Inlet Harbor (Ponce Inlet) Saturday Morning 9/12

Headed out to the Inlet Harbor with a bucket full of live finger mullet and some frozen shrimp. Stopped by 38 Live Bait to buy some live fiddler crabs. Arrived at the fishing spot around 8am, paid my dues ($3) and went down to setup. Two other gentlemen were already there and they were nice company throughout the entire time. I started with some shrimp and landed a sailors choice and then a cool looking pufferfish. Each time my bait dropped it didn't take long to get a bite and they were quick to steal the bait. The other guys were catching some keeper mangroves but they were just barely legal.

After I was tired of messing with the bait stealers, I setup one rod to fish live finger mullet on the bottom. First hit came and it was a small snapper. The next hit on finger mullet had a nice drag screaming run. I fought a 17" crevalle jack on the deck and decided to keep this one for chunk bait.

By now the current had slowed down and I was ready to try the fiddler crabs for sheepshead. Managed to get two 11" sheepshead! It felt good to finally catch them on fiddlers after many failed attempts in the past. I used to always buy a few dozen crabs and never caught a thing on them.

Overall it was a great fishing trip. Two straight times I've had success catching some variety there. It seems to be a good sheepshead hole but a lot of them are short. Although it's not even sheepshead season yet so perhaps the bigger ones will come in when it cools off. I'm still learning the spot and the hidden structures underwater. I've been broken off at least twice today just getting snagged on something.

Saturday Morning Swoope Ramp 8/29

It's been awhile since I've reported anything so here's todays adventure...

Went fishing this morning at Swoope ramp in NSB. Both my son and I arrived at the ramp about 7:30am after picking up some live shrimp and live mud minnows. It was quiet for a Saturday morning, only two boats launched the entire time I was there. The fish were biting our offerings all morning but since we were using shrimp it could be pins and small snappers. Most times the hook came back bare but we did manage to stick a few in the lips. My son caught 2 pinfish and I got a small crevalle jack and a small snapper. All fish released and all were caught on shrimp. Mud minnows got a few bites from the snappers but no hookups on the minnows. It was getting hot very quickly! At 9am we were sweating out of our necks so decided to head out.

CNS Saturday late morning 4/26

I was going to do a sunrise report but it was foggy and kinda chilly outside. And since my son was coming along, decided to wait a few more hours. Slept in a little bit more and finially arrived at CNS 10:00am with nice sunny skies. Drove all the way down to lot #4 and saw it was FULL. Drove down to Lot #3 and it was FULL. Checked lot #2 to find open parking. Tide was outgoing with little to no current. Using fresh dead shrimp and some frozen sand fleas, I baited the water with two rods. Sand fleas were not effective today. However, fresh shrimp was working great. Caught 11 crevalle jacks in all different sizes. Some the size of my hand, and some the size of my forearm. Nice fight for these fish! I kept a few for shark bait. =)
Also caught a nice pompano on shrimp that was 13" to the fork. It gave me the best fight of the day. Was hoping for more but I guess he was the lone ranger. Then I caught a small whiting and threw it back. I only keep whiting if I can get into a good mess of them to have a fish fry. Stayed until about 1:30pm so about 3.5 hours of fishing. Loving this warm weather!

13" Pompano at CNS

Double Header @ Flat Bridge 10/21

Had the day off work and I wanted to try the flat bridge during daytime hours. When I arrived after 10am I found only one other fisherman on the bridge and he was on the other side. My "flattie rock" spot was open and thats where I setup. I brought two rods for bottom fishing the live mullet that I bought from Donalds Bait & Tackle, and I also brought my jigging rod because I knew there would be some downtime. The tide was incoming. I only fished for about 90 minutes before I got rained out. Nothing on the gulp and nothing on the mullet for awhile but finially got a run and it as a nice crevalle jack 12" to the fork. My other rod got a zip run while I'm dehooking this jack but it didn't stay on, I knew it was another crevalle. Quickly got both rods back in the water with another mullet and waited for the jacks to come back. I got one more crevalle before the rain came. The two jacks I kept for freezing whole, they are used for shark bait. Headed back and was home by 1:30pm with some leftover live mullet on the bubbler.

Planned to revisit the flat bridge at night with the leftover live mullet. When I arrived after 10pm I saw my "flattie rock" spot was open again. I noticed there wasn't any bait in the water though. Fortunately the guy leaving gave me about 15-20 of his leftover mullet, what a nice guy! So I was setup and didn't need anymore bait. It was time to fish again. Same setup as earlier in the day, I brought my two rods for live mullet on the bottom and the jigging pole for passing away time. Though tonight I didn't need the jigging pole as much. At first the bite was slow, so while jigging a gulp shrimp new penny I got a small flounder that got a release. Then I got a good hit on the live mullet near the lightpost. It was a fat 15" flounder! One of my best from the bridge. I continued to get hits through the night on live mullet, mostly ladyfish striking, running and spitting the hook. Overall a great day on the bridge!

CNS 4 GRAND SLAM - Pompano, Personal Best 17" Whiting, more!

Planned an early morning to CNS on Saturday since I had the day off work and it paid off in a big way. I arrived about 6:15am and fished for about 3 hours. The tide was high and the waves were calm, no more than 1.5' surf. Only one other fisherman until about 7:30 then people started filing in. I saw a couple of guys fishing with 6 rods between the two of them. I was like, whoa, bit of an overkill!
I only fished two rods with fresh dead shrimp and I caught fish after fish for the first 2 hours between 6am and 8am. With several dolphin out in the distance, I knew there were fish around. Rule of thumb: where there's dolphin, there's fish.

For starters, I caught 2 Pompano (13" and 11"). Good to see the pompano still hanging around! The whiting also showed up today and I'm glad they did. I caught 5 whiting all together and kept 3 of the bigger ones. In fact, I caught my personal best whiting today that measured 17.25" long!

Hooked a small Bonnethead that I released back. Also hooked into a stingray that gave me a rush, the fight on that was pretty fun. I caught a few small Crevalle Jacks that I'm keeping for shark bait. Also caught a few Blue Runners which is rare for me. I kept them for bait too. I just put each one into quart size freezer bags. I freeze them whole to keep in all the blood and guts.

Today was an EPIC day on the surf, probably one of the best mornings I've experienced at CNS. I caught 15 fish of 7 different species! You can't beat that.

1 Bonnethead Shark
1 Stingray
2 Pompano (13" and 11")
2 small Crevalle Jacks
2 Blue Runners
2 Sail Catfish
5 Whiting

Midday at Flat Bridge - 10 LB JACKS!

Another day off work so I dropped my son off at school and headed to the Flat Bridge with hopes of flounder on the menu. Arrived there around 10:00AM and noticed it was incoming high tide with a turnaround coming soon. Last night I rounded up some live baby mullet and kept them on air. I collected about a dozen finger mullet and thats all I needed. I got them from the North Causeway in NSB where I fished with Kyle last night, but we didn't catch anything. The mullet were not that thick either.

Anyway back to the Flat Bridge report... So shortly after getting my first line wet, I had a small nibble with a live baby mullet on the bottom, but the action quickly disappeared. Also my attempt at jigging gulp shrimp today was a failure due to the strong wind and current. I just couldn't hold bottom where I wanted it to. So I cut the jighead off and freelining a live baby mullet for about an hour. Not one bite on the freeline either. I just put that rod aside and grabbed my 10 footer out of the car. LOL Yeah baby! Now I'm rocking two rods with live baby mullet fished on the bottom with a 1 oz pyramid sinker. I'm using 30lb fluorocarbon leader line and a 1/0 Owners Light Mutu circle hook.

Around 11:00am I noticed a few schools of bait running frantically and it looked like something busting them. But the topwater explosions weren't that big, probably just some small jacks I figured. Sure enough a few minutes later they returned and I had my line in the water at the right place at the right time....zoooooooooom. The baitfeeder sang to me for awhile but this fish was small enough to reel in quickly. It was just a little Crevalle Jack, under 12" long but it sure had an appetite as it swallowed a decent sized mullet.

Next cast I had a strong runner that wasn't stopping. It definitly felt like a much bigger Crevalle Jack. The damn thing took my line straight towards the other fishermans lines to my left, I'm thinking to myself "oh great this fish is gonna get me in trouble". Fortunately for the fish it jetted under the bridge and broke me off. It had me in a bad position anyway. Even though I lost that one, it only broke my leader line so I still had my weight attached. Besides now I'm pumped and ready for more.

With a live mullet in the water, I'm tying a new rig on my pole that just broke off. I didn't even get a chance to finish and the baitfeeder goes off. Another big jack! This one went out then raced back towards me. This one I got to fight a little longer than the first one, and I actually got to see it for a glance. But knowing the crevalle's they don't give up that easy. Another dash and it went under the dang bridge again. I held on as much as I could but it just wouldn't turn around. The line rubbed against something sharp and eventually broke the main line. My whole rig including weight was gone. By now the bait were busting all over the place with bigger explosions on the water. In fact you could actually see a few jacks in the water racing each other to the next victim. However, now I had two broken rigs and no lines in the water either.

I raced to tie knots and get both lines in the water again. Then waited, not long though. Heard the bait busting coming from my left, split second later the big 10 foot rod in front of me gets a big hit. Quickly grabbed it and felt the power of another big jack on the end. Seconds into my fight, I hear my other rod going off with what sounds like another big jack. The jacks are still busting fish out in the water too! Not much I can do but handle the 10' rod I grabbed first. It's taking me to the right so thats where I start walking. As I'm walking, I pass my other rod that is still singing but I can't do nothing about it. hahaha. So I get this badass jack tired out eventually and there's absolutely no way I'm bringing it over the bridge rails. It was way too heavy. A guy comes along and notices my other rod. I ask him to go ahead and see if he can reel it in because I'm busy at the moment. He was cool. He grabs the rod and fights it for a short while but the main line breaks. Oh well, by now I'm getting my big jack up the rocks and successfully on the land. Whew!! My personal best Crevalle Jack! 10 LB 6 Oz and 24 inches long to the tail fork.





This trip cost me though, the same Okuma Avenger 65 that was repaired is having the same problem again. Basically the baitfeeder is a secondary drag on these reels which allows you to disengage the spool and main drag. They are ideal for live or cutbait fishing, especially when your working 2-3 rods at once. When a fish picks up the bait and runs, your suppose to hear a clicking sound. Problem now is I don't hear the clicking sound anymore. It still works fine, just without the sound to alert the bite. I've had this reel for 2 years now and it's been through alot. It's been dunked in saltwater at the beach, in the shop for a cleaning after that, then shipped to a warranty service shop to fix the absent "clicking" sound. They fixed it, but at some point during my trip today the clicking has failed again. I think alot of it is just abuse and wear on the reel itself. I have another Avenger 65 that was purchased a year ago, exact same model and it works fine with no issues.

Flat Bridge Tuesday Evening

Got the urge to fish the flat bridge yesterday evening. Bought 4 dozen shrimp at 38 Live Bait, but I'll be honest, I didn't get 4 dozen shrimp in my bucket. Looked like I was short at least a dozen or more. I even asked the girl working there, who I've never seen there before, but she insisted it was 4 dozen. I didn't want to sit there and challenge her on it, I'd rather go fishing. So I left there knowing I was screwed on that deal. Plus I know another bait shop next door to the flat bridge if I needed anything else. The only reason I went to 38 Live is because it's cheaper.

Nobody at the flat bridge when I got there. I started fishing about 6:00PM and first cast caught a couple fish. Immediately I had a sea robin and a catfish.





Not long after that I hooked into a small Crevalle Jack but it popped off as I tried to lift it up the bridge. Then I got a small Spotted Seatrout but it was too short to keep. Seatrout have to be at least 15" long and this one was less than 12".



Things died off for awhile, well the catching did anyway. And as expected I was running out of bait because 38 Live Bait shorted me. It was still before 8:00PM when I packed up my things and drove to Donald's Bait across the street before they closed. I got 3 more dozen shrimp and this time, I got my moneys worth if not more. Returned to the same fishing spot and finially caught two Lady Fish that went into the cooler for cutbait. Witnessed a couple good hits on my rod towards the end of my visit when it was getting dark. My baitfeeder was singing a steady song on one hit but as I grasped the reel the fish was gone. Another good hit was a stop and run, stop and run, stop and run sound. Again as soon as I picked up the rod it was gone. Both sounded pretty strong whatever they were. I ended up leaving near 10:00PM.

Flat Bridge Sunday Evening

Sunday evening I fished the flat bridge with Zack for a few hours from 6-9pm. We picked up 3 dozen live shrimp and caught some undersized fish. Fishing with shrimp is definitly busy work with all the pinfish, spots, croakers stealing the bait off our hooks. If you leave your line in the water for more than a few minutes and don't notice any taps, then it's likely your bait is gone.

A guy fishing down from us caught a couple small blacktip sharks during our time there. It's amazing how many sharks I've seen come up from this bridge from bonnetheads, hammerheads and blacktips.

Sorry no pictures on this trip. The fish weren't that big anyway so everything was thrown back to grow.

Small Crevalle Jack
Small Bluefish
Small Catfish
Lady Fish

Happy New Year - 2011 Recap Stories

Well it's a brand new year and hoping to share some brand new fishing stories. Sorry I haven't posted much in the last month, but with the holidays and cold weather in the area I just haven't had much time to get out on the water. 2011 was a great year for me and my fishing friends though. The many hours of research and time on the water has paid off. I learned many different techniques, rigs, and how to target specific species. As the new year begins, now would be a good time to highlight the best of the best of 2011. So here's a summary of my 2011 fishing adventures and best moments to remember. Enjoy =)

In late January/February I participated in my first ever Shad & Crappie Derby with very good success, and came really close to catching the longest American Shad for 1st place. I caught my first American Shad on January 24th that was 16" long. A few days later I caught my largest shad at 17.5 long. All together I caught 10 American Shad in 3 weeks.
17.5" American Shad that almost won 1st Place

On February 21st, me and two friends made the first hike to the river bank at Mullet Lake Park at night. It was a scarey trek not knowing if there will be alligators or snakes on the way out there. But the 3 of us carefully pushed forward and it was definitly worth the hike. Zack set the bar on the biggest catfish of the year that was 17 LB!
Zack's 17 LB Catfish of the Year

Now in March, my friend Kyles' fiance, Tara, almost surpassed Zacks big fish but not quite. No surprise it was at Mullet Lake park again and this one was 15 LB 6 OZ. Congrats Tara!
Tara's Big Catch 15 LB 6 OZ Catfish

No fooling around in April! This month was very productive at Mullet Lake Park for me. I caught several catfish and gar as my fishing buddies were just watching. I love bragging lol. One night I caught a 7lb 5oz catfish and 3 Florida Gar. Then another night I caught a 4lb 14oz, another florida gar, and then a 12 LB Catfish that was my personal best at the time.
My 12 LB Catfish on the hook!

May came and so did my personal best catfish of the year. May is also the month we basically stopped hiking out to Mullet Lake park because of alligator nesting season. It was just too dangerous to risk our lives to fish. Summer was also here and so was the rainy season, making the pathway to the bank very wet and muddy. I'm just glad I got to catch a big one before our mullet lake catfishing season was over for the year. On the night of May 15th, me and my friends hiked out to the bank at Mullet Lake park. I caught a monster 14 LB 6 OZ catfish that night. Later that month we made one more trip to the park bank and I caught an 8 LB catfish to cap off the month.
My Personal Best 14 LB 6 OZ Catfish!

When June arrived it was saltwater life. It also marks the first time me and Kyle were introduced to the species of Crevalle Jacks. These are probably the most addicting fish to fight on your line. Once you hook one, you will understand. The Crevalle Jacks were only caught in the morning, shortly after first light. Me and Kyle would stay at the pier all night and wait it out until morning to get some Jack action. The long nights were exhausting but it was so much fun once you knew the Jacks were around. I also can't forget to mention the huge 24 LB southern stingray I landed one night in New Smyrna. I fought it for almost 10 minutes, the whole time guessing what was on my line. Was it a big drum? a shark? Nope, just a stingray LOL
Huge Stingray that was 24 LB!
Attention Crevalle Jacks!

In July I caught my personal best Spotted Seatrout one morning, it was 23.5" long and 5 LB 10 OZ. After spending so much time in New Smyrna I switched it up to the St Johns River again. Since Mullet Lake Park was a no go, I decided to give CS Lee Park a try along the bank. I quickly learned that this was my new catfishing spot for the next several months. It was so much easier to access too with the bank being next to the parking lot. Most of the catfish at CS Lee were 1-2 LB but my biggest catfish this month was 6 LB 10 OZ. As the year went on, CS Lee Park would continue to produce sizeable catfish.
Personal Best Spotted Seatrout 5 LB 10 OZ!

August was a very busy month for my fishing blog. At CS Lee Park I caught my biggest Longnose Gar so far that was 20 LB 8 OZ and 54" long! This is the longest fish in my record book. Another night at CS Lee I caught two large catfish, a 9 1/2 and 5 1/2 LB catfish! The 9lber is the biggest catfish so far at CS Lee Park. Also this month I also started surf fishing for the first time at Canaveral National Seashore. Surf fishing is a whole new ballgame, requiring some new gear like sand spikes, longer rods, and different rigs. The Whiting bite was on, including my personal best 15" Whiting.
Personal Best Longnose Gar 20 LB 8 OZ!
Biggest Catfish at CS Lee Park! 9 LB 6 OZ
Personal Best 15" Whiting at CNS #3

September was another busy month, mostly on the surf. This is the month when my son Cody and I caught our first Redfish! Kyle also caught his first Redfish. All of them were on the surf at CNS too. In between surf fishing, I visited CS Lee Park and had some luck there too with a couple nice 3-4 LB catfish. And then finially, a catch that will last a lifetime... One night at the North Causeway in NSB, I caught the biggest fish of my life, a big bull redfish that was 36 LB and about 48" long! Kyle was with me that night so I have a witness LOL. With his help, we were able to get it out of the water and take measurements. We were sweating with excitement and pumped with adrenaline the whole evening. It was definitly the highlight of my year!
Cody and I catch our first Redfish!
Kyle's first Redfish too!
36 LB/48" Personal Best Redfish!

October was the month when the St Johns river saw major changes. Heavy rains caused severe flooding that completely submerged boating docks. I did some saltwater fishing in New Smyrna and caught quite a few Sail Catfish, one being my personal best at 4 LB 8 OZ. Those sail cats really put up a good fight too! The fishing at CS Lee Park was good too, with mostly 2-3 LB catfish biting. The river flooding actually made it a little easier to fish at CS Lee since the water was even closer to the parking lot. I just set some rods and leaned against my car waiting for a bite. :)
Personal best saltwater Gafftopsail Catfish 4 LB 8 OZ!

I didn't fish very much in November and December, but I did manage to squeeze in a few trips to CS Lee Park. I caught a couple 2 LB catfish and a bigger 5 LB 8 OZ catfish came about mid November before our Thanksgiving family cruise. As December came, the water levels on the St Johns river went down rather quickly and as of now it's pretty much back to normal.

Well there you have it, 2011 came with alot of personal bests and alot of first time species for me. I know alot of my records will probably stick for awhile, but as long as I keep putting time on the water, there's always the possibility of hooking the next Big Catch. Thanks for reading!

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.