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.