT ALL.
But it was too damn calm.

They did get a few drum and a few speckled trout but all were pretty small. With one keeper Drum at 15". Then, it was on too Float-rig fishing.
Loads of small Specks, too many ravenous sand trout. But they did box a few keeper specks.

Then we made a good move. River rock pile. Trout, Flounder and Reds. Between the float-rigs and just plain ole Jig-n-shrimp combo meals. Even a few Mangrove Snappers.

Ended the day cleaning fish in the rain back at the dock. That was just "wonderful!"
But a good day overall.

KEEPER SIZED REDBASS?? WHO WOULD HAVE THUNK IT TO BE REAL?
NO MORE BAIT-N-WAITING FOR ME IF I CAN HELP IT. SITTING AND WAITING FOR A BIG FISH (BULL REDFISH), THAT EVERYONE THINKS WE ARE GONNA KEEP.

10/23 - "one outa three"

Blowin, nasty at the jetties, smoking falling tide all day. Guess one out of three wasn't all bad.
25 pound Brutus T. Redbass at Blount island, on a cut piece of "fresh" sand trout. Lost the other strikes from break-off's. Getting cut off while using 50 pound Test leaders. Hmmmm?
largest fish my two crew members ever saw in person. (that happens a lot)

Prior, we fished shrimp on the bottom for an assortment of small fish at the jetties and in the river.

10/20 - inshore shallow waters

NO KIDDING...we went so shallow I grounded the boat on a shell bar.
"don't try this with your fancy gelcoat boat" the glass doesn't like oysters!

But on the most comfortable and deepest "Bay Boat" in Jacksonville.
I can do that, because I ain't skeered!

Whatever it takes to fish in a 25 knot, small craft advisory, and still catch 'em. I don't care, the reason I went plate alloy!!!

10/20 - BLOWIN' again!!

W-I-N-D...normally the worst enemy of all Anglers.  And today was no exception.

BUT we prevailed.  It took all day to get right. But Dennis and I ended up having a real Blast.

Shallow water
Snap-on Lemon drop floats
1/8th oz. jig head
Live or dead shrimp

..........40 to 50 fish later (many just undersized) we had ACTION and that's all that counted.

FISH RELEASED:
Flounders
Reds
Trout, to grow up for next year.

Trout to 3 pounds, Drum to 5, and Reds to 23".

WIND BURNT, versus sun burnt again today and it was well worth it. The water was so stirred up, and muddy from all the wind blowing over the shallows (3-4 feet max) that it'll take a week to just clear up if the winds lay.

YES, I see a Bob's Machine Shop "jack plate" in my future soon, as I have the best and largest bay boat out there, in my opinion and of those that fish aboard the Jettywolf.

At one point during the day, I drove up and the boat settled on a oyster shell bar, "crunching shells" under the boat as the boat sat on the bottom, with motor tilted up.  Now thats a bay boat!
NOT worried about my gel-coat!

We fished THAT shallow!! 

10/19 - STUFF FOR SALE

(2) insulated Kingfish Tournament "Fish Bags"

USED, but in great condition. Especially the zippers. That's the real important thing.

1 -  a Bellsouth Greater Jax Kinfish Tournament edition bag

1- a C&H brand bag

NOT JUST FOR KINGFISH...they work for Redfish, Drum, Trout, Spanish Macs, Grouper, Snapper, Dolphin, you name it....great for the boat with no cooler room!

$100 OBO (cash only)
Credit cards/PayPal, add transaction fee +

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

(3) LEFT from sell off of horded tackle, by yours truely!

In perfect condition, may actually have never been used.

Shimano Triton Levelwind / star drag reels 100G model

Will and can catch 99% of all fish that swim in this area. And I probably have, with these Triton reels over the years. WORK HORSE & DEPENDABLE. NO GLITZ TACKLE.

$50 each cash
Credit cards/PayPal, add transaction fee +

retail price $69.99   BUT MINE COME LOADED WITH BRAID

ME AT: 904-642-9546
OR E-MAIL ME AT: CHARTER@CAPTDAVES.COM FOR INFO

10/18 - Jacksonville fishing; fall high winds

I'm talking HIGH WINDS!
So bad that we couldn't stay anchored.
But we figured out what to do. And we continued catching.
Not a lot of "keepers".......but we sure had fun, CATCHING.
Which was the name of the game.

I LOVE FALL -WINTER-SPRING...#1 Jacksonville Inshore Fishing time of year.
(NOT middle of summer......sorry folks.)


RESERVE YOUR DAY NOW
-think ahead to get prime dates!!
www.captdaves.com

10/17 - While it blew....

While it blew pretty good out at the Jetties and in the river. My crew and I went back up in Mill Cove.

We fished the shallows, and because the tide seemed to take forever to flood into the "cove", I took a 26' boat with 4 of us into where most 26' boats don't belong...."Because I can".  The Jettywolf , being made of plate alloy isn't the same as all those glass boats. She floats high and light.  We started casting our rattlin' corks and jigs with live shrimp where m sounder flashed 2 feet of zero. Yeah, it was that shallow!

First off we caugh several "pup" Redfish, a few small Trout and then a decent 4 pound Black Drum. A "targeted species for sure".

A PERFECT eater size! And gave a nice tussle on the light spin tackle.  We moved around and had more pup Redfish and small Speckled Trout, as the tide slowly flooded in.

We actually mixed it up. Between live shrimp under the corks and dead shrimp. Doesn't really seem to matter much.

But then we moved on out of the super shallows and fished the so called channel under the low span of the Dames Point bridge, that goes over the cove.  We broke out the Float-rigs and used the live shrimp in 13 feet of water.

Loads of small Speckled Trout, and foot long to about 14" Sand Trout.

As you can see where we were it was windless and even hot! Totally different ball game then out at the inlet for sure. Couldn't believe the difference, when we pulled up at the boat ramp at the end of the day.

Caught lots of fish, many short. But it was fun, and comfortable for my crew. I was told, that this crew wouldn't have taken getting seasick very well.

I was left with a box of fish, so I cleaned them up and see a fish fry coming soon, next week at the Jettywolf's house.



SUNDAY:
"Small Craft Advisory"
20-25 knots, gusts to gale force is the forecast.
I have a crew of just two......So guess where we're going?
Hiding in Mill Cove!! 

10/16 - Everything off a "cork".

Started the morning off right quick with a bit of, Tug 'O War. Within 5 minutes from leaving the dock.

31 inches and a great fight on the "float rig".  As we headed toward Mill Cove to do some "shallow water fishing".  Get to Mill Cove and this was the 1st cast!

Nice Black Drum for the fish box.  But it was "Too Damn Nice" for Mill Cove in all reality. Beautiful no wind, 'blue bird day'.  Especially Mill Cove, we will always do better on days its about t rain, it's blowing 30 knots, overcast as all hell, and just this side of heinous!

But, we got dinner. A 19" Redfish, and Trout amd this 4 pound Black Drum. But that was'nt all we caught. 14" Trout, small pup Reds and plenty of bites, is what kept us busy today, up in 3 feet of water.

Saturday:  3 guys, Jig-n-shrimp (with and without Corks) at Jetties or inshore up river. Haven't made my mind up yet.   With NW winds 15 knots.

SUNDAY is definitely Mill Cove weather: 

SUNDAY THROUGH MONDAY NIGHT
NORTHEAST WINDS 20 TO 25 KNOTS.
OCCASIONAL GUSTS TO GALE FORCE POSSIBLE. SEAS 4 TO 6 FEET WITH
OCCASIONAL SEAS UP TO 8 FEET. INLAND WATERS VERY ROUGH.

10/15 - Slower & Windier. RIP Jetty anchor # 103

Momma Heng broke the ice with the slow and steady technique today up on the bow of the boat.

Marc, twice while "vertical" jigging with a 1-1/2 oz. Glow jig hung into metal eating sharks, that smoked his jig........Yes, the Blacktips are still around out there and will eat a jig!

Then Marc hangs something else on the jig!
The fight was different this time.

W-T-H, is that?

Marc snagged a Turtle with a Vertical jig!

Just tired and a bit pissed off, it went back no worse for the wear.

Momma Heng, does it again!  Thank goodness, because the action was quite slow.

Dad hung a whopper......a whopper 6' Nurse Shark that broke off at boat side.

And see where I was at the rocks? Well, I left my 5th anchor right there as of today. Yep, and that was my "spare".  So that's two for me in 2015 . I guess I won't be anchoring up in the deep with big current for the next 5 days.

Only anchor I have left is a small 12 pounder that won't hold me in more than 20 feet of water.

10/13 - A JETTYWOLF MOMENT; Fishing Obsessed?

-Hope passing on the "tid-bits" found in my Jettywolf Moments Video's give someone out there some help.

If it or any do. Send me a comment.

10/12 - Jacksonville fishing charters; Mayport Jetty Fall Fishing

Done with my tiny Mobius camera on it's hat clip mount.

A lot of fish action was not captured due to the limited battery power.....but, ya'll get the "jist" of what you are missing, RIGHT?

Truely, the best charter days are just two persons. I'm not a "inshore party boat". (photo represents the kind of fishing boat charter some only know of. "referred to as not all that quality and dirt cheap) 

But really would like to go quality over quantity of people I can take, "and charge for".

Days like this one ran me ragged and I only had two guys that "know" how to fish aboard.
The action was fast at times and nothing comes easy at the Mayport jetties.

From anchoring, to knowing how to hit the bottom and stay there in the river's current, with heavy sinkers. To battling BIG FISH. If you are new to it all. Be ready to be challenged!  Especially if "bottom fishing is involved".