baitfish
01-01-2008, 11:36 PM
12/29 - I finally went fishing! Been doing lot's of honey Do's lately with the new house and decided I needed to finish off the year right. I started out arond 10:00a.m. by heading over to Avid Angler for some bait but they were out of live shrimp. So I picked up some fresh dead and a dozen mud minnows for an exploratory trip.
On the suggestion of the owner I went to the ramp by Reef Restaurant and found some realy good looking water but it was loaded with people. They were hitting every hole for a 1/4 mile in either direction and no one seemed to be catching anything after 10 minutes. So I headed up to the picnic tables area and found more of the same, good looking conditions and LOTS of people. But a couple of whiting were in the buckets so I figured I would give it a shot. I had trouble finding an unoccupied decent looking hole and an hour and a half later and not a single bite and I said forget this! We found a small access spot on the ICW and set up again. I immediately hooked up on a few pinfish and Rebecca hooked into a decent bluefish on a mud minnow. Then... nothing! grrrr
So we headed over to Borillo's for a late pizza lunch and decided on our next course of action. BTW for those that don't already know, this is the best pizza in St Aug if nt all of Jax that I know of.
We decided on the small bridge over Hospital Creek on A1A south of the Deaf and Blind school and had a blast!
We started catching more pinfish... my nemesis but then hooked into something that immediately broke me off on the piling under the bridge. Rebecca was having some difficulty in this spot and decided her interests lay more in the St. Augustine Record. :-) I continued fishing and then landed two cookie cutter 14" Black Drum, my first black drum actually, and then the baits started getting slashed by boiling needle fish which was fun just to watch. We called it a day just before the sunset.
12/31 - Starving for more fishing action, I headed over to the SR16 bridge over the San Sebastian River before you reach Ponce De Leon. Not the same story as Sat. I'm sorry to say. The water was not looking good and apparently it is better on the outgoing to low here. But I figured what the heck the spot stil looks like it has some promise. I was fishing the incoming tide and it was Sand Perch and crabs galore. I did have a couple of solid knockdowns that turned up empty but that's pretty much it.
I was even getting sand perch on a 4" gulp swimming minnow on a jig head. I fished the south side of the bridge but the north side looks more fishy. I want to hit this area up with the kayak as well as the back country areas by the deaf and blind school that looks pretty fishy as well.
My resolution this year is to spend more time learning to fish over here so my trips will be more productive.
Adam
On the suggestion of the owner I went to the ramp by Reef Restaurant and found some realy good looking water but it was loaded with people. They were hitting every hole for a 1/4 mile in either direction and no one seemed to be catching anything after 10 minutes. So I headed up to the picnic tables area and found more of the same, good looking conditions and LOTS of people. But a couple of whiting were in the buckets so I figured I would give it a shot. I had trouble finding an unoccupied decent looking hole and an hour and a half later and not a single bite and I said forget this! We found a small access spot on the ICW and set up again. I immediately hooked up on a few pinfish and Rebecca hooked into a decent bluefish on a mud minnow. Then... nothing! grrrr
So we headed over to Borillo's for a late pizza lunch and decided on our next course of action. BTW for those that don't already know, this is the best pizza in St Aug if nt all of Jax that I know of.
We decided on the small bridge over Hospital Creek on A1A south of the Deaf and Blind school and had a blast!
We started catching more pinfish... my nemesis but then hooked into something that immediately broke me off on the piling under the bridge. Rebecca was having some difficulty in this spot and decided her interests lay more in the St. Augustine Record. :-) I continued fishing and then landed two cookie cutter 14" Black Drum, my first black drum actually, and then the baits started getting slashed by boiling needle fish which was fun just to watch. We called it a day just before the sunset.
12/31 - Starving for more fishing action, I headed over to the SR16 bridge over the San Sebastian River before you reach Ponce De Leon. Not the same story as Sat. I'm sorry to say. The water was not looking good and apparently it is better on the outgoing to low here. But I figured what the heck the spot stil looks like it has some promise. I was fishing the incoming tide and it was Sand Perch and crabs galore. I did have a couple of solid knockdowns that turned up empty but that's pretty much it.
I was even getting sand perch on a 4" gulp swimming minnow on a jig head. I fished the south side of the bridge but the north side looks more fishy. I want to hit this area up with the kayak as well as the back country areas by the deaf and blind school that looks pretty fishy as well.
My resolution this year is to spend more time learning to fish over here so my trips will be more productive.
Adam