St. Johns River and area lakes
Depending upon where you go, you can pretty much catch a bunch of everything in fresh water this week.
The speckled perch bite is wide open in the old barge canal between the dam and Rodman Reservoir. Know, though, that the two ramps are full by mid-morning, and it can be elbow-to-elbow along the channel. The speck bite is also good in the spillway of the dam, especially at night. But it gets crowded there as well.
Catfish are pretty much all over the St. Johns River. Just mark some deeper spots in 10 feet or more and put down some worms, dead shrimp or cut mullet.
There were some shrimp caught around the Shands Bridge, but it is hit or miss depending on wind and tide. One shrimper threw the net on the up current side of the boat and put live shrimp out on the other. He reported big catches of redfish and catfish on the bottom there.
There are still some shrimp being taken off the piers in Green Cove Springs.
The striper bite is still excellent on the sandbars along the river and Dunn’s Creek. With the couple days of colder weather we’re experiencing, a good bet for hot striper fishing might be on the outside of the three springs runs feeding Lake George. The warmer water holds them there and lipless crankbaits will put them in the boat.
The bass fishing on the drops in the river was good as well. One angler reported catching 40 bass — and about 20 stripers — working the ledges with crankbaits.
The Intracoastal Waterway
The weather has kept activity to a minimum most of the week. But the colder weather has pushed schools of redfish together. Those fishing the backs of the creeks on low water have had consistent action all week long. Trout are around but generally small. Flounder are tough to find except at the Guana Dam. The lake side of the dam is always good on big moons and high tides. But it really didn’t matter this week. Most everyone there hit them hard, and these were generally larger fish averaging 3 to 4 pounds.
The sheepshead bite continues to improve. Find bridge pilings, jetty rocks or big oyster bars and you should find the sheepshead. Drum are around. Bluefish are everywhere. If you really want to find some blues, try Salt Run. If you can’t find them, start speckled trout fishing. They’ll show up almost immediately to ruin it.
The Atlantic
There were no reports of offshore fishing this week. But that’s likely to change quickly. The marine forecast is spectacular for the next few days. And this is the time of year for the wahoo to show up in good numbers in around 160 feet of water. With the bluebird weather and the holiday weekend, it should be hot. If the trolling isn’t working out, it’s a good bet that everyone out deep will fish the ledge for grouper, which closes Sunday and will remain closed until April 31.
Rough surf, dirty water and floating grass has shut down surf fishing all week — again. The pier reports poor catches as well — unless you’re targeting sand perch, stingrays and baby sharks.
The Weather
If you can fish this weekend, do it. We rarely have a marine forecast like the one coming up in June or July let alone December. Southwest breezes will barely blow Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Seas will be 2 feet or less Friday and Sunday. Saturday is supposed to be flat calm.
Calendar
Jan. 17 – The Ancient City Game Fish Association’s monthly meeting. The annual chowder cook-off highlights the event. Cocktail hour kicks off at 6:30 p.m. and the guest speaker will be Captain Russell Tharin with the Florida Insider Fishing Report TV show.