A low weather pressure system that has been sitting off the coast has wreaked havoc with fishing this past week. The strong gusty northeast winds kicked up the ocean to the point it almost looked like a hurricane with waves crashing and hitting the bottom of the pier and tearing up the dunes along the beach. I live on the mainland side of Flagler Beach and the surf was so rough I could hear the loud roar of the surf when I stood in my yard. I hope this is no indication of what is to come now that we are in hurricane season, lets hope not.
Tuesday morning I stopped at Roy’s Bait House at 8am to see if there was a fishing report and he told me that Hap Meekins was able to make it offshore before the blow for a 9.01 lb grouper, 2 cobia to 28.01 lbs and 12 mutton snapper. Rick Stevens had 3 flounder to 3 lbs. Other than those two things there’s not much else to report.
The northeast winds have also made for extremely high tides in the ICW and the backwaters. All you had to do was drive over the rte. 100 bridge and look at the marshland off the ICW to see how high the tides were. These high tides will make for difficult fishing until they recede. The high water just gives the fish access to places that they normally can’t get to and neither can we.
I don’t normally talk about freshwater fishing in this column but I came across an interesting web site the other day. If you’re into the BASS tournament trail you can find out how life really is on the tour by going to http://www.toyotafishing.com/. If you thought the tour was all glamour this site might change your mind about your dreams of becoming a pro angler.
On the saltwater side the Florida Guides Association has a new web site forum out, http://www.flatsfishing.com/. Here you can ask advice from professional guides from around the state. It covers everything from freshwater to saltwater and everything in between.
By the two web sites I have given you I guess you know what I do when I can’t get out and fish. Maybe, just maybe we will start to see some consistency to our weather pattern for this time of year and I will have more to report next week. Until then say a prayer to the fish gods.


Photo: Jason Murphy and Dennis McDaniel show off some nice trout and a flounder they caught recently while visiting our area.

The Flagler County Sportfishing Clubs Annual Bucket Full “O” Fun tournament to benefit Hospice of Volusia/Flagler County was a huge success last weekend. The event, along with gorgeous weather, brought out 158 anglers fishing out of 72 boats vying for a spot in the top five winning places. The weigh in was held at Mad Dogs on the river in Flagler Beach. As anglers weighed in their catches they kept an eye on the leader board that was constantly changing. When it was all said and done the first place winner was Joe Ricke who weighed in a limit of flounder that totaled 17.5 lbs and earned him a cash payout of $1,680. 2nd was Hap Meekins, 14.25 lbs - $1,400.00. 3rd was Tim Anderson, 13.9 lbs - $1,120.00. 4th was Charles Dodgen, 13.0 lbs - $840.00. 5th was John Baggott, 11.75 lbs - $560.00.
On the junior angler side, anglers 12 and under, 1st place went to Adam Adrian with 2.2 lbs and 2nd place was Joey Cortese with 1.55 lbs.
I participated in the tournament along with my partner Sal Pasalaqua whose company, Craig-Flagler Palms Funeral Home, was one of the sponsors of the tournament. We found the morning bite to be a little on the slow side but did manage a couple of nice trout. Sal fished with live shrimp and landed a trout weighing 4.8 lbs., the largest of the tournament, and another that measured 22” but we released that one as you could only weigh in the legal size and bag limit of fish. I must say that Sal did a heck of a job for only his third time fishing inshore. We released a couple of other trout that were on the boarder line of 15”. We weighed in 3 trout that totaled 8.7 lbs and were in first place for a while with 20 minutes remaining to the weigh in. Overall we wound up in 9th place out of the 72 boats.
If I could make one suggestion to the Fishing Club it would be for everyone, including the weigh master, to have the exact same measuring device in it’s tournaments. It would eliminate illegal fish from being weighed in and also eliminate any doubt of fish that are boarder line legal size when measured using something other than that of the weigh master. It’s something to think about guys.
The surf and pier are producing whiting, pompano and a few flounder.
Action offshore is producing dolphin (fish), cobia and red snapper.


Photo: Sal Pasalaqua holds a trout he caught while aalive lining a shrimp.