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Jacksonville Fishing Report for Amelia Island & Mayport
Capt. Dave Sipler
September 7, 2003
Jacksonville - Saltwater Fishing Report
"TIS THE SEASON".......again!
It's about that time of year again to grab your flack vest, helmet and anti-BS devices.
WHAT?
Yep, everytime I actually watch the local "doom and gloom report" on either channel 4,30,17, or 12, aka: the News Hour(s). I have to brace myself. Yes, the talking heads have taken up more and more hours on the air waves. It used to be the news came on at 11PM and was off by 12. Now we have to endure live at 4. live at 6, live at 10.......and more doom at, 11!
This Tropical wave/storm or whatever that just came by over the weekend wasn't all that bad. But on Friday night at 4,6,10,& 11, you could swear that Jacksonville Florida was going to be wiped clean.
So, since the news people scared to death all my prospective charters for the weekend, I went out with a freind instead. I wasn't the only one who felt the effects of the Doom and Gloom reporters.
So did tackle & bait shops. Many of my Fishing guide associates, Marina's etc.
I actually went out on Saturday morning, after a leasurely breakfast at my favorite cafe. I no real hurry, though I was gonna be a Evil Knevil, for doing so. But I wanted to show a buddy of mine my new color scope fish finder.
We went directly to the inlet (as always) and started working some Jerk-jiggers off the end of the rocks. The baby 2 ft. long Tarpon were everywhere. But have I ever caught a 2 footer? NOPE! And we cast netted some nice Mullet.
But I'd sure like to catch a baby poon. As we were just one of two boats out there, it was a beautiful sight.
Schools of Silver Mullet were behind the jetty rocks seemingly being washed into a comfort zone by the huge swell that we've had for days by passing Hurricane Fabian.
It wasn't dangerous, but more like exciting! Fish everywhere, bait everywhere. Evident from the powerful 600 watts of my new color scope. It marks everything, and we spent a good part of the morning just playing with the new toy.
We did eventually park atop the jetty, only after marking many a possible Redfish in 53 feet of water. The current was very fast with the impending full moon coming this week.
The swell wasn't for the "faint of heart" either, but it was long and soft.
More like a good Nor'Easter is all the weather was like. 15-20 miles per hour from the N.N.E. is where the wind was from, so the north jetty was a bit chopped up, but no big deal.
We marked'em, so we parked on 'em. And in minutes we were hooked up to some really nice Redfish in the low teens (pounds). Then my rod bumped. Then it bowed over, and the 7/0 Eagle Claw circle hook set and I made three fast turns of my Accurate reel handle. I was on!
Being the smoothest lever drag reels (twin drags). I have the hook set drag setting at about 5 pounds of rod tip pressure, perfect for a fat Redfish. But this wasn't no Redfish!
The drag just let the spool turn as if a truck was hooked up and in drive with no throttle applied. S-L-O-W-L-Y the drag slipped. I reared back like a angler fighting a giant tuna on stand-up tackle. And couldn't stop this fish.
Next I dropped the hammer....and slid the drag lever up to 10 pounds of drag pressure.
THE FISH JUST KEPT GOING! Slowly, but building speed. And I reared back again.
"Okay, It's time to see who this is". I dropped the lever down to my maximum drag setting 25 pounds at the rod tip!(this will lift the heels of a 150 pound fisherman off the floor) No Stopping! It just kept swimming off. I was reared back on the G. Loomis 8 foot rod, as if I had a lap belt and a 300 pound Bluefin tuna on. My 50 pound Berkely Whiplash Super Braid still just kept peeling off the spool.
I have stopped barn door sized stingrays in their tracks with drag pressure like this! Black Tip sharks, Nurse Sharks, you name it. If it wants to tangle, I've either stopped it or broke the line after getting it the surface.
But this time. No sight of this fish, and my line parted probably after a slice on the jetty rocks most likey, some 50 feet below.
What could this fish have been? There's no telling.
But here's another one from Thursday morning...........
I picked up my charter around 9am and headed for the inlet. I had two nice guys from Naples Florida with me that will be fishing the Ranger Redfish Tour this coming weekend. And they wanted to see where all the fat 27" and under Redfish have been at the inlet. It was a good idea for them to have the inlet in their forcast, cause at a certain tide stage the reds have been super thick and catching them on lures is easy and very possibly many a 26 & 7/8ths inch can be caught.
So as we waited for the tide to get right, we parked along the area I refer to as the "kill zone". This is where bait gets hammered, and a natural ambush point makes for predators a buffet line of food.
We pitched big pogies on "knocker rigs" and 10/0 Mustad EZ baiter circle hooks. A knocker rig is where a small egg sinker is placed on the line and comes down the line and sits atop the hook.
When casted out, the sinker falls, and the live bait falls slower, so the sinker slides on the line and the bait is ultimately free swimming to the bottom.
I explained to them why I'm using the big stout semi-circle hooks. "cause you don't know what you can catch here right now, it could be a Redfish 20", or 40", or a Tarpon, or a huge shark, so I want to be prepared".
And before my lips stopped Robert hooked something that was the size of one of our granite jetty rocks. It slurped the pogie and 20 feet of line up along side my anchored boat! He looked surprised, as the fish snatched the rod tip into the water and then proceeded to walk him down the side of my 23 foot boat, around the transom, and up the other side.
Again......very slowly!
Armed with a heavy action G. Loomis 7'6" casting rod that can catch any Redfish that swims in these parts was no match for this fish.
Me and Kevin, the other angler, guessed at what it might be. A big Stinger? A Nurse Shark? A Sea Turtle?.........Nope not even close. Cause Robert knows his fishing and wasn't some wet behind the ears big fish rookie. He applied pressure like I would. Maxing out drag, rod bend and not wanting to give and inch.
The fish just swam around the boat. Stopping, and sitting, then moving back and forth behind the boat.
"Then it hit me". A buddy of mine talked of diver friends of his that were just two weeks ago swimming the jetty rocks with Hawaiin slings shooting Flounder. And they told him about seeing a few 200-300 pound Jewfish (now called Goliath Grouper, for obvious reasons) around the north jetty.
Is this what just inhaled a pogie?? Robert, said it sure felt like it. Being from Naples Florida, the Goliath Grouper down there are running fishermen off the reefs, cause you can hardly get a Snapper or Grouper past them before they eat it off your hook!
Jewfish are not new to the Jacksonville area either. In the 50,and 60 there were "Free Divers" that used to spear them off the north jetty. I was friends with one of the last of the Frontiers of Free divers, and we called him "John T". Now, John T. is no longer with us, he died many years ago. But me and other friends used to sit in his barn where he was a master welder, and did fabrication for people, and would drink beer and listen to his stories about the Jewfish he and freinds used to spear and sell for .05 cents a pound back then. They couldn't afford fancy air tanks, swim fins, and scuba equipment, so John fabricated all the equipment and they held their breath and dove sometimes offshore into depths of 90 feet!
These were some serious MEN.
But John always said, "we didn't know what we were doing to the Jewfish back then, they were almost docile, they'd thump their bladders at us, but that just gave away their location. I'm now sorry for selling such a prized fish, for a mere .05 cents a pound".
So as Robert yanked on the fish so hard that Gary Loomis would be proud his rods can take that ubuse, the rod finally parted and snapped in half. I tried to grab the line with a rag, so not to cut myself with the 50 pound Super Braid line, and as the fish got a quick shot of slack, it moved away fast, and the line broke also.
Was it a Jewfish? I would put money on it!
Was Robert now indoctorinated into the Matport Jetties? You bet!
I don't call it the "Home of the Whopper" for nothin'.
Did I have another Jew fish hooked up myself while Redfishing?
I could have.
I've caught all the barn-door stingrays you could catch out there. All the 100 pound Nurse Sharks, that act just like a big Kitty-cat. And I've done the shark thing too.
I guess we'll never know. But last year a buddy of mine caught a 48 pound Jewfish at the Jetties, and last week another friend caught a 6 pound Jewfish off the Navy base rocks.
So......they're out there for sure!
The weather was fine this Saturday morning, and my charters who decided not to go could have had a blast with some BIG redfish, and Mr. Truck, "the whatever fish". We had the place to ourselves, and not till 2PM did the wind start to blow, as the Tropical storm or wave made it's way out to the Atlantic.
Morale: Believe the weather outside your window, and you can still catch some Whoppers.
Till next tide.......Go feeshin!
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