Fernandina Beach to Flagler Beach
Includes Jacksonville and St. Augustine
Includes Jacksonville and St. Augustine
October 28-30
Offshore
C&H Lures located in Jacksonville has been on a very good couple of weeks of wahoo fishing. Wahoo are right on top or just inside the Ledge and watching your temp gauge for the warmest water combined with sightings of bait will quickly get a drag screaming. Another factor is water color changes and trolling right in those lines of significant contrast. Large lures like Mr. Bigs and a new beast of a lure “Poseidon” are the standards for fooling wahoo.
Remember high speed trolling means 12 knots or better and always speed up or drop down to get reaction bites. Sailfish have been fair with the best fishing south of St. Augustine. Rigged ballyhoo slow-trolled just inside the Ledge is the ticket. Avid Angler Bait & Tackle reports much of the same in regards to wahoo and sailfish, but wants to remind everyone grouper are still bending rods on wrecks within 15 miles.
Inshore
Captain Tommy Derringer reports from St. Augustine south that flounder are doing good around the St. Aug and Matanzas inlets. Trout are going crazy just about everywhere right now. There’s good numbers of bigger trout around the inlets. Finger mullet and hard diving plugs are catchin’ ‘em up. Lots of smaller reds schooling up in the creeks but the flats fish are still not grouped up just yet. On the surf side of things, as reported by Rick’s Bait and Tackle, pompano are fired up from south Ponte Vedra to Valano beach and the complaint is, “Those pompano are getting the baits before the whiting.” Now can that possibly be a complaint? Ha, Ha! Look for this to continue through the weekend along with some bull whiting action. With the cool weather, I particularly like to kayak, especially in the Simpson’s creek, Nassau and Ft. George areas which are very kayak-friendly and most importantly hold lots of fish this time of year. On a recent kayak charter, I guided a client to nonstop trout action using ¼-ounce jigheads and brand new MirrOlure “Lil John” lures in the Purple Demon color. Most trout will run in the keeper range from 15 to 18 inches but there are larger trout mixed in along with decent slot redfish and flounder. If you’re looking to just soak dead shrimp on the bottom, black drum, redfish and even sheephead are in the game. Simpson’s Creek, even though it gets lots of pressure, is a top area to try this time of year. Flounder continue to make lots of anglers happy this past week in the St. Johns River and live mullet or spinnerbaits are top choices to try. If you don’t have any luck in a certain area you better move as I had to learn the same lesson.
Most flounder action seems to be near the Dames Point Bridge area.
We want to thank everyone who participated in the 2011 Flounder Pounder, which raised $25,000 for the Jacksonville School for Autism. With the Original Jaw Jacker Jig, Rick Thacker brought a 8.29 doormat specimen to the weigh-in to take largest flounder category and Raymond McCauley took second with a 5.89 flatty. This year a three flounder aggregate was also included and First Place Winner David Merry had 15.42 pounds. Second Place Winner Ben Dodd had 14.03 pounds and they both deserve equal congrats. Also over the weekend was the second annual Irish Water Dog Kayak fishing slam event, with Team Irish water dog keeping their cup two years in a row with a team effort 65 inches. Charlie Ganoe won the champions division twice in a row with 61 inches and Robert Altman took the open division with 62 inches.
Finally, the most important event all anglers need to attend on Nov. 1st at Dick’s Wing’s in the San Pablo Plaza starts at 6:30. It’s called “FISHERMEN DO VOTE” and it’s a Recreational Fishing Alliance sign up event and if you happened to watch the hearings this week the RFA was our only voice. All anglers, offshore, inshore, bass, bream, bank, kayak, shrimper etc., need to wake up from the coma and attend this rally that will have TV attention. This is not a protest. It’s a wake up and smell the coffee event to alert us to what we are all losing in fishing rights and how we all together can make a stand. I hope to see you all next Tuesday night.