Roy's Bait House Fishing Report 11-2-07

Roy's Bait House Fishing Report 11-2-07

Johnny Garrett at Flagler Beach Bait & Tackle said the storm closed the pier down Monday and Tuesday, but the bait shop was open.

A couple of the cross beams underneath the pier got knocked loose by the constant pounding of big waves, but they were close to finished fixing them Thursday. And that repair work did not close the pier.

Garrett said, "quite a few black drum and a handful or better of redfish" were caught Thursday, and that Spanish mackerel and blues have been running in spurts.

"They were catching quite a few Spanish macks out here the other day," he said.

11-07-07

Johnny Garrett at Flagler Beach Bait and Tackle reports lots of whiting, some flounder, blues, blackdrum and sporadic schools of Spanish mackerel being caught at the pier.

Cooler fall temperatures have finally arrived making for more pleasurable fishing conditions. The brisk morning air can make for a teary eyed run on the river but as the day progresses with a rising sun, clear blue skies, warming temperatures and little or no wind, you have no doubt as to why you got out of a warm bed to go fishing. Catch a few fish and you have the makings of a fishermen’s perfect day.

11-8-07

Poe added that there have been amberjack caught in the 100-foot area and some catches of trout, reds and drum in the ICW. People are also catching whiting inshore.

At the St. Augustine Marina, Brian Beach said anglers are landing flounder and trout off the pier. He said he also heard of catches of drum around the bridges.

Ben Williams' river report: Over here on our river the water temperature is slowly falling while the water level has remained relatively high

It may be cold and windy, but there are plenty of reds, drum, whiting and pompano around, said Scott Dyer at the Daytona Beach Pier. Flagler Pier anglers report much the same, plus blues. At Canaveral, Capt. Jim Ross has been casting to the sandbars from his boat and getting snook, reds, jacks, flounder and mangos.

Capt. Wayne Summer said he caught two big sharks Tuesday. Capt. Fred Robert said he caught five tarpon Tuesday following a shrimp boat, and that despite harsh conditions, a lot of bull reds are biting.

The red tide is gone and Capt. Chris Herrera said reds and trout are returning to the creeks.

11-13-07

The Beach & Pier Report's
Nice Bluefish , Redfish , Black Drum , Whithing , Pompano , Sheephead
Intercoastal Doing Very Well
TROUT SEASON OPEN FLAGLER COUNTY NORTH 15"-20" 1OVER 20"
Nice Snook , Trout , Jack's , Redfish , Black Drum , Mango Snapper , Nice Flounder
Reported Catch's
Ed Ceder 11 Bluefish ( Surf )
Don & Steve Petravelle 30+ Trout , 6 Keeper Redfish ( All Released )
Ehren Schultee 1+ doz. each Crocker's , Mango's 12"
Brenda Gaines 18 1/2" Redfish
Rosalie Gambone 16" Sheephead - 18" Black Drum
Bobby Myers 16" Flounder - 15" Bluefish
Sherry Jackson Lot's of Trout & Ladyfish
John Gambone 2-16" Trout & 3- 18" Redfish lost Big One
Hank De Charmont 6-12" Whiting & 3- 16" Pompano's

11-14-07

The surf and pier are producing whiting, blues, black drum, pompano and a few reds.

11-15-07

Ocean piers: The Jacksonville Beach Pier has been repaired and the full length is now open. But the fishing is sporadic, with a few whiting and small pompano being the main action. The St. Augustine Beach Pier is about the same.

11-15-07

Fished Ormond surf after many days of getting nothing at Sunglow. Caught a 3 foot shark and an incredibly small black drum. Taking a break now.....

Johnny Garrett at the Flagler Beach Bait & Tackle said anglers are getting drum and a fairly consistent pompano bite, with 18- to 20-inchers cruising the sandbars. Two or three bull reds are being caught a day. "We're talking 20 pounds," he said.

Little spurts of bluefish and Spanish mackerel runs are coming in, he said.

As for annual expectations of a Thanksgiving flounder run, Garret said this could be a tough year. A lot of flounder died at Matanzas Inlet during the red tide outbreak. Still, he said they're getting about a half-dozen a day at the pier.

It's been a morning bite, and most everything is being caught on live shrimp, he said.

Bob Burns, a regular at the Flagler Pier, said the three-day weekend also saw catches of sheepshead up to and more than 5 pounds.

Jan at the Sunglow Pier said they have had a slow but steady bite of drum, pompano and whiting, and on Wednesday someone caught an octopus "around 3 feet long from head to toe."

Beth Miller at the Daytona Beach Pier said Thursday was slow -- with small sharks, whiting and drum -- but the weeklong trend included reds, pompano and flounder.

11-17-07

Nassau County anglers received a break this week with calm seas. The calm seas left our anglers with plenty of grouper and snapper at the end of their lines at the inshore reefs. Whiting and trout were reported from the surf and trout, reds and puppy drum in the backwaters.

From Fort Clinch to Amelia Island State Park, our local anglers reported catches of whiting, trout, reds, puppy drum, blues and pompano from our surf. Fresh shrimp and clams will be your best bet for bait when in pursuit of whiting and pompano from the surf. I also would bring along a second rod baited with finger mullet left in a sand spike to entice a red, trout or flounder from the surf.

11-19-07

Johnny Garrett at Flagler Beach Bait and Tackle reports that big black drum, whiting, blues, pompano, sheepshead and some flounder are all being caught from the pier.

Last week the snook bite was incredible. On three of those days I took advantage of the nice weather to wet a line. On the 14th I set out about 9:300am to do some fly fishing, it turned out to be a very productive day. On about my fifth cast I hooked into my first fish of the day. When I saw what it was, a bluefish, I hoped it wouldn’t bite through my leader and I’d lose my fly. Luckily that didn’t happen because he was lipped hooked. The fly was an Enrico Puglisi mullet imitation that has a rattle tied in it and the color was chartreuse and white. A very productive fly for the color water we have here. I retied the fly to the leader and continued to cast. My efforts were rewarded with 11 more fish, 1 trout and 10 snook.
There were so many snook around that at times I could see 4 to 5 snook come up and swipe at the fly on a single retrieve. I even had them follow it right back to the boat then swim underneath the boat. At one point all I had to do was hold the fly rod out over the water, jiggle the fly and they would come up and smack it. I figure that if I would have landed every snook that either smacked my fly or I hooked and lost, I would have had over 30 of them that day.
The following day, the 15th, I took a friend of mine out who loves to catch snook. Maybe it was because of the cold front that was coming through that afternoon that the snook were everywhere busting on bait. All you had to do was throw to where you saw the fish feeding and you were almost guaranteed a fish. Between the two of us we landed 23 snook, a redfish and jumped 2 small tarpon.

11-22-07

Ocean piers: Action has been sporadic at the Jacksonville Beach Pier with a few sheepshead (though one this week weighed 12.5 pounds), some whiting and some bluefish. The bite of big, spawning redfish to 40 pounds continues for those who can throw big baits to maximum range off the end of the pier. At the St. Augustine Beach Pier, black drum, whiting, bluefish and whiting have been pretty active. There's been a late afternoon bite of Spanish mackerel every day this week and anglers are having a blast throwing Clark spoons and Got'chas out there.

11-23-07

Surf & Piers
Huge mats of seaweed floated to shore, blanketing the beach, and anglers are catching more of that than fish. And the state sampled red tide concentrations in Volusia County and found high levels at Ponce Inlet and New Smyrna Beach.

Still, between the Daytona Beach Pier and Flagler Beach, anglers are landing blues, pompano, spots, sheepshead, drum, Spanish mackerel and one angler lost a 40-pound cobia after a long fight at the Flagler Pier.

Spawning-size sheepshead to 10 pounds are moving into the inlet and are biting near the jetties, said Capt. Wayne Summer. Tarpon around 20 pounds are feeding on glass minnows at the North Causeway bridge, he said.

Lucas Smith at the Devil's Elbow Fish Camp said the word is drum, reds, sheesphead, trout and a few pompano.

11-24-05 Saint A

3. Surf: The surf was beaten up for a few days by choppy swells followed by hard offshore winds. It's been pretty good when things are right, and it looks as if that may be about to happen. When it settles and cleans up, look for whiting and blues. This is often the best time of year for either or both.

Johnny at Flagler beach Bait and tackle reports lots of black drum in the 4 to 12 lb range are being caught on shrimp at the pier. Whiting, blues and a few pompano are also providing action. Spanish mackerel are still being caught in spurts from the end of the pier.

12-5-07

Johnny Garrett at Flagler Beach Bait and Tackle reports lots of whiting being caught on the pier. Johnny also reports lots of bluefish, flounder to 21”, black drum and a few pompano.

Ocean piers: The bite at Jacksonville Beach Pier has been excellent one day and poor the next. Monday they slayed trout, drum, sheepshead, whiting and flounder. Tuesday it was almost dead. At the St. Augustine Beach Pier, the whiting bite has been steadier, but the fish were running on the small side early in the week. The water at both piers this week has been flat and clean. Maybe it's too pretty for the fish to bite, or it may be that you'll need to downsize those hooks and leaders to trick the fish.

12-26-07 JAX South Ponte Vedra caught on 26^th Jim Sutton

There's something about surf fishing. It might be that there's not a lot of work to it. It might be that you don't have to think too hard. It might be the feel of saltwater and red shell under your feet. It might be the thought of whiting fillets popping in a cast iron skillet. It might just be the look of the horizon, where water, sky and imagination all meet.

But whatever it is that draws anglers to the beach, it was working overtime this week. The parking lot at the Gate Station in South Ponte Vedra Beach looked like Wal-Mart the day after Christmas.

I crossed Florida A1A and onto the dune walkover there. The weather was pushing 80 degrees. The water was clean. The wind was calm and the surf was rolling in gently. Everything was perfect except for the 40-plus anglers lining the beach for a quarter-mile north and south. I was meeting a couple of friends there, Billy Phillips and his son, Will, and had already decided to head back to the truck, get the cell phone and rearrange fishing plans a little further south. Then I saw them waving from the crowd on the beach.

A few minutes later we were setting up in the long line of anglers and rods for a late afternoon of whiting fishing.

Billy and I had been there the week before and were expecting the bite to giddy-up at the bottom end of the tide. And that's the way it eventually played out. But there were enough fish to keep it interesting for an hour until that happened.

It's been a strange year for whiting fishing in the surf. Other than a few isolated spurts, there hasn't been a real whiting run on the beach. The netters slayed them all summer long, dragging in 20 to 30 feet of water and past the outside break. But the fish just didn't seem to come into the surf to feed. That changed a couple of weeks ago. And there's a definite bite on now.

We caught fish for a couple of hours and watched the beach turn pink and the water take on the color of a big opal as the sun set over the dunes behind us. We'd caught over 30 whiting. The majority was what you'd term "bulls" - measuring about a foot. We had several that pushed 16 inches.

The Gate Station is a good place to fish between Jacksonville and St. Augustine. But there are several others down that way.

There is a small parking lot on the beach side about two miles south of there. There's another at Surfside Avenue four miles farther down the beach. And the main ramp at Vilano Beach is also a hot spot north of the jetties. You can drive the beach there, which might be helpful for anglers toting kids or those less mobile.

11-29-07

Ocean piers: Action picked up at the Jacksonville Beach Pier. The whiting have finally hit there, with lots of bull whiting in the mix. A few pompano were caught. A 14-pound black drum was weighed there. The St. Augustine Beach Pier is experiencing the same thing. The whiting are in the surf, and everyone is coming home with at least half a bucket of them.

11-29-07

Ocean piers: Action has picked up at the Jacksonville Beach Pier all week. The whiting bite has finally hit there, and the action has been good, with lots of bull whiting in the mix. A few pompano were caught. A 14-pound black drum was weighed there this week. The St. Augustine Beach Pier is experiencing the same thing. The whiting are in the surf, and everyone is coming home with at least a half a bucket of them.

11-30-07

Surf & Piers

Black drum have invaded, hitting dead shrimp like crazy. On Sunday more than 100 were caught off the Flagler Pier, said pier regular Bob Burns. Herbert Edwards landed a 25-inch, 9-pounder Wednesday, and other anglers were getting limits before 8 a.m.

Pompano, whiting and blues are heavy in the mix, too. Gene Tomlinson of Holly Hill caught a 3-pound pompano on the beach Tuesday, said Ed Countryman of Ocean's Bait & Tackle. The thick seaweed from Thanksgiving week isn't floating around everywhere anymore, but a whiff of red tide remains in Volusia County and has moved into Flagler. For updates, call the state Red Tide Status Line at 866-300-9399.

Tomoka Basin area

The word's out on the black drum, judging from the crowds on the bridges, with the state park bridge particularly heavily fished, said Capt. Kent Gibbens. Most of the drum are taking dead shrimp and are in the 4- to 6-pound range. Farther up river, largemouth bass were sticking flies on Thursday, he said.

Thousands of jacks are hitting on just about anything in the inlet, Capt. Fred Robert said. The bigger sheepshead are still here and on Monday, Chris Ray of New Smyrna Beach caught six 100-pound tarpon, Capt. Robert said.

12-6-07

Ocean piers: Action has been mediocre at the Jacksonville Beach Pier, with small catches of drum, whiting, sheepshead and a few redfish. The St. Augustine Beach Pier has been the place to catch whiting all week, with limits for just about everyone out there. Nothing else is biting, but a bucket of whiting is some tempting fare for the table.

Johnny Garrett at Flagler Beach Bait & Tackle said "the daily average" is a lot of whiting and black drum, a couple of decent-sized flounder, a bunch of undersized pompano with a few keepers and blues all day long.

"Some people want to know what to use not to catch blues, there's so many of them," he said. "Usually shrimp they're not gonna hit."

Last week's run of drum is still around, but the tide's been kind of low in the morning. That has slowed things down because a morning high tide is usually the best, Garrett said.

"Aaron" at Brigadoon Fish Camp said there's been some slot reds and a lot of small jacks in the channels under the three bridges. He said there are reports that mullet are by the old train trestle on Rose Bay.

Capt. Fred Robert said the jetty rocks are yielding a lot of sheepshead, drum are all over the bottom, pompano are being caught with small crabs at the inlet's corners and inshore next to docks the trout and snook are very active. He said there was a big run of roe mullet this week, too.

Matanzas Inlet area

Lucas Smith at the Devil's Elbow Fish Camp said a lot of sheepshead and drum are being caught. He said reds have been cruising shallow flats to sun and feed and trout are in the creeks and under docks.

The seaweed snagging lines in recent weeks has dissipated, but there are hints of red tide. The worst concentrations seem to be south of Ponce Inlet.

In Ormond Beach, Ed Countryman at Ocean's Bait & Tackle said "black drum are here in force." Dead shrimp is the bait of late, he said.

Schools of pompano are here and Countryman said he saw a 21-inch, 6 1/2-pounder. Whew! He said a load of blues are being caught and he's seen bull whiting in the 3-pound range.

At the Flagler Beach Pier, regular angler Bob Burns reported sporadic catches of blues, drum, pompano and small sheepshead.

"Whiting have been on and off with most being caught in the early mornings and late evenings," Burns said. And 12-year-old Alexis Chomich of Yorktown Heights, N.Y., caught a 5-pound, 2-ounce drum, he reported.

Capt. Luke Pearson said pods of greenies are all over the place from the inlet down through New Smyrna Beach. He said there are "acres of them."

The snook bite has become "pretty spotty" with the bigger ones seeming to be quitting the inlet (red tide sensitivity?) to push into the backwaters, he said. Sheepshead fishing has been outstanding and there are so many blues around it's hard to keep them off a live bait, Capt. Pearson said, but the big reds are there on the inlet channel bottom.

Top-waters are taking some really big trout in the backwaters, plus some snook and plenty of reds, he said.

12-20-07

Ocean piers: The bite at Jacksonville Beach Pier has been excellent one day and poor the next. Monday they slayed trout, drum, sheepshead, whiting and flounder. Tuesday it was almost dead. At the St. Augustine Beach Pier, the whiting bite has been steadier, but the fish were running on the small side early in the week. The water at both piers this week has been flat and clean. Maybe it's too pretty for the fish to bite, or it may be that you'll need to downsize those hooks and leaders to trick the fish.

Coastal concentrations of red tide were reported as "not present to medium" mid state. Sources in New Smyrna Beach reported that the air seems to have cleared a bit though.

Bob Burns at the Flagler Pier reported that fishing has been "a bit slow." He said "spotty catches of whiting, black drum and sheepshead" have been available and that lots of blues are being caught, but most are too small to keep."

Hopefully as the water cools down the bull whiting will move in," he said.

Jan at the Sunglow pier reported slow action with just a few blues, whiting, sheepshead and drum.

12-27-07

12-28-07

Bob Burns at the Flagler Beach Pier said there have been nice catches of sheepshead up to about 7 pounds in the last couple of days.

"The bite is mostly at the beginning of the incoming tide using fiddler crabs," he said. "The catches of whiting, blues and black drum are still slow for this time of the year."

Offshore

Capt. Bill Smitherman of Hooker Sport Fishing said bottom fishing has been real good for snapper and grouper with lots of cobia, too. He said the occasional wahoo is striking offshore, but the king mack bite has been pretty good. Capt. Smitherman said the color change in the water has been in about 120 foot of water and that all this activity has been going on at the Party Grounds and other inshore reefs like the East 11.

Capt. Fred Robert said black drum to 10 and 15 pounds are ruling the inlet. They'll take shrimp, he said. A lot of trout and snook are on the inshore docks, he said, and he saw some 20 and 30 pound tarpon caught at the south bridge in New Smyrna Beach. He said the red tide seems like it's gone.

1-2-08

Johnny Garrett at Flagler Beach Bait and Tackle reports whiting, black drum in the 3 to 5 lb range, sheepshead 4 to 5 lb, scattered bluefish and a few reds being caught at the pier.

Ocean piers: The Jacksonville Beach Pier had a slow week. Sheepshead are hanging on the pilings, and a few were caught along with sporadic bites of whiting. The St. Augustine Beach Pier had slow but consistent bites of whiting, yellowmouth trout and small sharks early in the week.

Inshore south of the St. Johns River: Lots of bluefish will provide plenty of action. The whiting bite has been the best of the year on beaches from Jacksonville down to Flagler Beach. The fish are generally big. Those surf fishing are catching as many yellowmouth trout as they are whiting.

1-4-08

Anglers had been getting lots of whiting and drum up until the cold snap, said Ed Countryman at Ocean's Bait & Tackle. Pompano in the 3- to 3 1/2-pound range were mixed into most catches, too, he said. Jack Nelson of Ormond-By-The-Sea got nice reds and blues on cut mullet just north of the old pier, Countryman said.

Regular Flagler Pier angler Bob Burns said it's a little slow, with some whiting, drum, sheepshead, sharks and rays. He said the best catches this week are 13-year-old Richard Williamson's 22-inch drum and Ivor Dehaney's 19-inch drum.

1-5-08

1-9-08

Johnny Garrett at Flagler Beach Bait and Tackle reports lots of whiting being caught. Black drum, sheepshead in the 5 to 7 lb range, bluefish and an occasional red and pompano are all being caught. Jake Jaquish at Highbridge Bait and Tackle reports lots of redfish coming from the area backwaters. Also, lots of reds are along the banks of the ICW at low tide.

1-10-08

Ocean piers: The fishing has been terrible at the Jacksonville Beach and St. Augustine Beach piers this week. If the winds predicted for the weekend turn out of the northeast, things should pick up.

1-11-08