CS Lee Park - 2lb 8oz Channel Catfish

I'm back from our 7-day family cruise on the Royal Caribbean! Everyone is still wishing we were on the boat though. It was the best Thanksgiving ever, in fact we were actually in St Maarten on Thanksgiving day. We went to Coco Cay (Royal Caribbeans private island in the Bahamas), St Thomas, St Maarten, then two full days at sea on the way home. We cruised on the Freedom of the Seas, a very large modern and kid friendly cruise ship. The weather was nice with only a few rough days at sea during the beginning of our trip. Our rooms were cozy with a very large balcony since we had four staterooms connected. Royal Caribbean also offers the Dreamworks Experience so the kids got to see characters like King Julien, Alex the Lion, Gloria, Kung Fu Panda and Shrek! The staff on board the ship was extremely friendly and professional, completely meeting our needs and going beyond expectations. It was definitly a fun time and like I said, we're all still wishing we are on the boat. :)

I was back near water Friday night fishing the St Johns river. Went to the usual spot at CS Lee Park and only stayed for about 2 hours. It was in the low 60's that night which isn't too bad, it was just the steady wind chill that made it feel colder. I casted one line straight out and one line to the left area where I had recent success. No hits on the leftside line all night. It took awhile, maybe 45 minutes to hour before I saw the first bite on the line straight out. This one kept biting and spitting for several minutes, at least it gave me something to do. Finially snagged it on the lip and reeled it in on my 10 ft rod. To be honest the fish felt heavier in the water than it did on the scale. The fight pressure was strong yet it weighed only 2 LB 8 oz and was released back in the water to grow.

Location: CS Lee Park, Geneva FL
Tackle: 5/0 Owners Light Mutu hook on carolina rig - 3 oz pyramid sinker

Species: Channel Catfish
Weight: 2 LB 8 OZ
Bait: cut mullet

CS Lee Park - 5lb 8oz Catfish - Half Hitch Tackle Warranty Repair

Last night was in the 60's, perfect weather to be outdoors. The full moon has already passed this month, but it was still about 80% full. When I arrived at CS Lee Park around 10:15pm, it was very misty outside, almost borderline light rain. It was enough to wet my skin and cloths. I didn't setup right away, instead I waited in my car and checked my mobile Weather Channel app. Fortunately it looked like a small precipitation area was moving out soon and it would be all clear shortly. When the skies cleared up and the misty rain stopped, I finially setup two lines in the usual hot spots. It really didn't take long when the line straight out was being played with. The hit and run bites kept me anxiously watching the rod tip but everytime I picked up the rod, the fish was gone. It was about the 4th or 5th attempt when I felt the fish and set the hook good. The fight was nice too, as soon as the fish knew it was hooked it immediately splashed topwater. It was a catfish and weighed 5 LB 8 OZ, one of the few 5 LB+ cats I've caught from this spot. The last 5 LB+ I've caught here was about 3 months ago.

The night continued with occassional bites and more playing around. I had a couple short moments where I thought I had one hooked but quickly the fish got off. Also a few times the bait was stripped off my hook. Probably victim of a gar yanking the bait off.

Location: CS Lee Park, Geneva FL
Tackle: 3/0 Owners Light Mutu hook on carolina rig - 3 oz no-roll sinker

Species: Channel Catfish
Weight: 5 LB 8 OZ
Bait: cut mullet

So 2 months ago I used Kel's Rod & Reel service to clean some sand out of a Okuma reel that fell on the beach. The service didn't cost me anything since I had a free reel cleaning certificate. Well, when I finially got the reel back 2-3 weeks later, the baitfeeding clicker was not clicking anymore. I didn't want to take it back there again, so I was looking for another warranty service center for Okuma reels. My friend used one in Panama City, FL called Half Hitch Tackle. They are a warranty repair center for Okuma and they fixed his reel to work flawlessly (which had the same clicker problem). So today, I'm shipping my non-clicking reel to Panama City. I figured it's a good time since I'll be away from town for awhile in the coming days. Should have my reel back when I return home, or at least the repair almost done by then.

CS Lee Park - 2lb 8oz Channel Catfish

Cold night in central Florida, temps were in the 50's and the wind made it feel colder.

Location: CS Lee Park, Geneva FL

Species: Channel Catfish
Weight: 2 LB 8 OZ
Bait: cut mullet

CS Lee Park - Grand Slam Catfish

Arrived about 10PM and setup in my usual spot. I baited two rods with cut mullet and another with nightcrawlers. The worms didn't produce anything tonight, however, cut mullet was putting fish on the hook all night. Normally I cast straight out across the river where I usually catch them, but oddly I didn't get any bites there. All of the action came from the far left side, kinda close to the shore actually. Also all of the fish caught tonight had slammed the bait as if they were starving. They weren't playing around that's for sure.

First hit was good, and it felt good too. Reeling in against the current it felt alot bigger than what it really was. It still weighed just under 4 LB though. I casted out again to the same spot with another piece of mullet. It wasn't 5-10 minutes when another catfish slammed it. This one was smaller about 2 LB. Later in the night I had another solid bite, started reeling in and felt the power of a bigger fish. Unfortunately after about 10 seconds the hook popped out and it was gone. Damn! I know it was a big catfish too because my leader line had slime all over it. About 1:30am it started sprinkling and I was out of bait anyways, besides the nightcrawlers, so I packed up to get some ice.

Location: CS Lee Park, Geneva FL
Tackle: 1/0 Owners Light Mutu hook on carolina rig - 3 oz no-roll sinker

Species: Channel Catfish
Weight: 3 LB 14 OZ
Bait: cut mullet

Species: Channel Catfish
Weight: 2 LB 2 OZ
Bait: cut mullet

The smaller 1 LB blue catfish (bottom) was caught by a commercial fisherman while he was killing time with me. I learned alot from this guy from trotlines to some of his fishing stories, plus he gave me one of his bigger hooks and some bait when I ran out. So in return I gave him one of my rod holders that he was pretty interested in.

NSB Causeways Report - (3) Gafftopsail Catfish

I checked out the South Causeway pier first, but the good spots were already preoccupied. Instead of fishing I spent some time throwing the castnet and mingling. Once I had enough finger mullet, I headed to the North Causeway to scout a fishing spot. Good news, the pier lights are back on at the north bridge! Woo hoo! The finger mullet were more plentiful and I actually had a great fishing spot available. So I setup my 10' surf rod and casted out a live finger mullet on a 1/0 hook. I casted out as far as I could, set the drag, and waited. It wasn't too long when I saw something hit the line and reeled in a big Gafftopsail Catfish, I call them "sail cats" for short. Casted out again and caught another sail cat. One more time.... casted out....sail cat. Gee, I wonder what will happen next? All together I caught 3 sail cats on live mullet, two of them were over 4 LB and put up a nice fight. The biggest one was a personal best 4 LB 8 OZ! Packed up and ended up taking home about 20 mullet for the freezer.

Location: North Causeway, NSB
Tackle: 1/0 Owners Light Mutu hook on fish finder rig - 4 oz pyramid sinker

Species: Gafftopsail Catfish
Weight: 4 LB 8 OZ
Bait: live finger mullet

NSB South Causeway - Mantis Shrimp Introduction

Well the pier lights are still out on the North Causeway in NSB. It's been about two weeks now so I wish someone would take care of it, but thats Volusia County. They probably can't afford the light bulbs or something.

So here I was at the South Causeway. Surprisingly only a few cars in the parking lot, so it was actually fishable this time. First things first, had to find some bait. Only problem was they were too big. All I could see were schools of big "smoker" mullet. They still work for catfish since you can just fillet the meat off of them, but I like the smaller finger mullet so I can use the gut section on my hook. With finger mullet in scarce quantities, I decided to keep my castnet ready in my hands so I didn't even get a line wet last night. Besides my main mission was to net some mullet for catfishing.

When I walked up to the pier I noticed a couple with their kids, they weren't fishing either. Instead they were looking for mantis shrimp. Whats a Mantis Shrimp? Is it a mantis or a shrimp? Well in fact, it's neither. It gets it's name by the physical resemblance to both the praying mantis and the shrimp. The nice couple explained why they had them, apparently it's great redfish bait. In fact, the guy said it was like redfish candy. He's caught big 30-40" reds on them apparently. One thing they stressed over and over was to never handle them carelessly or with bare hands. They can inflict severe cuts and gashes if handled improperly.

I proceeded to look for finger mullet then came across some Mantis Shrimp floating down current. Maybe a minute later I saw another one. Then awhile later I found another one. After the third one, I didn't see anymore. The biggest one was about 9" long! Once you get a close look at these marine creatures it's just fascinating. Makes you wonder how tough a Redfish's stomach is to withstand such brutal defense weapons. Mantis shrimp sport powerful claws that they use to attack and kill prey by spearing, stunning or dismemberment. And although it happens rarely, some larger species of mantis shrimp are capable of breaking through aquarium glass. Whoa.

CS Lee Park - 3 LB 4 OZ Channel Catfish

Back to CS Lee Park last night for some more night fishing fun. Temps were in the low 60's with a slight north breeze. The first hour or so I didn't catch anything, but I was getting some bites. It wasn't until 12:20am when I caught the only fish of the night, a 3 lb catfish. Before landing this catfish, it got stuck in some weeds literally 2 feet from the shore. I'm reeling in this fish then all of a sudden it just stops. Tried to pull it through the weeds but I also didn't want to break the leader line. So I ended up feeding it some slack line hoping it would swim out of the weeds. Tried this a couple times and it finially came loose. One in the cooler!

Things really slowed down after 1:00am, so that was it for the night. My next fishing trip will be somewhere in New Smyrna probably. I used the last bag of frozen mullet last night so I need to restock more catfish bait anyways.

Location: CS Lee Park, Geneva FL
Tackle: 6/0 Owners Light Mutu hook on carolina rig - 3 oz no-roll sinker

Species: Channel Catfish
Weight: 3 LB 4 OZ
Bait: cut mullet

CS Lee Park - 2 Catfish and The One That Got Away

Wednesday (last night) was the first day of the approaching cold front. The temperatures started to drop by late afternoon when gusty winds came through central Florida. By evening it was in the low 60's, with breezy winds and a few strong gusts. The moon tonight was half full, and the fishing forecast said GO FISHING. You don't have to pull my arm though, I'll go fishing regardless! LOL

Anyway, I arrived at CS Lee Park around 10-10:30pm. The river is still flooded, no surprise there. But the best part about the water levels being high is that my fishing spot is closer to the parking lot. So while I was fishing, I was just leaning up against my car watching my rods for a bite. Plus I almost got attacked by fire ants while standing in the grass. When I say almost attacked, I mean there were several crawling up my right pants leg. I must have stepped on an ant hill that I didn't see. Luckily I noticed before they got very far and brushed them all off.

Ok so the bite last night was pretty good, especially for the hour between 11pm and midnight. I think that's the timeframe where I caught the two catfish you see below. Both catfish started with small bites for several minutes before self setting the hook in their mouth. Maybe it's because my hook size was a little too big, or they were just tasting the bait before inhaling it.

Then it was after 1am, not sure exactly what time but I hooked into something that was doing the same behavior. It started with small bites, it would shake my line a little bit and then stop. This kept going on for awhile until it was finially hooked. The fight was pretty nice, it was definitly alot bigger than the two I already caught. During the fight it kept trying to shake me off and even made a couple nice splashes on topwater. Usually I can tell if it's a gar or catfish by the way it fights. A Florida gar usually makes quick dashes once hooked but quickly gives up. A good fighting catfish, however, will keep you on your toes the whole way in. Another one is the Longnose Gar, which is much more powerful and bigger than the Florida Gar. It doesn't give up like it's smaller cousin either. Common to see splashes on topwater and really fast long runs during the fight for longnose gars. I've had some big catfish splash the topwater during fights too. So basically, this big fish I hooked didn't make it to the shore but I was very close! I had it within maybe 5-6 feet and all of a sudden the hook pops out. All I had left was a bare hook! My best guess is it probably was a Longnose Gar or Channel Catfish around 10 lb. Dang that would've been nice to catch! :)

Location: CS Lee Park, Geneva FL
Tackle: 6/0 Owners Light Mutu hook on carolina rig - 3 oz no-roll sinker

Species: Channel Catfish
Weight: 2 LB
Bait: cut mullet

Species: Channel Catfish
Weight: 1 LB 6 OZ
Bait: cut mullet

CNS #3 - Playalinda Fishing Report - Rain & Cold Front This Week

Yesterday me and Cody arrived at CNS lot 3 around 4:30pm. The waves were about 1-2 feet and the current was light. The only problem was the massive amounts of seaweed washing in and getting tangled on the fishing lines. I fished for about 2 hours using fresh dead shrimp and didn't catch anything. I had one hookup and as soon as I started reeling in the fish jumped out of the water and spit the hook, typical ladyfish behavior.

Reports coming out of Playalinda beach have been better, some guys catching nice whiting and undersized pompano, along with schools of spanish macks and bluefish when the whiting bites turns off. Also reports of sand fleas coming back to the beaches, this could be the reason why the fishing has been better in that area compared to northern CNS. Playalinda is on the south side of CNS.

The forecast this week calls for high winds and heavy rain on Tuesday from a tropical disturbance. This is not good for the St Johns River which is already near flooded stage. In my opinion, it's already flooded but it's not official yet. According to Channel 13 news, the river is at 8.2 feet now and it's considered flooded at 8.5 feet. Also immediately following the rain on Tuesday, a cold front will pass through Wednesday dropping temperatures about 20 degrees at night. Forecast says it will be in the low 50's Wednesday and Thursday nights.



I really want to fish before the cold front, hopefully tonight (monday night). Fish activity usually increases before the cold front approaches, then slows down alot afterwards. I'll probably try somewhere along the river tonight, even though it's probably not ideal conditions with the high water and strong current. But as I say, the best time to fish is anytime you can!

NSB and Dunlawton Report - Lady Fish

The no name tropical storm last weekend is still having an effect on fishing. The intracoastal waterway seems to be shutdown for the most part with all the freshwater draining into the water system. Flooding is still a major problem on the St Johns River too. It will be awhile before things settle down, but that won't stop me from fishing in the meantime.

Last night I made another trip to NSB for some night fishing. Stopped by the North Causeway in NSB first, but the lights were still out on the pier. I jigged for awhile with gulp shrimp but didn't get any bites.

Next I visited the South Causeway and the report from there was more trash fish. Both the causeways had people in just about every corner, so I took the 15 minute drive to Port Orange to fish the Dunlawton pier. When I arrived at Dunlawton, several people were leaving and the reports again, nothing but catfish.

I stayed for awhile anyways, but didn't catch anything on live mullet. In fact I didn't get any good hits on mullet. Nobody was. The only thing that was working was fresh dead shrimp. Using the shrimp on a pompano rig I caught 4 Lady Fish. I was hooking into them one after another. I finially had enough and headed home when I concluded it wasn't going to be a good night. I'm hoping things get back to normal soon. Been wanting to try my luck around the jetties at the Ponce Inlet. There's a state park on both the north side and south side, but there's also a $5 fee.

Severe Flooding on St Johns River

Wednesday night on a full moon I headed out to do some catfishing on the river. First stop was CS Lee Park, and when I got there I was stunned. Like most boating dock/ramps, there's a floating metal dock at the end of the ramp. This section is now a floating island in the middle of the river at CS Lee Park. The water levels were so high, the entire wooden dock was completely submerged under water. I fished there for about an hour or so but didn't catch anything. The current was very strong too, even my 3oz no roll sinkers were cruising down current.

I left CS Lee to checkout the damage at Mullet Lake Park. I love Mullet Lake Park, it's pretty much where I started catfishing. Out on the bank, a friend caught the biggest Channel Catfish we've seen so far (17 LB). It's also where I battled with my first American Shad. Just alot of cool memories there. The water levels at Mullet Lake Park were right up to the top of the dock with alot of floating vegetation washed in. At least you could still see the dock here. I've never seen this before, and it's very strange to see. I don't think those wooden docks were built to withstand being submerged under water either. Really sucks for boaters since the river is pretty dangerious for them right now. There could be anything underneath you and you probably won't even recognize your favorite fishing spots LOL. Here's a couple pictures of Mullet Lake Park.

Lights Out at North Causeway NSB

Tried my luck again last night at the North Causeway but upon arrival I saw the pier lights were out. Fortunately the bridge lights were on and bright enough to see what I'm doing at least. My first task was to castnet some bait but because the pier lights were out, it was hard to see anything. So I made a quick trip to the South bridge and in literally one cast, I had at least 25 finger mullet.

So back to the North bridge and since I was the only one there, it was nice to have the freedom to cast anywhere. Tried some cut ladyfish and caught a small hardhead catfish. I had two other rods rigged with live finger mullet next to the bridge. Only had a couple hits on live mullet, the first hit was a slow tug on the rod and when I checked my bait the mullet was bit in half. My first thought...bluefish. They always do that! The second hit was hooked and had some fun reeling it in. It was a 2-3 lb sail catfish. For a catfish, the sail cat is pretty good at making some runs and getting your heart racing. Its a fun fish to catch, and according to some people, it's good to eat. I haven't tried yet, I'll stick to channel catfish for now. :0)

Dunlawton Bridge - 4 lb Sail Catfish

Stopped by Dunlawton Bridge last night for a few hours. The sustained winds were strong, at least 15-20mph. I was going to jig for flounder but didn't even rig the pole since it was so gusty. There were schools of mullet under every light almost, literally one castnet toss and I was ready to fish.
Using pieces of dead shrimp on 1/0 owner light mutu hooks, I caught a few small catfish and a pigfish. Those pigfish make a funny croaking sound thats pretty loud, I've always heard they are good live bait. I don't know if the croaking sound has anything to do with it, but anyways I let it go since it was too big.
On the bigger 10' rod with a 5/0 owner light mutu hook, I tried cut bait and live mullet. With a piece of cut herring, I almost caught a sail cat but the hook popped out when I got him close to the pier. With live finger mullet, I was able to catch a bigger sail cat. This one I got on the dock and weighed it at 4 LB 2 OZ. That is my personal best Sail Cat (Gafftopsail Catfish) so far. All fish were released.

Location: Dunlawton Bridge, Port Orange
Tackle: 5/0 circle hook on carolina rig - 4 oz pyramid sinker

Species: Gafftopsail Catfish
Weight: 4 LB 2 OZ
Bait: live finger mullet

CNS and North Causeway Report for Saturday

Tried fishing at CNS during the early afternoon but the waves were rough and current was moving. I couldn't keep lines in the water for more than a minute without it drifting to my right. So, I didn't fish much on the surf today. Cody and I just played in the water and had some fun. Cody was having a blast on a boogie board that a couple of locals let him borrow. I met these guys before and they're really nice. Angela and Keith are their names, and they come out on Saturdays often like I do. We're probably going to meet out there next weekend as well, they said they have a smaller boogie board that they're going to give Cody. Very nice!

So Saturday night I went to Kyle and Tara's house, and we went to Walmart to get them a bigger rod. They ended up buying a new 8' rod and reel combo for $30, not bad! Except the reel may end up getting replaced with something else one day. Here's why....
We went to the North Causeway together and Tara hooked into something big and strong. She was using live finger mullet and as soon as the fish hit it, it didn't stop. Her drag was racing and started to head towards the bridge. If it wraps around the bridge, the fish is gone along with several yards of her line. So we had to do something, but the reel's drag wouldn't stop the fish. Her drag was set as tight as it would go, and the fish was still spooling line off. Kyle tried to turn the fish around away from the bridge, but I saw a splash on topwater then snap the line broke. We don't know what it was but it broke 65 lb test Power Pro. Unfortunately, I think the reel may have been the weak link in the fight. If it had a better drag system, the outcome could've turned out differently. These days, you get what you pay for and on a $30 rod & reel combo, thats exactly what happened.

During our stay at the North bridge I caught a couple catfish on fresh cut mullet. My first one was a 2 lb 12 oz Gafftopsail Catfish. Thats the biggest sail cat I've caught so far btw. I ended the night with a small Hardhead Catfish. Schools of mullet are everywhere now that the Fall migration is underway. I think as the month progresses we'll see even more schools of baitfish, especially mullet.

Location: North Causeway, New Smyrna Beach
Tackle: 5/0 circle hook on carolina rig - 4 oz pyramid sinker

Species: Gafftopsail Catfish
Weight: 2 LB 12 OZ
Bait: fresh cut mullet

4 FT 36 LB Redfish caught at NSB North Causeway!!

Last night I drove out to the North Causeway with Kyle for some night fishing. We arrived after midnight and baitfish were everywhere. We had live mullet in no time and were ready to fish. Nothing caught on live bait the whole night though. Fresh cut mullet was the ticket, my first catch was a nice 1-2lb Sail Catfish. Then it was after 2:00AM when I hooked into something big. At first it felt like it was a stingray. It made long drag racing runs and a couple times it felt like it was suctioned to the bottom similar to what a stingray does. You think your snagged but it's really the suction the stingray creates as it can hug the bottom. Anyway, I was watching this fish spool line off my reel like it was nothing. I was trying to get a good drag set tight but not too tight that it would snag my line. At first I was thinking I had 40 lb test leader so I was being careful with tension but then I remembered Kyle hooked me up with 60 lb test leader, so I thought lets try to muscle this bad mama jama in. Set my drag a little tighter, and started gaining ground on it.

The fish was about 30 feet from the pier when it barely surfaced the water for a second and I saw the first image of what's on the hook. I couldn't see much, all I could see was a long fish-like shape so it definitly wasn't a stingray. The visual only lasted a second too. As soon as I saw it, it went back down dragging several yards of line with it. All I could do was hang on to the pole and wait for it to stop.

So I'm muscling it back up to the surface and we got a visual again as it almost surfaced again next to the pier. Then my buddy Kyle calls out, "It's a shark!". I started to get all excited because I've never caught a shark before, it's been one of my missions this year. The fish gave a last effort to swim away again but by this time it was worn down and tired. It stayed close, but we still didn't know for sure what kind of fish it was. I maneuvered it closer to the pier and finially got a good look at it's head. This is when I realized it wasn't a shark, it was an oversized MONSTER Redfish! Never have I seen a fish this size before, and I didn't even know Redfish get that big. It took both of us to get it up and dehooked for a quick release. I did my best to get good pictures but I was full of adrenaline and excitement. So I apologize if my pictures seem somewhat blurry.

The fight was intense and lasted for about 10-15 minutes. And best of all, I caught the bull on my new 10' Okuma Tundra surf rod paired with a new Okuma ABF-65 reel. I have 300 yards of power pro on this reel too, so I wasn't worried about being spooled during the long runs. I can also thank Kyle for lending me the 60 LB test leader line. Kyle actually tried this rod earlier but accidently lost the rig on a snag. Being the good guy he is, he wanted to fix the mistake by rigging up my pole with some of his tackle to make up for it. He had some stronger 60 LB test leader compared to my 40 LB, which probably was the difference in catching the bull red. It's the biggest fish I've caught so far, and probably the biggest redfish I'll ever catch. Have you ever caught a 4 foot Redfish before? It's totally exhilerating!! =)

Location: North Causeway, New Smyrna Beach
Tackle: 5/0 circle hook on carolina rig - 4 oz pyramid sinker
40 LB test Hi-Viz Yellow Power Pro braided mainline
60 LB test Berkley Big Game mono leader

Species: Redfish
Weight: 36 LB - 48" long
Bait: fresh cut mullet







I understand it's hard to see the actual size of my redfish with the pictures above so here's an example of what a 35 LB Redfish looks like being held by a fisherman. So the following picture is not my fish nor my picture, it's just an example to show size and girth.

MAN HOLDING 35 LB REDFISH

CS Lee Park - 3lb Channel Catfish

A Tuesday night with a new moon. Every star in the sky was visible. It was almost 1:00am when I was about to packup to go. Then I noticed a large gator swimming in the river, which I have to admit I was a little intimidated. It was a big gator. I watched it swim slowly towards my honey hole, and I figured nothing would be biting after this gator passes by. The gator was about 20-30 feet from my line when my rod was getting some bite taps. Reeled in the slack and felt a fish on, this one I could feel the head shaking and it was trying to shake loose the whole time I was reeling him in. I was worried the big gator would notice the disturbance in the water and try to eat my catch but fortunately it didn't phase him. The catch was a 3 lb Channel Catfish.

Location: C.S. Lee Park
Tackle: Owners Light Mutu 5/0 hook on carolina rig - 3 oz no roll sinker

Species: Channel Catfish
Weight: 3 LB
Bait: cut frozen mullet

Surf Report CNS #3

I made a quick trip to Canaveral National Seashore this late morning from about 10:00am to noon. Arrived at low tide with sunny/partly cloudy skies and the surf was about 2 feet. There was a strong current to the north. Using two rods I just used the pompano rig today with fresh dead shrimp, and caught nothing. I fished for 2 hours and all I was catching was seaweed. Not sure why the whiting aren't biting right now. Read some reports about yesterday morning, and between two guys all they caught was 1 ladyfish. Surf fishing is really slow at CNS right now, hopefully it'll pickup.

CS Lee Park - 4lb 13oz Channel Catfish

Sunday night I saw a break in the weather to do some catfishing over at CS Lee Park. The rain looked like it was coming after midnight so I only had a couple hours to fish. Using cut mullet, I caught a nice 4 lb 13 oz channel catfish. I had another bite later on but when I reeled in the slack, the hook popped out. The sprinkles started around midnight and as soon as I got in my car to leave, it was pouring rain.

Surf Report CNS #3 - Whiting / Ladyfish / Catfish

Thursday I ordered a 10' Okuma Tundra surf rod on Amazon.com and paired it with another Okuma Avenger 65 reel. My other Okuma ABF-65 is still in the shop getting cleaned. Both the new rod and reel arrived Friday and today I got to try them out for the first time. The 10' rod definitly increases casting distance a little bit, but I need something to protect my index finger when I cast with braided line. Braid line can leave a nasty cut, especially if your hands are wet. I had to use a leather glove to really launch my bait out. There's a rod addon called the Breakaway Cannon, but it's a little expensive at $29.99 and I can only get it at Cabelas.com. When I get some extra money, I may purchase this later on down the road but for now, I just bought some Johnson & Johnson waterproof medical tape. I'll get a chance to use the tape next time and see how well it stays on my finger.

Today at CNS the waves were about 2.5 ft and I was able to get away with 3oz pyramid sinker. I arrived right at the peak of high tide. First fish I caught was a big whiting. I was actually going to keep this one but when I tried washing the sand off it, it flipped it's body out of my hands and swished back into the ocean. Lucky for him. lol
I was catching average size whiting the rest of the time and some small ladyfish which I keep for cutbait. Also caught a couple hardhead catfish on cutbait too. The last fish I caught was a much bigger ladyfish caught on a piece of dead shrimp.

Total Tally:

5 whiting
4 ladyfish
2 catfish

Surf Report CNS #3 - Reel Service

Went to the Canaveral Seashore yesterday for a late afternoon trip. We went to lot #3 at 4:30pm. The waves were about 3-4 ft and the current was very strong to the north. Fishing conditions were poor basically. Our lines were quickly drifting, even with 4 oz pyramid sinkers. I didn't catch anything. But, Kyle still caught a small pompano and a small whiting. Headed home after a couple of hours.

So yesterday as the tide was coming up, one of my PVC rod holders tipped over with my rod & reel on it. The reel was my Okuma ABF-65. So there it was laying on the sand as waves were washing saltwater sand all over it. The result is sand and saltwater exposed to my reel in places it shouldn't be. Now the reel isn't working properly, for instance the spin isn't as smooth as it once was. It just feels gritty. So fortunately I have a free reel cleaning certificate for Kel's Rod & Reel Service in Casselberry, FL. I dropped off my reel today and they said it should be a couple of weeks. I'm hoping there wasn't any permanent damage and maybe it just needs a good cleaning. By the way, I won these reel cleaning certificates by attending a Shad Rally earlier this year, which was part of the Central Florida Shad & Crappie Derby I participated in. This was in January and February when I was fishing for American Shad, good times!

Check out the Shad Rally post here to see what else I won :)
http://average-fisherman.blogspot.com/2011/02/shad-rally-cs-lee-park.html

Surf Report CNS #4 - Bluefish and Whiting

Went to CNS with Kyle today and parked in lot #4 around 11am. A nice day at the beach with clear skies. Though the current was strong, 4 oz weights were still getting moved around. The waves were about 2-3 feet.

I used cut ladyfish on a 4/0 circle hook and caught a couple nice bluefish, about 16" and 12" to the fork. My other rods had frozen dead shrimp and caught some whiting, one of which was a keeper.

Total Tally:
Brad-
2 bluefish
4 whiting

Surf Report CNS - Kyle's 18" Redfish - Banded Tulip shell

There was a nice overcast this morning that made it feel like Fall but by noon, the sky was clear and sun was beaming. It was an outgoing tide when we arrived about 10:30am with waves estimated about 2.5ft. I caught a lady fish on cut mullet and then a whiting on a piece of dead shrimp (pompano rig). Kyle went with the pompano rig too and he caught some whiting, but then the bite stopped for both of us. So we moved further down the beach, and thats where he hooked into his first redfish that was 18".

Total Tally:
Brad-
1 ladyfish
1 whiting

Kyle-
1 redfish
4 whiting



Found some large seashells washing up on the beach today. Here's a couple of whelks and a large conch shell that looks very old. The one on the lower leftside is a Banded Tulip.

N.S. South Causeway Report - Shrimpin'

Setup with Kyle at the South Causeway pier in NSB around 11:30pm. It was the tail end of the outgoing tide with just a few hours before slack tide. Started by jigging a Gulp! Shrimp on a 1/8oz jighead but didn't get any bites. Kyle almost had one but it popped off. I brought some frozen shrimp and started catching small stingrays and catfish in every cast. Thats all that was biting though. Also as it turns out I didn't see any baitfish at all the whole night, however, it was low tide so it's not that surprising.

Was getting bored with the stingrays and catfish so I threw my castnet out in the shallow area and caught alot of small shrimp. Then waited until slack tide and noticed the shrimp running under the pier lights now. Caught about a dozen medium sized shrimp by blind casting where the lights shine the brightest on the water. Actually came home with quite a few shrimp to freeze. I didn't count them but I'd guess about 30-35 shrimp all together. Mostly small size shrimp, then about a dozen medium shrimp. Might head out to Canaveral Seashore later this week, depending on the surf. There's 6 ft swells today due to Hurricane Katia out in the Atlantic.

Surf Report CNS - Codys 1st Redfish!

On a beautiful Saturday, me and my son Cody headed to CNS for some beach/surf fishing fun. It's a Labor Day weekend so I was expecting the beaches to be packed, but fortunately CNS #3 wasn't that bad. We arrived around 2:30pm, right before the low tide turnaround. For tackle, I used my homemade 2-hook pompano rigs. For bait we used fishbites tipped with pieces of fresh dead shrimp. Lets get straight to fishing now...

After pulling in a few small whiting, Cody surprised me when he dragged in a nice 18" Redfish. I haven't even caught a redfish yet! LOL
This is the biggest fish he's ever caught. I was very proud of him and this catch made our day. After a few casts, I finially caught my first Redfish, 15.5" long. With 1 keeper Red in the cooler already, we had to release it anyways so size didn't matter. Here's Cody's keeper Redfish and below that is my first Redfish. We both caught our first Red today! woo!







Thats not all, I also caught my first Pompano too. In fact, I caught 2 of them at the same time, TWICE! All together I caught 4 small pompano. Florida Pompano have to be a minimum 11" fork to keep, and these were only about 8" to the fork. Here's a pic of the last double I caught. The one on the bottom was actually hooked in the belly, I'm not sure what he was thinking LOL. All 4 Pomps were released back in the ocean.



To end the day, I caught a nice 14" Gulf Kingfish (whiting) and added that to the cooler. I love to eat Whiting, especially fried with breadcrumbs. After loading everything back in the car, Cody wanted to go look for seashells. This time found some really nice shells that were in great shape.



Between me and Cody today, the total tally we caught:

6 Gulf Kingfish (whiting)
2 Redfish
4 Pompano

Surf Report CNS #3 - 1st Flounder 13"

Saturday afternoon me and Cody headed out to the beach at CNS. Stopped by 38 Live Bait first to get three dozen shrimp for bait, then a nasty storm popped up in the New Smyrna area. With strong rain and gusty wind, we decided to wait it out before we continued. We ended up waiting about 45 minutes for the storm to pass then all was clear. To the beach!

Arrived at CNS and parked in lot #3. Walked out and noticed the surf was very rough. Tall waves crashing several yards out and some moderate beach erosion caused by Hurricane Irene. Two days ago the Florida coast was edged by Hurricane Irene more than 200 miles away. Even though the hurricane was so far away, the effects can be seen along the coast. I tried fishing the best I could but nothing was really biting and the current was very strong. As soon as I casted, my lines were drifting to my right, and before long they were drifted up along the shoreline. So I had to keep casting out and letting it drift. We were there for about 3 hours and I only managed to catch one fish, my first flounder that was 13" long. Cody collected some pretty seashells and we played with the ghost crabs on the beach. We fed them some leftover bait and watched them pop in and out of their burrows. Even with the rough surf, we still had fun and hopefully next weekend the surf conditions will be better for fishing.

CS Lee Park - 6lb & 9lb Channel Catfish

Grabbed some fresh frozen mullet out of the freezer and headed down to CS Lee Park last night. Probably arrived there around 10pm and casted out to my usual spot. Got a few bites early on cut mullet. Then I got a solid bite that kept tapping at my rod, I picked up my pole and saw the fish swimming left with my line in his mouth. Reeled in the slack and it was fish on! It was a nice catfish about 6 lb. Not bad! Switched rods and casted out to the same spot with another gut chunk of mullet. Maybe 15 minutes later and it was another good bite, again swimming left with the current. Another fish on and this one felt bigger. This one was over 9 lb with more power and I was working with a 20# test leader. So after a little game of tug o' war, got it on the bank and saw it was gut hooked. Normally I wouldn't keep a catfish this big, but since it was gut hooked I didn't think it would survive a release. Now I had two big catfish in the cooler and I needed ice so I had to leave. In only two hours of fishing too!

Caught the first 6 lb catfish on the Okuma Classic Pro XP conventional reel and then got the bigger 9lb+ catfish on my old reliable Okuma ABF-65 spinning reel.

Location: C.S. Lee Park
Tackle: Owners Light Mutu 5/0 hook on carolina rig - 3 oz sinker

Species: Channel Catfish
Weight: 9 LB 6 OZ
Bait: cut frozen mullet

Species: Channel Catfish
Weight: 5 LB 11 OZ
Bait: cut frozen mullet

Baby Sail Catfish & Lady Fish - Dunlawton Bridge

Night fished the Dunlawton bridge again last night, this time with Kyle and Tara. I arrived around 10:30pm and was looking for finger mullet to castnet. Spotted a few small schools early and grabbed a couple, but not very many at first. Though as the night went on the schools of mullet were more abundant so it worked out. First I used small pieces of shrimp and caught alot of baby Sail Catfish one after another. In fact, thats all we caught on shrimp. I also had two lines out with live finger mullet and we were getting pretty good bites on them. I think a majority of the bites were catfish and lady fish. With the live mullet I hooked a small hardhead catfish and a nice size Lady Fish. Kyle caught a bigger Lady Fish and a HUGE Stone Crab. Unfortunately right now Stone Crab season is closed in Florida so I couldn't harvest this delicious crabs' claw. We released it back in the water unharmed. For the record, Stone Crab season is October 15 - May 15

Dunlawton (Port Orange) - Lady Fish & 15" Sand Trout

My friend Kyle and I were seeking out some night fishing at the New Smyrna causeways Wednesday evening. We arrived at the South bridge first and netted some finger mullet. But with too many other lines in the water there, we didn't even bother getting our rods out. At least we had some bait so we loaded up and took a short drive to the North causeway. After scouting the situation there, it was a nightmare waiting to happen with lines crossing and no room to cast or even retrieve your line. So it was then we decided to try a new spot that we haven't seen before, the Port Orange Causeway. It was only a 15 minute drive from our location so we headed to Port Orange.

More commonly known as the Dunlawton Bridge, it spans the Halifax river and the Intracoastal Waterway. We got there around 2am and it was fishing time, yay! I started with pieces of frozen shrimp on a pompano rig and caught a couple Lady Fish. One of them I used as cut bait since I've heard it's suppose to be really oily and bloody. With that in mind I casted out a chunk of lady fish and waited. I got a nice hit on it for a second, but that was it. Next I setup another rod with a live finger mullet, this is actually my new reel that I haven't used much. It's my first conventional reel and it's definitly a learning experience. I can't really cast that far with it yet, but it works really well for fishing off of causeway piers. Using live mullet on a 3/0 owners light mutu hook, I caught another Lady Fish and then I hooked a nice 15" Sand trout. I capped off the night with a tiny little 5" sailfin catfish using a pieces of shrimp.

Total tally for me was 3 lady fish, 1 sand trout and a baby sailfin catfish.

CNS #3 - Personal Best 15" Whiting

Headed out to the Canaveral Seashore this morning, my buddy Kyle was about to see first hand what surf fishing was all about. We arrived around 11am and found a good spot on the beach to setup shop. I set him up with one of my homemade double hook pompano rigs and we both were catching whiting. With every cast getting a good hit or two, it was fun trying to hook up some whiting. We were using small pieces of Fishbites E-Z Shrimp with a small piece of fresh dead shrimp. The Fishbites seems to really help and it has a slow release scent so it lasts a really long time in the water. Plus it stays on the hook extremely well. Even when a fish steals your shrimp, you still have the fishbites on your hook and the whiting don't seem to care.

It was around noon when I hooked a really nice Gulf Kingfish (Whiting) that was 15" long. It's the biggest whiting I've caught so far. Kyle and I both caught alot of good keeper sized whiting too. All together we must have caught about 12 whiting in about 2 hours. I took home 8 in the cooler and cleaned them for dinner. I think we're planning on another trip on Thursday so I'll have another report soon. Hopefully we can catch some shark or pompano but as long as we're catching, I'm not complaining.

Surf Report CNS #3 - Lady fish & Whiting

On a beautiful Saturday afternoon, me and Cody headed out to CNS for a little surf action. This time I made my own pompano rigs using 25# clear mono. These rigs are super easy to make with a dropper loop knot. My pompano rigs have two #2 owners mutu circle hooks with orange beads. Pictured below is the pompano rig.



First pitstop was Gander Mountain in Lake Mary, FL. I was there to get Fishbites and a couple sand spikes. When I asked a store employee if they had any fishbites, he said yes but it's about 3 years old and hard as a rock. They were selling it 50% off, which is still a ripoff for a product so old and unusable. Jokingly I said if I wanted a bag of rocks I would've gone to HomeDepot. I thanked the guy for at least being honest with me and left Gander with a couple sand spikes.

Second stop was 38 Live Bait co in New Smyrna, near the North Causeway. I got my 2 dozen medium shrimp and noticed they sell Fishbites. Their stock was much softer and fresh. I grabbed a bag of EZ Shrimp pink to go along with my live shrimp.

We finially arrived at Canaveral Seashore around 3pm and parked in lot 3. I started with just pieces of shrimp on my pompano rigs. The surf bite began immediately, my first cast I caught a lady fish. Next we caught a couple small whitings that we let go. Then after a few casts, I started adding a small piece of fishbites on the hook with the shrimp. Now I was hooking whiting in almost every cast. The last hour I was so busy rebaiting my hooks and reeling in fish that my son had to help me. He had a blast seeing all the fish and being my little helper. There were alot of birds around and seemed to be alot of baitfish. Noticed a few nice schools of finger mullet swimming on the beach as the waves washed up but I didn't have my castnet with me.

We were there for about three hours, during which I caught 7 whiting and 2 lady fish. The lady fish will be used for cut bait since they are too boney to eat.

Surf Fishing @ CNS #3 - Whiting

I decided to try my luck at surf fishing for the first time. My son and I went to Canaveral National Seashore (CNS) for a couple hours before they closed at 8PM. On the way there, I stopped by 38 Live Bait and grabbed some live medium shrimp. With 2 dozen shrimps we headed out to the beach. We parked in Lot #3 at CNS and hauled the gear out to the beach. With two rods, I loaded live shrimp on #2 size Owners Mutu hooks. I noticed the bite seemed to be pretty consistant but whatever it was, it was stealing the bait off my hook. So I downsized the size of bait by using pieces of shrimp instead of the whole shrimp. Once I tried that, I was pulling in whiting pretty good. The whiting I caught were small, but I did see a large whiting swimming right up on the beach as the waves came up. I walked up to see what it was and it's eyes looked up at me, then swooosh it quickly darted back into the ocean.

All together I took home 3 whiting and I even had some leftover shrimp to freeze for bait next time. Cody had a blast playing on the beach, and he wants to go back again. It really makes it nice that I can watch him play and fish at the same time. We had the whole beach to ourselves and it was a beautiful day. Next time I'll bring some pre-tied double hook rigs and perhaps some Fishbites for whiting bait. I'd also like to try some cut bait out there next time.

New Smyrna Morning Bite - Bluefish / Butterfly Ray

Me and Kyle planned to fish the morning bite at New Smyrna so we arrived a few hours before first light. Our 1st priority was to get some baitfish so we spotted some schools of finger mullet. Most of the mullet we caught were about 3" long, perfect finger size. Kyle caught a few bigger mullet and I netted 2 live shrimp when the current slowed down. We fished our usual spot at the end of the pier and waited for morning. When morning came, we waited some more. The bites were not coming as we had hoped. No crevalle jacks, no redfish, no drag singing bites. I did get a Bluefish up on the dock and Kyle caught a Butterfly Ray, but that was it. Well, another day another outcome hopefully. Thats the way fishing is, one day your on top of a feeding frenzy and the next day your wondering if there's any fish at all.

Personal Best - Big Catch Longnose Gar 20 lb 8 oz

Last night I was at CS Lee Park with a full arsenal. I brought with me some frozen cut bait and nightcrawlers to get started fishing. Once I had lines in the water, it was time to chum up some baitfish. With oatmeal and small pieces of bread, I threw the mix out in the shallow water by the shore. After 15-20 minutes, I grabbed my castnet to see if I can catch some live bait. It only took a few good casts and I had plenty of mud minnows. I used my light action rod to catch a few live bluegills too. Towards the end of the night I switched over to live bait and nightcrawlers. After the switch, I seemed to get alot more bites on live bait. I missed a few big ones too. One almost dragged my rod in the water because my drag wasn't set right.

Well anyways, it was the end of my night and I had another bite. After I made sure the hook was set, this guy was really pulling. I thought my drag was too loose or something, but no, it was just a big fish trying to get away. This one I fought a good couple minutes. I thought it was a big catfish the way it splashed around in the middle of the river but once I got a good look at it, it was a big Longnose Gar. Still a pretty cool catch since I haven't seen one of these in awhile. It's been a long time since I've caught a Longnose Gar, my previous one was about 9 LB almost a year ago. I can catch Florida Gar any given night, but they don't get any bigger than 4-5 LB. The Longnose Gar, though, can be common in the 5-15 lb range and the Florida record is 41 LB.

This Longnose Gar was 54" long and 20 LB 8 Oz, which qualifies for another Big Catch certificate from the FWC. The minimum requirements for the longnose is 20 lb and/or 50" long. Looks like I'll be sending in another application soon. =)

Location: C.S. Lee Park
Tackle: Owners Light Mutu 5/0 hook on carolina rig - 3 oz sinker

Species: Longnose Gar
Weight: 20 LB 8 OZ
Bait: live bluegill

Big Catch Program & Perseid Meteor Shower

Every year in late July and early August you can observe the Perseid Meteor Shower, a fascinating show displayed by rock and dust fragments left behind by the comet Swift-Tuttle. As the fragments enter the Earth's atmosphere, they burn up creating a streak of light across the sky. This year, the peak activity is expected on August 13, 2011. A few nights ago while fishing at CS lee park I witnessed several meteors streaking across the sky. The skies were clear and it was a new moon so I could see everything. When there's a full moon, however, it will make meteor observing difficult.

On another topic, a few months ago on May 15th I caught a monster Channel Catfish that weighed about 15 LB. This size qualified for a "Big Catch" recognition by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. So I mailed in my free application and about 2 months later I received this beautiful full-color certificate, personalized with my name and details about the catch. 15 LB is actually the minimum qualifying size for a Channel Catfish and I think the Largemouth Bass minimum size is 8 LB, so earning these certificates isn't easy.

More FWC Big Catch Program details:
http://myfwc.com/fishing/freshwater/fishing-tips/angler-recognition

Channel Catfish 6 lb 10 oz - CS Lee Park

I'm back from vacation! Dealing with fishing withdrawals all week I quickly cured that by getting some rods in the water down by CS Lee Park. It must have been around midnight by the time me and Kyle got setup. There wasn't much action throughout the night there. We were actually thinking about switching spots but I decided to just stick it out where we were already posted. And with my patience, I was rewarded with a really nice catfish. Sometime around 1:30AM I got a nice hit and a great fight from a 6 lb 10 oz catfish. This cat was pulling line like crazy, haven't had a catfish fight like that in months. Got it in the cooler and was ready for more. But that was the only fish from CS Lee Park. On the way home we stopped at Mullet Lake Park by the dock where Kyle caught another small catfish, too small to keep though.

Location: C.S. Lee Park
Tackle: Owners Light Mutu size 2 hook on carolina rig - 1 oz sinker

Species: Channel Catfish
Weight: 6 LB 10 OZ
Bait: nightcrawlers

One more catfish before the roadtrip

Due to a power outage at my house and a week long vacation, this post was delayed for 9 days. The events in this post happened on the evening of 7/18/11.

Me and Kyle setout for a final trip before I was leaving to pickup my son from his moms' house in Ohio and visit family in Indiana. I believe we started around 6-7PM at CS Lee Park. It was still light out but we were waiting for sundown. No bites or anything for awhile. In fact, the bites didn't start until it was dark. I ended up catching a nice little 1 lb 4 oz catfish after sundown. I got another catfish too, but it was too small to keep. Back in the water it swam away, perhaps I'll get him another day. :)

So when I got home around 10PM, I noticed the street lights were out and all the houses were dark. A transformer was blown which is normally no big deal. But the sucky part is we had to finish getting ready to leave for our roadtrip. On top of that, the power didn't even come back until 4AM. Here's a picture of the catfish I caught. I had to use a battery operated lantern to get some light. I was basically cleaning this fish in the dark.

Location: C.S. Lee Park
Tackle: Owners Light Mutu size 2 hook on carolina rig - 1 oz sinker

Species: Channel Catfish
Weight: 1 LB 4 OZ
Bait: nightcrawlers

Saturday Night Chasing Channel Cat

Last night the moon was around 95% full. It was a stormy night from Altamonte Springs to Oviedo area but I noticed the storm was headed south-southeast. I saw a good opportunity to get some fishing done at CS Lee Park since the storms were avoiding that area completely. With two poles, one with nightcrawlers and one with cut bait, I was targeting small and large fish. I first caught a small catfish about 12" long using a nightcrawler and size 2 hook. Then my other pole caught a florida gar using a dead shiner and size 3/0 hook. All of my hooks are the Owners Mutu Light style, extremely sharp and very effective hook set ratio.
Later in the evening Kyle and Tara came out to join me by the bank while the fish were still biting. Tara came out with two Florida Gars using dead shiners. I also caught another Channel Catfish, this one was a bigger 2 lb 5 oz using nightcrawlers again with the smaller size 2 hook. It was around 3am and we called it a night, the mosquitos were getting bad and the fish were not as active. The two catfish I took home on ice.

Location: C.S. Lee Park
Tackle: Owners Light Mutu size 2 hook on carolina rig - 1 oz sinker

Species: Channel Catfish
Weight: 2 LB 5 OZ
Bait: nightcrawlers

1st Spotted Seatrout - 23.5" - 5 lb 10 oz

This morning around 7:30am I caught a monster 5 lb 10 oz Spotted Seatrout from the South Causeway using a live croaker on a 3/0 Owners Mutu Light circle hook. To my surprise there were no jacks biting at all...or bluefish for that matter. I finially got a good bite but nothing after the initial hit, so I figured it had either killed my bait or took it off my hook. Curious to check my line, I started to reel in but this trout must have been watching. After a few turns of my reel it slammed it as I was reeling up, and it was fish on baby! It didn't take long to wear itself down but I also had to figure out a way to get it up without breaking my line. The pier is a good 10-15 feet above the water, so line lifting will risk losing the fish. Plus I don't have a landing net that will reach that far below me. Fortunately there's a seawall near the front of the pier where my 4-5 foot dip net will reach, and safely scoop this fish out of the water. I just had to carefully move the fish down there as I'm holding my rod and keeping the fish in the water. Everything worked out well and we got it out. I'm glad Jevin was there to help me out, otherwise I don't know what I would've done. This is my first spotted seatrout catch, and a damn good one. It's sitting in the cooler on ice right now waiting to be cleaned for dinner. Here in Florida, the size regulations for the Spotted Seatrout is 15" to 20" with a bag limit of 4. However, you are allowed to keep (1) over 20" long. Mine was 23.5" long.

Location: South Causeway, New Smyrna Beach
Tackle: Owners Light Mutu 3/0 hook on carolina rig - 3 oz sinker

Species: Spotted Seatrout
Weight: 5 LB 10 OZ
Bait: live croaker

From Freshwater to Saltwater - Crevalle Jack / Sand Trout

Last night Kyle talked about fishing the Mullet Lake river bank again, and I haven't been there in about 6 weeks. I'm always down to fish, so we prepped our rods for freshwater and got our gear in my car to do some night bank fishing. I had the rod holders, my Coleman eletric lantern, headlamp, frozen mullet and cut shad, big hooks, everything we needed to catch some monster cats. But as soon as we started walking through the grasses to even get to the bank, we noticed the terrain was swampy and flooded with all the rainfall lately. It's the rainy season in Florida afterall, so unless there's a generous dry spell I don't foresee the bank being a good idea anytime soon. Alot of big spiders too, now I'm not a wuss when it comes to bugs but I don't do spiders. The water looked like it was ankle deep in some places as well, so we turned around and the bank fishing that night was a bust before it even started. Damn!

Determined to fish somewhere, we convinced each other to just goto New Smyrna. The high tide would be in our favor so the baitfish should be plentiful. At the time we weren't planning to stay all night either but hey, nobody says fishing is predictable. We caught what we need for bait, including nice small mullet and croakers. I figured with all the bait we had, we should use it to our advantage for a morning bite. I felt confident the bluefish and crevalle jacks would bite, especially with live mullet. The only problem was the outgoing tide was extremely strong in the morning. So strong it was dragging 3oz and 4oz pyramid sinkers. Plus fish don't even bite well when the tide is moving so fast. It was a slow morning. I was hoping the current would slow down in time for sunrise but it didn't. I still managed to catch one Crevalle Jack and then later in the morning I caught a trout. I believe this one is a Sand Trout, which is not regulated in Florida. It was over 15" long and weighed 1 lb 6 oz. This is a new species for me to catch :)

Location: South Causeway, New Smyrna Beach
Tackle: Owners Light Mutu 6/0 hook on carolina rig - 3 oz sinker

Species: Sand Trout
Weight: 1 LB 6 OZ
Bait: live croaker or mullet

Good Morning Jack Crevalle!

I was bored, very bored, so I again set out to NSB for the early bite. I got there around midnight hoping to castnet some mullet for the morning. Unfortunately, getting live bait was a difficult throughout the night, particularly live mullet. Herring were plentiful, but no croakers, spots or mullet. We finially netted about 8 mullet right before first light. These live mullet would prove to be the difference between catching fish and just fishing as the morning progressed.

It was probably around 6:30am when I got the first bite. It was a Jack Crevalle that was slightly under 4 LB and it put up a hell of a fight. Bring your "A" Game on these guys, Jack Crevalles have alot of fighting power. All together I got (3) Crevalle Jacks on the dock, all between 3-4 LB each. The biggest one weighed an even 4 LB. Live mullet was very productive today, even the bigger 6" plus size mullet were no problem for the jacks to gobble up. Big Gene was using the live herring and not even a bite. I've noticed the jacks do prefer the mullet over herring when it comes to bottom fishing with live bait. Here's a picture of my very first Crevalle Jack!

14" Bluefish @ NSB

Fished the sunrise this morning at NSB and got alot of hits from blues. It was the smaller blues this time and they were biting the mullet in half leaving me with a fish head. I did manage to catch the 14" bluefish below. Kyle got himself a nice Crevalle Jack too.



Also here's a 20" Spotted Seatrout that was caught and donated to me. I think it was caught on a live spot.

South Causeway NSB - Whiting, Bluefish, Jacks, Tarpon

Last night at NSB was full of surprises throughout the night. I arrived at 9:00PM and Kyle/Tara came about 10:30 in the evening. I purchased 50 small shrimp from the bait shop and started out with 2/0 Kahle hooks. Not long after Kyle and Tara came out is when I caught my first Whiting! It was small but still a keeper. While I left to get some ice and drinks, Tara caught a small stingray and another kid caught a bigger whiting. Understanding that whiting usually travel in schools, I switched to a dual hook dropper loop rig and downsized my hooks. Now I was using two #2 Owners Mutu Light circle hooks with small pieces of fresh dead shrimp. I caught croaker, pinfish, and finially another whiting that was similar size to the other one I caught. Here's the two Whiting I caught...



Then around 1 AM we were there to witness someone catch a Tarpon very close to the pier. It put on a display of splashing jumps and vigorous head shaking as they grabbed the dropnet which helps raise fish from high piers. As soon as they got it up, they had to quickly dehook it and let it go. These tarpon don't fare well out of the water so they were in a hurry to get it back ASAP. Not only that, it's illegal to possess or harvest tarpon without a permit which runs about $50. Here's Big Gene holding the tarpon a few seconds before it's release...



Me and Kyle stuck it out all night at the pier. We were curious to see what the first morning bite would bring. Big Gene was telling us about the exploding jacks and blues running early in the morning around sunrise, so we wanted to get in on the action. He hooked us up with some tips and got our lines ready. The breakfast menu was live mullet and pinfish fished on the bottom. Just after 6:30am it started, and for about 20 minutes the fishing was INSANE! Gene pulled in 3 Crevalle Jacks and 1 Bluefish. I landed 2 Bluefish, one of which was the biggest one at 21" long! The 21" blue is my personal best too. Kyle hooked up with a fish but it ran over to the pilings and broke his line. He got to feel the big strong pull though and said it almost took his rod in the water. The long stay at the pier was exhuasting but I'd say it was worth it. We saw whiting, small catfish, small stingrays, tarpon, some bluefish, and crevalle jacks.

1st Bluefish @ South Causeway

Another night at the South Causeway, but first I made it out to 38 Live Bait before they closed to get some live shrimp. I picked up 2 dozen medium shrimp for $5 and headed to the pier. The first corner of the pier was crowded this time so I walked to the backend. Started out using shrimp but eventually caught some live spots and pinfish with my castnet. I've had better luck using a live spot hooked through the tail on a 4/0 circle hook. Around 2:00am I had a runner, my baitfeeder was going off but when I grabbed the rod it was gone. Then again 2:30 in the morning my baitfeeder went off again, this time I caught a bluefish that was about 16" long. All this action came from the live spots. Spots must be a favorite of bluefish because another guy caught a bluefish after I did.

24 LB Stingray - South Causeway

Thursday night at South Causeway NSB I landed a huge stingray, but not before a drag pulling fight I'll never forget. As soon as it hit my live bait which was a Spot, the baitfeeder was singing. And even when I clicked off the baitfeeder, the main drag was still singing. It ran out several feet of line before I could even start pulling it in. I had to tighten the drag quite a bit, and start pulling up my rod and reeling in the slack as I let my rod down. It was heavy and I was going against the tide current, which didn't make it any easier. After about 8-10 minutes of pulling and reeling, finially got it up to the pier and saw it was a big stingray. I took it over to the wall next to the parking lot, where I could scoop it out with a landing net. It was weighed with the net, and the scale read 25 LB. The net weighs 1 LB 5 oz, so I figure the stingray was about 24 LB! I took a quick picture, though I was unable to get it turned over to get a top view of the ray. It was much easier to just leave it in the net so I could release it back. You definitly don't want to be careless while handling large rays. This ray didn't flop or whip it's tail at all, but that doesn't mean it won't happen. Always expect the unexpected. That night I had two more hooked, and they felt exactly like the big stingray. Though these two broke off my line during the fight.

Location: South Causeway, New Smyrna Beach
Tackle: Gamakatsu 6/0 octopus circle hook on a Carolina rig w/ 3 oz sinker

Species: Southern Stingray
Weight: approx 24 LB
Bait: live Spot

A couple Butterfly Rays - Man Jumps Off Bridge

The trip started with Kyle, Zack and myself at the Mullet Lake river bank. It was a stormy night in central Florida though, so after about an hour at the bank we packed up and left because we noticed lightning getting closer. Remember, lightning can hit up to 15 miles away from the storm. It's not something to ignore, especially with four 7 foot lightning rods in the water.

The night was young and I still wanted to fish, we re-grouped in the parking lot and talked about going to New Smyrna where we can fish underneath a bridge. The problem was I didn't have my castnet for bait, but we took our chances anyway. I figured someone would be there with some bait we could either get for free or give them a couple bucks. Luckily the old man Gene was there. This old guy is serious about fishing, he literally has about 8-10 poles in the water, a large cooler, several live bait buckets in the water, at least 2 castnets, and probably some other shit you wouldn't normally carry out to the pier. He carries all his stuff on an extra large rolling cart that looked custom made. Anyways, I'm on good terms with the guy since I've fished with him before. Sometimes he can be grumpy as hell but last night he was nice enough to castnet some bait for us. With some live spots, I caught a Butterfly Ray (pictured below). Later in the night, Kyle caught another Butterfly Ray too.



Last evening, a man apparently jumped from the SR 44 bridge that goes over the South Causeway and landed hard on the ground just missing a small pond in the parking lot. It was probably a 70 foot drop from where he jumped. I didn't see him fall myself, but another witness said it looked like a trashbag and heard a loud thump. The witness said after the man hit the ground, he hit it so hard that his shoes flew up off his feet. As the guy was laying on the ground, they say he was still breathing but his spine was all messed up. It was a very awkward situation for witnesses including myself. I've never been that close to something like that and it just amazes me how people do harm to themselves. A helicopter had to airlift the man to the hospital, if he survived I don't know. I haven't been able to find any local news about the incident yet.