If it’s action you’re looking for on the end of your line get out and do some trout fishing in the ICW. They might not be big but there are a lot of them around. You might have to catch 10 before you get a keeper but the action can be steady. The best time to find them seems to be around the change of the tide. Don’t rule out the rest of the tide though. As long as you have moving water you will find fish.
These fish will eat almost anything you throw at them. Live shrimp, soft plastic jigs, plugs or Berkley Gulp baits are all working. If you’re not an experienced artificial bait angler would like to learn, now is the time to do it. Put a Berkley Gulp shrimp on a ¼ ounce jig head and bounce it along the bottom and you’ll catch something weather it’s a trout, flounder or black drum. The 3” Storm wild eye is also producing a lot of fish. It comes with the jig head built in so there’s no guess work involved as to how heavy a jig head to use. This jig can be bounced along the bottom or throw it out and use a steady retrieve with a slight twitching motion.
Fly fishing for trout has also been very productive. White or yellow streamer flies with some flash material tied in have been working well. You also have a good chance of catching a snook or two using these flies.
Last week I was involved in the Oldest City Red Trout tournament held in St Augustine. It was the same there, tons of trout and small reds. Boats were coming back with reports of 50 to 60 trout in a day, the majority on the small side with the larger ones going around 16”. All you had to do was go up a creek on a falling tide and you were into fish. Bill Brunson from New Jersey fished aboard my boat for 2 days. The first day we fished in St. Augustine and he landed about 25 trout and reds. The next day we fished south looking for bigger trout. Bill did land an 18 ½” trout but it wasn’t big enough to place. A 20 ½” trout took 1st place. We did however find some nice flounder in a creek at the end of the outgoing tide. The fish were caught on Berkley Gulp shrimp.
Last Friday I got a call from my buddy Lou DeFazio telling me that he got into a bunch of fish. He had 25 trout, ladyfish, mangrove shrimp and 5 snook. All the snook and 80% of the other fish were caught using a fly.
The surf and pier are producing whiting, blues, black drum, pompano and a few reds.
I would like to wish my friend and fellow fisherman Chuck Kaszupski a speedy recovery from bypass surgery he underwent a couple of weeks ago. Being an avid fisherman I know he’s chomping at the bit to get back out on the water.
Photo: Bill Brunson holds up one of four 18” flounder he caught fishing with a Berkley Gulp shrimp.
These fish will eat almost anything you throw at them. Live shrimp, soft plastic jigs, plugs or Berkley Gulp baits are all working. If you’re not an experienced artificial bait angler would like to learn, now is the time to do it. Put a Berkley Gulp shrimp on a ¼ ounce jig head and bounce it along the bottom and you’ll catch something weather it’s a trout, flounder or black drum. The 3” Storm wild eye is also producing a lot of fish. It comes with the jig head built in so there’s no guess work involved as to how heavy a jig head to use. This jig can be bounced along the bottom or throw it out and use a steady retrieve with a slight twitching motion.
Fly fishing for trout has also been very productive. White or yellow streamer flies with some flash material tied in have been working well. You also have a good chance of catching a snook or two using these flies.
Last week I was involved in the Oldest City Red Trout tournament held in St Augustine. It was the same there, tons of trout and small reds. Boats were coming back with reports of 50 to 60 trout in a day, the majority on the small side with the larger ones going around 16”. All you had to do was go up a creek on a falling tide and you were into fish. Bill Brunson from New Jersey fished aboard my boat for 2 days. The first day we fished in St. Augustine and he landed about 25 trout and reds. The next day we fished south looking for bigger trout. Bill did land an 18 ½” trout but it wasn’t big enough to place. A 20 ½” trout took 1st place. We did however find some nice flounder in a creek at the end of the outgoing tide. The fish were caught on Berkley Gulp shrimp.
Last Friday I got a call from my buddy Lou DeFazio telling me that he got into a bunch of fish. He had 25 trout, ladyfish, mangrove shrimp and 5 snook. All the snook and 80% of the other fish were caught using a fly.
The surf and pier are producing whiting, blues, black drum, pompano and a few reds.
I would like to wish my friend and fellow fisherman Chuck Kaszupski a speedy recovery from bypass surgery he underwent a couple of weeks ago. Being an avid fisherman I know he’s chomping at the bit to get back out on the water.
Photo: Bill Brunson holds up one of four 18” flounder he caught fishing with a Berkley Gulp shrimp.