Father and Son Fishing - Catfish and Shad

On a beautiful Saturday, I wanted to take my son out for some father and son fishing. Figured Mullet Lake would be a good spot to catch a nice variety. Cody is also registered in the shad and crappie derby as a junior, but shad are just so hard to find these days. So why not try for some crappie on live minnows I said. I made Cody a homemade live minnow rig with two hooks. It has a bank sinker on the bottom, above that is a 3way swivel, another 3way swivel above that, and then a regular barrel swivel to attach to the mainline. The 3way swivels allow the minnows to swim freely without tangling the rig line. On the way to Mullet Lake we stopped by Johnson's Live Bait in Sanford. The live minnows are decently priced, 2 dozen minnows for about $3.75. Well in fact he gave us alot more than 2 dozen, and all of them stayed alive the whole time. We even brought the leftovers home and still looks like at least 20 minnows swimming in there.

So today I was getting several bites on my catfish rod but nothing set on the hook. I was using a 3/0 circle hook, so maybe I needed to downside the hook and bait size. Cody on the other hand did very well with the minnow rig. He caught 3 small channel catfish about 10" long each. He had alot of fun. I also jigged for shad today and only caught 1 small 11" male on a chartreuse grub w/ pink jighead (1/16 oz). It was actually quite fun to catch as it made a couple leaps out of the water. I saw some shad busting to the leftside of us but someone else was already fishing there. I probably could've hooked up with a few more if we moved down a little bit, but that spot was already taken. So Cody wins todays fishing tally, 3 to 1. I did catch my 6th shad of the season though. Here's some pics!

13 LB 14 OZ Catfish and 15.25" Shad @ Mullet Lake Park

Today I decided to bring my catfish rod since yesterday was so slow, at least it would give me something to do incase the shad weren't biting. For bait I used cut shad on a 3/0 Owners Light Mutu hook. Right off the bat I had a small catfish maybe 12-14" long, and it was released without a picture. Then I caught a beast from the river. It felt big and it wasn't coming in easy. As I reeled in I noticed it suddenly came to a dead stop. The fish wasn't moving and the line felt like it was stuck. I think the fish found some underwater cover briefly, like a large log maybe. I waited a few seconds for it to come out and it did, so I reeled it in the rest of the way. It was close enough now to get a good look at it and saw it was a huge catfish. How exciting! Landed and unhooked it so I could put it on the scale. This big catfish weighed almost 14 LB! (13lb 14oz to be exact). This is my second biggest catfish of all time woo hoo! After taking a few pictures I let it go.

So now for the shad update. Today I only used 1/16th oz jigheads, hoping the smaller lures would increase strikes. I also respooled my light spinning reel with 8lb Spiderwire Stealth braided line and this has increased my casting distance alot. I started with chartreuse grubtails and didn't have any hits. I then switched over to smoke silver flake and still no luck. It wasn't until later in the day when I switched over to white w/ pink jighead and finially got my first shad. This one actually made an acrobatic leap out of the water right in front of me, so awesome! Thankfully the hook was still on and pulled it up onto the bank. Measured it at 15.25" long to the fork, which makes this my longest shad of the season. This is also my 5th shad of the derby run. I tossed the white grub out some more and got another brief strike. It felt like the shad bit the tail without the hook. Unfortunately by now it was time for me to go, figures right when the shad start biting. Well the fishing was good today, even though it was slow at times I still came out with good fish.

Location: Mullet Lake Park river bank, Geneva FL
Tackle: 3/0 Owners Light Mutu hook on carolina rig - 3 oz no-roll sinker

Species: Channel Catfish
Weight: 13 LB 14 OZ
Bait: frozen shad

12" Crappie at Mullet Lake Park

Another late morning at the bank today, usual time between 10am and 1pm. Very very slow fishing today though. Unfortunately I wasn't able to catch any shad today, in fact, I didn't even have any bites besides a 12" crappie caught with a pink grub tail on a white 1/8th oz jighead. The crappie was caught at the far leftside where the boats enter the river.

2 Shad @ Mullet Lake - 11.25" & 14.5"

Headed out to Mullet Lake park today for more shad fishing. Arrived at 9:45am and stayed until about 1:30pm. My first shad today came close to 10:30am and it was another small male at 11.25" to the fork. My second shad came right at 1:30pm when I was about to leave, and it was a female that measured 14.5" to the fork. This is the longest shad I've caught so far this year. Both were caught on a pink grubtail with a white 1/8th oz jighead. Chartreuse just wasn't working today for some reason.

Also David and his wife showed up this morning after I caught my first shad. I watched him hook up with several fish but kept losing them right after the bite. The shad seemed to be just scaling his hook and not really biting down. He did catch a nice 14" shad and a couple small crappies, all on pink too. He also showed me a more effective double jig rig that's super easy to make. In fact, when I switched over to the new rig thats when I caught the bigger shad at the end of the day.

So after today, this brings my 2012 derby catch total at 4 shad. Right now the longest shad in my division is about 16" to the fork. However, we should see some bigger ones as the derby progresses.

2nd American Shad - Another Small Male

Yesterday morning my friend reported a massive shad explosion at Mullet Lake, he said he caught 9 shad up to 15" long and lost several more. All were males on pink grubtails. I'm so jealous!

So this morning I made an attempt at Mullet Lake park. I arrived around 10am and David was already out there. He reported that he caught 3 shad and some crappie when he first arrived around 8am, but the bite slowed by the time I arrived. We fished all up and down the bank, no shad and no crappie. To prevent the skunk, I caught 1 little 11" male shad around 10:30am on a chartreuse grubtail. That was it for us. David left after 11am and I stayed until about 12:30pm.

So the male shad are definitly in the area, and the females should follow. I think sometime next week we'll start seeing the females. If not, it may just be a slow year. I'll try again sometime next week and post an update!

2012 Crappie Rally Results

Today Cody and I attended the free Crappie Rally at the Boat Tree Marina in Sanford. This was the first of 2 raffle seminars hosted by the annual Shad & Crappie Derby. It was a chilly day in the low 50's so that's probably why few showed up. Though it wasn't too bad since the whole event was outdoors in the sun. The raffles prizes this year were better than last year. They also had free hotdogs, soda and chips for everyone. Sponsors like Fish on Fire restaurant were there giving out free peel and eat shrimp too. The seminars were short and sweet, teaching the different techniques for crappie fishing. One guy talked about fly fishing for crappie first, then Capt Tom Van Horn talked about the basic crappie/shad fishing rigs for a light spinning reel, and finially Capt Charlie McCullough talked to us about his favorite trolling techniques.

Each participant gets a free raffle ticket for showing up. So with Cody and I we had 2 tickets off the bat. I threw down an extra $10 for 10 more raffle tickets giving us 12 all together. During the raffle we won 3 times, one of which was a Shimano waterproof tackle bag. We ended up trading this with another lady who wanted it, she gave us the Gander Mountain tackle bag she won. The Gander Mtn bag also included 3 large plastic storage cases (I love those things for storing and organizing lures). When I got home and searched the internet, it turns out the Gander Mountain bag we traded for is worth $60!

All together we came home with the following items and we only spent $10 :)

Gander Mountain Magnum Tackle Bag, Green (worth $60)
Berkley 6" Hemostat Pliers (worth about $5)
Flyrodding Florida Salt book (worth $30)
White Diawa Hat (worth $15)
2-Pack Crappie Thunder Roadrunner Chartreuse Sparkle 1/8oz (worth $4)
36-piece Roadrunner Jighead/Body Kit (worth $8)
2 packs of Johnson Beetle Spin (worth $3)

New Smyrna - North/South Causeways Update

Last night was my first trip to New Smyrna since about November. My buddy Kyle rode with me, and unfortunately there wasn't anything to really talk about. To be honest, it was a complete waste of gas to get out there. We should've went catfishing instead. Doh!


First of all, the South Causeway area is under construction. With the pier lights disconnected it's pitch dark at night. The whole entire seawall dock is fenced off as well and says no trespassing. The only good thing to note is the actual pier under the bridge is still open to fish during daylight I believe. But since the lights are out, it's a definite no go at night. Hard to tell how long construction will last too. Not a good start to our trip...

So it was off to the North Causeway pier, and upon entering the parking lot things started looking up. The parking lot was empty and the pier lights were on, we had the whole place to ourselves. So we unloaded our gear and walked out, saw a bunch of needlefish in the water but absolutely NO MULLET. The fall bait run is over, I understand this, but usually you can find a few schools at night near the pier lights. My guess is the upcoming cold front has pushed them into deeper water so you just couldn't see them. With that said, we didn't fish much. The only thing I caught with my castnet was a small threadfin herring. Located a few big mullet, but they were just too deep and fast to castnet. I tried multiple times and came up with nothing. So that was our night. I'm going to wait until at least mid-February and try again when it warms up a little. For now, I'll just focus on the Shad & Crappie Derby and doing a little catfishing here and there. In fact this weekend I have a Crappie Rally to attend, these are the same derby events I attended last year with the raffle prizes. I'll let you know how it goes!

1st Shad of 2012 - 3rd Annual Shad & Crappie Derby

American and Hickory shad are an anadromous species, meaning it spends most of its life in the sea and returns to fresh water to spawn. Shad enter the St. Johns River in late December and January to spawn, and the spawning will last until early April sometimes.
With that said, the 3rd Annual Shad & Crappie Derby is open. This year the derby has been extended an extra month too. It opened on December 17, 2011 and lasts through March 17, 2012. My friend David and I have already got in on the shad action. He's the only guy I know who targets shad as much as I do, and he is more experienced so I've learned alot from him. Shad aren't good to eat, we just love catching them. Plus the added chance of winning some prizes in the derby is cool too.

This morning was my first visit to Mullet Lake Park river bank since May 2011. I brought 3 poles with me (two catfishing rods and a jigging rod for shad). The hike was a little wet and the grass is still really tall. The old pathway to the bank has grown in so it was more difficult to find my way out there. When I finially made it out I immediately started jigging. About 20 minutes later I caught a decent 11" Crappie. And not long after that my friend David showed up. It was cool to hangout with him again. The shad were hard to find but probably because it's still early in the season. It will be another couple weeks before they are thick in our area. David caught the first shad of the day that was about 11". Then about noon I caught my first shad of the year that was approx 11.75". David says those are the males, but the females get bigger. Those are the ones we're after. The females usually average 16-18" long.

During the day I had good bites on my catfishing rod too. I used old shrimp and chunks of shad, with a piece of cut mullet mixed in there. The shrimp was getting good bites but it was hard to stay on the hook. So I switched over to cut shad and caught a big 6 LB 3 OZ Channel Catfish. I didn't bring very much shad with me so switched over to a piece of cut mullet. After some soaking I got another Channel Catfish that was about 1 LB that was let go to grow some more.

All together I caught 2 catfish, a crappie and a shad. Good day on the water!

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!

CS Lee Park - 2lb 8oz Channel Catfish

I'm back from our 7-day family cruise on the Royal Caribbean! Everyone is still wishing we were on the boat though. It was the best Thanksgiving ever, in fact we were actually in St Maarten on Thanksgiving day. We went to Coco Cay (Royal Caribbeans private island in the Bahamas), St Thomas, St Maarten, then two full days at sea on the way home. We cruised on the Freedom of the Seas, a very large modern and kid friendly cruise ship. The weather was nice with only a few rough days at sea during the beginning of our trip. Our rooms were cozy with a very large balcony since we had four staterooms connected. Royal Caribbean also offers the Dreamworks Experience so the kids got to see characters like King Julien, Alex the Lion, Gloria, Kung Fu Panda and Shrek! The staff on board the ship was extremely friendly and professional, completely meeting our needs and going beyond expectations. It was definitly a fun time and like I said, we're all still wishing we are on the boat. :)

I was back near water Friday night fishing the St Johns river. Went to the usual spot at CS Lee Park and only stayed for about 2 hours. It was in the low 60's that night which isn't too bad, it was just the steady wind chill that made it feel colder. I casted one line straight out and one line to the left area where I had recent success. No hits on the leftside line all night. It took awhile, maybe 45 minutes to hour before I saw the first bite on the line straight out. This one kept biting and spitting for several minutes, at least it gave me something to do. Finially snagged it on the lip and reeled it in on my 10 ft rod. To be honest the fish felt heavier in the water than it did on the scale. The fight pressure was strong yet it weighed only 2 LB 8 oz and was released back in the water to grow.

Location: CS Lee Park, Geneva FL
Tackle: 5/0 Owners Light Mutu hook on carolina rig - 3 oz pyramid sinker

Species: Channel Catfish
Weight: 2 LB 8 OZ
Bait: cut mullet