The morning started with a hot cup of tea and a ride to Clapboard Creek Fish Camp. Behind my new F-350 Super Duty was my Honda Marine powered giant flat bottom 27 foot long boat, that was loaded for what ever came up in today's trip. I have 12 rod holders on the console, 2 on the front deck and 6 more around the rear deck. Twelve of these had rods in them, the bait wells were full of shrimp and minnows, the tackle trays were full of Sea Striker trout grubs and I was ready.
Soon after I put the boat in the water, my charter Bill Berthet of Berthet Jewelry strolled down to the dock with a giant smile and his cup of something hot to drink in hand. Bill use to go with me several times per year until he purchased one of my old boats. Since then I have not seem him in some time. I kind of missed him as he was one of few that I get that have real good angling skills. What I mean by that is that he had been with me so often that he knew what I wanted before I asked. He is also a pretty good angler on his own as knowing what to look for in the water, how to work his bait and how to angle a fish once he was hooked up. I guess I taught him well. We shook hands and we were off to the first spot. I had some trout rounded up about 3 miles from the ramp, so off we were in the direction of these nice fish. I pushed the throttle forward and my Honda 225 quickly got us up to speed and we were on our way. A few minutes later I could see the birds and I knew Bill was in for some fast action for an hour or so.
I eased the barge into position, shut off the Honda, handed Bill a Shakespeare 7 foot medium action rod loaded with 20 pound Power Pro, a 1/4 ounce jig and a Sea Striker 4 inch trout grub, white with a green tail. I then mounted the front deck, dropped the Minn Kota 3-X 101 lb thrust in the water and headed toward the "BIRDS". Yes the birds.
See, the birds were diving on the bait that the trout were forcing to the surface. You could see, shrimp and small 3 to 4 inch ribbon fish being picked off by the screeching gulls. I informed Bill to cast into the diving birds, work the grub back towards the boat in a medium action, bouncing it every now and them. I believe the first cast produced a fish, a nice 2 pound trout. He angled that fish to the boat, slung it in, we measured it, to be sure and in the box it went. The next cast produced a strike but no hook up. The next provided another fish for the box. We had to use the Minn Kota to work around the birds as they seemed to get near shore then out to deeper water. The birds were only chasing the bait that the trout were driving to the surface, so we knew we had to keep the birds close to the boat and to do that I was constantly using the trolling motor to keep us in the RITE SPOT, under the birds and over the fish. After the first two fish, we were not keeping them, even if legal unless they were in the two pound class. This made it easy to cull the smaller ones as I can pretty much tell you the length of a fish without using a ruler. Under 16 inches went back and over 16 inches in the box for a nice trout dinner. The action was pretty steady for about 60 minutes, then it just stopped. Just like someone had flipped the light switch.
The birds were gone and so were the trout. Just like that, not a bird or fish to be found. Looking in the Icey Tek cooler, Bill had managed to capture 7 trout in the two pound class and released a bunch that were short or just barley legal. I know we had gone through about seven or eight grubs and I usually get six to seven fish to a grub. So I went though six grubs times six fish, Bill must have had around thirty fish in about 60 minutes. That works out to a fish every two minutes. Not a bad start on the day. Now if I could just keep the action close to this for the remaining 5 hours, Bill will have had a pretty dad gum good day.
Our next spot was more of the same, just in a different spot. See, if you chase the tide, you can have the same tide in several places. Here is what I mean by that. say you are fishing the last of the incoming a spot A. You fish there until the tide stops, you get down on the big motor (put the metal to the pedal), run UP river from where you are and the tide will still be going in there. Fish that spot for a while and do the same and the tide will be coming in there. The birds were the but the fish were small under the birds. Bill caught a few of the little fish, but got tired of the dinks, so we moved to a place that will sometimes hold a few nicer fish. Here I had him work his grub slower, keeping in contact with the bottom. After about 5 minutes of working the bait, he hooked up a nice fish. I quickly got down from the front deck and grabbed the landing net. Bill worked the fish right to the boat where I scooped it up in the net. "Nice fish", Bill said, after examining a good three pound trout. Bill worked this area for another 15 minutes without another sniff, so we headed back under the birds and worked the shoreline out away from them. This was a good call as it was not long before we had our 10 keepers in the box. Now we had all of the trout that we could keep, so we were off in pursuit of MR. Redfish.
I headed to another spot and slipped over the anchor. We were going to fish a different style in this spot, anchor down, live shrimp on an Old Bayside Paradise Popper (check out my website, www.hammondfishing.com for more info on this product).
This spot was a nice oyster mound that came way off of the shoreline on a nice point. After the boat laid up like I wanted, I pulled another Shakespeare rod from my arsenal. This one was to be fished with live bait, so a nice live shrimp came from the live well and with a 1/0 Daiichi Big Moe hook sent through his tail, we were for this spot. I had Bill cast right up tight on the grass and leave it. When you hook the shrimp this way, it will swim up off of the bottom, thus keeping it from getting hung up. I told Bill it usually takes about 15 minutes before anything happens after you first pull up to the spot and the reason is that it is only 2 feet deep here on high tide and the fish on this spot are spooked a little when they here me pull up. Well, it had not been two minutes and the cork went down and he was hooked up on something nice. I moved to the front of the boat and gathered up the landing net, then moved back toward him, net in, hand ready to scoop up what ever it is that he is fighting. He did just as he was supposed to and brought the fish right to the net, which I scooped up and in the boat the fish came. Nice job Bill, a 4 pound sheepshead. A bonus fish. He fished this spot for about fifteen more minutes and nothing but a couple of small reds, so off we were to another spot.
The next spot was to be fished the same as the last and he was ready with a fresh shrimp when the boat came to a stop. Bill cast right next to the mound and immediately hooked up on something REAL nice. I gathered the net once again and waited for him to get the fish within scooping distance. A little time later, Bill had the fish near the boat and in the net it went. OH MAN, a very nice 4 plus pound trout. But we already had all of these that we could keep, so back it went. Bills next fish was a 3 pound drum, another bonus fish. Then the monster needle fish moved in and Bill had his bout with them before a keeper red inhaled his shrimp and the battle was one. Bill immediately said "I don't think this is a needle fish as line peeled from the reel. Once again Bill angled the fish and in the net it came. Bill now had in the box ten nice trout, one nice sheepshead, one descent drum, one redfish and caught many other fish that he released . Not a bad morning. He really wanted to capture one more red as he had promised his jeweler some fresh fish.
I pulled up anchor and slid over the trolling motor so he could work the edges with an Exude Rt Slug. He made several cast and produced a couple of small reds but not what he was looking for so off we went to another spot.
Time was about up on his six hour trip so this was going to be the last spot. I made a run back in the creeks where the water would still be high and just starting to go out. Out came the Old Bayside Paradise Popper and a live shrimp. I showed Bill the area that I wanted him to fish and sat back and watched. He made several cast in the right spot but only produced a couple of small reds. Then, we both saw a nice fish busting something up in the grass, yes in the grass. This fish was about five feet or so in the grass. Bill reloaded with a fresh shrimp and made the perfect cast. Not more than five seconds after the bait hit the water the fish was all over it. The shrimp was jumping clear out of the water and the fish was swirling all around the cork but could not catch the shrimp. Bill pulled back on the cork and turned the reel handle a couple of times to get the shrimp in the water and the fish ate it. Bill was hooked up on another nice red, which he angled to the boat and I netted.
What a day!
Local action:
Lots of grouper and snapper in the ocean. You don't have to go far, 7 to 10 miles and the bite is strong. Lots of king mackerel in St Augustine around the Desco and other close in wrecks.
Sails, tuna and wahoo in the stream. Most days plan on a long bumpy trip.
Inshore waters are full of trout, lots of little ones but if you work at it you can have enough for dinner.
The reds in the creeks are finicky.
A few flounder starting to show up, some real nice ones in the 8 to 10 pound class.
Lots of big reds still at the jetties.
A few drum have moved in and the can be caught by sending a shrimp, squid or clam to the bottom near or in the rocks at the inlets.
Remember, Moms and Dads, take your kids fishing. It will make a difference in their lives.
This report is brought to you by
Good Fishing
Capt Jim Hammond
Capt. Jim's Fun Fishing Inc.
www.hammondfishing.com