7/1 - JULY JACKSONVILLE
Capt. Dave Sipler
July 4, 2010
Jacksonville - Saltwater Fishing Report
JULY 1 - Brandts aboard the Jettywolf again.
Had the Don B. and his family my favorite "regulars", aboard the Jettywolf again. Always glad to have them, as we always have a good time no matter what happens. Well, today was one of those "best laid plans, gone awry." Let me define, for the vacabulary handicapped; AWRY - "away from the correct or expected course; "something has gone awry in our plans."
And that usually means Nassua Sound! I ride all the way up there, because we weren't looking for any box fish, I just wanted big time pullers. Drag smokers, via relatively light tackle. And by the way, that meant SHARKS. Be it the small 2-3' Blacktips, or the 20 pound Bonnetheads. When I have the Brandts aboard, they just want to catch, and enjoy the day out. The last time I was up at Nassua Sound on a kids trip, we had 30 or so Whiting and a few light tackle rod doublers we never even saw, before the hook was bit off the leader. So that's what I had in mind. But I came prepared. And even brought Chum to secure the bite, if we got into a good one.
Twelve inch Whiting are fine for a 6 year old, as long as there's loads of them. But c'c'mon....adults ain't getting any thrill out of a 12 inch fish. So after my 18 mile long run via the ICW, we arrived as the last of the falling tide just started to switch. Bites we had.....12" Whiting, and one after another 12" Sharks.
Did ya get that? I said 12 INCH Sharks!!!!! The nursury. Romper room, Sesame Street crap. I moved around 3 times. Same deal.
The water temp in the sound on my machine was 72 degrees! IT'S JULY 1ST, AND HERE WE ARE IN 72 DEGREE WATER? Yes, another summer time happening in bazzaro world N.E. Florida. Cold water in summer. Usually a good thing for the shark hunter. But obviously not today. So after a good handful of 12" Sharks and dink Whiting. We all agreed, "it's time to get the hell outa here." So I made the run all the way back to the St. Johns River.
On the way back, I thought of a good spot and if the tide was right we could catch some big Redbass. And damn if I didn't pull up, drop the anchor set out two rods rigged with circle hooks and pinned on some thawd cut Cigar Minnows and the first rod bent over. I.G. - instantaneous gratification. Bill, Don's dad was sitting right next to the rod when it took a bow. Hooked it up and then it got off.....OH NO MR. BILL!! I believe the fish didn't have long enough to eat up the cigar minnow, as Bill reeled it up and everything but the head was gone.
That's the tricky thing when fishing circle hooks for gamefish that eat their baits whole. Give them time to take it and then double the rod over with the reel spool peeling line out. There's no need to hurry, the fish ain't going no where. Unless the fish eats the bait and swims towards the boat, like big reds will do. Then you have to take up the slack, feeeeel, feeeel some more. Then reel like your hand is a Black & Decker, as you lift against the fish. Not always as easy as it sounds. But lots of experience, will do the trick.
That rod wasn't out 2 minutes and we already had one on. Things were looking alot better than Nassua Sound already!
Then came a precession of bites from some super pretty and dark copper colored "RB's" - (Redbass')
(the camera crew getting ready)
Let's go fishin'
Safety, comfort, and room for all.....
(not bad photos from my Verizon phone, after a bit of tweaking)
We had some other bites. No Stingrays, thank goodness. But as fast as the action came, it was over. I bet if we were there just an hour or so sonner we would have been in the whole bite, instead of the tail end.
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