Fishing Jacksonville & Mayport

Capt. Bryan Russell
May 8, 2006
Jacksonville - Saltwater Fishing Report

Offshore/Nearshore

Well The offshore scene is about to explode with spring kings! How do i Know? Well, 3 Important signs showed this week. Sign #1: Water temp. at the surface is 73ish (we need 75) Sign #2: While bottom fishing the inshore wrecks we had schools of Bonita busting all around us. Sign #3: everytime we released a short snapper we saw red swimming sideways! That translates to 'cudas eating our released fish. Now back to sign #2. We pulled anchor and despite not having any trolling rigs, we pulled jigging spoons on 15 lb. spinning gear over the wrecks and were hammered by the fat bonita. My folks had a ball with the boneheads! And then sign #3 appeared again as the bonita were attacked by BIG cuda's Again.........What does this mean?

King Are Closeby! The Temp. and bait are about right for the schools of spring kings to be here. If the Bonita and Barracuda are on thr wrecks then the kings are there too. I lovetrolling for kings in the spring because the action is fast and furious.

The Cobia are showing and will get stronger over the next several weeks. There are big Spanish all over the bait pods on the beach as well as Bull redfish.. Look for the snapper action to get better and better as they spawn. There are plenty of Snapper sized cigar minnows on the inshore wrecks and pogies on the beach. Remember to "match the hatch" Tarpon will arrive in a couple of weeks. Use the bait the fish are feeding on for best success. Now it the timeto book your trolling charters, Its gonna be a great summer here on the first coast! Tight lines and screamin' drags, Capt. Bryan

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