Very Slow Night @ NSB

Went to the south causeway in NSB but couldn't see any bait running, pretty much the whole night was a waste. It was a low tide for a majority of the time there though. The baitfish like the high tide because it gives them more places to hide. I did find some small blue crabs floating along the top and caught about 8 of them. The small crabs are good bait for sheepshead. I also got 2 baby mullet, about 2" long.

It was past midnight, the current had stopped and the water was calm. High tide was approaching but I couldn't stay much longer since I had to get up early the next day. It wasn't until after 1:00AM when I finially saw a shrimp lol. I threw my castnet and came up with 3 shrimp on that cast! Not bad. I saw another shrimp and came up with another 3-4 shrimp. In about 20 minutes I got 21 shrimp, two of which were huge jumbos. At least I didn't go home empty handed, I had a bucket of 21 shrimp, 5 small blue crabs and a baby mullet leftover. The shrimp I'm going to freeze since most of them are small and it's not worth cooking. I'll just use them as bait for whiting, sheepshead, or pompano.

On another note, today I received my order from Amazon. I had ordered a pack of Owner's Mutu Light Circle hooks, size 2. These are also great for whiting, sheepshead, and pompano fishing. To my surprise, they had accidently sent me 10 packs of hooks! I had only ordered 1 pack. Each pack has 46 hooks.
10 x 46 = 460 hooks :)

Butterfly Ray @ New Smyrna Beach

Bought a new 5' castnet at Walmart for about $32.00 and headed to NSB. Last night both causeways were very busy. I arrived in NSB around 10:30PM hoping to get some fishing done. The north causeway was lined up with crab traps all the way down the pier so I didn't even bother, and the south causeway had alot of people in my usual fishing spot. But the good thing about the south causeway is there is plenty of space to spread out. I walked down to the first light on the seawall and thats where I was seeing some shrimp. So thats where I started with my castnet and almost immediately I was catching shrimp. I netted about 8-10 medium to large shrimp, then walked back to the main pier to get some mullet and spots. A few runs of mullet and only a few spots netted in the bait bucket. Finially some people were leaving and I was able to get started fishing in my favorite spot, I'd say around 1:30AM. Then shortly after 3:00AM I heard my baitfeeder go off and I ran over to pick up my rod. I felt the pull and set the hook, boom FISH ON! It took a few minutes to reel in because it dove down under some rocks for a bit, but I waited and eventually it came out of the rocks so I could continue reeling. It was heavy. I was reeling against the strong current on top of it, so it felt like a really HUGE fish. Got it up to the dock but it was still too deep to get a look at it just yet. Carefully reeled it up and got a view of what was on the other end, a big Butterfly Ray was hooked in the fin. By the end of the night I still had about 11 mullet to take home for some frozen bait.

Schooling Threadfin Shad at Mullet Lake Park Dock

I took a short trip to the Mullet Lake Park boat dock. I was bringing my castnet, a loaf of bread, and a couple frozen mullet. At arrival I proceeded to throw small pieces of bread on the water and waited to see if anything was hitting it. Nothing was going after the bread so I just went ahead and tossed the castnet out. When I retrived the net, I had just caught a bunch of threadfin shad. Just about every cast was catching them too, they were really thick. Most were small about 2-3" long, but I did catch two big ones about 6" long.



Threadfin shad, small pelagic plankton feeders, are native to the central and southeastern United States. Like gizzard shad, threadfin sport an elongated dorsal ray. They are a deep bodied, laterally compressed fish. Its mouth is terminal and the upper jaw does not project out, which is typical of gizzards. Their fins generally have a yellowish tint, especially the tail. Coloration is grey to blue along the back and they sport a dark spot on the shoulder. Threadfins form large schools. They generally are shallow water feeders and work the surface at dawn and dusk. A smallish fish, these shad rarely exceed six or seven inches. Like gizzard shad they are sensitive to temperature changes and oxygen levels. Die offs are frequent in late summer and the fall.

When water temperatures reach the upper sixties, typically in May or June, threadfin spawn. They broadcast their eggs over submerged objects in shallow water. The sticky eggs adhere to the structure. Females may lay upwards of 24,000 eggs. Life expectancy seldom exceeds 2 to 3 years.

After catching some threadfin shad, I finially started doing some fishing with the cut mullet. Both lines in the water for about an hour and nothing. Called it a night and went home to freeze the threadfins.

8 LB Channel Catfish @ Mullet Lake Park

A very warm evening last night, with temperatures in the mid to lower 70's overnight. We started fishing around 11pm and really didn't get any good bites throughout the night. I started out with a piece of cut mullet and a cut shiner, but eventually rebaited both lines with just cut mullet. Finially around 2am I had a good bite down on the far right side. Fish on! I reeled in a nice 8 LB Channel Catfish. The crazy part is the hook wasn't even set in the mouth. Once we had it secured with the fish grips, I proceeded to dehook it but as I'm checking out the line, the hook with the bait still intact came right out.

I decided to keep this one, so when I got home I removed the huge steaks of meat off and put them in the fridge for lunch the next day. I cooked the fish in my frydaddy and it turned out fantastic. The trimmed fillets were coated with Great Value brand Italian bread crumbs before being dunked in my frydaddy. On a few pieces, I added creole seasoning which added a spicey kick. Yummy!

Bass & Bluegill at Bear Pond - A Mimic Minnow Review

First I want to write a quick review of the Mimic Minnow Silver Shiner. This small 1/8 oz lure arrived this week and has been deadly on bass at Colonial Grand Apts in Lake Mary. I've been catching about 2-3 bass everytime I go there on the Mimic Minnow. A total of 7 bass on this one lure, and it's still in good shape. The biggest bass was 1 LB 2 OZ.

Bear Pond, Seminole State Forest. I've been there twice this week. The first trip was with my grandparents and my son Cody on Wednesday afternoon. We arrived around 3:30pm. Using live large shiners, we tried catching some largemouth bass. We almost had a couple smallies but they both popped off when we got them up to the water surface. We did catch a bunch of bluegill using trout worms on a size 10 hook. I did bring home 5 handsized gills to eat, which were very good fried with cornmeal, flour, and egg.
On Friday morning I arrived at Bear Pond again with Kyle and Zack around 10:30am. I caught 2 largemouth bass this time after only 3 live shiners. I also caught a ton of bluegill using worms and hotdog, released the small ones and kept 7 good sized gills for eating.

The problem with Bear Pond now is an alligator has become interested when people are around. It actually swims up close to where we're fishing now. My guess is others have been feeding it so now it looks forward to people fishing. I wish others would pay more attention to the sign that says "please don't feed or molest the alligator" but of course you have those people that have no common sense and/or don't care. If I ever witness someone feeding or teasing the gator I'm going to report them to FWC and hope they get busted while they're out there. The more this gator gets used to people, the more dangerous it will be to fish there.

Personal Best - Channel Catfish 14 LB 6 OZ!

Another monster pulled out of the water at Mullet Lake Park river bank. Last night I fought a monster Channel Catfish that put up more fight than anything I've experienced before. At around 11:25PM, the fish hooked itself on my line. Feeling it tug my line I tried to reel in but it was still pulling my drag out. I let it shake and splash around, then tightened the drag to gain ground on it. I got it about 15 feet from the bank, stopped to turn on my headlight so I could see but then my fish veered to the left. I had it in a bad position and needed to turn it back around towards me. It finially cooperated with this idea and thats when Zack jumped down to snap it's jaw with my Team Catfish Floating Fish-Grip. This yellow Fish-Grip has been a true asset for my tackle bag, it snaps on their jaws and won't let go until you do. It weighs only 4oz and even has a hole on the handle for my Berkley Fish Scale. Doesn't get any easier than this for securing a fish and weighing it. This catfish is my personal best, weighing at 14 LB 6 OZ. Though I'm going to go ahead and round up to 15 LB and claim my first Big Catch certificate. =)

Last night the moon was 98% full, the day before a complete full moon. Night temperature was about 68 degrees. The water levels were much better too since it rained a few days ago. The bait was frozen cut mullet. I fished with a 6/0 and 8/0 octopus circle hook, catching the big one on the 6/0 hook.

Mullet / Shrimp @ South Causeway N.S.B.

Last night I got to the South Causeway around 11:30pm. I would've got there earlier if it wasn't for the stupid I-4 construction near Deltona shutting down 2 lanes of traffic, forcing everyone to merge into a single lane. The night temps were warm, probably in the 70's all evening.

During the first hour, the shrimp were running pretty good near the lights. I caught about 10 shrimp for the bait bucket. After that, the shrimp were gone and the mullet were putting me to work. You could see the water boiling as the school of mullet were running circles around the pier. I added about 40 mullet in the bait bucket by the end of the night. Only problem was I got my castnet snagged on the barnacles again, tearing a one foot hole in it. Even with the damaged castnet, I was still able to catch a few more mullet. Now I'm debating on whether to repair the castnet or just buy a new one and keep the ripped net as a spare. Like I said, it still catches fish but may lose a couple in the process. So 40 mullet and about 10 shrimp were brought home and bagged for the freezer.

Bass Fishing in May - Bass Pro Shops Order

Well, I haven't been catfishing much since it is mating season for gators. Plus our favorite catfish hotspot on the river bank at Mullet Lake Park may be a potentially ideal location for gators to nest and lay eggs, since we have to walk through the tall grass and brush just to get to the bankside. So our main focus lately has been bass fishing, mostly in residential ponds and lakes. The Colonial Grand Apartments has been a good bass spot, I've caught a fish everytime there usually. Small ones, about a pound each. The Berkley 7" Power Worms in Red Shad are bringing them in. Kyle has been working the pond near Lake Loch Leven in Mount Dora with the Culprit 7.5" Red Shad worms.

So I'm running out of worms and had a couple BassProShop gift cards to use. I placed an order yesterday and this is what I got for about $20 shipped...

Berkley PowerBait Power Worms 7" - Blue Fleck (10 pack)



Culprit Worm 7.5" - Red Shad (18 pack)



Zoom Super Fluke 5 1/4" - White Ice (10 pack)



Zoom Super Fluke 5 1/4" - Baby Bass (10 pack)



Mimic Minnow 1/8oz - Silver Shiner (2 pack)

Colonial Grand at Town Park in Lake Mary

Today I learned that there was an 8 lb bass caught in an apartment complex in Lake Mary. At Colonial Grand At Town Park, there are two ponds to fish. We fished the south pond first, getting a few bites. I tried my Super Spook Jr for some topwater action and got a bite but nothing. Didn't catch anything so we walked to the north pond. Fished there for about 25-30 minutes and I caught a nice little bass, about 1 LB. I was using a Zoom Fluke in White Ice. Kyle almost had a fish too, but it got away close to the shoreline. Kyle was using the 5" Yamasenko worms in Green Pumpkin/Black Flake, which are very productive in small ponds.

Slow Fishing @ Mullet Lake Park

The weather has been hot and we haven't seen any rain in awhile, which has had an impact on the water levels. The water levels in the St Johns river are way down this week compared to a few weeks ago when we were putting the smackdown on catfish. Last night the moon was only about 10% and the temperatures were in the mid to lower 60's. It was pretty chilly and very foggy over the water surface as the night went on.

We fished the Mullet Lake river bank again and only came out with a small channel catfish that Kyle caught in the picture below. The bite action was very light, in fact the river has almost shutdown the last couple trips out there. Hopefully it will pickup soon.