November winds - Jacksonville fishing reports
Capt. Dave Sipler
November 9, 2009
Jacksonville - Saltwater Fishing Report
11/8 - Mo' WIND....and I mean Mo'.
Holy crap...Now that was some seriously aggravating wind on Sunday. Got a email from Kelly W. from California on Saturday morning, he was wanting to do some fishing on Sunday, with his wife and daughter.
I knew what we'd be in store for, there was no doubt. Basically, an incoming tide all day, 20 knot sustained (feeling) winds from the N.E. and yep....some serious K.O.D. But man. what "troopers" they were.
Dressed properly and ready and on time. I had so many live shrimp in the bait well I could get into anything and not run out.......unlike earlier in the week and last weekend.
We tried float-rig fishing, we tried bumping the bottom, we tried heading to the jetties, whoa that was fun....it was heinous outside the rocks. We tried fishing down the river. And went HOURS without a single fish. We had loads of bait stealer bites, and not a single connection with a hook into a decent fishes lips.
Yes, my friends. A serious K.O.D. situation is what I had on my hands here. Light tackle pitchin' and flipping just wasn't cutting it. Kelly was the real fisherman. And I wanted to so badly get him hooked up on something after all that we tried. So I said, I guess we're gonna have to do some bait-n-wait fishing, deep and with the heavier tackle. Sort of heavier....my Tiger Lite custom rods and Curado 300 DSV low profile reels. As light as I could go and still chunk 6 ounces.
Really, big Reds don't need giant reels and telephone pole rods. It's way more fun to tangle with them on adequate tackle....that's light to the feel and on the fish, just a tad. And this is what we used.
So we went and anchored up barely, on a spot that has consistently produced big Reds for me at the high tide. But we were still a few hours away from actual high. So we waited it out. Monster 8" whole dead shrimp works great here normally. It's all ya need. But when the game fish are sort of off the feed bag, the bait stealers are on the feed bag. And the jumbo shrimp was just getting chewed, as it sat down on the patch of hard bottom, 33 feet below.
We tried to hook them, but it took forever to catch one. And when we did, it was a small Whiting.
I said, "this will work!" So I cut the Whiting's head off, pinned it on and cast it out. It wasn't long before the rod doubled over and Kelly was FINALLY on a decent fish. But we had a scare.
As he was working the Red to the boat it ran down deep and got hung up in something. The fish just stopped. The line was hung up. So Kelly handed me the rod and I threw slack to it and the Red quickly became "un-stuck". To the boat it came, and on the light tackle it sure put up a hell of a battle.
A nice one at 16 pounds for the first real bite.
We re-baited and used more cut Whiting and had more action.
Marla on her largest fish ever, let alone ever held.
Her Redfish was the largest at 26 pounds, I believe.
I thought I was over having to do the ole "bait-n-wait" fishing. Because last week and weekend it was all about working the real light tackle for them Specks and Mangrove Snappers, Sheephead and big Yellowmouth Trout. Which is way more my forte.
I'm not all that happy when I have to sit watching pole tips. But ya have to do what ya have to do, sometimes.
No one had to kick me in the ass too hard to figure out that we really had to conform to something that was more wind friendly fishing, today.
I had to fight the images of a cooler full of beautiful specks that was in my head,, all morning....ahhhh how I love that. But we made the day with some Brutus T. Redbass in the boat. So after the last one, the tide completely went slack and the last fish was a Toadfish......Whoops, time to go. "Here's your sign" as they say. Toad's are a definite sign, time to go home.
Now, I have a few days till Wednesday that I won't be out in the wind. I sure hope we can float-rig and find some eaters Wednesday through Friday.
I'm not counting on it with the forecast. But ya never know.
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1/6 - BIG WIND.....you ain't kidding!
As soon as I dropped the boat in the water and backed off the trailer I could tell, this wasn't like the parking lot at B&M bait and tackle!!
Here's a photo of the Pilot station next to the boat ramp. I always look at their flag, and say "oh it's gonna be a toughie, or Oh, it's gonna be a easy day".
Take a wild guess what I said to myself, today?
I got the call early this morning before our 9am departure that Travis was bringing his 6 yr. old son. Right then, I said to myself...."don't think I'll attempt a jetty trip, today!"Because if I just had two rough and tumble adults ya know I'd do it, but not when I have a kid that young on board. I got enough on my mind when anchoring out there in a 20 knot North East wind, let alone having to keep one eye on a 6 year old, too.
Of course, I had planned on it. I got two calls from friends that sat at the Jetties yesterday and did quite well, float-riggin the rocks. One was in a 17' jon-boat!! And no Jon-boat was going out there this morning. Not where I wanted to fish.
We departed with several hours of the incoming tide still ahead of us. And with the wind and tide all going essentially the same way.....it was near heinous in the river. And about non-Float rig fishable, where I wanted to go. Hell, we went and looked twice even, and I didn't want to anchor there even. So we took some time and just fished the bottom. So Trevor the 6 year old could catch some fish. Since I knew it would be awhile before we could go do the "adult fishing" that I wanted to do, on a certain spot.
So I went to an area that's usually covered up with Yellowmouth Trout. And it wasn't completely balls to the wall today, but they were there. Just way too small. But we let the boy reel in some fish and he had fun. It was just that 90% of the yellowmouths were 12-13 inches, instead of 14-18 inches.
Needless, to say as you'll see this is about where my normal shutter-bug self, stopped. I was just too busy, it was just so windy and I just wanted fish in the box. So, I too fished along with Travis and Darren.
When the going gets tough, Dave needs to know what's going on, too. So after we caught a bunch of small yellowmouths for the boy, we moved on and the tide was now falling. The wind backed off a bit and all was better.
I'm not the only one that knows this. But I'll say it anyway, in case you don't know. Basically, the river tide carries an atmosphere with it. When the tide changes, many times the winds change too. It's the air mass that gets carried along with the moving cooler or warmer river water. Same thing happens out in the Gulf Stream.
So, now that all was better.....but still windy as all hell. We ended up where I wanted to go in the first place. And usually "I am your ringer". I can find the bite fast. But today, Darren was Johnny rod bender. He was the fella who works on the Marlin Oil Rig in the Gulf of Mexico 150 miles offshore of Louisiana. We no sooner got anchored and he started bailing the Speckled Trout over the side of the boat.
We weren't float-rig fishing but rather tight-lining again with a light weight egg sinker and a real long leader and live shrimp. Between the 14-18 inchers and Mangrove Snapper he was waylaying them, as Travis and I tried to keep up.
The current was perfect. But as the tide got down, all the good current went away. The tide dropped and the wind speed, took over. But that was okay, I made a few adjustments. And he still whacked them, picking off a few nice ones on each re-anchor. And even had two small Flounder. One in the boat and one "palm beach release" at boat side.
I brought 10 dozen live shrimp and again, and we barely made it. I tried one more spot and we had 4 shrimp left.
The bite was really good, for awhile there. That's now two trips in a row that ten dozen shrimp just don't last because of bites, fish, and released small Trout. We caught no less than 20 Speckled Trout and 10 Mangrove Snappers while the getting was good. Plus, all the small yellowmouths you could stand to have a kid reel in, earlier.
So not a bad day, for a 20 knot N.E. blower.
The Specks weren't huge. But between 15 and maybe 18 inches were the ones that hit the ice.
It was too bad it was just too windy to float-rig properly. Because we did loose a bunch of hooks and rigs to the bottom as we tight-lined them live river crickets to the Trout. But hey, ya can't just do one thing, I know that. But of course I wanted to keep it....really light tackle fishing.
It was once said, that if you fish the St. Johns, you'll learn that you have to be rigidly flexible. And on days when the tides a smokin' and the winds a honkin', and you get notice of a 6 year old on board. Being rigidly flexible is what I become, really fast!
THINK AHEAD, PLAN AHEAD, CALL AHEAD...IT'S HOLIDAY SEASON!
Jacksonville Fishing Forecast:
Just when I'm really busy...here came the 20 knot incessant winds from the N.E. to East.
I was so on the nice fat Trout, it wasn't funny. The St. Johns river inlet on 11/7 was so nasty, when I had a "Burial at sea". We never even reached the Ocean...all the way. They said "Dave, this is close enough for us!".
Did see the south jetty on 11/8. But it was un-fishable. 4-6 footers rolled in on the south side of the south jetty. But we went and looked anyhow.
Just to prove a point. I can get there,no problem.
But do I want to anchor there...not really!
Target Species:
Trout, Drum, Reds, Yellowmouth trout, Flounder, Sheepshead and MORE..
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