Let’s take a look at the year in review for our inshore fishing. We’ll start with trout. For me the daytime trout bite was slow. Trout were caught but not in the quantity and quality that the last few years have produced. I’m thinking that maybe the lack of rain this year had something to do with it, just a wild guess. It wasn’t until late October through the middle of November that I began to get gator trout and most of those were caught on topwater plugs and flies.
Flounder. The flounder run that usually takes place during the month of November never materialized. However, flounder in the 14” to 16” range have produced most of the year. I even had a report that one angler had 65 flounder in one day during the month of October.
Redfish. Redfish have been their usual steady self but have not yet begun to school on the flats. Probably due to the warm weather we’ve been having. I do expect this to change as we head into January “07”.
Snook. On a scale of 1 to 10, I’d rate this year as a 9 compared to previous years. I had some clients lose fish in the 15 to 20 lb range. Because of this I have switched to braided line. I also did good using topwater plugs and flies for snook. Daybreak was the time for flies. During the middle of the day live lining shrimp was the ticket.
Blackdrum. I have never caught as many blackdrum as I did this past year, why I don’t know. Live lining shrimp or shrimp on a jig head did the trick.
Tarpon. I’d rate this year’s tarpon run a 10. They showed up in the beginning of July and were around through the end of August. The run south in August was a sight to behold. Massive bait pods with large tarpon crashing on them and people pulled over on A1A witnessing the show.
So there you have it, my first hand year in review. My new years resolution: Do more fly fishing in “07”. And, oh yea, but what else – go on a diet.
Last week Randy Routh from Washington state and his sister Kathy Routh Sanchez of Palm Coast fished with me. and the pair had action most of the day. The majority of the trout were under sized but they did manage a couple of keepers. They also had a couple of keeper flounder and mangrove snapper, ladyfish and Small reds.
The word from the pier is whiting and blues.
Jake’s Highbridge Bait and Tackle reports reds in the flats around Highbridge and snook up to 25” in the Tamoka basin and smaller ones in Sanchez creek.
Good fishing to all in “2007”
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
The surf and pier are producing whiting, sheepshead, blues and the occasional oversized red. Any red measured with the tail pinched that is over 27” must be released back into the water. Whiting are eating shrimp or fish bites that are fished on a whiting rig. These rigs come pre rigged and can be purchased at any tackle shop. The blues are hitting dead mullet rigged on a fish finder rig. Sheepshead will eat fiddler crabs fished very close to the dock pilings of the pier. Reds will eat a rigged dead or live mullet. Big reds will eat a bluefish or whiting head rigged on a 4/0 or 5/0 hook.
When I was on the beach Sunday helping my wife with a turtle stranding, there were pelicans and seagulls dive on bait about 200 yards off the beach. What they were eating I couldn’t tell but I suspect it may have been schools of glass minnows. I can tell you that a turtle stranding is when a dead turtle washes up on the beach. They take measurements, pictures and other pertinent information and send it off to the state. So far this year over 50 turtles have washed up dead on Flagler and Volusia county beaches. They think it’s some kind of respiratory aliment that is linked to a red algae growing on the turtles shells.
I finally got out to fish for a few hours on Monday afternoon. I hit one of my trout spots and started tossing a 7m mirrolure and had no luck so I switched over to a 3 ½” bomber in the fire tiger color. On about my 5th cast I connected with a 14” trout. I had a couple of more hits and then landed a 16 incher. I then moved to another spot and had no luck so I moved on. At the 3rd spot I landed a 15 “ trout and lost another that was about 3 lbs. At the 4th and final spot I landed a couple more 15” trout, lost a couple and had a few other hits. I also landed an 18” snook at the last spot.
I like to use deeper diving plugs this time of year because the fish are deeper due to the colder water. Use small plugs in the winter because the trout’s main diet is glass minnows. Fish these plugs slow. Most fish are pretty lethargic this time of year and don’t like to expend a lot of energy chasing bait. If you have a depth finder try trolling the dropoffs in the ICW. You’ll need a plug that can dive in the 6 to 10 ft range.
Photo: Fred Smith with a 20”, 6 spot red that was caught in the flats on a gold spoon.
When I was on the beach Sunday helping my wife with a turtle stranding, there were pelicans and seagulls dive on bait about 200 yards off the beach. What they were eating I couldn’t tell but I suspect it may have been schools of glass minnows. I can tell you that a turtle stranding is when a dead turtle washes up on the beach. They take measurements, pictures and other pertinent information and send it off to the state. So far this year over 50 turtles have washed up dead on Flagler and Volusia county beaches. They think it’s some kind of respiratory aliment that is linked to a red algae growing on the turtles shells.
I finally got out to fish for a few hours on Monday afternoon. I hit one of my trout spots and started tossing a 7m mirrolure and had no luck so I switched over to a 3 ½” bomber in the fire tiger color. On about my 5th cast I connected with a 14” trout. I had a couple of more hits and then landed a 16 incher. I then moved to another spot and had no luck so I moved on. At the 3rd spot I landed a 15 “ trout and lost another that was about 3 lbs. At the 4th and final spot I landed a couple more 15” trout, lost a couple and had a few other hits. I also landed an 18” snook at the last spot.
I like to use deeper diving plugs this time of year because the fish are deeper due to the colder water. Use small plugs in the winter because the trout’s main diet is glass minnows. Fish these plugs slow. Most fish are pretty lethargic this time of year and don’t like to expend a lot of energy chasing bait. If you have a depth finder try trolling the dropoffs in the ICW. You’ll need a plug that can dive in the 6 to 10 ft range.
Photo: Fred Smith with a 20”, 6 spot red that was caught in the flats on a gold spoon.
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
The word from local captains and other sources tell me the fishing has been kind of slow lately. Capt Chris Herrera told me he found a school of reds in some very shallow water and was tossing flies at them and had nothing but refusals. Personally I have nothing to report since I haven’t been on the water in over a week. The last time I fished our local flats I could only find a couple of small reds but no schools.
Traditionally by the time the month of December winds down and January rolls in schools of reds start to appear in the flats. By this time the water should cool to the low 60’s to upper 50’s and bring in gin clear water to the northern flats of the county. This is a good time to sight fish for reds. They will come up into the flats as the day wears on to warm up and feed. At this time it’s not unusual to find schools of reds that number into the 100’s. I have witnessed such schools on more than one occasion. You can chase one school for as long as the tide will let you.
Once you locate a school you’ll want to use some stealth. If you need to drop anchor, lower it into the water softly so as not to spook the fish. Try to keep movement on the boat to a minimum. Any noise you make on the boat transfers into the water. Use your trolling motor or push pole, if you have one, to search for the fish. Don’t go roaring into the flats, throw your anchor into the water, and expect to catch fish. You’ve just scared off any fish that were there and it could take a good while before they return.
What type of baits to use? That depends on your style of fishing. For live bait fisherman, live or cut mullet is always a good choice. A live shrimp is also a good choice. You can live line it or rig it on a 1/16th once jig head. Live mud minnows work extremely well too. For those of you that use artificial baits your choices are numerous. Soft plastic shrimp, jerk baits, curly tailed grubs and imitation minnows all work. Berkley gulp imitations are a sure bet as are gold spoons. The fly fisherman can use clouser minnows, crab or shrimp patterns and spoon flies. All of the above mention baits will all work, some better than others at certain times.
Photo: Captain Rob Ottlein with a 6 ¾ lb trout that was caught on bubble-head fly back in early November.
Traditionally by the time the month of December winds down and January rolls in schools of reds start to appear in the flats. By this time the water should cool to the low 60’s to upper 50’s and bring in gin clear water to the northern flats of the county. This is a good time to sight fish for reds. They will come up into the flats as the day wears on to warm up and feed. At this time it’s not unusual to find schools of reds that number into the 100’s. I have witnessed such schools on more than one occasion. You can chase one school for as long as the tide will let you.
Once you locate a school you’ll want to use some stealth. If you need to drop anchor, lower it into the water softly so as not to spook the fish. Try to keep movement on the boat to a minimum. Any noise you make on the boat transfers into the water. Use your trolling motor or push pole, if you have one, to search for the fish. Don’t go roaring into the flats, throw your anchor into the water, and expect to catch fish. You’ve just scared off any fish that were there and it could take a good while before they return.
What type of baits to use? That depends on your style of fishing. For live bait fisherman, live or cut mullet is always a good choice. A live shrimp is also a good choice. You can live line it or rig it on a 1/16th once jig head. Live mud minnows work extremely well too. For those of you that use artificial baits your choices are numerous. Soft plastic shrimp, jerk baits, curly tailed grubs and imitation minnows all work. Berkley gulp imitations are a sure bet as are gold spoons. The fly fisherman can use clouser minnows, crab or shrimp patterns and spoon flies. All of the above mention baits will all work, some better than others at certain times.
Photo: Captain Rob Ottlein with a 6 ¾ lb trout that was caught on bubble-head fly back in early November.
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Last Saturday I left my house at 5am and headed forty minutes south to Edgewater to fish Mosquito Lagoon. I picked up my buddy John Sizemore at his house and headed to the local boat ramp. After launching the boat we headed south to fish the clinkers. We picked up a couple of trout on 7m mirrolures but it was redfish we were really after so we decided to head north to fish the flats that were not far from where we launched.
In this area it’s pretty easy to wind up in very shallow water real quick if you don’t know where you are going. That’s what happened to us so we had to backtrack and start over. We finally reached our destination and found the area loaded with bait and a lone kayaker that was fishing the shoreline. Although the water was crystal clear the sight fishing was limited because of clouds and a slight chop on the water. We headed to more open water and I got up on the platform to pole the grassflat while John began blind casting a Capt. Mikes gold spoon. Within five minutes we had a 6 lb red in the boat.
Poling further into the flat we spooked several other reds and John cast to a lone red that we spotted but it took off when the spoon was dragged across it’s back. It didn’t take long before John had another red on but this one was much smaller than the first. Heading out of the flats we came upon a point and spooked several more reds. We fished this spot for a few minutes and were rewarded with another red. We fished the rest of the way and wound up losing a couple more fish.
If you have never fished the Lagoon you should put it on your list of places to fish. There are extensive grass flats that hold lots of reds and big trout. When the conditions are right it is also a great place to sightfish.
There are a couple of reasons I like to use a gold spoon when fishing the flats. One reason is because you can cover a lot of water with it. You can also cast it fairly easy into a wind because of its weight. The trick here is to use more of a sidearm cast rather than an overhand one. It keeps the spoon at a lower trajectory that keeps it from getting caught up in the wind. The best reason of all to use the spoon is that it is not often that a redfish will pass one up. Give one a try the next time your on the flats.
Photo: John Sizemore sports a 6 lb red that was caught in Mosquito Lagoon using a gold spoon.
In this area it’s pretty easy to wind up in very shallow water real quick if you don’t know where you are going. That’s what happened to us so we had to backtrack and start over. We finally reached our destination and found the area loaded with bait and a lone kayaker that was fishing the shoreline. Although the water was crystal clear the sight fishing was limited because of clouds and a slight chop on the water. We headed to more open water and I got up on the platform to pole the grassflat while John began blind casting a Capt. Mikes gold spoon. Within five minutes we had a 6 lb red in the boat.
Poling further into the flat we spooked several other reds and John cast to a lone red that we spotted but it took off when the spoon was dragged across it’s back. It didn’t take long before John had another red on but this one was much smaller than the first. Heading out of the flats we came upon a point and spooked several more reds. We fished this spot for a few minutes and were rewarded with another red. We fished the rest of the way and wound up losing a couple more fish.
If you have never fished the Lagoon you should put it on your list of places to fish. There are extensive grass flats that hold lots of reds and big trout. When the conditions are right it is also a great place to sightfish.
There are a couple of reasons I like to use a gold spoon when fishing the flats. One reason is because you can cover a lot of water with it. You can also cast it fairly easy into a wind because of its weight. The trick here is to use more of a sidearm cast rather than an overhand one. It keeps the spoon at a lower trajectory that keeps it from getting caught up in the wind. The best reason of all to use the spoon is that it is not often that a redfish will pass one up. Give one a try the next time your on the flats.
Photo: John Sizemore sports a 6 lb red that was caught in Mosquito Lagoon using a gold spoon.
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
The other day I was asked if trout fishing was closed for the month, the answer is no. It is however closed for the months of November and December South of the Volusia/Flagler county line. You cannot launch your boat in Volusia county, fish in Flagler county, and bring trout back to Volusia. FWC will not listen to your reasoning if you try to do this, so be aware.
Talking of trout I can tell you this, they are all over the place right now. Fish anywhere in the ICW from Matanzas to the south end of Flagler and you’re sure to find them. They range from 14” to 25”. They’ll hit anything you throw at them. Live shrimp, live or cut mullet and artificial baits. Artificials include hard plastics such as top water and diving plugs. Soft Plastics with a paddle tail will produce extremely well as will shrimp imitations. You’ll want to use either a 1/8 oz or ¼ oz jig head when fishing these soft plastics.
The flounder bite continues to improve with the falling water temperatures. They’re taking buck tail jigs as are trout. They’ll also eating live mullet, live shrimp, mud minnows and soft plastics that are bumped across the bottom.
Mark Wagenschuner fished the Matanzas area in his kayak on Tuesday and had trout to 4 lbs on top water flies and buck tail jigs and a pompano on a fly. Mark also said there were tarpon from 20 lbs to 150 lbs at the inlet. Don’t expect the tarpon to stay around long due to the falling water temps.
Calvin, Kevin and Dan Coates fished with me last Sunday and the trio had over 25 fish. They landed a wide variety that included trout, flounder, redfish, black drum, snook, lady fish and mangrove snapper. All were on live shrimp
Mike Salzer and DeAnne and Mike Salzer Jr. fished with me and this past Tuesday and this trio also did well. They landed a bunch of trout between 14” and 20” and had a couple of keeper flounder. The fish were caught on live shrimp.
After reading about the fishing that is taking place I hope you get out to get in on the action and enjoy the weather we’ve been having lately.
Photo: Dan Coates with a blackdrum that was caught live lining a shrimp
Talking of trout I can tell you this, they are all over the place right now. Fish anywhere in the ICW from Matanzas to the south end of Flagler and you’re sure to find them. They range from 14” to 25”. They’ll hit anything you throw at them. Live shrimp, live or cut mullet and artificial baits. Artificials include hard plastics such as top water and diving plugs. Soft Plastics with a paddle tail will produce extremely well as will shrimp imitations. You’ll want to use either a 1/8 oz or ¼ oz jig head when fishing these soft plastics.
The flounder bite continues to improve with the falling water temperatures. They’re taking buck tail jigs as are trout. They’ll also eating live mullet, live shrimp, mud minnows and soft plastics that are bumped across the bottom.
Mark Wagenschuner fished the Matanzas area in his kayak on Tuesday and had trout to 4 lbs on top water flies and buck tail jigs and a pompano on a fly. Mark also said there were tarpon from 20 lbs to 150 lbs at the inlet. Don’t expect the tarpon to stay around long due to the falling water temps.
Calvin, Kevin and Dan Coates fished with me last Sunday and the trio had over 25 fish. They landed a wide variety that included trout, flounder, redfish, black drum, snook, lady fish and mangrove snapper. All were on live shrimp
Mike Salzer and DeAnne and Mike Salzer Jr. fished with me and this past Tuesday and this trio also did well. They landed a bunch of trout between 14” and 20” and had a couple of keeper flounder. The fish were caught on live shrimp.
After reading about the fishing that is taking place I hope you get out to get in on the action and enjoy the weather we’ve been having lately.
Photo: Dan Coates with a blackdrum that was caught live lining a shrimp
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
For the past four years I have been involved in The Oldest City Red-Trout Celebrity Classic tournament in St. Augustine to help raise money for Cystic Fibrosis. It seems every year the tournament has been affected by the weather and this year was no exception. Last Friday was the start of the two day event and with winds at 25 knots and gusting the days fishing was canceled.
Launching that Friday at the Villano boat ramp wasn’t too bad until you reached the open water to go under the bridge to reach Camachee Cove Marina. Once you hit the open water you were greeted by 3ft waves. Let me tell you this is not the kind of water you want to be in with a 17’ flats skiff. Heading into the wind and waves I took two over the bow and was soaked by the time I reached the marina. One of the other Captains almost lost his skiff when he came down off a wave and buried his bow into the next wave. He said the water was up over the gunnels but his engine didn’t die and he was able to swing the boat around and rid a lot of the water he took on. Luck was with him this day.
At Camachee Cove they told us the day was canceled but if we wanted to take our people fishing someplace else it was up to us. My anglers, Wade Wilson and Sam Killin, followed me to Bings Landing and we fished for half a day. The fishing was tough due to the wind but they did manage a couple of 3 lb jacks, mangrove snapper,a small red and a 18” snook.
On Saturday the winds weren’t quite as bad. All teams met at the Villano ramp and we were able to take our anglers to any boat ramp we wanted to launch out of. We returned to Bings along with a few other teams. Again the fishing was slow. They had ladyfish, a couple of small trout, 4 reds to 20”, a 16” snook and 3 flounder. The snook was caught on a live shrimp. The reds were caught on live shrimp and Berkley Gulps, the flounder were on gulps, live shrimp and a gold spoon and the trout were on live shrimp and mullet. The guys fished hard for the day but none of the fish were able to put them on the board. Maybe next year will bring better weather for a change.
Locally, trout to 20” are being caught around the backwaters of Highbridge along with snook at night from the bridge. Reds are also showing in this area and other flats along the ICW. Flounder action has started to pick up around Matanzas and should improve greatly as the month progresses.
The surf and pier are providing blues, whiting and reds. Look for the flounder action to pick up in the surf and pier as well.
Photo: Wade Wilson with a snook that was caught during last Friday’s winds. It hit a 7m mirrolure.
Launching that Friday at the Villano boat ramp wasn’t too bad until you reached the open water to go under the bridge to reach Camachee Cove Marina. Once you hit the open water you were greeted by 3ft waves. Let me tell you this is not the kind of water you want to be in with a 17’ flats skiff. Heading into the wind and waves I took two over the bow and was soaked by the time I reached the marina. One of the other Captains almost lost his skiff when he came down off a wave and buried his bow into the next wave. He said the water was up over the gunnels but his engine didn’t die and he was able to swing the boat around and rid a lot of the water he took on. Luck was with him this day.
At Camachee Cove they told us the day was canceled but if we wanted to take our people fishing someplace else it was up to us. My anglers, Wade Wilson and Sam Killin, followed me to Bings Landing and we fished for half a day. The fishing was tough due to the wind but they did manage a couple of 3 lb jacks, mangrove snapper,a small red and a 18” snook.
On Saturday the winds weren’t quite as bad. All teams met at the Villano ramp and we were able to take our anglers to any boat ramp we wanted to launch out of. We returned to Bings along with a few other teams. Again the fishing was slow. They had ladyfish, a couple of small trout, 4 reds to 20”, a 16” snook and 3 flounder. The snook was caught on a live shrimp. The reds were caught on live shrimp and Berkley Gulps, the flounder were on gulps, live shrimp and a gold spoon and the trout were on live shrimp and mullet. The guys fished hard for the day but none of the fish were able to put them on the board. Maybe next year will bring better weather for a change.
Locally, trout to 20” are being caught around the backwaters of Highbridge along with snook at night from the bridge. Reds are also showing in this area and other flats along the ICW. Flounder action has started to pick up around Matanzas and should improve greatly as the month progresses.
The surf and pier are providing blues, whiting and reds. Look for the flounder action to pick up in the surf and pier as well.
Photo: Wade Wilson with a snook that was caught during last Friday’s winds. It hit a 7m mirrolure.
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
This past Saturday I woke up at 5am to the sound of heavy rain and thunder wondering if the Tamoka Marine tournament was going to take place. I went and got the newspaper had a bite to eat and turned on the weather channel. The radar looked as if it was going to clear soon so I hopped in my truck with boat in tow and headed to Hershal King Park to participate in the tournament. There I met my fishing partner for the day, Capt. Chris Herrera.
The tournament started cloudy without any rain or wind. We headed south in search of trout. We threw topwater plugs for the first hour without a single hit. We moved to another area and found trout almost immediately but nothing with any substantial size. We did manage to put a couple in the livewell to weigh in. The winds started to pick up so we moved on. At the next spot Chris picked up a flounder on his first cast. By now the winds had gotten so bad we had to look for a more sheltered area. We tried a couple of places but couldn’t raise a fish, mainly because the tide went slack. We needed to find moving water so we headed north.
By the time we reached our destination the flats were unfishable, whitecaps with all that wind. That’s how the rest of the day went for us and everyone else who fished it. Fish were caught but not in great numbers.
Here’s the results: Chris Atansoski took first place in the blackdrum division with the only one weighed in – 2.36 lbs. Trout – 1st Randy Homer – 2.20 lbs, 2nd – Jesse Schaster – 1.75 lbs, 3rd – Chris Herrera – 1.58 lbs.
Redfish – 1st – Brian Carr – 7.42 lbs, 2nd – Geoff White – 5.91 lbs, 3rd – Shawn Page – 5.75 lbs.
Flounder – 1st Melissa Page – 2.43 lbs, 2nd – Craig Williamson – 1.97 lbs, 3rd – Chris Herrera – 1.55 lbs.
Randy homer weighed in the heaviest fish of the tournament but the species wasn’t included. Randy landed a 7.74 lb snook that he caught at 3:330 in the afternoon using a black top dog topwater plug.
Beach fishing was hot last week with blues and spanish mackerel tearing up bait in the surf. People tossing plugs were scoring all day long. The blues and Spanish are still around and flounder have begun to move in, also look for the flounder to start to turn on around Matanzas inlet this month. Thanksgiving week is usually the most productive.
Flagler Beach Bait and Tackle reports Ralph Lowery with a 5.10 lb flounder. Joe LoConte had 9 flounder and James Hampton landed a 16 lb – 41” king mackerel. Jake’s Highbridge Bait and Tackle repots blackdrum to 28” around the bridge and snook at night.
Photo: Randy Homer with a 7.74 lb snook caught on a topwater plug
The tournament started cloudy without any rain or wind. We headed south in search of trout. We threw topwater plugs for the first hour without a single hit. We moved to another area and found trout almost immediately but nothing with any substantial size. We did manage to put a couple in the livewell to weigh in. The winds started to pick up so we moved on. At the next spot Chris picked up a flounder on his first cast. By now the winds had gotten so bad we had to look for a more sheltered area. We tried a couple of places but couldn’t raise a fish, mainly because the tide went slack. We needed to find moving water so we headed north.
By the time we reached our destination the flats were unfishable, whitecaps with all that wind. That’s how the rest of the day went for us and everyone else who fished it. Fish were caught but not in great numbers.
Here’s the results: Chris Atansoski took first place in the blackdrum division with the only one weighed in – 2.36 lbs. Trout – 1st Randy Homer – 2.20 lbs, 2nd – Jesse Schaster – 1.75 lbs, 3rd – Chris Herrera – 1.58 lbs.
Redfish – 1st – Brian Carr – 7.42 lbs, 2nd – Geoff White – 5.91 lbs, 3rd – Shawn Page – 5.75 lbs.
Flounder – 1st Melissa Page – 2.43 lbs, 2nd – Craig Williamson – 1.97 lbs, 3rd – Chris Herrera – 1.55 lbs.
Randy homer weighed in the heaviest fish of the tournament but the species wasn’t included. Randy landed a 7.74 lb snook that he caught at 3:330 in the afternoon using a black top dog topwater plug.
Beach fishing was hot last week with blues and spanish mackerel tearing up bait in the surf. People tossing plugs were scoring all day long. The blues and Spanish are still around and flounder have begun to move in, also look for the flounder to start to turn on around Matanzas inlet this month. Thanksgiving week is usually the most productive.
Flagler Beach Bait and Tackle reports Ralph Lowery with a 5.10 lb flounder. Joe LoConte had 9 flounder and James Hampton landed a 16 lb – 41” king mackerel. Jake’s Highbridge Bait and Tackle repots blackdrum to 28” around the bridge and snook at night.
Photo: Randy Homer with a 7.74 lb snook caught on a topwater plug
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
What a difference a day makes. In the 80’s one day and the next day record low temperatures. Such a change can have a definite effect on the fishing. Fish seem to get lockjaw when the barometric pressure changes. It usually takes a couple of days of warmer weather to get them back on a normal feeding pattern. The outlook for this weekend has temperatures back in the 70’s and 80’s for daytime highs so get out and wet a line.
With the cooler air temperatures, daylight savings time and falling water temps will put fish into their fall patterns. Trout will start retreating to deeper water, schools of redfish should begin to appear on the flats, flounder will become active around Matanzas inlet and the snook bite will begin to slow with the falling water temps.
The cooler water temps will also effect offshore fishing as well. Sailfish and marlin will be migrating south. Sails can sometimes be found as close in as 10 miles at local area wrecks and reefs. Grouper and red snapper will also start moving in to these areas. I had a report of sails and wahoo 70 miles out last weekend. Just be careful if you venture out this time of year, seas can get pretty rough.
Last week Russ Saboe and John Inman fished the ICW with me. The day started off slow without a touch on topwater plugs. Things didn’t improve any when I switched them over to mirrolures. Things began to improve once I changed them over to live shrimp and moved to where we had an out going tide. They landed a couple of blackdrum, a few trout and two snook. The snook were 22 and 24 inches. Russ caught the most beat up snook I’ve ever seen. This fish was obviously in the clutches of a dolphin at one time. To look at it you had to wonder how it ever survived but it did.
I caught my biggest fish on a fly last week, a 6 ¾ lb trout. The fish swirled on my bubblehead fly as I striped it in. I picked up my line and cast out the fly again and the fish swirled on it once. The third cast proved to be the one as the fish swiped at it two times and ate on the third attempt. After a short battle the fish was landed photographed and released. One advantage to flyfishing is being able to cast without retrieving your lure all the way back to the boat. If a fish strikes and misses you have the ability to put that fly back in the same spot in a matter of seconds, usually resulting in a hookup.
With the cooler air temperatures, daylight savings time and falling water temps will put fish into their fall patterns. Trout will start retreating to deeper water, schools of redfish should begin to appear on the flats, flounder will become active around Matanzas inlet and the snook bite will begin to slow with the falling water temps.
The cooler water temps will also effect offshore fishing as well. Sailfish and marlin will be migrating south. Sails can sometimes be found as close in as 10 miles at local area wrecks and reefs. Grouper and red snapper will also start moving in to these areas. I had a report of sails and wahoo 70 miles out last weekend. Just be careful if you venture out this time of year, seas can get pretty rough.
Last week Russ Saboe and John Inman fished the ICW with me. The day started off slow without a touch on topwater plugs. Things didn’t improve any when I switched them over to mirrolures. Things began to improve once I changed them over to live shrimp and moved to where we had an out going tide. They landed a couple of blackdrum, a few trout and two snook. The snook were 22 and 24 inches. Russ caught the most beat up snook I’ve ever seen. This fish was obviously in the clutches of a dolphin at one time. To look at it you had to wonder how it ever survived but it did.
I caught my biggest fish on a fly last week, a 6 ¾ lb trout. The fish swirled on my bubblehead fly as I striped it in. I picked up my line and cast out the fly again and the fish swirled on it once. The third cast proved to be the one as the fish swiped at it two times and ate on the third attempt. After a short battle the fish was landed photographed and released. One advantage to flyfishing is being able to cast without retrieving your lure all the way back to the boat. If a fish strikes and misses you have the ability to put that fly back in the same spot in a matter of seconds, usually resulting in a hookup.
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
A couple of weeks ago I reported that I was contemplating switching over to braided line because of losing some big fish on monofilament line. Well I did switch and I must say that so far I’ve been quite pleased with the braid. I spooled up my baitcasters and spinning reels with Sufix braid. It’s a new line of braid and I must say that everything they say about it appears to be true. Wind knots seem to be virtually nonexistent, even with novice anglers. There is no line memory so there are no tangled lines on spinning reels. Working plugs, especially topwaters, is a whole lot easier due to zero line stretch. Also, hook ups with fish are increased due to zero stretch. Because it has a thinner diameter than a same size mono line, 20 lb braid is the same diameter as 6 lb mono, and is slicker than mono you can add distance to your casts.
The only draw back I have found is when it comes to using a baitcaster. If you do not keep the line tight upon retrieving a lure you will get a birds nest on the next cast. This situation can be remedied with just a little practice. I have found that an overrun on a baitcaster with braid comes undone a lot easier than one with mono line. Give Sufix braid a try. I think you’ll be pleased with the results.
The inshore fishing was going off last week until the cold front came through on Sunday. Fishing out of his kayak along the ICW, Mark Wagenschuner landed 25 flounder to 6 lbs in one day. Mark used a ¼ oz bucktail jig tipped with a strip of flounder belly.
Last Friday night the river was loaded with mullet and at the change of the tide the snook bite turned on. They were hitting on soft plastic paddle tail mullet on a jig head. The fish were in the mid to low 30 inch range. Trout were also biting. During mid day Friday the bait was so thick that they were bouncing off the side of my boat while being pursued by predators.
I’ve been doing some early morning flyfishing for snook and doing well. I’ve been throwing a topwater Rainy’s bubble head fly. This fly emits loud gurgling sounds that attracts snook. I’ve had mornings where I landed up to three snook and had 5 other hits. Craig Wiggin fished with me the morning of the cold front and he laned his first Flagler snook on a bubblehead fly.
Tamoka Marine is holding an inshore tournament on October 28th at Herschel King Park. For more information you can call 386-439-7449 or 439-3838.
Photo: Craig Wiggin with his first Flagler County snook caught on a fly.
The only draw back I have found is when it comes to using a baitcaster. If you do not keep the line tight upon retrieving a lure you will get a birds nest on the next cast. This situation can be remedied with just a little practice. I have found that an overrun on a baitcaster with braid comes undone a lot easier than one with mono line. Give Sufix braid a try. I think you’ll be pleased with the results.
The inshore fishing was going off last week until the cold front came through on Sunday. Fishing out of his kayak along the ICW, Mark Wagenschuner landed 25 flounder to 6 lbs in one day. Mark used a ¼ oz bucktail jig tipped with a strip of flounder belly.
Last Friday night the river was loaded with mullet and at the change of the tide the snook bite turned on. They were hitting on soft plastic paddle tail mullet on a jig head. The fish were in the mid to low 30 inch range. Trout were also biting. During mid day Friday the bait was so thick that they were bouncing off the side of my boat while being pursued by predators.
I’ve been doing some early morning flyfishing for snook and doing well. I’ve been throwing a topwater Rainy’s bubble head fly. This fly emits loud gurgling sounds that attracts snook. I’ve had mornings where I landed up to three snook and had 5 other hits. Craig Wiggin fished with me the morning of the cold front and he laned his first Flagler snook on a bubblehead fly.
Tamoka Marine is holding an inshore tournament on October 28th at Herschel King Park. For more information you can call 386-439-7449 or 439-3838.
Photo: Craig Wiggin with his first Flagler County snook caught on a fly.
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
The harvest moon usually appears in September but this year it fell on October 6th. That coupled with northeast winds has made for extremely high tides. These tides can make it difficult to find fish. If you have a boat that draws very shallow water you can access places where redfish are feeding. They are way back along the tree lines feasting away on fiddler crabs and mud minnows. Berkley Gulp crabs or shrimp, mud minnows on a jig head or a chunk of mullet should do the trick here.
If shallow water redfish aren’t your thing it’s a good time to try for snook in some deeper water. With a good influx of migrating mullet a live lined mullet or artificial bait resembling a mullet will work. Tossing a topwater plug at daybreak should draw the attention of a snook or trout. If you hit a cloudy day try throwing that topwater at any time, you’ll be surprised at the results. Fish dock pilings, dropoffs and creek mouths in the ICW during the day and the bridges and dock lights at night. The best hours at night are between midnight and dawn. The next month should prove very effective for snook so get out and give it a shot.
I fished the morning of the full moon and had one small jack on a fly. I never seem to have any luck at this time but I keep on trying. The next morning I went out and did better. Throwing a topwater High Roller Rip Roller I hooked into a snook that appeared to be about 22” when it jumped. The fish jumped twice, spit the plug and was gone. Five minutes later I hooked into another fish using the same plug. This one didn’t get away and turned out to be a 6 ½ lb trout.
I wanted a picture of the fish but I had left my camera in my truck at the boat ramp. I filled the live well with water, put the fish in it and headed back to the boat ramp. All the while I had to keep the fish moving so he wouldn’t go belly up. At the ramp I got a fellow who was fishing at the pier there to snap a picture of the fish. His mouth fell agape when I let the fish go back into the water. I told him it needed to go make babies and that a picture of a fish lasts a lot longer than one on a dinner plate.
Flagler Beach Bait and Tackle reports that the surf was a little rough this past week but it didn’t stop Bob Burns from landing an 18 lb king mackerel. Flounder Joe was at it again for flounder to 4 lbs. Bill Allgire says there’s plenty of Spanish mackerel around along with bluefish up to the 6 lbs.
Photo: Capt. Rob Ottlein with a 6 ½ lb trout that was caught on a topwater plug. The fish was released alive.
If shallow water redfish aren’t your thing it’s a good time to try for snook in some deeper water. With a good influx of migrating mullet a live lined mullet or artificial bait resembling a mullet will work. Tossing a topwater plug at daybreak should draw the attention of a snook or trout. If you hit a cloudy day try throwing that topwater at any time, you’ll be surprised at the results. Fish dock pilings, dropoffs and creek mouths in the ICW during the day and the bridges and dock lights at night. The best hours at night are between midnight and dawn. The next month should prove very effective for snook so get out and give it a shot.
I fished the morning of the full moon and had one small jack on a fly. I never seem to have any luck at this time but I keep on trying. The next morning I went out and did better. Throwing a topwater High Roller Rip Roller I hooked into a snook that appeared to be about 22” when it jumped. The fish jumped twice, spit the plug and was gone. Five minutes later I hooked into another fish using the same plug. This one didn’t get away and turned out to be a 6 ½ lb trout.
I wanted a picture of the fish but I had left my camera in my truck at the boat ramp. I filled the live well with water, put the fish in it and headed back to the boat ramp. All the while I had to keep the fish moving so he wouldn’t go belly up. At the ramp I got a fellow who was fishing at the pier there to snap a picture of the fish. His mouth fell agape when I let the fish go back into the water. I told him it needed to go make babies and that a picture of a fish lasts a lot longer than one on a dinner plate.
Flagler Beach Bait and Tackle reports that the surf was a little rough this past week but it didn’t stop Bob Burns from landing an 18 lb king mackerel. Flounder Joe was at it again for flounder to 4 lbs. Bill Allgire says there’s plenty of Spanish mackerel around along with bluefish up to the 6 lbs.
Photo: Capt. Rob Ottlein with a 6 ½ lb trout that was caught on a topwater plug. The fish was released alive.
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
10-4-06 report
Northeast winds kicked up the surf this past week and made surf fishing just about impossible, however it didn’t stop pier fishermen. Bill Allgire at Flagler Beach Bait and Tackle on the Flagler pier says a lot of slot size redfish are being caught despite the rough surf. Trout are also being caught but Bill said the bite only lasts about an hour. Some spanish mackerel are around and the whiting bite has begun to pick up along with pompano.
Jake’s Highbridge Bait and Tackle reports good size snook coming from the bridge at night. Some snook are also being caught during the day along with trout. Night or day the fish are being caught on live mullet or live shrimp. There have also been a lot of black drum caught in the area.
Lately I’ve been doing a lot of flyfishing and last Wednesday my wife Lori and I headed out at daybreak to wet a line. She used live shrimp while I threw a topwater fly. All she could muster were some mango snappers and a flounder. I hooked up with three snook and landed one that went about 16 inches. We tried some other things with no success so we called it a day.
The next day Ron Coppenbarger and George Doyle, both from Jacksonville, fished with me and once again things were slow. They picked up some mangos, small trout and a couple of keeper flounder on live shrimp. It wasn’t until we moved to the south end of the county and they started throwing artificial baits that the action picked up. I hooked up both guys with the same color 7m mirrolure and the trout started to hit. One caught fish and the other didn’t. Ron who was fishig the plug slow couldn’t buy a hit but George who was working his fast was catching the fish. It just goes to show you that sometimes you have to try retrieving your lure at a different speed to get a reaction from the fish. George had about six trout with the largest going 3 Lbs. Ron landed a 19” trout after he threw a bomber lure into a school of bait fish that was being blasted by a tarpon.
Getting back to the fly fishing, I lost a big snook last Saturday, well over 10 lbs due to the fact that the fish caught me totally off guard and also because of my inexperience with big fish on a fly. I did however land a 15” snook the next day. I will tell you the fly I’ve been using is a Rainys bubble head. I bought this fly at the World Wide Sportsman in Islamorada in the Fla. Keys. They make two sizes but I like the 2/0 size the best. The fly makes different noises depending on how you strip the line. You can order it on line at
www.worldwidesportsman.com.
Photo: George Doyle of Jacksonville, Fla. fished the Flagler County waters for this trout that was caught on a 7m mirrolure
Jake’s Highbridge Bait and Tackle reports good size snook coming from the bridge at night. Some snook are also being caught during the day along with trout. Night or day the fish are being caught on live mullet or live shrimp. There have also been a lot of black drum caught in the area.
Lately I’ve been doing a lot of flyfishing and last Wednesday my wife Lori and I headed out at daybreak to wet a line. She used live shrimp while I threw a topwater fly. All she could muster were some mango snappers and a flounder. I hooked up with three snook and landed one that went about 16 inches. We tried some other things with no success so we called it a day.
The next day Ron Coppenbarger and George Doyle, both from Jacksonville, fished with me and once again things were slow. They picked up some mangos, small trout and a couple of keeper flounder on live shrimp. It wasn’t until we moved to the south end of the county and they started throwing artificial baits that the action picked up. I hooked up both guys with the same color 7m mirrolure and the trout started to hit. One caught fish and the other didn’t. Ron who was fishig the plug slow couldn’t buy a hit but George who was working his fast was catching the fish. It just goes to show you that sometimes you have to try retrieving your lure at a different speed to get a reaction from the fish. George had about six trout with the largest going 3 Lbs. Ron landed a 19” trout after he threw a bomber lure into a school of bait fish that was being blasted by a tarpon.
Getting back to the fly fishing, I lost a big snook last Saturday, well over 10 lbs due to the fact that the fish caught me totally off guard and also because of my inexperience with big fish on a fly. I did however land a 15” snook the next day. I will tell you the fly I’ve been using is a Rainys bubble head. I bought this fly at the World Wide Sportsman in Islamorada in the Fla. Keys. They make two sizes but I like the 2/0 size the best. The fly makes different noises depending on how you strip the line. You can order it on line at
www.worldwidesportsman.com.
Photo: George Doyle of Jacksonville, Fla. fished the Flagler County waters for this trout that was caught on a 7m mirrolure
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Here’s a little bit of information for you, Florida now leads the nation as the state with the most registered boats. It has taken over long time leader Michigan. Florida’s growing population is the main reason for the takeover. Our waters continue to get more crowed and I see more and more people with a disregard for the rules, mainly due to a lack of knowledge. There are safe boating courses that are given by the Coast Guard Auxiliary that can prove beneficial to those that take the course. One advantage is a deduction in insurance costs. Maybe it’s time that everyone be required to attend such classes.
Last weekend I attended a preopening of the new Gander Mountain store at 3750 Flagg Lane in Lake Mary. It is an 80,000 sq. ft. building that holds a variety of outdoor merchandise. It has everything from fishing, boating, hunting, camping, clothing and even scuba diving. They even have boat and atv sales with an on premise service department. It is definitely worth the ride.
The surf and pier are still producing trout and redfish along with some whiting. Look for pompano to start to turn on soon once the water temperature drops a few degrees.
The ICW is yielding some trout, reds, flounder, snook and blackdrum. Capt. Chris Herrera was out the other day and landed reds on live mullet, cut mullet and Berkley gulps. Phil Summersill from Lake Mary fished with me last Sunday and had a decent day. Phil is a Florida native and has fished most of his life but never caught a snook, he had three that day. They ranged from 16” to 24” and were caught on live shrimp and Mirr”O”lures. He also had flounder, blackdrum and mangrove snapper.
The Flagler County Sportfishing Club held it’s annual inshore tournament this past week which benefited the Palm Coast Little League. One hundred thirty six anglers participated and divided up $3,200 in prize money. The top 5 fish in each category won money. Here are the results:
Redfish – 1st - George Gardner 6.55 lbs, 2nd - Warren Green 6.30 lbs, 3rd - Joe Hill 6.20 lbs, 4th - David Cribb 6 lbs, 5th - josh Forbes 5.25 lbs.
Trout – 1st - Chuck Kaszupski 3.95 lbs, 2nd - Chuck Kaszupski 2.06 lbs, 3rd - Tom Hodgin 1.65 lbs, 4th - Toby Collins 1.40 lbs, 5th - Duke Daniels 1.40 lbs
Flounder – 1st - Shawn Nickols 3.50 lbs, 2nd - Brian Pohl 2.30 lbs, 3rd - Warren Green 2.25 lbs, 4th - John Jordan 2.10 lbs, 5th - John Baggott 2.05 lbs
Blackdrum – 1st - Shawn Nickols 3.50 lbs, 2nd - Brian Pohl 2.30 lbs, 3rd – Warren Green 2.25 lbs, 4th – John Jordan 2.10 lbs, 5th – John Baggott 2.05 lbs.
Boat Winners – 1st – Jeff Johnson - 40 Something, 2nd – Michael Struhar – Hooked, 3rd – Larry Stevens – Fine Time.
Photo: Phil Summersill, a life long Florida fisherman, shows off the first snook he’s ever caught. It was landed on a live shrimp.
Last weekend I attended a preopening of the new Gander Mountain store at 3750 Flagg Lane in Lake Mary. It is an 80,000 sq. ft. building that holds a variety of outdoor merchandise. It has everything from fishing, boating, hunting, camping, clothing and even scuba diving. They even have boat and atv sales with an on premise service department. It is definitely worth the ride.
The surf and pier are still producing trout and redfish along with some whiting. Look for pompano to start to turn on soon once the water temperature drops a few degrees.
The ICW is yielding some trout, reds, flounder, snook and blackdrum. Capt. Chris Herrera was out the other day and landed reds on live mullet, cut mullet and Berkley gulps. Phil Summersill from Lake Mary fished with me last Sunday and had a decent day. Phil is a Florida native and has fished most of his life but never caught a snook, he had three that day. They ranged from 16” to 24” and were caught on live shrimp and Mirr”O”lures. He also had flounder, blackdrum and mangrove snapper.
The Flagler County Sportfishing Club held it’s annual inshore tournament this past week which benefited the Palm Coast Little League. One hundred thirty six anglers participated and divided up $3,200 in prize money. The top 5 fish in each category won money. Here are the results:
Redfish – 1st - George Gardner 6.55 lbs, 2nd - Warren Green 6.30 lbs, 3rd - Joe Hill 6.20 lbs, 4th - David Cribb 6 lbs, 5th - josh Forbes 5.25 lbs.
Trout – 1st - Chuck Kaszupski 3.95 lbs, 2nd - Chuck Kaszupski 2.06 lbs, 3rd - Tom Hodgin 1.65 lbs, 4th - Toby Collins 1.40 lbs, 5th - Duke Daniels 1.40 lbs
Flounder – 1st - Shawn Nickols 3.50 lbs, 2nd - Brian Pohl 2.30 lbs, 3rd - Warren Green 2.25 lbs, 4th - John Jordan 2.10 lbs, 5th - John Baggott 2.05 lbs
Blackdrum – 1st - Shawn Nickols 3.50 lbs, 2nd - Brian Pohl 2.30 lbs, 3rd – Warren Green 2.25 lbs, 4th – John Jordan 2.10 lbs, 5th – John Baggott 2.05 lbs.
Boat Winners – 1st – Jeff Johnson - 40 Something, 2nd – Michael Struhar – Hooked, 3rd – Larry Stevens – Fine Time.
Photo: Phil Summersill, a life long Florida fisherman, shows off the first snook he’s ever caught. It was landed on a live shrimp.
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
As I was driving south on A1A Tuesday afternoon I was looking out at the ocean and I noticed two large schools of bait. Judging by the way they were flashing on the surface I could tell they were pogys. I sat and watched for a while but saw no action from fish feeding on them. As I started to pull away one of the schools erupted and by the size of the splash I could tell it was a tarpon. I thought all the tarpon were gone for the season but I see I was wrong. Don’t look for them to stay around for long because the bait is quickly moving south.
Rick at Roy’s Bait House says they are getting trout and reds in the surf and from the pier. The trout are in the 18” range and the reds are averaging in the 26” to 30” range. Most of the fish are being caught on live mullet. Pompano have also begun to show and whiting continue to be caught. These two fish can be caught using sand fleas or shrimp. The best bait for pompano are clams if you can find them.
In the ICW it’s reds, trout and snook. Snook are being caught at night around highbridge and the bridge on Old Dixie highway in Tamoka state park. Trout and reds are being caught in the ICW along the dropoffs. Topwater plugs are working early and switching to plugs, gulp baits and jigs as the day continues.
Last Saturday morning I headed out before daybreak to try for some snook and trout. I started with a topwater plug but had no luck. I then switched locations and started flyfishing with a popper. I had numerous fish that hit the fly and missed but ended up catching a 3 lb jack and 2- 18” trout. Sunday I headed out again but couldn’t catch anything on topwaterpulg or fly. I then switched to a 7m mirrolure and raised some big trout but none were willing to eat my offering.
Later in the day I noticed a fish busting bait on the other side of a flat. With the water being high I moved across the flat toward the action. I started throwing my 7m but no luck. All of a sudden the water exploded and I threw my lure into the action. As soon as it hit the water it was devoured. Line started peeling off the drag and I couldn’t stop the fish as it made it’s way under a dock walkway. I thought I could slow the fish down some by thumbing the spool on my baitcaster. Wrong move, the added pressure was too much and the 10 lb test mono just popped. Yet again another reason I give myself to switch to braided line.
Photo: Nathan Starke eyes the 22” trout he caught while live lining a mullet
Rick at Roy’s Bait House says they are getting trout and reds in the surf and from the pier. The trout are in the 18” range and the reds are averaging in the 26” to 30” range. Most of the fish are being caught on live mullet. Pompano have also begun to show and whiting continue to be caught. These two fish can be caught using sand fleas or shrimp. The best bait for pompano are clams if you can find them.
In the ICW it’s reds, trout and snook. Snook are being caught at night around highbridge and the bridge on Old Dixie highway in Tamoka state park. Trout and reds are being caught in the ICW along the dropoffs. Topwater plugs are working early and switching to plugs, gulp baits and jigs as the day continues.
Last Saturday morning I headed out before daybreak to try for some snook and trout. I started with a topwater plug but had no luck. I then switched locations and started flyfishing with a popper. I had numerous fish that hit the fly and missed but ended up catching a 3 lb jack and 2- 18” trout. Sunday I headed out again but couldn’t catch anything on topwaterpulg or fly. I then switched to a 7m mirrolure and raised some big trout but none were willing to eat my offering.
Later in the day I noticed a fish busting bait on the other side of a flat. With the water being high I moved across the flat toward the action. I started throwing my 7m but no luck. All of a sudden the water exploded and I threw my lure into the action. As soon as it hit the water it was devoured. Line started peeling off the drag and I couldn’t stop the fish as it made it’s way under a dock walkway. I thought I could slow the fish down some by thumbing the spool on my baitcaster. Wrong move, the added pressure was too much and the 10 lb test mono just popped. Yet again another reason I give myself to switch to braided line.
Photo: Nathan Starke eyes the 22” trout he caught while live lining a mullet
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
We have now come into a fall tide pattern. Water levels will remain extremely high for the next month or so. This is due to the moon phase and alignment of the planets. Fishing can be a little difficult during this period as it allows fish to get into places they can’t normally get to. The fish will be way back in creeks and in the grass looking for food. Capt. Chris Herrera says you can see and hear the reds way back in the grass. If you plan on venturing into the grass on foot make sure you wear a good pair of wading shoes. You’ll be able to spot feeding redfish to toss your baits at. Jerk baits rigged weedless or weedless flies will be your best bet. A live shrimp rigged weedless also works well.
Last week I spent four days at Hawk’s Cay Resort in the Florida Keys attending the Florida Outdoor Writers Association conference. The first time I went to the Keys was twenty years ago and have been back a couple of times since. Just like hear things are changing rapidly. The first sign of change is on the roadway in. The road is being widened in ares and a high rise bridge is being built to replace the old drawbridge. Farther down the road you start to notice a lot of the old mom and pop motels have been replaced with condos. Many of the old restaurants are gone giving way to more development. Ok, enough about changes.
The Keys are still a great place to fish. Other than Biscayne Bay to the north it is the only place in the U.S. where you can catch bonefish. The biggest bones in the world are caught there. They also have a great tarpon fishery and some of the best offshore fishing in the state.
At Hawks Cay some of the guys were jumping tarpon on jigs in the 30 to 40 lb range at the entrance bridge to the compound. At their marina small tarpon were hanging around the docks. On an outing to Pigeon Key one evening Rodney Smith, editor of Coastal Angler Magazine, brought his fly rod and waded out under the bridge. In about 20 minutes he landed 2 jacks, a snapper and jumped a 40 lb tarpon. That’s how good the fishing can be there without even having a boat.
I did go bone fishing one day and came away empty. They were having the same problem in the Keys, extremely high water. The high water makes it very difficult to spot the gray ghost of the flats. I did have a shot a tarpon however but he just turned and swam away from my shrimp offering. The Keys is still a great place to fish!
Here are the results of Roy’s Redfish Tournament, 1st place – Gregory Wilk – 5.6 lbs, $700, 2nd place – Robert Rees – 5.5 lbs, $500, 3rd – Capt. Mike Vickers – 5.3 lbs, $150.
Photo: Lori Ottlein hand feeds a tarpon at Robbie’s Marina in the Florida Keys.
Last week I spent four days at Hawk’s Cay Resort in the Florida Keys attending the Florida Outdoor Writers Association conference. The first time I went to the Keys was twenty years ago and have been back a couple of times since. Just like hear things are changing rapidly. The first sign of change is on the roadway in. The road is being widened in ares and a high rise bridge is being built to replace the old drawbridge. Farther down the road you start to notice a lot of the old mom and pop motels have been replaced with condos. Many of the old restaurants are gone giving way to more development. Ok, enough about changes.
The Keys are still a great place to fish. Other than Biscayne Bay to the north it is the only place in the U.S. where you can catch bonefish. The biggest bones in the world are caught there. They also have a great tarpon fishery and some of the best offshore fishing in the state.
At Hawks Cay some of the guys were jumping tarpon on jigs in the 30 to 40 lb range at the entrance bridge to the compound. At their marina small tarpon were hanging around the docks. On an outing to Pigeon Key one evening Rodney Smith, editor of Coastal Angler Magazine, brought his fly rod and waded out under the bridge. In about 20 minutes he landed 2 jacks, a snapper and jumped a 40 lb tarpon. That’s how good the fishing can be there without even having a boat.
I did go bone fishing one day and came away empty. They were having the same problem in the Keys, extremely high water. The high water makes it very difficult to spot the gray ghost of the flats. I did have a shot a tarpon however but he just turned and swam away from my shrimp offering. The Keys is still a great place to fish!
Here are the results of Roy’s Redfish Tournament, 1st place – Gregory Wilk – 5.6 lbs, $700, 2nd place – Robert Rees – 5.5 lbs, $500, 3rd – Capt. Mike Vickers – 5.3 lbs, $150.
Photo: Lori Ottlein hand feeds a tarpon at Robbie’s Marina in the Florida Keys.
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
It’s time to go to Matanzas inlet to get the big reds. I’ve been getting reports of big reds in the 15 to 40 lb range and lots of them. This is usually the time of year when the reds begin to migrate offshore and also follow the mullet down the coast. Ken Stone said he was at the inlet on Sunday and it was one after the other with the bull reds. One disturbing thing I heard was that there were a lot of oversize fish kept that day. People don’t seem to understand that the big fish are the ones that reproduce. No reproduction no new fish. Slot sizes and bag limits are in effect for a reason. When it comes to big fish, I always say take a picture it lasts a lot longer than a fish on the plate.
Last Friday Richard Delacy from Port Charlotte fished with me. The fishing was slow, mangos, jacks, ladyfish, a trout and a small snook. Then it happened. Richard hooked up with a fish that just started pulling line off the reel. All we saw was a huge tail that was swirling and splashing. When he finally got the fish near the boat it turned out to be a very large snook, 15 to 20 lb range. The fish had wrapped the line around itself and on it’s last surge popped the 10 lb test mono line like it was nothing. We both wanted to cry. If anyone out there catches a big snook with a hook and leader in it’s mouth it was the one that got away. I guess the fish didn’t realize all we wanted was a picture and he could have gone back. For a long time I’ve been putting off going to braided line but losing that fish has convinced me to give it a shot.
Sunday Doug Bunnell and Lynn and Robbie Beal of Midland Texas fished with me and again found the fishing to be slow in the ICW. Sounds like we should have been at the inlet but who knew. Robbie who has never really fished much was a quick learner once given a few casting instructions. She put a whoppin on her husband Lynn and Doug. She caught the most fish and the biggest. She had a flounder and a couple of black drum with the largest being 20”. When she caught the drum it pulled hard and she said help me – help me but the guys told her she was on her own. Well she landed the fish without help from anyone.
Roy’s Bait House reports Julie Enzweiler had a 30” red. Jessie Maxie fished the surf for whiting and pompano to 3 lbs. Bill Walker fished the surf with live mullet and caught and released 7 reds that were over 27”. Tom Steinmetz fished live mullet at the rte 100 bridge for an 8.12 lb trout.
Photo: Robbie Beal of Midland Texas shows off a 20” black drum she caught while live lining a shrimp.
Last Friday Richard Delacy from Port Charlotte fished with me. The fishing was slow, mangos, jacks, ladyfish, a trout and a small snook. Then it happened. Richard hooked up with a fish that just started pulling line off the reel. All we saw was a huge tail that was swirling and splashing. When he finally got the fish near the boat it turned out to be a very large snook, 15 to 20 lb range. The fish had wrapped the line around itself and on it’s last surge popped the 10 lb test mono line like it was nothing. We both wanted to cry. If anyone out there catches a big snook with a hook and leader in it’s mouth it was the one that got away. I guess the fish didn’t realize all we wanted was a picture and he could have gone back. For a long time I’ve been putting off going to braided line but losing that fish has convinced me to give it a shot.
Sunday Doug Bunnell and Lynn and Robbie Beal of Midland Texas fished with me and again found the fishing to be slow in the ICW. Sounds like we should have been at the inlet but who knew. Robbie who has never really fished much was a quick learner once given a few casting instructions. She put a whoppin on her husband Lynn and Doug. She caught the most fish and the biggest. She had a flounder and a couple of black drum with the largest being 20”. When she caught the drum it pulled hard and she said help me – help me but the guys told her she was on her own. Well she landed the fish without help from anyone.
Roy’s Bait House reports Julie Enzweiler had a 30” red. Jessie Maxie fished the surf for whiting and pompano to 3 lbs. Bill Walker fished the surf with live mullet and caught and released 7 reds that were over 27”. Tom Steinmetz fished live mullet at the rte 100 bridge for an 8.12 lb trout.
Photo: Robbie Beal of Midland Texas shows off a 20” black drum she caught while live lining a shrimp.
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Roy’s Redfish Tournament that was to be held today, Sept 2nd, has been postponed until Saturday, September 9th. The captains meeting will be at Finnegans Pub Friday, Sept. 8th from 5:00-8:00 pm. For more info call 386-439-1027.
Driving along the beach in Flagler it appears that the schools of pogys that were abundant a few weeks ago are now gone. They have headed south and along with them the tarpon. This years tarpon run was a good one with the only setback being the upwelling that dropped the water temperature. They came right back though after the water warmed again. We may get to see a few more tarpon as the mullet run begins to pick up.
With the tarpon gone it’s time to get back to inshore and snook fishing. Snook season officially opened Sept 1st. There are two new rules for snook this year, a new slot size, 27”-34” and you must squeeze the tail when measuring the fish. There is a 2 fish per day per person bag limit here on the east coast. If you travel to the west coast of Fl. there is a 1 fish per day per person bag limit. You must also have a snook stamp on your license to have the fish in your possession. A snook stamp costs $2.00.
Over the next few weeks I’ll cover some of the different methods to catch linesiders. For now I’ll say live shrimp is one of the best ways although other live baits also work well. It seems like snook can’t resist a big live shrimp, the bigger the better. Most of the tackle shops will sell select shrimp if they have them although you’ll pay a little extra for them. They are best fished by free lining them. There are different ways to place a shrimp on a hook. The most common is under it’s horn.
Beef up your tackle when targeting snook especially if your fishing docks or bridge fenders. You’ll want to use a medium heavy rod rigged with 15 to 20 lb test mono or 30lb braided. Tie on a 2 to 3 ft. length of 30 to 50 lb flourocarbon leader tied to a 1/0 or 2/0 hook. I like to use short shank small hooks as I believe less is better. Live shrimp can also be used effectively under a sliding cork rig. This setup allows you to fish at a specific depth. Your local tackle shop can show you how to rig the cork setup.
Roy’s Bait House reports lots of whiting in the surf along with some pompano, blues and sheepshead.
Photo: Chad Squires of Jacksonville displays a nice flounder he caught in the Flagler surf while fishing with a plug
Driving along the beach in Flagler it appears that the schools of pogys that were abundant a few weeks ago are now gone. They have headed south and along with them the tarpon. This years tarpon run was a good one with the only setback being the upwelling that dropped the water temperature. They came right back though after the water warmed again. We may get to see a few more tarpon as the mullet run begins to pick up.
With the tarpon gone it’s time to get back to inshore and snook fishing. Snook season officially opened Sept 1st. There are two new rules for snook this year, a new slot size, 27”-34” and you must squeeze the tail when measuring the fish. There is a 2 fish per day per person bag limit here on the east coast. If you travel to the west coast of Fl. there is a 1 fish per day per person bag limit. You must also have a snook stamp on your license to have the fish in your possession. A snook stamp costs $2.00.
Over the next few weeks I’ll cover some of the different methods to catch linesiders. For now I’ll say live shrimp is one of the best ways although other live baits also work well. It seems like snook can’t resist a big live shrimp, the bigger the better. Most of the tackle shops will sell select shrimp if they have them although you’ll pay a little extra for them. They are best fished by free lining them. There are different ways to place a shrimp on a hook. The most common is under it’s horn.
Beef up your tackle when targeting snook especially if your fishing docks or bridge fenders. You’ll want to use a medium heavy rod rigged with 15 to 20 lb test mono or 30lb braided. Tie on a 2 to 3 ft. length of 30 to 50 lb flourocarbon leader tied to a 1/0 or 2/0 hook. I like to use short shank small hooks as I believe less is better. Live shrimp can also be used effectively under a sliding cork rig. This setup allows you to fish at a specific depth. Your local tackle shop can show you how to rig the cork setup.
Roy’s Bait House reports lots of whiting in the surf along with some pompano, blues and sheepshead.
Photo: Chad Squires of Jacksonville displays a nice flounder he caught in the Flagler surf while fishing with a plug
Roy’s Redfish Tournament that was to be held today, Sept 2nd, has been postponed until Saturday, September 9th. The captains meeting will be at Finnegans Pub Friday, Sept. 8th from 5:00-8:00 pm. For more info call 386-439-1027.
Driving along the beach in Flagler it appears that the schools of pogys that were abundant a few weeks ago are now gone. They have headed south and along with them the tarpon. This years tarpon run was a good one with the only setback being the upwelling that dropped the water temperature. They came right back though after the water warmed again. We may get to see a few more tarpon as the mullet run begins to pick up.
With the tarpon gone it’s time to get back to inshore and snook fishing. Snook season officially opened Sept 1st. There are two new rules for snook this year, a new slot size, 27”-34” and you must squeeze the tail when measuring the fish. There is a 2 fish per day per person bag limit here on the east coast. If you travel to the west coast of Fl. there is a 1 fish per day per person bag limit. You must also have a snook stamp on your license to have the fish in your possession. A snook stamp costs $2.00.
Over the next few weeks I’ll cover some of the different methods to catch linesiders. For now I’ll say live shrimp is one of the best ways although other live baits also work well. It seems like snook can’t resist a big live shrimp, the bigger the better. Most of the tackle shops will sell select shrimp if they have them although you’ll pay a little extra for them. They are best fished by free lining them. There are different ways to place a shrimp on a hook. The most common is under it’s horn.
Beef up your tackle when targeting snook especially if your fishing docks or bridge fenders. You’ll want to use a medium heavy rod rigged with 15 to 20 lb test mono or 30lb braided. Tie on a 2 to 3 ft. length of 30 to 50 lb flourocarbon leader tied to a 1/0 or 2/0 hook. I like to use short shank small hooks as I believe less is better. Live shrimp can also be used effectively under a sliding cork rig. This setup allows you to fish at a specific depth. Your local tackle shop can show you how to rig the cork setup.
Roy’s Bait House reports lots of whiting in the surf along with some pompano, blues and sheepshead.
Photo: Chad Squires of Jacksonville displays a nice flounder he caught in the Flagler surf while fishing with a plug
Driving along the beach in Flagler it appears that the schools of pogys that were abundant a few weeks ago are now gone. They have headed south and along with them the tarpon. This years tarpon run was a good one with the only setback being the upwelling that dropped the water temperature. They came right back though after the water warmed again. We may get to see a few more tarpon as the mullet run begins to pick up.
With the tarpon gone it’s time to get back to inshore and snook fishing. Snook season officially opened Sept 1st. There are two new rules for snook this year, a new slot size, 27”-34” and you must squeeze the tail when measuring the fish. There is a 2 fish per day per person bag limit here on the east coast. If you travel to the west coast of Fl. there is a 1 fish per day per person bag limit. You must also have a snook stamp on your license to have the fish in your possession. A snook stamp costs $2.00.
Over the next few weeks I’ll cover some of the different methods to catch linesiders. For now I’ll say live shrimp is one of the best ways although other live baits also work well. It seems like snook can’t resist a big live shrimp, the bigger the better. Most of the tackle shops will sell select shrimp if they have them although you’ll pay a little extra for them. They are best fished by free lining them. There are different ways to place a shrimp on a hook. The most common is under it’s horn.
Beef up your tackle when targeting snook especially if your fishing docks or bridge fenders. You’ll want to use a medium heavy rod rigged with 15 to 20 lb test mono or 30lb braided. Tie on a 2 to 3 ft. length of 30 to 50 lb flourocarbon leader tied to a 1/0 or 2/0 hook. I like to use short shank small hooks as I believe less is better. Live shrimp can also be used effectively under a sliding cork rig. This setup allows you to fish at a specific depth. Your local tackle shop can show you how to rig the cork setup.
Roy’s Bait House reports lots of whiting in the surf along with some pompano, blues and sheepshead.
Photo: Chad Squires of Jacksonville displays a nice flounder he caught in the Flagler surf while fishing with a plug
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
The big news this past week is the display that the tarpon were putting on along the beach. I was driving home from Daytona on Saturday when I got a call from Capt. Chris Herrera. Chris was on the pier telling me about the aerial show the tarpon were putting on. I turned my truck and headed north along A1A. When I reached Flagler Beach you could see large pods of pogys everywhere. As I proceeded north to the pier there was a very large pod about 300 yards off the beach that had a lot of action in it. It only took a couple of seconds and tarpon were busting on them. A couple of times there must have been close to 10 tarpon busting at once. The sight was so incredible that cars were pulling over to view the spectacle and people across the street were on their decks watching. It was something to see. I called Chris back and we planned a trip for the next day.
I met Chris and Tommy Derringer at Bings landing the next morning and we headed out of Matanzas inlet in search of the silver king. We stopped on a small school of pogys to fill the live well then went to look for the mother load. We found a large school of pogys with tarpon rolling and crashing on them. We quickly baited up and cast into the school. It took about fifteen minutes and Tommy was hooked up. The fish made it’s first jump and it was a beauty, about ten feet in the air. None of us had ever seen a tarpon jump that high. After about 20 minutes and six more jumps the tarpon was boated, photographed and released. No other tarpon were caught that day but there were a couple of breakoffs. I don’t expect the tarpon to be around much longer as they are on their migration south so this could be the last hurrah until next year.
Snook season opens next Friday so you should be reminded that there are new rules on size limits and how you measure the fish to be able to keep one. The minimum length has been changed from 26” to 27” with the maximum size still being 34”. When you measure the fish you must now squeeze the tail and measure it from the tip of it the jaw to the tip of the squeezed tail. If your not sure how this is done go to www.myfwc.com and click on fishing and then on measuring.
Roy’s Bait House reports king mackerel in the 20 lb range are being caught from the pier and that whiting, small pompano and some small cobia are in the surf. Corky Giddens had a 22” redfish and Rick Fisher landed 50 whiting.
Photo: Bob Rees shows off a 7 ½ lb trout that he caught in the back waters using a plastic jig.
I met Chris and Tommy Derringer at Bings landing the next morning and we headed out of Matanzas inlet in search of the silver king. We stopped on a small school of pogys to fill the live well then went to look for the mother load. We found a large school of pogys with tarpon rolling and crashing on them. We quickly baited up and cast into the school. It took about fifteen minutes and Tommy was hooked up. The fish made it’s first jump and it was a beauty, about ten feet in the air. None of us had ever seen a tarpon jump that high. After about 20 minutes and six more jumps the tarpon was boated, photographed and released. No other tarpon were caught that day but there were a couple of breakoffs. I don’t expect the tarpon to be around much longer as they are on their migration south so this could be the last hurrah until next year.
Snook season opens next Friday so you should be reminded that there are new rules on size limits and how you measure the fish to be able to keep one. The minimum length has been changed from 26” to 27” with the maximum size still being 34”. When you measure the fish you must now squeeze the tail and measure it from the tip of it the jaw to the tip of the squeezed tail. If your not sure how this is done go to www.myfwc.com and click on fishing and then on measuring.
Roy’s Bait House reports king mackerel in the 20 lb range are being caught from the pier and that whiting, small pompano and some small cobia are in the surf. Corky Giddens had a 22” redfish and Rick Fisher landed 50 whiting.
Photo: Bob Rees shows off a 7 ½ lb trout that he caught in the back waters using a plastic jig.
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Things have been pretty quiet on the fishing front the past week. Mostly everyone I have spoken with had the same thing to say, SLOW. Fish are being caught but it seems most of the fish are on the small side and a lack of quantity. When I talked with Randy Homer, one of the better trout fishermen I know, and he told me he had one small trout on his last outing you can bet things are slow. He did have one good thing to say though, flounder. Randy’s been picking up some good size flounder using grub tail jigs around dock pilings.
One thing I have observed on my last couple of charters is that you can catch fish up to about 10 AM then things just seem to shut down. This can probably be attributed to the fact that the temperature starts to heat up about that time. Once it heats up the water also gets warmer and the fish become lethargic. Things pick up again once evening sets in. Fishing the dock lights at night is always a good bet. Fish the docks that have their lights closest to the water, they will hold the most fish.
Last Saturday , Jim Gage from Massachusetts fished with me and landed 6 snook to 18”, a couple of trout to 16”, flounder and jacks. Once it hit 10 AM things slowed down. Sunday Capt. Chris Herrera and I had the Saling family, Joe and his sons Daniel, Chris and Brian, from New Jersey out. The day started out promising catching trout and ladyfish under dock lights but things slowed as day went on. The highlight of the day was when 11 year old Daniel caught a 20” trout. Monday Bob Madge from Cooper City, Fl. fished with me and he had 4 snook to 21”, flounder, trout and mangrove snapper. Once again the action slowed around 10AM.
The only feed back I’ve had about offshore has been from Tom Moleski. He and his friend Judy hit some of the local wrecks and had a couple of cobia and some good size flounder.
Roy’s Bait House reports that someone landed a 32 lb king mackerel on the pier. Chuck Kaszupski caught and released a 30” snook fishing the rte. 100 bridge at night. Whiting and small pompano are being caught in the surf.
Roy’s Bait House is holding an inshore redfish tournament on September 2nd, 7AM-3PM. Captains meeting is at Finnigans Beachside Pub Sept 1st, 5pm-8pm. Entry fee is $50 per person, 2 people per boat. 1st place will pay $1,500 based on 100 entries. For more information you can call 386-439-1027
Photo: Daniel Saling shows off a 20” trout caught on a recent family outing
One thing I have observed on my last couple of charters is that you can catch fish up to about 10 AM then things just seem to shut down. This can probably be attributed to the fact that the temperature starts to heat up about that time. Once it heats up the water also gets warmer and the fish become lethargic. Things pick up again once evening sets in. Fishing the dock lights at night is always a good bet. Fish the docks that have their lights closest to the water, they will hold the most fish.
Last Saturday , Jim Gage from Massachusetts fished with me and landed 6 snook to 18”, a couple of trout to 16”, flounder and jacks. Once it hit 10 AM things slowed down. Sunday Capt. Chris Herrera and I had the Saling family, Joe and his sons Daniel, Chris and Brian, from New Jersey out. The day started out promising catching trout and ladyfish under dock lights but things slowed as day went on. The highlight of the day was when 11 year old Daniel caught a 20” trout. Monday Bob Madge from Cooper City, Fl. fished with me and he had 4 snook to 21”, flounder, trout and mangrove snapper. Once again the action slowed around 10AM.
The only feed back I’ve had about offshore has been from Tom Moleski. He and his friend Judy hit some of the local wrecks and had a couple of cobia and some good size flounder.
Roy’s Bait House reports that someone landed a 32 lb king mackerel on the pier. Chuck Kaszupski caught and released a 30” snook fishing the rte. 100 bridge at night. Whiting and small pompano are being caught in the surf.
Roy’s Bait House is holding an inshore redfish tournament on September 2nd, 7AM-3PM. Captains meeting is at Finnigans Beachside Pub Sept 1st, 5pm-8pm. Entry fee is $50 per person, 2 people per boat. 1st place will pay $1,500 based on 100 entries. For more information you can call 386-439-1027
Photo: Daniel Saling shows off a 20” trout caught on a recent family outing
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
Right after I wrote last weeks article about all the tarpon action along our beaches we were hit with an upwelling. The upwelling dropped the water temperature about ten degrees causing the tarpon to disappear. There are still a few small schools of pogys lingering around but no tarpon on them. They’ll probably show up again on their southern migration.
This past Monday Capt. Chris Herrera and Tom Derringer headed out of Matanzas Inlet in search of some pogys and hopefully some tarpon. They found a small school just outside the inlet and cast netted some for bait. The duo decided to head due east to see if they could locate a larger school with some fish on it. A school was found and they began to live line a couple of pogys. Tom soon hooked up to a fish and to his surprise was rewarded with a 62 inch sailfish. Sailfish are normally found in deeper cooler water but must have come closer inshore with the cooler water that the upwelling brings in. They also jumped a couple of good size king mackerel that day. Congratulations guys.
Capt. Ralph Olivett traveled farther offshore this past week, 55 miles, to load up on amberjack to 50 lbs, cobia, vermilion snapper and triggerfish. He also fished inshore and had reds to 25” and a 28” trout.
The ICW is yielding lots of flounder up to 5 lbs. The flounder bite has turned on probably due to the fact that the mullet run has started. Best baits of course are live mullet followed by mud or tiger minnows. Live shrimp will also work along with plastic jigs. Tip the jig with a piece of fresh shrimp for the best results using a jig.
Trout, snook and reds will also be feeding on schools of mullet. Look for reds to follow the schools into the flats. Fish the weed lines and oyster bars with topwaters for some good results. Trout and snook will be feeding on live mullet and shrimp. Artificial baits, hard or soft plastic, resembling mullet will also work well as will topwaters in the AM or PM. Capt Chris Herrera fished the night dock lights of Palm Coast this past week using Riptide soft plastics and was rewarded with a 6.05 and 7.12 lb trout.
Roy’s Bait House reports that the inshore fishing is picking up due to the start of the mullet run. Six year old Cole Blackburn landed a 28 ½” trout. Dennis Richard – 9.14 lb bluefish in the ICW. Lee Robert – 18” trout at the Flagler bridge. Seven year old Dylan Olsen – 14” flounder. Joe Walkup – 10 flounder to 4 lbs at the inlet. Mark Francis – 10 flounder to 5 lbs at the 206 bridge. Nathan Starke – 6 flounder to 4 lbs and two 20” weakfish. Mike Delaney – 22 whiting from the surf and released 20 plus undersize pompano.
Snook season opens in less than three weeks, September 1st. It’s time for all snook fishermen to start preparing their gear for the fall snook action. Best time to fish will be at night under lights and around bridges. I’ll cover more on this subject as opening season nears.
Photo: Tom Derringer poses with a 62” sailfish that he caught and released 2 miles east of Matanzas Inlet. The fish was caught on a live pogy.
This past Monday Capt. Chris Herrera and Tom Derringer headed out of Matanzas Inlet in search of some pogys and hopefully some tarpon. They found a small school just outside the inlet and cast netted some for bait. The duo decided to head due east to see if they could locate a larger school with some fish on it. A school was found and they began to live line a couple of pogys. Tom soon hooked up to a fish and to his surprise was rewarded with a 62 inch sailfish. Sailfish are normally found in deeper cooler water but must have come closer inshore with the cooler water that the upwelling brings in. They also jumped a couple of good size king mackerel that day. Congratulations guys.
Capt. Ralph Olivett traveled farther offshore this past week, 55 miles, to load up on amberjack to 50 lbs, cobia, vermilion snapper and triggerfish. He also fished inshore and had reds to 25” and a 28” trout.
The ICW is yielding lots of flounder up to 5 lbs. The flounder bite has turned on probably due to the fact that the mullet run has started. Best baits of course are live mullet followed by mud or tiger minnows. Live shrimp will also work along with plastic jigs. Tip the jig with a piece of fresh shrimp for the best results using a jig.
Trout, snook and reds will also be feeding on schools of mullet. Look for reds to follow the schools into the flats. Fish the weed lines and oyster bars with topwaters for some good results. Trout and snook will be feeding on live mullet and shrimp. Artificial baits, hard or soft plastic, resembling mullet will also work well as will topwaters in the AM or PM. Capt Chris Herrera fished the night dock lights of Palm Coast this past week using Riptide soft plastics and was rewarded with a 6.05 and 7.12 lb trout.
Roy’s Bait House reports that the inshore fishing is picking up due to the start of the mullet run. Six year old Cole Blackburn landed a 28 ½” trout. Dennis Richard – 9.14 lb bluefish in the ICW. Lee Robert – 18” trout at the Flagler bridge. Seven year old Dylan Olsen – 14” flounder. Joe Walkup – 10 flounder to 4 lbs at the inlet. Mark Francis – 10 flounder to 5 lbs at the 206 bridge. Nathan Starke – 6 flounder to 4 lbs and two 20” weakfish. Mike Delaney – 22 whiting from the surf and released 20 plus undersize pompano.
Snook season opens in less than three weeks, September 1st. It’s time for all snook fishermen to start preparing their gear for the fall snook action. Best time to fish will be at night under lights and around bridges. I’ll cover more on this subject as opening season nears.
Photo: Tom Derringer poses with a 62” sailfish that he caught and released 2 miles east of Matanzas Inlet. The fish was caught on a live pogy.
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
The seas have remained relatively calm for the past few weeks making the run out of Matanzas Inlet a fairly easy one. For those willing to venture forty to fifty miles out you can find fish. Steve Martin did just that and was rewarded with amberjack, cobia and an african pompano. The wrecks and reefs closer inshore seem to be producing a lot of small red snapper and barracuda. Along the beaches the tarpon are still ravaging schools of pogys.
Last week Dan Rutkowski and I headed out in search of the silver king (tarpon). We cast netted a bunch of pogys from a small school and then headed in search of a school that would be holding tarpon. It didn’t take but a few minutes to find a large school with tarpon busting on them. We pulled up next to it and cast our baits out. It took about a minute and Dan was hooked up, it was his first tarpon encounter. The fish took off and had Dan’s reel screaming as it peeled off line. The fish made its first jump and we estimated it to be around 100 lbs. After many acrobatic jumps, some two feet from the boat, the fish surged quickly snapping Dan’s line. It sounded like a 22 rifle being fired when that line snapped.
After the line broke Dan turned and picked up his other rod and tossed out another pogy. It took about thirty seconds and he was hooked up again. This time the fish was smaller, about 65 lbs, and using heavier tackle the tarpon was boated, photographed and released. We fished a while longer and could see tarpon rolling and feeding but couldn’t connect with another one. I never did get a tarpon that day (1 shark) but it was still fun to see Dan land his first one.
Fishing in the ICW has improved over the past week or so. There is a large variety of fish biting right now. The other day Mike Broderick and Elise Broverman fished with me and the duo scored different species of fish. Ladyfish, jacks, mangrove snapper, black drum, redfish, flounder, trout and snook were all boated by the couple. Mike lost a couple of big fish. One he couldn’t stop and it broke off the line on a dock piling. The other picked up his shrimp and and took off so fast it just snapped the 10 lb test line. I think that fish may have been a 30 lb tarpon that I saw rolling just a few minutes before the bait was picked up.
Last Sunday I had a charter cancel so I decided to go fishing anyway. I was on the water before daybreak and made my first stop at a place that produces trout on an out going tide. I made a cast with a topwater plug and was instantly rewarded with a trout. I put the rod down and picked up the flayrod. After a few cast I laned a 19” trout. After about 30 more casts and a few missed fish I finally did something I’ve been trying to do for a while, I caught my first snook on a fly – 25”. The topwater bite quit so I changed my location and switched to a 7m mirrolure. I landed a 2½ lb and a 3 lb trout then called it a day.
Roy’s Baithouse reports that Paul Baudet fished the surf for whiting, blues and 2 small tarpon. Anita Dillon fished the ICW for a 2.11 lb flounder and Fuzzy Jim had 3 flounder – 15”, 18” and 20”
Photo: Dan Rutkowski with a 65 lb tarpon taken on a live pogy. The fish was released.
Last week Dan Rutkowski and I headed out in search of the silver king (tarpon). We cast netted a bunch of pogys from a small school and then headed in search of a school that would be holding tarpon. It didn’t take but a few minutes to find a large school with tarpon busting on them. We pulled up next to it and cast our baits out. It took about a minute and Dan was hooked up, it was his first tarpon encounter. The fish took off and had Dan’s reel screaming as it peeled off line. The fish made its first jump and we estimated it to be around 100 lbs. After many acrobatic jumps, some two feet from the boat, the fish surged quickly snapping Dan’s line. It sounded like a 22 rifle being fired when that line snapped.
After the line broke Dan turned and picked up his other rod and tossed out another pogy. It took about thirty seconds and he was hooked up again. This time the fish was smaller, about 65 lbs, and using heavier tackle the tarpon was boated, photographed and released. We fished a while longer and could see tarpon rolling and feeding but couldn’t connect with another one. I never did get a tarpon that day (1 shark) but it was still fun to see Dan land his first one.
Fishing in the ICW has improved over the past week or so. There is a large variety of fish biting right now. The other day Mike Broderick and Elise Broverman fished with me and the duo scored different species of fish. Ladyfish, jacks, mangrove snapper, black drum, redfish, flounder, trout and snook were all boated by the couple. Mike lost a couple of big fish. One he couldn’t stop and it broke off the line on a dock piling. The other picked up his shrimp and and took off so fast it just snapped the 10 lb test line. I think that fish may have been a 30 lb tarpon that I saw rolling just a few minutes before the bait was picked up.
Last Sunday I had a charter cancel so I decided to go fishing anyway. I was on the water before daybreak and made my first stop at a place that produces trout on an out going tide. I made a cast with a topwater plug and was instantly rewarded with a trout. I put the rod down and picked up the flayrod. After a few cast I laned a 19” trout. After about 30 more casts and a few missed fish I finally did something I’ve been trying to do for a while, I caught my first snook on a fly – 25”. The topwater bite quit so I changed my location and switched to a 7m mirrolure. I landed a 2½ lb and a 3 lb trout then called it a day.
Roy’s Baithouse reports that Paul Baudet fished the surf for whiting, blues and 2 small tarpon. Anita Dillon fished the ICW for a 2.11 lb flounder and Fuzzy Jim had 3 flounder – 15”, 18” and 20”
Photo: Dan Rutkowski with a 65 lb tarpon taken on a live pogy. The fish was released.
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Now’s the time, if you get a chance, to get out and hook up with a tarpon. The pogy schools have been so thick early in the morning it seems you could almost walk across them. Sitting along A1A in Flagler Beach you can see tarpon busting in the schools. At times you’ll see them come completely out of the water. Also mixed in are king mackerel, jacks, bluefish and sharks. A word of advice for surf anglers, if you are wading in the surf and a school of pogys comes by get away from them, there’s usually sharks around them.
The best time to go out for tarpon is early in the morning, especially if you have a shallow draft boat such as a flats skiff. The sea is usually at ait’s calmest in the am until the breeze kicks up the sea as the day goes on. Find yourself a school of pogys and cast net a bunch. Most of the time one throw of the net will do. Keep the water in your live well constantly flowing or they’ll die. If you’re using spinning gear a reel in the 5000 series is good along with a matching 7 to 8 foot rod. Conventional reels should be in the 20 to 30 lb class with either mono or braided line to match the tackle. Fifty to eighty lb fluorocarbon leader attached to a 5/0 to 8/0 circle hook will do the trick. Place the hook sideways through the nose or the back of the pogy in front of the dorsal fin and your good to go.
When you approach the school try to position your boat to drift with the school. Shut your engine down. Cast the pogy into the school or around the edges. All that’s left to do is hang on and wait. Let the fish run with the bait before setting the hook. Remember to bow to the tarpon when he jumps. This will put slack in the line and prevent h it from spitting the hook. It also takes tension off the line to keep it from fraying the leader.
On the ICW side there are lots of flounder and legal size mangrove snapper being caught. The flounder are averaging 12 to 20 inches and the mangrove 12 to 16 inches. Both fish are excellent eating. Last Thursday Robert Ammon, Mike Bramlett and Heather Bramlett fished the ICW on board my boat. The trio had black drum to 18”, mangrove snapper to 15” and flounder to 14”. Robert lost the big fish of the day when it decided to dive under the boat. Once it did that the line cut and the fish was gone. I think it was a big snook because of the way it was fighting. We’ll get him next time Robert.
Roy’s Bait House reports that Anthony Pantuso caught and released a 125 lb tarpon at the pier. Joe Locote had 10 flounder from the pier and Mike McCray had 3 flounder in the ICW. Hap Meekins was offshore for a 29.14 king mackerel.
The best time to go out for tarpon is early in the morning, especially if you have a shallow draft boat such as a flats skiff. The sea is usually at ait’s calmest in the am until the breeze kicks up the sea as the day goes on. Find yourself a school of pogys and cast net a bunch. Most of the time one throw of the net will do. Keep the water in your live well constantly flowing or they’ll die. If you’re using spinning gear a reel in the 5000 series is good along with a matching 7 to 8 foot rod. Conventional reels should be in the 20 to 30 lb class with either mono or braided line to match the tackle. Fifty to eighty lb fluorocarbon leader attached to a 5/0 to 8/0 circle hook will do the trick. Place the hook sideways through the nose or the back of the pogy in front of the dorsal fin and your good to go.
When you approach the school try to position your boat to drift with the school. Shut your engine down. Cast the pogy into the school or around the edges. All that’s left to do is hang on and wait. Let the fish run with the bait before setting the hook. Remember to bow to the tarpon when he jumps. This will put slack in the line and prevent h it from spitting the hook. It also takes tension off the line to keep it from fraying the leader.
On the ICW side there are lots of flounder and legal size mangrove snapper being caught. The flounder are averaging 12 to 20 inches and the mangrove 12 to 16 inches. Both fish are excellent eating. Last Thursday Robert Ammon, Mike Bramlett and Heather Bramlett fished the ICW on board my boat. The trio had black drum to 18”, mangrove snapper to 15” and flounder to 14”. Robert lost the big fish of the day when it decided to dive under the boat. Once it did that the line cut and the fish was gone. I think it was a big snook because of the way it was fighting. We’ll get him next time Robert.
Roy’s Bait House reports that Anthony Pantuso caught and released a 125 lb tarpon at the pier. Joe Locote had 10 flounder from the pier and Mike McCray had 3 flounder in the ICW. Hap Meekins was offshore for a 29.14 king mackerel.
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
I hope everyone had a great and safe 4th of July and you got to enjoy the fireworks at the Flagler pier. The pier, having been closed for a couple of days due to the fireworks, is back to fishing as usual and is producing some good catches of flounder. Bluefish and whiting are both being caught from the pier and the surf. The blues are taking whole mullet and chunks of mullet. Whiting are taking shrimp, sand fleas and fish bites. As of now the beach and ocean is loaded with sargasum weed making the fishing a little difficult. The weed has been brought in by the easterly winds we’ve been having.
Now for some good news for live baiters. Live shrimp is once again starting to appear at bait shops on a regular basis. The first couple batches were on the small side but the size seems to be increasing with every batch that comes in. Lets hope this scenario continues.
On the ICW side it’s trout, snook, redfish, flounder, mangrove snapper, jacks and ladyfish. All can be caught live lining shrimp, mullet or mud minnows. In three trips last week a total of eight snook were brought to the boat with the largest weighing 4 ½ lbs. Also had some nice flounder healthy flounder. One had a half devoured pinfish in it’s throat but still ate the large shrimp we had out there. I also had a party out from New Mexico and one of the guys hooked into a tarpon that went about 15 lbs but it was lost at the side of the boat.
Dave Strickler , his daughter Christine and son Trey fished with me last week and they caught all of the above mentioned fish. Trey had a 4 lb snook and his sister had a 4 ½ lb snook. Both were the biggest fish they ever caught. The family also got to have a close encounter with a manatee. We were fishing a canal in Flagler Beach when the large mammal came right next to the boat. It was an experience of a lifetime for the family from western North Carolina. In all I must have seen 30 manatee in four days of fishing last week so please be aware that they are around when you are out boating.
Capt. Ralph Olivett has been scoring regularly on reds up around Matanzas inlet. Ralph has been using live mullet and scored eight slot size fish in one trip. Capt Chris Herrera is tossing topwater chuggers at aadaybreak for trout in the 6 to 7 lb range. Chris says to fish the grass banks.
Roy Mattson at Roy’s Bait Shop reports that Joe Lacone and his grandson fished the pier for 20 flounder. J Robertson – 7 flounder, 12 whiting and 3 blues. Dave Holloway – 9 blues on frozen mullet. Mike Adkins – lots of whiting from the surf. Roy also reported that someone had dumped 40 flounder that had been gigged at the route 100 boat ramp . What a waste of a resource. I told Roy that if he read the FWC’s report every week he would get sick at he number of people getting caught with illegal fish and that doesn’t include the one that aren’t caught.a
Now for some good news for live baiters. Live shrimp is once again starting to appear at bait shops on a regular basis. The first couple batches were on the small side but the size seems to be increasing with every batch that comes in. Lets hope this scenario continues.
On the ICW side it’s trout, snook, redfish, flounder, mangrove snapper, jacks and ladyfish. All can be caught live lining shrimp, mullet or mud minnows. In three trips last week a total of eight snook were brought to the boat with the largest weighing 4 ½ lbs. Also had some nice flounder healthy flounder. One had a half devoured pinfish in it’s throat but still ate the large shrimp we had out there. I also had a party out from New Mexico and one of the guys hooked into a tarpon that went about 15 lbs but it was lost at the side of the boat.
Dave Strickler , his daughter Christine and son Trey fished with me last week and they caught all of the above mentioned fish. Trey had a 4 lb snook and his sister had a 4 ½ lb snook. Both were the biggest fish they ever caught. The family also got to have a close encounter with a manatee. We were fishing a canal in Flagler Beach when the large mammal came right next to the boat. It was an experience of a lifetime for the family from western North Carolina. In all I must have seen 30 manatee in four days of fishing last week so please be aware that they are around when you are out boating.
Capt. Ralph Olivett has been scoring regularly on reds up around Matanzas inlet. Ralph has been using live mullet and scored eight slot size fish in one trip. Capt Chris Herrera is tossing topwater chuggers at aadaybreak for trout in the 6 to 7 lb range. Chris says to fish the grass banks.
Roy Mattson at Roy’s Bait Shop reports that Joe Lacone and his grandson fished the pier for 20 flounder. J Robertson – 7 flounder, 12 whiting and 3 blues. Dave Holloway – 9 blues on frozen mullet. Mike Adkins – lots of whiting from the surf. Roy also reported that someone had dumped 40 flounder that had been gigged at the route 100 boat ramp . What a waste of a resource. I told Roy that if he read the FWC’s report every week he would get sick at he number of people getting caught with illegal fish and that doesn’t include the one that aren’t caught.a
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
flagler fishing
Since the fishing seems to be a little on the slow side as of late, let me tell you about a fishing trip Capt. Chris Herrera and I took a couple of weeks back. Chris, who fishes quite often in the Indian River Lagoon, said he was going to take me to the lagoon for my birthday. The following morning he picked me up at 5 am and we headed south for the fifty minute drive to the boat launch at Haul Over Canal. We launched the boat and headed west into the lagoon. After a short run we headed south across some grass flats and came to a stop to look around for some fish. We didn’t see anywhere we were at but did see some boats to the east of us. We set course in their direction. When we got to within about 500 yards we shut the engine down and switched to the trolling motor. There were about seven boats that were sitting on a school of about 75 reds. Believe me when I tell you that there wasn’t a one under 20 lbs. They were so big that they were tailing in two feet of water. Chris eased us into the pack using the trolling motor. You don’t want to make any unnecessary noise because these fish spook easily. Chris had his rod ready to go with a live shrimp. Once he figured which way the school was moving he cast the shrimp about 10 yards in front of it and just let it sit. As they neared the shrimp Chris began to move it ever so slowly. One red picked up the shrimp and started to take off with it. Chris then started to reel in the circle hooked shrimp, the hook set and the battle was on. Fifteen minutes later we boated the big red which we estimated to be about 35lbs. It was the biggest red I have ever seen.
Then it was my turn. But as luck would have it the school seemed to stop feeding. I cast numerous times to the school but they just stopped feeding, maybe because of the pressure they were getting from the other boats. We than headed to another spot and couldn’t locate any fish there. We decided to give the original spot another shot. The fish were still there but they wouldn’t touch anything you threw at them so we called it quits and headed to Mosquito Lagoon. There I landed a 20” trout and an 18” red, both on plugs, a far cry from the big reds of earlier that day. We both vowed to make the run to the IRL another day.
This being a holiday weekend I would like to remind everyone to to take extra precaution and boat safely. Avoid the alcohol until you get in the safety of your own home. BOATING and ALCOHOL DOESN”T MIX . Have a safe and happy 4th.
Photo: Capt. Chris Herrera shows off a 35 lb Indian River Lagoon redfish.
Then it was my turn. But as luck would have it the school seemed to stop feeding. I cast numerous times to the school but they just stopped feeding, maybe because of the pressure they were getting from the other boats. We than headed to another spot and couldn’t locate any fish there. We decided to give the original spot another shot. The fish were still there but they wouldn’t touch anything you threw at them so we called it quits and headed to Mosquito Lagoon. There I landed a 20” trout and an 18” red, both on plugs, a far cry from the big reds of earlier that day. We both vowed to make the run to the IRL another day.
This being a holiday weekend I would like to remind everyone to to take extra precaution and boat safely. Avoid the alcohol until you get in the safety of your own home. BOATING and ALCOHOL DOESN”T MIX . Have a safe and happy 4th.
Photo: Capt. Chris Herrera shows off a 35 lb Indian River Lagoon redfish.
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Every week I receive a report from the FWC (Florida Wildlife Commission) about arrests and citations handed out throughout the state. These citations usually pertain to hunting and fishing infractions, poaching, illegal fish etc. One disturbing one that I read recently was of an arrest made here in Flagler County. The person has been citied for killing eight great blue herons by use of a pellet rifle. How anyone could kill such a beautiful, defenseless creature is beyond my comprehension. Isn’t part of the reason we live here because of the wildlife? It’s bad enough that so much wildlife is being depleted due to development that we don’t need individuals to speed up the process. If you know of a wildlife infraction and want to report it you can contact the FWC online at, myfwc.com then click on wildlife alert at the bottom of the page or call 1-888-404-3922 for an incident in progress.
Another disturbing article I read in the paper the other day was of a two year old that was killed when he fell of the stern of his fathers boat and was killed by the propeller. This incident most likely could have been avoided. I can’t express SAFE BOATING enough. We must be aware of our surroundings and the people onboard our boats at all times. It only takes a second for an accident to happen that may well have been prevented by the use of a little precaution and some common sense. Some of the things I see people doing while boating are accidents waiting to happen. Please, think and Practice Safe Boating !
Surf fishing has slowed a bit. What I have been hearing is mostly of blues and whiting. Still waiting for the tarpon to make an appearance along the beaches.
The ICW is producing reds, snook, flounder and some trout. Most of the flounder are around the fourteen inch range. Live shrimp is still a rarity. Mud minnows, mullet and pinfish are the live baits of choice. I probably had my worst day of fishing in the past 2 years when all I could produce was a 14” mangrove snapper and a couple of catfish for the party on my boat. They did however lose a nice snook. It’s tough when you have young children on the boat and you have to change your whole style of fishing. Capt. Ralph Olivett did well though. His party had 4 reds and a flounder. The reds were 27, 26 ½, 18 and 19 inches. All were caught on live bait.
Photo: left to right - Capt Ralph Olivett holds a redfish for Alyssa Wilson, Lindsey Jones – mangrove snapper, Lauren Jones – flounder, Dayton Wilson – redfish.
Rear, Shane Wilson –redfish, Gary Jones - redfish
Another disturbing article I read in the paper the other day was of a two year old that was killed when he fell of the stern of his fathers boat and was killed by the propeller. This incident most likely could have been avoided. I can’t express SAFE BOATING enough. We must be aware of our surroundings and the people onboard our boats at all times. It only takes a second for an accident to happen that may well have been prevented by the use of a little precaution and some common sense. Some of the things I see people doing while boating are accidents waiting to happen. Please, think and Practice Safe Boating !
Surf fishing has slowed a bit. What I have been hearing is mostly of blues and whiting. Still waiting for the tarpon to make an appearance along the beaches.
The ICW is producing reds, snook, flounder and some trout. Most of the flounder are around the fourteen inch range. Live shrimp is still a rarity. Mud minnows, mullet and pinfish are the live baits of choice. I probably had my worst day of fishing in the past 2 years when all I could produce was a 14” mangrove snapper and a couple of catfish for the party on my boat. They did however lose a nice snook. It’s tough when you have young children on the boat and you have to change your whole style of fishing. Capt. Ralph Olivett did well though. His party had 4 reds and a flounder. The reds were 27, 26 ½, 18 and 19 inches. All were caught on live bait.
Photo: left to right - Capt Ralph Olivett holds a redfish for Alyssa Wilson, Lindsey Jones – mangrove snapper, Lauren Jones – flounder, Dayton Wilson – redfish.
Rear, Shane Wilson –redfish, Gary Jones - redfish
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