mid AUGUST, Jacksonville Florida reports
Capt. Dave Sipler
August 19, 2009
Jacksonville - Saltwater Fishing Report
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www.fish-jacksonville-fishing.com
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8/18 - A really nice day on the river!
Yeah, it may have been a bit breezy. It has been for a few days now. But that's what kept it cooler. The sun may have bumped in and out because of the clouds. But that's what kept it cooler.
And yeah, we may have gotten really wet because of a short rain shower that snuck up on us.
But again, that really cooled us off.
Had Louise H. and her son Garrett aboard today, visiting from the Lone Star state. And actually quite close to the good ole Gulf of Mexico, one seriously fishy body of water. But as Louise told me in the beginning...."we're not fishing people". But heck they wanted to give it a try.
And I think they were very pleased that they did. Because we had a really great day. And even though they may have been fishin' rookies, they both did exceptionally well. And as usual, when I have the gals aboard, they're the fish magnets!!
After I shagged off my morning "stow-away", we took off just after 8am.
We headed up river. At the first stop, I try to find a nice calm easy to fish spot. So everyone on board gets acclimated to the tackle and gives me a chance to teach them about float-rig fishing.
And we were on our spot 5 minutes with lines in the water about 30 seconds when Garrett hooks the first fish of the morning. "I.G" - instantaneous gratification!!! That's what I like to see. And coming to boat is the first Speckled Trout. Not a keeper, but it doesn't matter at this point.
Then it was mom's turn, and Louise reels one on in.
Right then, we started to get some falling tide current, so we shifted on over to an area that had good steady current, straight behind the boat. But that had the wind straight to our stern, and we wobbled around a lot on anchor. But we got the job done, and started catching Trout right away.
We were fishing now, no more than an hour maybe and already caught 6 and had 3 up to 19-7/8ths of and inch, in the fish box. Again, not bad for my float-rigging newbies. They both got into the rhythm and that means fish!!
After boxing some nice Trout up to 20 inches, we moved on and tried our hand at some bottom fishing for a big red. But it's still summer and the first hook up was a monster Stingray that smoked off line so fast there was no stopping the big "dumpster-lid", and it broke off.
My patience for this is about a foot long. Starring at the rod tips, (I hate stinger fishing...) so we moved on and went back to float-rig fishing and catching good fish. But the next spot was short lived. Here came the clouds and ran us off to a safe haven, but as I ran there, we ran straight into the big rain. We got wet, but during the down pour the boat was safely tied up and we took cover with a handful of other fisherman under a roof that was close by.
After the shower we found a nice calm river and a lesser breeze on the next spot. Caught some more throw back Trout and boxed even more up to 20 inches, again. Along with plenty of Ladyfish and jacks, and the days only Mangrove Snapper at 14 inches, that hit the ice along with a double limit of beautiful Specks. I know, I couldn't believe it either.....only one Mangrove?? We really didn't have many problems with the "shrimp snatchers" much at all, today. Maybe because I fished deeper waters, further away from the hard structures.
Louise was the "hot rod" all day. And it was well deserved. She was on her game.
I believe, she should fish more often. She might get really hooked.
They ended their day by taking a bag of freshly caught trout all filleted, de-boned and skinned by their guide to Singletons Seafood Shack and having them cooked up for them.
They just don't get fresher than that.
Louise gave me some also, because they had more than enough and when I got home and put everything away I was reminded of what a nice day we had with a big plate of fresh fried Speckled Trout myself for supper.
Ahhhh, the fruits of our FUN. sure did taste good.
See ya out there...
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8/14 - Almost one year ago......
Remember Tropical Storm Fay? Or "Faye" as some spelled it.
It was last year, NEXT WEEK.
Myself and DOA Rob went out the first day afterwards that was calm enough and not raining and I caught my largest Redbass to date; 50-55 pounds.
Tropical Storm Fay was a real belly washer and from there on out the season basically began.
The "fall'ish" season I mean.
Storms that swing by are many times the KICK-OFF to fall!!
The Reds were about everywhere, and so was the bait.....CROAKERS. Yep, that's what I used. And also cut Ladyfish.
I've read those rediculas reports about catching 175 plus Croakers????? Yeah, who's cleaning all them damn things. It's not like they are 20 inches a piece. Because I know your guide isn't. Alot of guides around here don't clean fish.....WHAT????
Yeah thats what I say.
That's all fine and dandy I guess, but I'll catch my larger Croakers usually on the float-rig and a live shrimp. And be happy with 5-10 big ones up to 17", then move on.
All the waiting thru the 99 degree temps. Putting together new tackle all summer long, has all been for the preparation of SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER, in 2009. I'm really anxious this year for fall.
The days are shorter, we've usually had some significant storms, the water's cooling off and it's all about, days like this....
The first week, of last September Paul M. from New England caught this beautiful 6-1/2 pound Trout. And we had a whole bunch of other big fatties, too.
We're loosing basically a minute a day of daylight, now. And this time of year is all about
LENGTH OF DAYS.....LENGTH OF DAYS.
Kick back and relax, and have fun. I'll take care of everything.
Hope to have ya'll aboard the, "JETTYWOLF".
Jacksonville Fishing Forecast:
BIG TROUT, no problem!
Big REDS, no problem!
Tarpon shots? no problem!
With the right tide, anything's possible starting in Sept and Oct.
Once we shake the grasp of full blow summer weather, we'll start getting into my favorite time of year.
Target Species:
Speckled Trout
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