Sea Bass

 

The ocean is at the right temperature and when the seas are calm enough for you to get out, no is the time to limit out on greenheads (big seabass).

I like to start the night before by getting all of the necessary tackle, down from the shelf and in my tackle bags. During this process, I also like to make up a few rigs, so I will be ready for the hot and heavy anticipated action of the next day.

For the rigs I like to start by cutting off pieces of 40 pound monofilament, about four feet long. After I have about ten of these cut, I tie a 50 to 75 pound test barrel swivel to one end. I then tie a loop in the other and up from that about 10 inches I tie another loop and again about 10 inches from that one. I then run the line from each of the middle two loops through the eye of a Daichii 3/0 Circle Wide hooks and place each rig in a zip lock bag. When I have completed this process with all 10 rigs, I put them in my waterproof bag, along with my pliers, digital camera, towels, extra leader, hooks, swivels and some chartreuse grubs.

I like to check my marker jugs to be sure that I have the correct ones. The ones that have around 110 feet of line. A marker jug can be anything that will float, that you can tie enough line to reach bottom. My jugs have anywhere from 30 ounces to 3 pounds of weight to hold them in place. I like to buy the laundry detergent that comes in the bright orange plastic containers. These make great jugs and if you collect them all year, you should have plenty, by the time bottom fishing season is here.

For rods and reels I bring my Shakespeare Tidewater TW 10LA level wind reels and for the rods, I love my Shakespeare Tiger Rods, BWC 2202 and 2201, 7 foot medium and medium heavy action rods. I spool the reels with 50 pound test Power Pro with about 30 feet of 25 pound test monofilament as backing on the spool.

Once in the boat, I like to bring up the stored numbers in my GPS for some natural bottom about 8 to 10 miles east of the jetties.

The key to good numbers of BIGGGG seabass is natural bottom. Now some of you might be able to catch some nice ones around the wrecks but consistently the big schools of greenheads are on natural bottom.

Once you have arrived on your spot you will need to have your marker jug ready and your recorder turned on to 2X. The reason I like 2X for the picture that the machine paints is you can see a lot more detail with the higher magnification. If you have the recorder that I have, a BottomLine 5300, black and white model, you are going to see a pretty good fuzz from the bottom up about 3 to 5 feet. If you have the color model, you are going to see the red bottom and just on the top of that you will see a light blue fuzz about the same distance up. You are not looking for a big wreck or giant schools of fish that come up off of the bottom 20 to 70 feet. These big schools are generally TR's (grunts or small baitfish). Once you have found the good bottom, have someone ready to send down a try line. This is one person that is baited up and ready to send his/her bait down. If this person has a nice bite and brings up a nice seabass, jug it. Now you have a marker or reference to work from.

By the time you have sent out the jug and reeled in the nice seabass, you will have drifted off of the spot that your first fish came from. That's OK. Circle the jug a few times, looking at your recorder, to see exactly where the good bottom is in relation to the jug.

Now that you have found the good bottom, ease up, against the current and say, BOMBS AWAY! This means lines down, get to fishing, send um down or I bet I catch one first. You can leave the engine running or shut it down. If you have found a good spot, your drift will produce about 10 to 15 nice seabass before your baits are being drug through barren sand bottom.

When the bite is done, move back to the jug and drift it again. Do this until you have limited out or they have stopped biting. I like to make big circles around my spot, looking for other nice bottom before I give up on this spot.

I also like to have another jug ready to send down for the occasional red snapper or grouper that you might hook. If you do hook a snapper, send the other jug down right away. After you have boated this fish come back and circle the jug until you find bottom this is different than the seabass bottom. Get you bearing as to where this is from the new jug that you just sent down and anchor on this spot. If there are snappers down there, you CANNOT drift for them. Every time you hook one, the others will follow him to the surface. If you are drifting, you will scatter these fish and you probably will not catch any more from that spot. Once you have caught a few of these snappers and the snapper action has stopped, pull up the anchor and start drifting for the seabass again.

I know some of you are saying, "this is a lot of trouble, starting the motor and running up to the jug, then drifting back and repeating this all day". If you are on good bottom, by the end of the day, you will have your limit of very nice seabass, a few keeper snapper, some sharks, some nice sandbass and maybe a grouper or two. This will not be a bad looking cooler when you get back to the dock. I know all of your buddies will be going ooh and ahh, when you open the fish box. These fish are also one of the finest out there for the table.

The limit for seabass is 20 per person with a minimum size limit of 10 inches overall length. I do not usually keep them unless they are 12 plus inches, there are plenty of big ones and you do not want to be throwing dead little ones back to make room for the big ones.

Some good inshore places, are the PM, PG area, the MR, the NINE MILE, PV and CH. All of these artificial reefs have some natural bottom near them and this time of year almost all natural bottom holds nice seabass.

Here are a few internet sites that have numbers for this area: www.state.fl.us/fwc/marine/ar/ar-duvall.htm, www.reefball.org/arsites.htm, www.floridaconservation.org//marine/ar/ar-duval.htm. Charter Information:

To experience some of this fine inshore action, please call me at 904 757 7550.

 

Chris McCauley with a nice 3 plus pound Seabass

LOCAL ACTION:

The creeks are full of redfish that will eat a shrimp on a Jaw Jacker Jig, a soft plastic like a Sea Striker Grub on a jig head or a new product that I used last week to produce several reds from 27 to 33 inches and a couple of nice trout in the 3 pound class. The product that I used was a Berkley Gulp Sinking Minnow in Chartreuse Pepper.  I tied on a Daiichi 5/0 Copperhead hook and used the corkscrew on the eye of the hook to attach the Gulp sinking minnow to the eye and the slipped the point of the hook in the minnow.

 

As you can see, the hook has a cork screw wire that allows the bait to be attacked to the top of the hook, thus giving the bait more action. This is a weedless rig that works great in grass or around structure like oysters or rocks.

I was able to work this bait up and around heavy oysters without getting hung up.  The minnow rig sinks fairly slow and with a wounded minnow action that you can achieve by a slight twitch of the rod tip as you turn the reel handle, this bait definitely attracts big fish.

The Mayport Jetties is holding a few black drum and some very nice seabass. Try squid, shrimp or clams fished on the bottom. 

The trout action in the creeks is still happening but because the water is so cold, you need to fish slow or find some shallows that are a few degrees warmer that the surrounding waters. A black bottom on the mid day low tide is a good bet for finding warmer water. 

The offshore action is producing fair numbers of snapper, vermilion snapper, seabass and the trollers are catching some tuna, wahoo, sailfish and a few kings. Most of the trollers are going out a long way, 30 to 50 miles.  

Moms and Dads:

Remember mom and dad, spend some time with your sons and daughters taking them fishing and you will not be looking for them come Friday and Saturday nights, as they will be home in bed waiting to go the next day. (I am not just saying this because it sounds good. I MEAN IT, YOU WON'T BE LOOKING FOR THEM.)

Good Fishing

Capt. Jim Hammond
Capt. Jim's Fun Fishing Inc.
17184 Dorado Cir
Jacksonville, Fl 32226
(904) 757-7550
www.hammondfishing.com