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

CS Lee Park - 5lb 8oz Catfish - Half Hitch Tackle Warranty Repair

Last night was in the 60's, perfect weather to be outdoors. The full moon has already passed this month, but it was still about 80% full. When I arrived at CS Lee Park around 10:15pm, it was very misty outside, almost borderline light rain. It was enough to wet my skin and cloths. I didn't setup right away, instead I waited in my car and checked my mobile Weather Channel app. Fortunately it looked like a small precipitation area was moving out soon and it would be all clear shortly. When the skies cleared up and the misty rain stopped, I finially setup two lines in the usual hot spots. It really didn't take long when the line straight out was being played with. The hit and run bites kept me anxiously watching the rod tip but everytime I picked up the rod, the fish was gone. It was about the 4th or 5th attempt when I felt the fish and set the hook good. The fight was nice too, as soon as the fish knew it was hooked it immediately splashed topwater. It was a catfish and weighed 5 LB 8 OZ, one of the few 5 LB+ cats I've caught from this spot. The last 5 LB+ I've caught here was about 3 months ago.

The night continued with occassional bites and more playing around. I had a couple short moments where I thought I had one hooked but quickly the fish got off. Also a few times the bait was stripped off my hook. Probably victim of a gar yanking the bait off.

Location: CS Lee Park, Geneva FL
Tackle: 3/0 Owners Light Mutu hook on carolina rig - 3 oz no-roll sinker

Species: Channel Catfish
Weight: 5 LB 8 OZ
Bait: cut mullet

So 2 months ago I used Kel's Rod & Reel service to clean some sand out of a Okuma reel that fell on the beach. The service didn't cost me anything since I had a free reel cleaning certificate. Well, when I finially got the reel back 2-3 weeks later, the baitfeeding clicker was not clicking anymore. I didn't want to take it back there again, so I was looking for another warranty service center for Okuma reels. My friend used one in Panama City, FL called Half Hitch Tackle. They are a warranty repair center for Okuma and they fixed his reel to work flawlessly (which had the same clicker problem). So today, I'm shipping my non-clicking reel to Panama City. I figured it's a good time since I'll be away from town for awhile in the coming days. Should have my reel back when I return home, or at least the repair almost done by then.

CS Lee Park - 2lb 8oz Channel Catfish

Cold night in central Florida, temps were in the 50's and the wind made it feel colder.

Location: CS Lee Park, Geneva FL

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

CS Lee Park - Grand Slam Catfish

Arrived about 10PM and setup in my usual spot. I baited two rods with cut mullet and another with nightcrawlers. The worms didn't produce anything tonight, however, cut mullet was putting fish on the hook all night. Normally I cast straight out across the river where I usually catch them, but oddly I didn't get any bites there. All of the action came from the far left side, kinda close to the shore actually. Also all of the fish caught tonight had slammed the bait as if they were starving. They weren't playing around that's for sure.

First hit was good, and it felt good too. Reeling in against the current it felt alot bigger than what it really was. It still weighed just under 4 LB though. I casted out again to the same spot with another piece of mullet. It wasn't 5-10 minutes when another catfish slammed it. This one was smaller about 2 LB. Later in the night I had another solid bite, started reeling in and felt the power of a bigger fish. Unfortunately after about 10 seconds the hook popped out and it was gone. Damn! I know it was a big catfish too because my leader line had slime all over it. About 1:30am it started sprinkling and I was out of bait anyways, besides the nightcrawlers, so I packed up to get some ice.

Location: CS Lee Park, Geneva FL
Tackle: 1/0 Owners Light Mutu hook on carolina rig - 3 oz no-roll sinker

Species: Channel Catfish
Weight: 3 LB 14 OZ
Bait: cut mullet

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

The smaller 1 LB blue catfish (bottom) was caught by a commercial fisherman while he was killing time with me. I learned alot from this guy from trotlines to some of his fishing stories, plus he gave me one of his bigger hooks and some bait when I ran out. So in return I gave him one of my rod holders that he was pretty interested in.

NSB Causeways Report - (3) Gafftopsail Catfish

I checked out the South Causeway pier first, but the good spots were already preoccupied. Instead of fishing I spent some time throwing the castnet and mingling. Once I had enough finger mullet, I headed to the North Causeway to scout a fishing spot. Good news, the pier lights are back on at the north bridge! Woo hoo! The finger mullet were more plentiful and I actually had a great fishing spot available. So I setup my 10' surf rod and casted out a live finger mullet on a 1/0 hook. I casted out as far as I could, set the drag, and waited. It wasn't too long when I saw something hit the line and reeled in a big Gafftopsail Catfish, I call them "sail cats" for short. Casted out again and caught another sail cat. One more time.... casted out....sail cat. Gee, I wonder what will happen next? All together I caught 3 sail cats on live mullet, two of them were over 4 LB and put up a nice fight. The biggest one was a personal best 4 LB 8 OZ! Packed up and ended up taking home about 20 mullet for the freezer.

Location: North Causeway, NSB
Tackle: 1/0 Owners Light Mutu hook on fish finder rig - 4 oz pyramid sinker

Species: Gafftopsail Catfish
Weight: 4 LB 8 OZ
Bait: live finger mullet

NSB South Causeway - Mantis Shrimp Introduction

Well the pier lights are still out on the North Causeway in NSB. It's been about two weeks now so I wish someone would take care of it, but thats Volusia County. They probably can't afford the light bulbs or something.

So here I was at the South Causeway. Surprisingly only a few cars in the parking lot, so it was actually fishable this time. First things first, had to find some bait. Only problem was they were too big. All I could see were schools of big "smoker" mullet. They still work for catfish since you can just fillet the meat off of them, but I like the smaller finger mullet so I can use the gut section on my hook. With finger mullet in scarce quantities, I decided to keep my castnet ready in my hands so I didn't even get a line wet last night. Besides my main mission was to net some mullet for catfishing.

When I walked up to the pier I noticed a couple with their kids, they weren't fishing either. Instead they were looking for mantis shrimp. Whats a Mantis Shrimp? Is it a mantis or a shrimp? Well in fact, it's neither. It gets it's name by the physical resemblance to both the praying mantis and the shrimp. The nice couple explained why they had them, apparently it's great redfish bait. In fact, the guy said it was like redfish candy. He's caught big 30-40" reds on them apparently. One thing they stressed over and over was to never handle them carelessly or with bare hands. They can inflict severe cuts and gashes if handled improperly.

I proceeded to look for finger mullet then came across some Mantis Shrimp floating down current. Maybe a minute later I saw another one. Then awhile later I found another one. After the third one, I didn't see anymore. The biggest one was about 9" long! Once you get a close look at these marine creatures it's just fascinating. Makes you wonder how tough a Redfish's stomach is to withstand such brutal defense weapons. Mantis shrimp sport powerful claws that they use to attack and kill prey by spearing, stunning or dismemberment. And although it happens rarely, some larger species of mantis shrimp are capable of breaking through aquarium glass. Whoa.

CS Lee Park - 3 LB 4 OZ Channel Catfish

Back to CS Lee Park last night for some more night fishing fun. Temps were in the low 60's with a slight north breeze. The first hour or so I didn't catch anything, but I was getting some bites. It wasn't until 12:20am when I caught the only fish of the night, a 3 lb catfish. Before landing this catfish, it got stuck in some weeds literally 2 feet from the shore. I'm reeling in this fish then all of a sudden it just stops. Tried to pull it through the weeds but I also didn't want to break the leader line. So I ended up feeding it some slack line hoping it would swim out of the weeds. Tried this a couple times and it finially came loose. One in the cooler!

Things really slowed down after 1:00am, so that was it for the night. My next fishing trip will be somewhere in New Smyrna probably. I used the last bag of frozen mullet last night so I need to restock more catfish bait anyways.

Location: CS Lee Park, Geneva FL
Tackle: 6/0 Owners Light Mutu hook on carolina rig - 3 oz no-roll sinker

Species: Channel Catfish
Weight: 3 LB 4 OZ
Bait: cut mullet

CS Lee Park - 2 Catfish and The One That Got Away

Wednesday (last night) was the first day of the approaching cold front. The temperatures started to drop by late afternoon when gusty winds came through central Florida. By evening it was in the low 60's, with breezy winds and a few strong gusts. The moon tonight was half full, and the fishing forecast said GO FISHING. You don't have to pull my arm though, I'll go fishing regardless! LOL

Anyway, I arrived at CS Lee Park around 10-10:30pm. The river is still flooded, no surprise there. But the best part about the water levels being high is that my fishing spot is closer to the parking lot. So while I was fishing, I was just leaning up against my car watching my rods for a bite. Plus I almost got attacked by fire ants while standing in the grass. When I say almost attacked, I mean there were several crawling up my right pants leg. I must have stepped on an ant hill that I didn't see. Luckily I noticed before they got very far and brushed them all off.

Ok so the bite last night was pretty good, especially for the hour between 11pm and midnight. I think that's the timeframe where I caught the two catfish you see below. Both catfish started with small bites for several minutes before self setting the hook in their mouth. Maybe it's because my hook size was a little too big, or they were just tasting the bait before inhaling it.

Then it was after 1am, not sure exactly what time but I hooked into something that was doing the same behavior. It started with small bites, it would shake my line a little bit and then stop. This kept going on for awhile until it was finially hooked. The fight was pretty nice, it was definitly alot bigger than the two I already caught. During the fight it kept trying to shake me off and even made a couple nice splashes on topwater. Usually I can tell if it's a gar or catfish by the way it fights. A Florida gar usually makes quick dashes once hooked but quickly gives up. A good fighting catfish, however, will keep you on your toes the whole way in. Another one is the Longnose Gar, which is much more powerful and bigger than the Florida Gar. It doesn't give up like it's smaller cousin either. Common to see splashes on topwater and really fast long runs during the fight for longnose gars. I've had some big catfish splash the topwater during fights too. So basically, this big fish I hooked didn't make it to the shore but I was very close! I had it within maybe 5-6 feet and all of a sudden the hook pops out. All I had left was a bare hook! My best guess is it probably was a Longnose Gar or Channel Catfish around 10 lb. Dang that would've been nice to catch! :)

Location: CS Lee Park, Geneva FL
Tackle: 6/0 Owners Light Mutu hook on carolina rig - 3 oz no-roll sinker

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

Species: Channel Catfish
Weight: 1 LB 6 OZ
Bait: cut mullet

CNS #3 - Playalinda Fishing Report - Rain & Cold Front This Week

Yesterday me and Cody arrived at CNS lot 3 around 4:30pm. The waves were about 1-2 feet and the current was light. The only problem was the massive amounts of seaweed washing in and getting tangled on the fishing lines. I fished for about 2 hours using fresh dead shrimp and didn't catch anything. I had one hookup and as soon as I started reeling in the fish jumped out of the water and spit the hook, typical ladyfish behavior.

Reports coming out of Playalinda beach have been better, some guys catching nice whiting and undersized pompano, along with schools of spanish macks and bluefish when the whiting bites turns off. Also reports of sand fleas coming back to the beaches, this could be the reason why the fishing has been better in that area compared to northern CNS. Playalinda is on the south side of CNS.

The forecast this week calls for high winds and heavy rain on Tuesday from a tropical disturbance. This is not good for the St Johns River which is already near flooded stage. In my opinion, it's already flooded but it's not official yet. According to Channel 13 news, the river is at 8.2 feet now and it's considered flooded at 8.5 feet. Also immediately following the rain on Tuesday, a cold front will pass through Wednesday dropping temperatures about 20 degrees at night. Forecast says it will be in the low 50's Wednesday and Thursday nights.



I really want to fish before the cold front, hopefully tonight (monday night). Fish activity usually increases before the cold front approaches, then slows down alot afterwards. I'll probably try somewhere along the river tonight, even though it's probably not ideal conditions with the high water and strong current. But as I say, the best time to fish is anytime you can!

NSB and Dunlawton Report - Lady Fish

The no name tropical storm last weekend is still having an effect on fishing. The intracoastal waterway seems to be shutdown for the most part with all the freshwater draining into the water system. Flooding is still a major problem on the St Johns River too. It will be awhile before things settle down, but that won't stop me from fishing in the meantime.

Last night I made another trip to NSB for some night fishing. Stopped by the North Causeway in NSB first, but the lights were still out on the pier. I jigged for awhile with gulp shrimp but didn't get any bites.

Next I visited the South Causeway and the report from there was more trash fish. Both the causeways had people in just about every corner, so I took the 15 minute drive to Port Orange to fish the Dunlawton pier. When I arrived at Dunlawton, several people were leaving and the reports again, nothing but catfish.

I stayed for awhile anyways, but didn't catch anything on live mullet. In fact I didn't get any good hits on mullet. Nobody was. The only thing that was working was fresh dead shrimp. Using the shrimp on a pompano rig I caught 4 Lady Fish. I was hooking into them one after another. I finially had enough and headed home when I concluded it wasn't going to be a good night. I'm hoping things get back to normal soon. Been wanting to try my luck around the jetties at the Ponce Inlet. There's a state park on both the north side and south side, but there's also a $5 fee.