Windy week in Jacksonville Florida
Capt. Dave Sipler
March 24, 2008
Jacksonville - Saltwater Fishing Report
3/24 - Your Weather Manager
Had a trip booked back on last Thursday with Dave K. Who wanted to fish in gale force winds? Not me. So we rescheduled for today. Well, an incoming tide against a 20+ knot N.W. wind, and "small craft advisory", made for an early morning decision, to bag it one mo' time!
Luckily for me, Dave comes to J-ville each month and we rain checked his trip to a date in April, that he'll get back with me on. But at the same time, I'm getting really full for the month of April already. This could get interesting.
So, what will this week bring? The long range forecast (right now) looks doable. I hope so, because it's a busy week. I have reserved Friday straight through to next Monday. A 4 day run. And what happens when I have trips day after day? That's right....."the winds blow hard".
It was exactly like this last year. So already, I have made a note for 2009, starting the week of 15th of March to expect; "winds from hell".
On another note, if you missed Strike Zones side walk sale on Friday & Saturday you surely missed one of their best. Dave, is the king of the tent sale. And under dark clouds on Saturday, in front of the store their were deals for literally pennies on the dollar.
I even bumped into two BLOG readers there. Always nice to meet the folks that frequent my ramblings, that go on here.
Myself and a buddy were in all out bargain heaven. I had plans of looking for some heavy metal jigs, because I want to try the offshore vertical jigging this year. Ya' know, "butterfly jigging", or as some refer to it as "free style jigging".
I've watched all of Jose Wejebe's - Spanish Fly video's, Shimano video's, and Youtube video's. Trying to learn the system. Of course Shimano wants you to buy all their stuff, from $60.00 pliers to $16.00 jigs without any hooks!! It's sounds like a lot of hype, but I know many fisherman that say it's for real, and it works. The key is drifting over a reef, covering the water column above it, and provoking "reaction strikes" from aggressive fish. Be it a Snapper, Cuda, AJ, or a Cobia???
The key word for me, that I quickly picked up on was DRIFT. "Hmm, turn engine off, and drift. Saving fuel, not trolling, and vertical jigging around a reef??
I'm in!
Being that I have a light boat for it's size, (that is also very fuel efficient.) But, I can drift faster than some 10,000 pound 26' fiberglass hulk. So I was thinking about hunting up a big sea anchor, something like a Para-tech sea brake, for those windy days. Then as I walked up to Strike Zone, and started looking around I spotted a giant 84" super high quality sea anchor. Originally, $160, marked down to $80, then side walks sale priced down to $40. I grabbed that thing and held on to it like a frisky 10 pound Speckled Trout!
Then, of course I found all the jig's I'd ever need and leader material too. One stop for all my new summer time jigging needs. Remember, I'm just trying this out for fun. If I can catch me a Cuda, or a Kingfish, or a big Spanish Mackerel I'll be happy.
So I'm all ready for calm seas, or windy seas. And in the year and six months I've owned my big metal boat, with the giant 12" Raymarine display unit, GPS and plotter I have not yet entered a waypoint for offshore and utilized the GPS to get me there. Hey, I've been die hard inshore for a long time.
I used to fish offshore 12 months a year, years ago. So I suppose I better get crackin' and dust off the ole LORAN/GPS book, and start punching in some areas offshore, huh?
What's killing me right now is that the big TROUTZ are out there, and I can't get to them. And if I can, I haven't been able to properly fish for them.
I have only one pack of Trout left in my freezer!
Jacksonville Fishing Forecast:
If the March winds ever die out out, I maybe able to get out there and catch what I'm dieing to pursue this time of year and that's JETTY TROUT!
Yes, big fat Specks that creep around the inlets granite boulders. Typically caught on a live shrimp and Float-rig, but I love to cast a MirrOlure 52MR right up into the rocks and give it a few seconds and then a sharp twitch.
The trout will hit it so hard they almost pull the rod outa your hand!
68 degree water is key, and the last day I was at the inlet on the 18th the water temp was 67.3 that morning. As we sat in the sloppy seas catching only one Trout and a few Bluefish.
APRIL??? It can bring big changes. And I can't wait!!
Target Species:
TROUT, TROUT, TROUT!
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