It seems we can finally bid adieu to that awful red tide that hung around for almost three weeks. Although there were fish kills I don’t expect it to take too long for the fishing to rebound. Inshore the hardest hit area seemed to be Matanzas Inlet down to the Pellicer flats. Lots of dead trout, flounder and redfish were reported. It never seemed to reach the southern end of Flagler county or Volusia county. I never saw any dead fish in that area. As a matter of fact the fishing was pretty good. The costal beaches of St. Johns, Flagler and northern Volusia counties took the hardest hit from the tide but reports already have the fishing making a strong comeback.
The trout fishing in the ICW had been hot until this past Sunday when it just seemed to shut down. Reports I’ve been getting this week is of a slow bite. This may be attributed to a couple of things, a slow moving tide, the full moon, winds and what seems to be a lack of bait. However, look for the fishing to pick up by this weekend. Roy Mattson, at Roy’s Bait house, said he has been receiving reports out of Georgia and northern Florida that of lots of bait and fish are moving south. It could be that the warm weather and water temperatures have kept the bait up that way a little longer than usual. We’ll just have to wait and see if this run materializes here.
Last Thursday Lou DeFazio and I fished the ICW for what turned out to be a good day of fishing. We hit a couple of spots and caught lots of trout. I fared better with my mirrolure than Lou did with his jig. After seeing all the trout I was catching Lou decided to switch to a small Rapala x-rap lure. On about his third cast he hooked into a big fish. At first we couldn’t tell what it was because the fish didn’t want to come to the surface. When it’s tail finally broke the surface you could see the black spot that indicated it was a redfish. When we got it in the boat it measured out at 30” and weighed 9 lbs. The fish was photographed and released. It was the biggest red Lou has caught yet. Mark Zander fished with me on Saturday and had a 25” snook also using a small Rapala x-rap plug.
Jake Jaquish At Jakes Highbridge Bait and Tackle reports that the snook fishing has slacked off some but most of the action is taking place after midnight from the bridge. Jake also reports black drum being caught on live or dead shrimp.
Johnny Garrett at Flagler Beach Bait and Tackle reports lots of blues being caught on mullet, black drum and whiting using shrimp and pompano on shrimp or clams.
Hugh Anderson, fishing the “2007” Fall Surf Fishing Tournament held out of St Augustine, weighed in the largest fish a 12.6 lb bluefish.
The trout fishing in the ICW had been hot until this past Sunday when it just seemed to shut down. Reports I’ve been getting this week is of a slow bite. This may be attributed to a couple of things, a slow moving tide, the full moon, winds and what seems to be a lack of bait. However, look for the fishing to pick up by this weekend. Roy Mattson, at Roy’s Bait house, said he has been receiving reports out of Georgia and northern Florida that of lots of bait and fish are moving south. It could be that the warm weather and water temperatures have kept the bait up that way a little longer than usual. We’ll just have to wait and see if this run materializes here.
Last Thursday Lou DeFazio and I fished the ICW for what turned out to be a good day of fishing. We hit a couple of spots and caught lots of trout. I fared better with my mirrolure than Lou did with his jig. After seeing all the trout I was catching Lou decided to switch to a small Rapala x-rap lure. On about his third cast he hooked into a big fish. At first we couldn’t tell what it was because the fish didn’t want to come to the surface. When it’s tail finally broke the surface you could see the black spot that indicated it was a redfish. When we got it in the boat it measured out at 30” and weighed 9 lbs. The fish was photographed and released. It was the biggest red Lou has caught yet. Mark Zander fished with me on Saturday and had a 25” snook also using a small Rapala x-rap plug.
Jake Jaquish At Jakes Highbridge Bait and Tackle reports that the snook fishing has slacked off some but most of the action is taking place after midnight from the bridge. Jake also reports black drum being caught on live or dead shrimp.
Johnny Garrett at Flagler Beach Bait and Tackle reports lots of blues being caught on mullet, black drum and whiting using shrimp and pompano on shrimp or clams.
Hugh Anderson, fishing the “2007” Fall Surf Fishing Tournament held out of St Augustine, weighed in the largest fish a 12.6 lb bluefish.