Cameron Wright Park - Dock Fishing Report

Cameron Wright Park is a basic boat launching ramp off of SR 46 in Sanford, near Lake Jesup. During gator season, it's packed with boat hunters since Lake Jesup has more gators than other any body of water. I've fished the dock there several times last year and never had much luck. But then again, I was using hotdog bait and I never tried cut shad at Cameron Wright until this year. Last Sunday night, I used a couple pieces of shad and easily caught a couple Yellow Bullhead catfish pretty quickly. Zack also caught another one with his rod. All three fish were released unharmed.

So Tuesday night, I went back to Cameron Wright for about an hour and caught a little channel catfish using cut shad and a 6/0 circle hook. It was just a baby though, not more than 6-8oz I think. Downsized my hook to a 1/0 circle to target smaller catfish and caught two yellow bullheads. I noticed the hook sets were better with the smaller hook and cuts of bait. Again all three fish were released back in the water.

Shrimpin' at the North Causeway Pier - New Smyrna

Last night I took a drive to the North Causeway pier in NSB. I used my castnet to catch whatever I could find, preferably mullet fish. The mullet were not around as I'd hoped, however, the shrimp were pretty thick. I collected about 27 live shrimp to take home to eat. As I'm shrimpin', I finially spotted 2 super large mullet swimming together and was able to catch one of them in my net. It was the biggest mullet I've ever seen, probably about 12" long. I also witnessed another fisherman catch a monster redfish. He reeled it in and got it to the pier, but it broke his line when he tried to lift it out of the water. It was a big fish! He used live shrimp to catch it.

At the end of the night, I scoped out the South Causeway pier to see what was going on there. It seems to be a popular location for shrimpers that like to use long 18-20 ft dip nets and underwater lights to attract the shrimp. I also saw a couple manatees swimming near the seawall which was pretty cool. Never been that close to a wild manatee before and I've never seen them at the NSB causeways before.

Here's a photo of my boiled shrimp ready to peel and de-vein before serving cold. Alot of small ones but near the bottom you can see the biggest of them all, Sir Jumbo Shrimp. YUM!

11 oz Channel Catfish - FryDaddy from Walmart

Fished last night with Zack at the Mullet Lake river bank, using cut shad, mullet and bluegill. We stayed for about 3 hours and I only managed to catch a little 11oz channel catfish on cut shad. I wanted to cook it the next day so we kept it alive in the bucket until we reached the store to ice it down. We had bite activity but most were short quick bites. I almost had another fish on cut mullet but halfway during the fight it let go, most likely a gar or bowfin.

I needed a small deep fryer to make it easier to cook my catfish, so I went to Walmart to purchase a Presto FryDaddy for about $20. It only requires 4 cups of oil and you can store the used oil inside the deep fryer so you can use it again. I soaked the fillets in milk for about 30 minutes to help remove some of the fishy and muddy flavor, then coated them with Italian style bread crumbs. The frying process only took about 2 minutes once the fish were in the oil as these were thin fillets. They tasted very good though and I will definitly use the bread crumbs again. It's not as messy as making beer batter too.

Location: Mullet Lake Park, St Johns river bank
Tackle: Gamakatsu 6/0 octopus circle hook on a Carolina rig

Species: Channel Catfish
Weight: 11 oz
Bait: cut shad

14 oz Sunshine Bass @ Mullet Lake Park

I was targeting the Sunshine Bass this afternoon and ended up taking home a single 14oz Sunshine Bass. There were several bites but thats all I caught. I was fishing the river bank at Mullet Lake Park using cut shad on barbless 4/0 circle hooks. I don't like the barbless style since it doesn't hold the bait on very well. Also while walking out to the fishing spot, I saw a snake quickly slither away and a very small gator out in the water. I was a bit on edge you could say, but both critters left shortly after being spotted.

Location: Mullet Lake Park, St Johns river bank
Tackle: barbless 4/0 circle hook on a Carolina rig

Species: Sunshine Bass
Weight: 14 oz
Bait: cut shad

Personal Best 6 LB 11 OZ Bowfin "Mudfish"

Location: Mullet Lake Park, boat dock
Tackle: Gamakatsu 6/0 octopus circle hook on a Carolina rig

Species: Bowfin
Weight: 6 lb 11 oz
Bait: cut bluegill

FWC Freshwater Regulations - Brief Summary

Game and Nongame Freshwater Fish
Game Fish - black bass, crappie, bluegill, redear sunfish, warmouth, redbreast sunfish, spotted sunfish, flier, mud sunfish, longear sunfish, shadow bass, peacock bass, white bass, striped bass and sunshine bass.

Nongame Fish - all freshwater fish, including catfish, are defined as non-game fish, except grass carp and fish defined as freshwater game fish above.

Methods of Taking Bait
Freshwater shrimp and golden shiners of any size, or other freshwater nongame fish, including catfish, less than 8-inches total length may be taken for bait, unless specifically prohibited, by the following methods:

■Cast nets having a stretched mesh size not greater than 1 inch in fresh waters of the state unless specifically prohibited.

■Minnow dip nets not more than 4 feet in diameter.

■Minnow seines having a stretched mesh size not greater than 1 inch, a length not more than 20 feet, and a depth not more than 4 feet.

■Minnow traps not more than 24 inches in length and 12 inches in diameter, with a funnel entrance not more than 1 inch in spread.

■Any game fish taken by these methods must be released immediately.

Use of Fish for Bait
■Black bass, peacock bass or any part thereof may not be used as bait.

■Live non-native fishes (including goldfish and carp) may not be used as bait, except for variable platys and fathead minnows.

■Whole pickerel or panfish (e.g., bluegill, redear sunfish, redbreast sunfish, spotted sunfish, flier, warmouth) or parts thereof may be used as bait for sportfishing by the angler who caught them. Whole pickerel or bream or parts thereof may not be used as bait for trotlines or bush hooks or any method other than by rod and reel or pole and line.

■Panfish less than 4 inches in total length raised by a licensed aquaculture facility may be purchased and used for bait.

General Daily Bag and Length Limits

5 Black bass (largemouth, Suwannee, spotted, and shoal bass, individually or in total), only one of which may be 22 inches or longer in total length.

■In south Florida: only one bass may be 14 inches in total length or longer.
■South and east of the Suwannee River: black bass less than 14 inches in total length must be released immediately.
■In the Suwannee River, areas north and west of the Suwannee River, and in any tributary river, creek or stream of the Suwannee River: black bass less than 12 inches in total length must be released immediately.

50 Panfish including bluegill, redear sunfish (shellcracker), flier, longear sunfish, mud sunfish, shadow bass, spotted sunfish (stumpknockers), warmouth and redbreast sunfish, individually or in total.

25 Black Crappie (speckled perch).

20 Striped bass, white bass, and sunshine bass (individually or in total), of which only 6 may be 24 inches or longer in total length.

■In the Suwannee River, areas north and west of the Suwannee River, and in any tributary, creek or stream of the Suwannee River: the bag limit for striped bass is 3, each of which must be at least 18 inches in total length (20 fish combined bag limit).

2 Butterfly peacock bass, only one of which may be 17 inches or longer in total length.

It is illegal to possess grass carp or alligator gar without a permit.
Possession limit is two days' bag limit.

A Double Catch @ Mullet Lake Park

Last night Zack and I both caught and landed a fish. Zack reeled his first, a 7 LB 6 OZ Channel Catfish. Just as soon as he landed his, my rod started tipping and all of a sudden I had a fish on too. Mine was a Florida Gar, probably around 4 LB. We were able to weigh Zacks catfish and photograph the fish together on the bank. These were caught using cut shad.

Tara's 15 lb 6 oz Channel Catfish @ Mullet Lake

Went to the St Johns river bank last night with Kyle, Tara, and Zack. The menu last night was cut mullet and cut shad. This was the first time Tara hiked with us to the river bank at Mullet Lake Park. She had no problem walking through the thick grass and weeds to get to our spot. Zack on the other hand, his first time was more like this "Guys.... ok....lets turn around and go back." :)

So we got to our spot and setup the rods. Between the 4 of us, we had a total of 5 rods out in the water. I let Tara use the spare yellow Eagle Claw rod which was already setup for catfishing anyway. At around 12:30 AM, Tara landed a hell of a catfish using cut shad for bait. It was a 15 LB 6 OZ Channel Catfish! Yuuaaaaa

Here's photos of her glorious catch...

4lb 12oz Channel Catfish & Florida Gar

Kyle, Zack, and myself have found a fishing spot thats holding some large channel cats. We fished the Mullet Lake Park river bank last night for the 3rd time. Last week Zack caught a monster 17 lb channel and a small gar from the same spot.

Last night using cut mullet on a 6/0 circle hook, I first landed a good sized Florida Gar that was about 3 LB. It wasn't happy at all so we didn't get a chance to put it on the scale. Then around 2:00 AM I landed my first channel catfish weighing 4 LB 12 OZ. These were the only two fish of the night and both were caught on my Wild Cat rod.

Species: Channel Catfish
Tackle: Gamakatsu 6/0 octopus circle hook
Weight: 4 lb 12 oz
Bait: cut mullet

6 LB Bowfin @ Mullet Lake Park

Last nights fishing was about to end without a decent fish landed. I had caught one bluegill but that was it. There were good bites coming from both rods and I had a couple fish on for awhile, but no luck landing them. Actually just minutes after my first cast I had a big fish on the Shimano/Pflueger rod & reel, but as I'm retrieving I noticed I'm snagged on the dock. Just great! I'm keeping pressure on the fish while I try to figure out where I'm snagged and turned out to be a protruding nail towards the end of the dock. I unsnagged my line and I'm reeling in the fish now, and just as it's within a few feet of the dock, it was free. I caught a glimpse of it and it definitly was pretty big, most likely another bowfin.

At the end of the night, I was taking some stuff back to the car and on the way back I saw my Shimano Scimitar make an "upside down J" shape. Quickly ran to the dock as my drag is singing. Reeled in a nice bowfin this time. It didn't seem any longer than the ones I caught before, but this one had a big belly. It weighed at 6 LB which makes it my personal best bowfin so far.

Species: Bowfin
Weight: 6 lb
Bait: cut shad