Jacksonville Florida Fishing Reports - end of July.
Capt. Dave Sipler
August 2, 2009
Jacksonville - Saltwater Fishing Report
7/31 - how to burn 8 dozen shrimp....FAST!
Really, how do you burn 8 dozen of the finest fat & local, live Nassau River shrimp in short order?
Just take two fish crazed young boys fishing for what ever bites. Yeah, my goal was to stretch some strings. And did we!
Had Charlie H. grandpa of Finn (8 years old) and his brother Elijah (6 years old) on board today.
If every charter day went as good as this one, I'd be one "Happy Cappy". The problem was I spoiled these kids. Because we weren't on location and lines in the water 5 minutes before a rod was bent and a drag was getting yanked.
Ladyfish and Jacks, throw in a Mangrove Snapper or two and we had 30-40 fish to the boat, with some lost and there went the first few hours. So went it came time to try and put a decent "keeper" in the fish box which took patience, the boys told me, "we don't like this spot!"
The action wasn't fast enough. So Grandpa Charlie and I had to tell them about the word, Patience. And with a little we ended up with a nice sized Mangrove Snapper and a box sized Black Drum. Which was targeted species at the last spot of the day.
The boys learned how to Float-rig fish and watch for their float to disappear. And then later how to feel the bite as we bottom fished with a light lead and a long leader.
Float-rig fishing is the perfect technique for anyone, and even more perfect for the youngest of fisherman. Just let the current take the float, and when it goes under, start reeling! And the fish is ON. And the battle ensues.
The boys had double hook-ups all day. It was perfect weather. And when the dark clouds came, we were out of live shrimp by then. So I ran fast back to the dock, so as to stay ahead of a storm coming from the west. And got the fish cleaned, and bagged and they were on there way back home just as the first rain drops fell and the wind got strong.
Perfect timing!
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7/29 - Another Adventure with Tim from Tampa
Thanks to all who came out to Dick's Wings last night for the Float-rig fishing seminar I did. And thanks to fellow local angler and owner Chip Davis for having me.
Chip said, he felt that about 25 people were in attendance on the stormy night.
You sometimes have to watch out for what ya wish for when you include "Dave" in something like this,.......is what I was thinking. I can pontificate on for hours, and did. But your delving deep into my world when handing me a microphone and say...."talk fishing Dave". Even though I felt, I was a bit rusty. Since it's been awhile since I've talked to a large crowd.
I love what I do. And have no problems with teaching people anything I have learned over the years and passing on info.
I heard billionaire casino owner Steve Wynne say there's two different kinds of FREEDOM; there's "Rich Freedom", like owning and building casino's in Las Vegas. And there's Poor Freedom, like being a beach bum surfer dude. Mr. Wynne always wanted rich freedom to do what he wanted. Well, I guess "Fisherman" falls into that poor freedom category, like a beach bum surfer dude.
But either way, it's Freedom, right? I have no interest in owning big buildings, and having thousands of employees. Instead, I have people all over the globe that love to do exactly the same thing I love to do. And that's F-I-S-H. And that means a lot to ME.
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Today, at 9:30am I met "Tim from Tampa" at the boat ramp. I wanted to get started on the first of the incoming tide. And I wanted to go....."somewhere else". So we went North.
Tim has fished with me many times. Our last time was two days in a row. And it was like NO other two days in the summer that I've ever had before. We some how got involved in a mass confluence of Redbass of all sizes at the jetties, like I have never seen before in June.
Here's links to those two days, if you'd like to read more about them:
http://jacksonvillefishingreports.blogspot.com/2009/06/611-redbass-redbass-redbass-tarpon.html
http://jacksonvillefishingreports.blogspot.com/2009/06/610-fishing-in-aquarium.html
So since I told Tim, that I doubt we'll have a day like either one of those, this time. We're going else where. But no matter what kind of trouble Tim and I get into, it's always an adventure!
We went float-rigging......naturally. So that meant trying to catch "summer Trout" and whatever else. Well, we got into a Trout bite and right as we thought we were in the MEAT, the bite quite.
Four nice Specks, behind the surf. Yeah, summer beach Trout!! Damn, I love that. Clean, green, shallow water. But no sooner the bite started, then the wind started to blow. Which I believe was responsible for shutting down the trout bite as soon as it really started. The water was basically slick, no surf, and oh so calm. Then came some S.E. wind that chopped up the water, that started a bit of surf swell.
But the fish were fatties.
Yeah "Fatties".....look at this Trouts belly!!!
Looks like the fish swallowed a tennis ball! The fishes belly was all distorted. Well, it turned out to have huge roe sacks, being a female. And instead of tubular roe sacks, they were big and round. Obviously, something went wrong with their formation. And the eggs were dark green rather than dark yellow.
We checked it all out, while I cleaned the fish. It was something I had never seen before, that's for sure. That Trout probably felt like me after eating a giant Dicks Wings Cheeseburger and waffle fries and 3 big glasses of iced tea at 10:30 pm!!!
Tim ended up catching a total of 4 keepers and 4 - 14 inchers during the day. In between Jacks, Ladyfish. We ended up hunting around the rest of the day. But it sure was fun.
I caught either the worlds smallest Flounder, or the worlds "hungriest" Potato chip.
But as the afternoon went on. We had a few diversions from my master plan for the day.
Some included lightning, rain, wind and utter gloom & doom.
So plan "B", turned into plan "F", seeing how I had no control of what was going to happen with our wonderful day on the water.
Yep, we skirted rain, winds, lightning, temp drops, and clouds that looked like "Jesus fingers" coming down from the sky to snatch us up and take us to Kansas!
So needless to say. We moved around a lot. But that turned out to be a good thing. As I moved away from the dark skies and rain, I went to areas I have been to in years.
And Tim and I caught more Trout, Jacks and Ladyfish. And had some surprises while doing so.
At one point we were anchored up on a shallow bank with oyster bars and a nice shallow sand bank tapering into deeper water. Tim hooked a Ladyfish and had it just disappear from his hook....along with the hook. "hmmmm, what the heck was that??" It wasn't like the fish came off the hook, or broke the leader. There was a definite weird wake or something behind the fish. We just thought that was odd, and kept fishing.
Then I went to reel in and check my bait, and had the water open up a hole behind my float. "wow, that was a big fish, I almost had!" And we kept fishing.
Then a few other weird things happened, and again we just kept float-rig fishing. Then, right as I was talking about not catching a Trout for awhile, my float went down. I reeled, lifted and had me a Trout coming to the boat.......I thought!
But that Trout took off, after a giant boil appeared in the water, and I thought I saw a huge silver fish. As my reel smoked I was hooked up to a drag burner. TARPON!!!!! I yelled. Tim's face lit up, and I had it still hooked up for a minute. With my tiny hook and 15# mono leader. Then it broke off. I thought.
No it didn't.....I still had something on. But as I reeled in, we quickly learned, this was no Tarpon bite.
I had a Trout alright, but someone else thought it was dinner!
So I quickly said to Tim, "were gonna catch this dude!" So, I rigged up a not so heavy bottom rod with a heavy leader and a 12/0 circle hook, with no weight.
Tim re-baited with a live shrimp and I baited up this half eaten Trout and we pitched out behind the boat.
I no sooner got the Trout out behind the boat drifting away in the current, when Tim's float went down with a fish (probably another Trout) and he came tight, and my 1/2 Trout baited rod, doubled over. Tim's toothy friend came to the surface and ate his fish, and broke off the entire float rig, and my rig with the half trout took off and then went slack. My hook was bite clean off an 80 pound leader. Tim's float drifted off behind the boat. Well, that's $5.50, so we pulled anchor to go retrieve it.
Okay, we found the fish, and some more trout. But in this small piece of water along a shallow bank near the oyster bank was also where a set of JAWS was fishing. And "IT" found us.
We thought these were sharks busting holes in the water around our floats. But remember I said I saw a SILVER fish, and thought it was a Tarpon???
Well, now that I had time to think about it. This reminds me of a few days ago at the jetties. When we were catching big Mangrove Snappers. And a monster silver fish came in and slashed through the area while my clients reeled in Mangrove Snappers. And it was a big BARRACUDA!
This FISH, or FISHES, weren't sharks. But rather Cuda's or a single, CUDA! Up in the shallows near and oyster bed!! HOLY......."Snaggle toothed Ledge Trout". CUDA'S????
Now that's another first for ME!! Wow, what an adventure.
Well after loosing the float and going to get it as it floated away in the current. We decided to head home. Because this was bearing down on us. Storm number 4!!
It was one heck of a fun day. And I always enjoy having Tim aboard. He's up for about anything, and is flexible, along with being a good angler.
We ran through some super sloppy, rough water on the way home. Proving the "mettle" of the big Alloy boat, because I gave it holy hell, so to get some distance between us, and the next set of rolling "Jesus fingers" that was chasing us home.
Book in advance for August, I head to Venice La. for a week at the end of the month.
Jacksonville Fishing Forecast:
Busy, Busy, Busy, July.
And hot, hot, hot, in between afternoon rains.
But fishing remains good as far as summer's peak hits.
Daily reports, photos, announcements and video's:
www.jacksonvillefishingreports.blogspot.com
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