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Jacksonville / St Johns River / Fernandina / ST. Augustine May/June Fishing Report
Florida Light Tackle Charters
Fishing Report from Capt. Tony Bozzella: Let's talk about the fly rod. This is a perfect time to get hook ups on fly. I know not everybody can throw 60'- 80' accurately at a cruising "spooky" redfish. Sometimes it can be tuff with no reward. But, if fly is your passion, then ladyfish are your answer. They are truly the "poor man's tarpon." I think they are a great fish for the fly rod. Ladyfish are aggressive fish that usually eat a fly or plug, there are lots of them and they jump and fight hard, who couldn't like a fish like that! It is also great practice to help hone your skills for those harder to catch fish.
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Jacksonville / St Johns River / Fernandina / ST. Augustine Jan/Feb Fishing Report Capt. Tony Bozzella: Fishing Report North Florida January/February:
This is a great time of year to take full advantage of high pressures,
clear water, bright
sky's and sight fishing! In North Florida, this is one of the "true
times" you can actually see fish in shallow water. I'm not talking about
backing fish and pushes which can happen anytime of the year. This time
of year the micro-organism's in the water die, boat traffic is much less
and precipitation is at it's lowest, so there is no runoff, keeping the
water's "gin clear." For the savvy angler that want's to test his true
angling abilities, this is your time of year. Of coarse, the shallower
the water the spookier the fish, so everything is stealth. In saying all
that, this is not a numbers game, this is more "quality" fishing, that
is what I call it. Going on the flats and catching fish in this
manor takes patience, skill, and even a little luck at times! But.....
very rewarding and a big sense of accomplishment. I like to throw a
black or natural colored TBS Bucktail Jig or Exude RT Slug
Golden Bream. You have to fish the baits slow! If you see a fish
get the bait in front of him about three feet, and when the fish reaches
it, just slightly move it. If things are right you should get the hook
up. Very exciting!!
Another good thing about this time of year, the reds school up and
stay tight in the cooler water, so if you get on some fish you can have
fun. It is not uncommon to get along side an oyster bar and catch 20
redfish. Most times these fish are smaller and what they lack in size
can be made up in fun for a lot of action. Good time to break the fly
rod out! And, it is not uncommon to pick up a bonus sheepshead or
flounder. Trout at this time of year are the same way. Bunched up! If
you find them, you can have high number catches, but most are small and
you have to run and gun to different areas weeding through the dink's.
Don't forget about bluefish, they are strong fish and fun to catch, and
redly take a bait or lure. They are mixed in with the trout and you can
find them close to inlets, and channels with good moving water.
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Jacksonville / St Johns River / Fernandina / ST. Augustine Decembers Fishing Report By Capt. Chris Holleman
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Jacksonville / St Johns River / Fernandina / ST. Augustine OCTOBER’S Fishing Report
If you’re looking to
catch a giant flounder there’s no better time than the present to start
fishing. The October giants can be found in the lower section of the St.
Johns River from Mill Cove out to the Mayport Jetties. Salty tributaries
close to the St. Johns will yield an abundance of double digit flounder this
month. This month is probably your last chance to get a tarpon inshore this year. October is also traditionally one of the best months to catch a poon. The fall mullet run should be in full gear and tarpon are likely going to be recklessly gorging themselves before migrating back south.
11 year old Thomas Harrison displays a redfish he caught fishing with Capt. Chris Holleman in the backwaters of the ICW in Jacksonville, Florida.
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Red Hot In Jacksonville / St Augustine
August 2005 The hot species this month wasn't really what I expected but my customers and I have been pleased with our catch. It's been bull redfish month, we've caught more big reds than I've caught in years. High tide, low tide, it just doesn't seem to matter, most of the fish have been just over the slot size limit but with a 1 per person limit we've still been able to get enough legal fish for the table for those who've been craving redfish. Jack Crevalle have been crashing the surface all around us, so when the redfish bite would slow down we didn't have too far to look to put another bend in the rod. Large schools of ladyfish have also been available, they've been a blast on the fly. My specialty fish the "spotted sea trout" have also been biting well. We continue to catch at least one trophy trout a week, top water lures are still the seat routs favorite. Other species we've been finding in our mix include flounder, sheepshead and yellowmouth trout. The tarpon will be moving inshore now and I can't wait to greet them. Capt. Chris Holleman FloridaLightTackleCharters.com Toll Free: 866-4-TARPON (482-7766)
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JACKSONVILLE’S FALL FORECAST "2004" By Capt. Chris Holleman Let’s go wade the grass flats, it’s the coolest way to target redfish here in northeast Florida, you beach the boat about an before high tide as the water begins to flood the grass you step out onto the spartina marsh islands, then the hunting begins. It’s just a matter of time before tails start popping up and the window of opportunity is short, you have about 2 hours to catch as many redfish as you can, it’s all about being stealthy in the water and presenting weedless lures in a quiet fashion. Fighting fish on light tackle in inches of water in thick spartina grass is about as good as it gets. Don’t forget to keep an eye out for the sheepshead as well. They’re more difficult to catch, usually it takes a crab bait or shrimp to get their attention but Jacksonville is home to some of the largest sheepshead in the state and these striped giants will be grinding their teeth all over the Intracoastal Waterway flats between Fernandina and St. Augustine. Jacksonville is also the king of king size Flounder. The world record Doormat flounder was taken from our Nassau sound bridge. Each season fish in the 13 lb class are landed from our inshore waters and the fall is the best season for catching giant flatties. Some anglers around Jacksonville jig for flounder with jig heads and soft plastics, others use jigs tipped with shrimp or mud minnows and the most popular rig for catching big brown flat fish is to employ a finger mullet or menhaden on a fish finder rig with a short leader. We cast fish-finder rigs around docks, rocks and various structures on the St. Johns River, we drag the mullet slowly on the bottom until we feel a slight tick which is usually a sign that the flounder is home, it’s best to let the flounder mouth the mullet for a few seconds before driving home the hook. Big tides will also make for outstanding trout action this month here in northeast Florida. The topwater bite is best in the fall months and their will be plenty of gator trout taken from our inland waters. Clapboard Creek, Browns Creek and Chicopit Bay are 3 areas that should produce well for topwater slingers this month. The Excalibur Zara Spook is the local favorite for catching giant trout in Jacksonville, anglers like to walk the dog over the top of flooded oyster mounds in places where a lot of baitfish linger. The spook usually pulls the larger trout out from the pack, then you can go back and work the schools with soft plastic grubs and catch the smaller schooling trout. Scented soft plastics are best the Yum G-shad tail threaded on a ¼ or 1/8 oz. jighead is a good choice
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FISHING IN FEBRUARYby Capt. Chris Holleman
This months forecast highlights some of the better inland water
destinations in Jacksonville with suggestions on where to look for fish this
time of year. |
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December 2004
Like most of the coastal northern areas; the Redfish are chewing aggressively and the Speckled Trout fishing is on fire. Drum and Sheephead are also gathering in large numbers, as are flounder. For anglers seeking a Striped Bass in Florida...December and January are the two months to get on'em!
Both artificial lures and live finger mullet have been the key for everything. Fishing shallow for the Reds and deep for everything else.
It's December fishing at it's best,
Capt. Chris & Capt Ray
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ST. JOHNS RIVER REWARDS
The St. Johns River is turned
on, frequent afternoon showers have introduced a lot of freshwater, this has
pushed a good population of saltwater fish down river, on top of that a
thermocline on the beach has pushed all the saltwater menhaden into the
river. There's tons of baitfish and the seatrout, redfish and flounder are
now concentrated in a small area in the river. It's made for an outstanding
week of fishing, we had several 50 fish days this week, tarpon, striped
bass, seatrout, redfish, flounder, drum, sheepshead, ladyfish and jack
crevalle were among our caught species. Excallibur's Swimn'Image was the
most productive lure this week producing at least 20 seatrout per trip, the
other fish were caught on live mullet and live shrimp. Trophy fish this
week consisted of seatrout to 7 lbs., sheepshead to 6 pounds and striped
bass to 9 lbs. We had a tarpon in the 100 lb. class hooked but the silver
king won the battle. I expect this action to continue for the next couple
of weeks. |
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Fishing Report
June 5, 2003 The beach fishing is really
starting to fire off. The pogie pods which we are dependent upon for bait
have been late arriving but are here in full force. With the bait the
tarpon, sharks, and reds have been having a field day. On Tuesday we jumped
three tarpon and landed one thet went 80 pounds along with several black tip
sharks and 1 redfish that measured 47 inches. This fishing should only get
better because as of June 1st the shrimp boats will start dragging within 1
mile of the beach. The tarpon love to pile up behind these boats and feed
on the by-catch. Inshore we continue to catch alot of trout most everyday
and there are some quality fish over 24 inches being caught. The equalizer
cork has be the hot ticket with either a live Capt. Tom Lucas |
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Fishing Report May 07, 2003
Capt. Chris Holleman |
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Jacksonville Nearshore Report by Capt. Tom Lucas
April 8, 2003
Spring is here and the fishing has been outstanding. As the water temperature has started to warm the fish have really fired off. This past week the redfish are piled up in the shallows and when the conditions are right you can sight cast to fish. The jetties are full of redfish and sheapshead. This has to have been the best year for sheapshead I have ever seen. If we only catch 5 to 8 sheapshead on a half day trip it has been a slow day and that's not counting the 3 to 10 bull redfish we catch. Most of my trips are producing over double digit sheapshead with plenty of fish in the 8 to 12 pound range. They are a pain to clean but some of the best eating fish we have inshore. In St. Augustine the big blue fish have moved in. These fish are huge with the smallest fish going 9 pounds and with most of the fish going 14 to 15 pounds. We are catching these fish by free lining mullet or throwing plugs and flies. A lot of the fish are tailing along the edge of the rocks and make sight casting a blast. The beach fishing should fire off by the end of the month with the 30 to 50 pound redfish and cobia starting first. The cold weather is a thing of the past and it's hello shorts and tight lines.
Capt. Tom Lucas |
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Jacksonville Report April 8, 2003 Everyone that stepped aboard Blue
Cyclone this week went home with fish stories to tell. During the lower
tide phases my clients saw heards redfish roaming the flats. There were so
many V-wakes going every which direction it was hard to decide where to
catch. Soft plastic lures were the key getting bit. YUM tube baits and R.L.
Twitch shads rigged weedless on 4/0 Daiichi bleeding bait hooks produced the
majority of our larger redfish this week. The YUM garlic scent we sprayed
on our soft plastics also played a role. There were plenty of flounder
lurking below the redfish which made for some some delicious table fare at
the end of the day. When the tide moved in and covered the shell bars the
action continued. We switched over to hard baits, specifically lipped
divers such as Corton Cordels Ripplin' Redfin and the Smithwick Rogue, the
hard baits produced some trophy spotted seatrout this week along with some
stout redfish. Gay and Rob Picker of Colorado had the best catch this week
with a dozen redfish, 5 flounder, 1 jack crevalle and 7 seatrout, they
brought home some flounder fillets along with a picture of the Gator Trout
they caught in the ICW. The begining of April has been great and I expect
it to get better yet, we should see large schools of jack crevalle migrating
into the river, trout, reds, flounder and jack crevalle should start moving
into the downtown area, night fishing for seatrout should fire off as well.
It's no wonder this is my favorite time of year.
Capt. Chris Holleman
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HEATING UP IN JACKSONVILLE February 28, 2003 Fish are beginning to cooperate as the
water temperature rises here on the First Coast. Especially the spotted
seatrout, trout-season reopens March 01, and the timing couldn't be better.
Were getting plenty of quality fish, they're eating surface lures and
shallow divers all over the grass flats. We caught a 5 lber yesterday on a
Zara Spook in a foot of water and several fish topping the 3 pound mark on
Smithwick Rogue's. Redfish are cruising the flats as usual on low tide but
they are feeding a little better than they were a few weeks ago when the
water was a bit on the chilly side. Flounder seem to be showing up early
this year, were getting 2 or 3 each trip which is a bit unusual for this
time of year. I'm expecting a big run in April if last years logs are any
indication. The hot bite it still in the ICW but I expect to the St. Johns
River to turn on in the coming weeks.
FloridaLightTackleCharters.com Toll Free: 866-4-TARPON (482-7766) |
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STILL BITING IN JACKSONVILLE January 17, 2003 So far it's been an outstanding winter fishing Jacksonville's backwaters. The Intracoastal Waterway has been the hot ticket. Redfish continue to bunch on sun-warmed mudflats during afternoon incoming tides. We've seen countless schools with dozens of fish in the 5 to 10 lb. range this month. The reds have been eager to take soft plastic jerk baits. The Rhino Twitch shad seems be our most productive lure. Spotted seatrout are also fired up, I've had several trips this month with over 20 fish, they're quality size fish to, we've had several fish top the magic 5 lb mark this month including a 7 lb 1 oz. fish taken by Andy McConnel. The trout are a blast on light tackle with shallow lipped diving plugs such as the Reble holograhic minnow that has produced so well this month. We also caught some nice striped bass this week in the St. Johns River, we had some cold overcast days and the stripers went on an absolute feeding frenzy for 2 days downtown Jacksonville. The stripers were between 5 and 7 pounds. Although we weren't targeting them we also caught some black drum, flounder and bluefish this month. I expect the redfish and seatrout bite to carry on through the winter and I look for some blistery cold overcast days to fire the stripers off again.
Capt. Chris Holleman |
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Florida Light Tackle Charters.com Jacksonville Area Report – 12/09/02
Inshore fishing in North East Florida is hot. Limit trout catches are common with fish in the 2-3lb class. Red fishing continues to be constant on bait, artificial, or on fly. Flounder fishing has slowed a little, but some nice fish are still around. Stovall Weems and I fished a cold day last January , despite the cold he still captured a 6lb. flattie. Jetty fishing has produced some nice sheephead and black drum catches. Anyway you look at it you can't go wrong, so just go fishing.
Capt. Ray McCauley
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Florida Light Tackle Charters.com
Jacksonville Area Report – 11/04/02 Capt. Ray McCauley
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Florida Light Tackle Charters.com Jacksonville Area Fishing Report
WHAT A WEEK!
We had an outstanding week fishing the Intracoastal Waterway here in Jacksonville, the weather couldn't have been better and fishing was just as good. Cool mornings gave way to a hot trout bite every morning, it was nonstop action with top water plugs on schooling size sea trout, an occasional ladyfish and some nice size bluefish, although the sea trout were our query. On the low ends of the tide the redfish were biting as the water dropped and the oyster shells became exposed. Redfish are starting to school in the ICW backwaters and it's going to get better in the coming months. Flounder were our target on the rising tide and we caught plenty of fish to 3 lbs., the trophy size flounder should really turn on in the coming week. The fish are probably turned on in the brackish water creeks off the river as well, but I didn't get the opportunity to try them this week. I just got some great new Pfleuger Trion bait-casting reels, let's go break them in!
Capt. Chris Holleman
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Florida Light Tackle Charters.com
Jacksonville Fishing Report 10/07/02 http://www.floridalighttacklecharters.com 1-866-4-TARPON (482-7766)
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