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!

Flattie Report Monday Night 5/19

Arrived at the flat bridge around 10:30pm with my friend Zack. The outgoing tide was just slacking up so it was perfect time to try for flounder. Started with a pearl white gulp swimming mullet and fished my favorite spots. Near the first light I pulled a small flattie that got a release to grow. Something kept biting the tails off my swimming mullet bait, and by now the tide was slack. So I did two things, downsized my jig from a 1/2 to 1/4oz and then switched to gulp shrimp. I went down to the second light and immediately caught a nice 15" flounder for the bucket! Dropped my bait down again at the same spot and caught a 13" flounder for the bucket. Then again, dropped my bait down at the same spot and caught a toad fish LOL. I'm thinking wow I just caught 3 fish in 15 minutes! After the toadfish I had to move around again to find the fish. Finially caught another flounder but it was too short to keep. Didn't get another hit on the gulp shrimp so I switched back to the white gulp swimming mullet. First cast after the bait switch and I catch a keeper 12" flounder! All fish were caught between the first and second lights. Finished with a personal best 5 flounder caught during this trip, only kept the three keepers. Great night on the water!

11" flounder on white gulp swimming mullet


15" flounder on new penny gulp shrimp


13" flounder on new penny gulp shrimp


toad fish on new penny gulp shrimp


11" flounder on new penny gulp shrimp


12" flounder on white gulp swimming mullet

Toadfish @ South Causeway - New Smyrna

Zack and I went to both causeways at New Smyrna last night. Stopped by the North Causeway first, but couldn't find any mullet there. Then headed down the road to the South Causeway under the SR44 bridge. Very nice area to fish, and plenty of room so your not fighting for a spot. There's the main dock under the bridge that most people fish and then there's a long stretch along the sea wall with about 3-4 smaller docks. The mullet were running pretty good next to the first seawall dock closest to the main dock, next to the light. We got some small finger mullets that are ideal size for live bait. Another group of people had a bucket of about 100 or so mullet they caught.

It started raining so we headed under the bridge to start fishing. I used the carolina rig on my Wild Cat rod, with a 4/0 circle hook. I put a live finger mullet on my hook through the nostril and casted out towards structure. Awhile later I was just checking my bait and felt a slight pull on my rod. Reeled in and got this ugly looking fish pictured below, which is a Toadfish. This was the only fish caught that night between me and Zack though.