Inlet Harbor (Ponce Inlet) Saturday Morning 9/5

It's Labor Day weekend so I took the opportunity Saturday morning to take my son, Cody, out for some fishing. Left the house around 6:30am and arrived to the baitshop around 7:30am. Loaded up with 3 dozen shrimp and 5 finger mullet that I netted the night before. Arrived at Inlet Harbor at 8am and noticed we had the fishing dock to ourselves. The dock is only open 6am to noon on Saturday/Sunday, plus there's a fee to fish the dock. But it's usually never busy and it's shaded which is great for hot summer mornings!
First cast I hook a 9.5" sheepshead! Same spot I get a 11.5" sheepshead and another one at 11". Then the mangrove snappers come marching in, caught a couple 11" keepers and 6 short throwbacks. Also hooked a small toadfish and a big sailors choice. Just about everything caught on fresh dead shrimp. Had a couple good runs on the finger mullet, missed the first run but the second one I landed the 11" mangrove snapper. Good morning on the water!

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.

23" RED! Friday Night Swoope Ramp 8/22

Left our house after dinner around 7PM. We get to the NSB Bait & Tackle shop to acquire 2 dozen mud minnows. The guy there hooked me up with more than 2 dozen...awesome. Arrived to the ramp around 9PM. It was a new moon and tide was up high. Water was super clear, you could see every detail on the bottom. Quickly setup a rod and got a hit along the mangrove trees. It was probably a snapper but I couldn't get it to connect on the hook. Cody caught a 9" mangrove snapper all by himself using a live mud minnow. It got a release back in the water without a photo. OOPS!
The blue crabs were in the area, caught a small one that released itself on the lift. And then caught a huge male bluecrab. It let go on the lift but luckily the water was so clear I could still see it. Dropped the bait down, the crab grabbed it again, and used our landing net to catch it. The shell was 6" from point to point, so the crab was overall much bigger. Boiled him up when I got home, here's a picture of him sitting in our sink.



Then 10:30pm rolls around and I hook into a nice fight using a live mud minnow. As I'm fighting it, I had to move down to the floating dock so Cody could try to get the landing net in the water. Secured the fish on the dock and realized I just caught a 23" redfish! Other people were around to witness my catch so I was feeling good. :)





My son Cody was more interested in the hermit crabs. We found three new hermit crabs. One had a really bad broken shell, so I took it home and put a new empty shell of similar size in with it. Sure enough it swapped shells and is now in a safe home. Here's a few pictures of our new tank mates.

Friday Night Slam! 8/1

We get there around 8:00pm and see the bridge isn't as crowded as I expected. There were two groups of people fishing but they were not in my favorite spots. Parked in Aunt Catfishes overflow parking lot and walked to the 2nd southsite light pole. Current was still outgoing and just like yesterday, we had the wind in our faces again. With three fishing poles and a mud minnow on each one, we couldn't get a hit for like an hour. Crossed over to the northside and it was the same story. I finially caught a tiny flounder that got a release. That was it for the bridge, pretty slow action there last couple of days.
Still had alot of live mud minnows leftover, so decided to try Swoope boat ramp. We get there after 10PM and setup on the rightside dock. It was a high tide and still incoming. Around 11pm Cody caught his first fish and its his personal best keeper Flounder at 12.5" long! Shortly after that, I catch my personal best Mangrove Snapper at 12.75" long. We just kept taking turns catching fish after that. Cody caught his first Mangrove Snapper that was 10" long, then I get a big Hardhead Catfish, then Cody gets a bigger Mangrove Snapper thats 11" long and then I end the night with a big ladyfish that put on an amazing show. It made several jumps right in front of us while I was reeling it in. Got it over the rails and it snapped my 20lb leader line. Took the hook out and threw him back. Had a great night on the water with my boy!

Cody's Fish Count: 3
12.5" Flounder (personal best)
10" Mangrove Snapper
11" Mangrove Snapper

Brad's Fish Count: 4
small Flounder
12.75" Mangrove Snapper (personal best)
large catfish
large lady fish

Sunday Night Flat Bridge 7/13

Started around 10:30pm in New Smyrna after renewing my fishing license at Walmart. The plan was to find nice 3" finger mullet along shorelines. Hard to find sometimes but it's worth it. Netted about 10 and took them for a ride to the flat bridge. Parked at the bridge around 11:30 and found the tide still incoming. Fished two spots with no luck. May have lost a flounder on the bottom. Next spot was the hot spot. Slowly dragging a mullet along the bottom I got a 15.5" flounder, 11.5" mangrove snapper, and a 12" seatrout. Also lost a ladyfish as I tried to lift it over the rails. Gotta love the old bridge at night :)

Grand Slam Flat Bridge! Early Morn 4th of July

Had a bunch of live bait leftover from previous nights so I went back to the bridge Thursday night to finish off the livewell. Armed with a dozen small pinfish and a few small mud minnows, I arrived around 10PM. Since the tide was still outgoing, I first worked the southside of the bridge with gulp swimming mullet but without a hit. I then crossed over and tried the northside without a hit. It's almost 11PM now the tide change is running late. Seeing how the bridge isn't producing, I decided to leave for the new ramp to shake off the skunk. Pulled into the new ramp parking lot and started working the honey hole. After the third cast I heard the sound of a manatee surfacing for air. Party pooper! So much for that, I left that spot since it was dark and I didn't want to snag a manatee. I had my castnet with me so I walked down to the actual ramp to see if I could find any mullet or mud minnows. Threw my net and got some mud minnows right on the ramp. I was getting ready to leave to try another boat ramp when I looked over and saw the candy shop was open, it was 30-40 small 2.5" to 3" finger mullets swimming in a few inches of water. Only problem is they were down by the rocks and trees. I was willing to risk it at this point, so I climbed down and creeped up on them so my shadow wouldn't scare them. One quick toss and I got about 15-20 finger mullet in the net. Woo! Change of plans, going back to the flat bridge....
So now I'm back at the bridge and it's past midnight, happy 4th of July! The tide is now incoming and there's one spot open on the northside. Hooked a mullet threw the eyes and dropped it to the bottom, as soon as it hit bottom I get a hit and it's a 14.5" trout! I was able to get two rods baited with live mullet on the bottom, one on each side of the light pole. Got another hit from a strong fighter and my personal best 12" mangrove snapper! Then I get another 9" mangrove. By now I noticed one rod hasn't moved in about 15 minutes so I go to check the bait, when I pull up I noticed something heavy and it's a fat 13.5" flounder on the hook! I catch alot of flounder that way actually, sometimes they just don't move after taking the bait. I continue fishing and catch another 10.5" mangrove, another 13" flounder, then a 11.5" mangrove, and then another 11" flounder. It's now 2am and I only have a few mullet leftover, they were just chewing them left and right. I ended the night catching a 13.5" trout and a small ladyfish.
EPIC night on the bridge. Total tally last night was 10 fish of 4 different species. All trout were released, only kept the 2 bigger flounder and 3 of the keeper mangroves.
2 trout
3 flounder
4 mangrove snappers
1 ladyfish

Saturday Morning Flat Bridge / New Ramp 6/28

Started early this morning leaving the house by 5:30am. Arrived at the flat bridge around 6:30 to see nobody on the bridge. The tide was still outgoing but slow enough to fish for flounder. Tried the first two lights that usually produce for me but nothing. Crossed over to fish the second light pole with live pinfish and caught a 9" mangrove snapper that got a release. Talked to my friend Bob for awhile, he's a local that I met from an online fishing forum. He goes out every morning and dominates the flounder from shore. He caught a 15.5" flounder this morning on gulp shrimp and then he caught a nice jack. I didn't catch anything else at the flat bridge after the snapper, so I decided to switch spots.
Headed to the new ramp and noticed a few spots I didn't see while I was visiting at night. It was daylight so I could scout the area better. Saw a few pathways by the parking lot that led to the bay thats south of the ramp. It's not fished alot apparently because my friend Bob usually does well there. This was my first time trying and it didn't take me long to catch two flounder on white gulp swimming mullet. One was 12" and the other was 11". It had reached 11am and the sun was scortching hot, so I called it a day after that.

9" mangrove snapper on live pinfish


12" flounder on white gulp swimming mullet


11" flounder on white gulp swimming mullet

Daytime Flat Bridge Monday 5/12

Invited my friend Zack to fish the flat bridge Monday late morning. We arrived around 10:30am and nobody was on the bridge. Stopped by Donalds bait to originally get some live finger mullet but they were out! Ugh, so instead I got two dozen live shrimp. Fished the favorite spot on the bridge with little success. It was a long two hours of fishing. Finially at 12:15pm I got a small flounder on live shrimp just trolling the bottom. Threw it back to grow. And then 15 minutes later I got a nice 10" mangrove snapper! Zack found the honey hole with 4 mangroves himself but he threw them all back thinking I didn't want them lol. Not sure if he had any keepers. So the sun was hot all day and the tide was slack most of the two hours. It finially started moving around 11:30-noon. The bite was shutdown until after the tide started moving again.

small flounder on live shrimp


10" mangrove snapper on live shrimp

Daytime South Causeway NSB Report 11/25

Tried a different route this morning by stopping by the South Causeway in New Smyrna, started at 10am and fished until 1pm. Tide was incoming the whole trip. Wind was blowing steady with a slight chill in the air. Used fiddlers and live shrimp on the bottom. Nothing on fiddlers today. Current was rolling too fast to try for sheeps. However with live shrimp I caught a small mangrove snapper, small pigfish, and a small goliath grouper about 11-12" long. All released to grow.