Jacksonville Mid October Trout report
Capt. Dave Sipler
October 16, 2009
Jacksonville - Saltwater Fishing Report
10/13 - Deep Water T-routz
Had Nick W. on board with me today. We departed at 8am. And tried to float-rig fish within a mile of the boat ramp..."just checking to see if the fish think it's fall yet."
Tried two spots and the only thing we came up with was Nick getting slam dunked along some rocks by a "butt hander" which remained un-seen. And lost hook after hook from vicious strikes, that Nick said, as we started wondering "what the hell...." "Dave could these be Spanish Mac's?"
I said yeah, I bet they are. Because the float would go down with super speed, and no connection. Just lost hooks, via those small razor like teeth of the Spanish Mac's.
Oh did I mention the wind? It was blowing pretty good, overcast, zero sun shine, and yes "a lot more comfortable that the average October 2009 day, so far."
We were after one thing. Okay three things....
A box O' TROUT. We'd certainly take Flounder. And a brawl with a Redbass on the Float rig. Not much to ask for on a iffy weather morning.
But that's why I do what I do. I counted no less than 4-5 boats turn around that were heading offshore. And that included Capt Scott's 70' party boat!
That's why I have zero interest in offshore fishing. I went through all that for years with charters. And didn't care for it. And never looked back. No one has to worry about me crowding them on the reefs, that's for sure. Today, Nick and I were fishing, not catching, but fishing within 5 minutes after letting go the dock lines.
So after finding out that either the tide wasn't low enough, and the only willing fish smiling on our very sprightly live shrimp had too many teeth. I pulled anchor and headed down river.
We worked a real go-to spot, for when the tides low. Nothing. So we moved on one more time. The wind was a huge problem on a good "hard bottom" spot, plus there was another boat near that I didn't want to disturb. But, when I finally got anchored up, both Nick and I caught two good keeper Trout, right away.
This is where they usually are, and we were fishing 22 feet of water. And a few Ladyfish. Then, my anchor kept pulling loose with the combined current and wind. "It's a tough place to anchor" I told Nick. "The bottom is like trying to get the anchor to stick into concrete." Many people discount the fact the Trout can be caught on the float-rig in 20 plus feet of water....."why not". That's why I use 2 oz. floats and two ounce leads on my rigs.
Works just as well in shallower water, and perfectly in the deep water too.
We left that zip code and as we pulled up a few miles away at another good spot. The current here was about slack. So we hung out for awhile and the tide then started to come on in. We re-anchored and adjusted our location, so to fish the spot better. The wind seemed to die down as it many times does, when the tide changes.
First drift of the float.......Yellowmouth Trout, second drift.....nice Speckled Trout! We were now in the "MEAT". And we were making our drifts in 20 plus feet of water and actually catching Trout in 26 feet.
Stan Milestone, previous owner of B&M bait and tackle and I were talking about Float-rig fishing one day. He's a master when it came to Trout, and back in the day before he found Pompano to his liking. I remember him saying that he rarely fishes over 12 feet deep. And yeah, that can be the case many times.
But not on these spots, and not today!
Personally, I find that if you want to get away from bait stealers, and them small Mangroves Snappers, many times going deeper on areas that you can, means, you'll find Trout. Where you didn't know they were. I like experimenting. And I liked what Nick and I were doing on this spot!
We soon caught our limit "plus" of really nice Trout, not having to even measure many of the fish.
Especially this one, that I nailed.
A sweet 5 pounder, that I was gingerly reeling in as I was talking to my fellow Trout fishing buddy D.O.A. Rob on the cell phone. He was heading south to Guana State Park in pursuit of none other than a big Trout from his Kayak.
Here's a bit of perspective.....for comparison.
Damn, I love catching Trout like this one after another and Nick sure did too. We ended up with 7 Yellowmouth Trout also, a few Croakers, then Nick had a deep water pole bender hooked up.
We were hoping for a keeper Redbass, but it turned out to be a 30 incher.
All on one spot, and in 26 feet of water.
The day may have started out slow, and Nick and I were wondering if maybe the weather had the fish off the bite. But as usual, we didn't give up. And just continued hunting around.
The air temp was glorious!! We never broke a sweat, the shrimp were frisky and happy as all hell till they were pinned on the hook, of course. We never saw the sun. And just didn't care.
After all the hot weather. I'd take weeks if not months more of these kinds of days.
And I hear more is on it's way. I can hardly wait!
Jacksonville Fishing Forecast:
Where, when and how
From the pages of my daily log book, straight to you. www.jacksonvillefishingreports.blogspot.com
You may have noticed that I'm sort of keeping track of when my Trout friends show up EAST of the boat ramp. Sort of? Hell, I'm gonna break out the "highlighter" and circle that day. So I was lying when I said, sort of.
As Anglers, we don't have much to go on other than seat of our pants gut feelings, or last years notes, or like here, "when someone tells you about a bite going on".
Either way, I keep last years Florida Sportsman Fishing Planner on my desk. So I can look back and see trends. And the differences from year to year. Because I keep relatively good notes on things that interest me.
I split areas up into sections in my mind, you may too. And when I mark down "Mayport ____"
Meaning as example "Mayport Reds", "Mayport Trout" etc. it means within sight of the boat ramp/shrimp boats etc.
Well, last year on October 9th, I have a big red circle around that date with a note saying "Mayport Trout"........yeah 40 of them off one spot!!!!!
Now not to give away the whole farm. I've been there, and NOT done that yet in the same area.
Key word: YET!
Then, I was out on a nasty blustery day in 2008 (have ya noticed we haven't had many of those "yet" this October??) I had out John C. and his lovely wife in and the two of them tore the Trout up. That's probably why it hasn't happened yet, this year (?) Because we haven't had that really nasty weather just yet.
This is just an example, of course. But from around Oct. 9th on, it was GAME on in Mayport.
Especially for my Trout friends.
These are the kinds of trends I track. And I don't care what other's might say or report. I go by what happens on my boat!
Don't know if any of you regular readers ever go back and look at the "archive" pages here. But if your out to learn something, like tracking a species, the when and whys and seasonal patterns of our fish. It behoves you to get to know the archives list.
I get emails asking me those same questions. And of course I actually do all this typing for prospective customers. But they don't seem to take the time to look at it, or use the archived months of reports. I would.
So what I do, is steer people to them instead.
Believe me, if I was looking for a charter guide.
I'd want to know what he can do for me, and what's his track record during the time frame in which I want to fish.
Target Species:
Trout, Redfish
More Fishing Reports:
