Fishing Jacksonville Fl - December Reds
Capt. Dave Sipler
December 26, 2009
Jacksonville - Saltwater Fishing Report
12/21 - Too cold to F-I-S-H? HUM BUG!
What a great day! Colder than we've had it in a long time....but wasn't it just 84 degrees last Tuesday? Yeah it was....that's the wacky thing about N.E. Florida winters. Get used to a ever changing wardrobe.
The "Red Sky in the Morning Mariners take warning", didn't apply to the Jettywolf boat today. We had ourselves a great time.
I had Chip & Chuck aboard today from West Virginia. And they looked to be prepared as we left the dock at 0700 hrs, and headed east. Problem was, the NW wind. It had the current on our first spot almost non-exsistant for the start of the incoming. Pushing the water away from the jetty rocks. So after we gave it a sporting try with no bites, I decided to make a change.
We moved on over to the North Jetty and picked up my "NEW" Ugly Stik Inshore Select's matched up to Shimano Cruxis reels and broke them in tossing 3/8th oz jigs with live shrimp pinned on and pitched them into the jetty rocks. The tide was running great at this spot and it made for easy fishing. First came some Yellowmouth Trout at the bottom of the rocks, down deep. And then came what we were here for.
Brutus T. Redbass.....and they gave the the inshore select rods a good test.
We kept the first one, and released the rest we caught. The guys didn't need much more than enough for a late lunch at Singletons Seafood Shack after we were done. And in between were the yellowmouths too.
Almost every Red was right at 27 inches or just over at 28. They seemed a tad bit sluggish at first after setting the hook. But they warmed up to the fight the further away from the jetty rocks they were pulled.
If you don't know this by now....I'm a tackle freak. I really enjoy honing my tackle and using the latest and greatest. And I couldn't be happier than my selection of new jigging rods, as Chuck was while playin' another fattie to the boat.
Winter time jiggin'.....I almost love it as much as Float-rigging. If you can pitch a jig on a bait caster just a little bit, you can still get bit. Chuck here wasn't a big time bait caster man, but it didn't matter. He was still whackin and stackin them. ( I use what I can get along with daily....and that isn't spin tackle!)
I even hung into a a nice "RB" and got the chance to bow over one of my new rods.
We were all alone where we were. It wasn't slick calm, but it wasn't sloppy either. It was just right for the Jettywolf. It's what she was designed for. Loads of room for 3 big guys to do the Redfish dance.
The incoming tide current seemed to peeter out kinda quick against the NW wind, so we went back to float-rig fishing and Chuck nailed this Sheepshead that was missing it's dorsal fin. We also let this guy go. This fish deserved a second chance.
We float-rigged in search for the mother load of Specks that were there before the big winds on Saturday. But never caught a single Speckled Trout! Can ya believe that....."This Float Freak, was a bit upset."
Just more Yellowmouth Trout, is all we could muster.
I didn't take a photo of it, but all afternoon there was a sun-dog in the sky. A sun-dog is a halow around the sun. Many times it has a rainbow of colors. When there's a sun-dog around the sun, fishing is many times not at it's best. (Wikipedia explanation of a sun-dog; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_dog ABOUT.COM/weather sun-dog explanation; http://weather.about.com/b/2007/04/28/what-is-a-sundog.htm )
Sorry, can't really find an explanation of why sun-dogs can make a fishing tougher, all I know is it may have the same effect as falling barometric pressure. I go by my long-time Timicuan Indian historian and 40 year commercial fisherman friend, Capt Randall. He always told me, "when you see a sun-dog, the fishing isn't always the best." So maybe it's also a convenient thing to blame no Speckled Trout on??
Fellow Trout tracker DOA Rob was also out today. And had a hard time finding Mr. Speckley too.
Either way, it didn't warm up all that much. It stayed pretty chilly for Florida standards. But it sure was a beautiful day. So after the tide rose and we lost all the current we had, it was Momma Natures way of saying,
"Go clean fish Dave". So that's what I did.
Chip and Chuck went over to Singletons for their late lunch to have some fried trout and blackened Redfish. Which it doesn't get much better. Eating the fish YOU just caught an hour or so ago.
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12/22
As I said, I was going out again to double check on the absence of the jetty trout situation. It was a super nice day, and everyone else thought so too. Compared to practically no one being around, yesterday.
So Doc Miller a fellow "Trout Tracker" and I headed out to the big rocks around 10am. No sense going till the tide was right. We hit numerous places where we should have caught Speckled Trout. And Doc came up with only one 14 incher. They vacated the premises, I guess. Not even a good ole "yellermouth", could we find at my usual Speck spots at the jetties.
We certainly weren't going to spend a bunch of time running around looking up river, the ICW or creeks. Not on a rising tide.
So I said to Doc, a float-rig only kinda guy...."let's go over to the North Jetty and make a few drifts with the float-rig and see what's up with the Reds."
So that's where we headed. And we stuck to our guns and stayed with the float-rigs. I could have easily picked up a casting rod with a jig on it and tried that way. BUT THAT JUST WOULDN'T BE SPORTY ENOUGH.
Jacksonville Fishing Forecast:
Every time we get a blow, the Trout vacate the inlet area. Which is an all too often pattern in the winter.
But there's always someone to target, that's for sure.
Target Species:
REDS......BIG REDS.....IN THE DEEP on light tackle.
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