Let the Dredging Begin

We needed to get some ghost shrimp for a our seahorse and the rule is I can't go out on the boat with out fishing. Since the low tide (-0.1L) was in the middle of the day, we really could not get back in to Centipede bay to fish for redfish. So we thought we may try to catch a snook or two in the Hernando Beach channel.

We picked up about 30 nice sized whitebait around marker 2A in the Bayport channel. Then we hit the Bayport Tri-pod for some live chum. The whitebait was very thick, one cast and I had more then I could use.

As we headed to the Hernando Beach Channel, we noticed a big crane on a barge at the end of the channel. My first thought was maybe we should head north and try around Pine Island. But, curiosity got the best of me and we headed towards the crane.
We approach at lunch time and asked a few question. The most important question was, when will the pumping will begin. I was told in about two weeks, they will start pumping the sand out of the Hernando Beach Channel. I'm certain this will drive the fish away from channel. After all, if someone came to your house and was going to vacuum for 8 hours a day, five days a week, I think I would leave too.

After a brief conversation we headed to the first cut and caught 4 trout (18-24 in), several jacks and a couple of short mangrove snappers. So it appears these fish really did not mind the crane ripping up the bottom 200 yards away.

We hit a few other cuts and caught more jacks, but this time we did not catch any blue fish. Perhaps they have continued their migration and left the area. We then hit a couple of grassy shallow areas to get some ghost shrimp and headed home.

Good Luck
Zippyjr

Tide : Incoming -0.01 12:07
Water Clarity : Clear
Moon Phase: 74% full
Temp: 92 F
Water Temp : 85 F
Wind: 10 mph W
Bait: Whitebait
Results: 4 Trout, jacks and 1 snapper.

Fall Fishing is heating up

After Sunday's one redfish day, I thought we would go for round two. We left out of Jenkins creek to pick up whitebait. We hit the turn marker and the bait was thick. One cast and I could feel the extra weight of the bait fish in a 10 ft net. Which means I now have more bait than the live will hold. Skimmed off the larger baits and tossed in about 100 small baits (for live chum) and headed over to the Hernando Beach Channel.


We started at marker 5 and caught about 10 bluefish and jacks. While this was fun, we where looking for dinner. So we started moving in one cut at a time. The second turned out good. We had a double hook up on trout 25 and 26 inch trout, which filled the limit on 20+ inch trout.



We also caught a 12 inch mangrove snapper. I have seen bigger snapper around the rocks and I am thinking that it might be worth a shot to try to chum up the snapper.
We had a small bluefish on and this little cobia was chasing the bluefish trying to eat it. Clearly the cobia's eyes where bigger than it's mouth. So I tossed out a bait that would fit and he took it.

For those who have never caught a cobia, this is a baby, 40lb cobia are not uncommon. If you do catch one, they pack a big surprise, not only do they fight hard, once boated be very careful of there spines just behind their head. A typical place you would hold the fish when removing the hook.Much to our surprise we caught a 21 inch grouper. I've caught 10-16 inch grouper around the rock, but never one this big. A little bigger and he would have come home for dinner....

Over all it was a good day, we had non-stop catching and pretty good weather.

Good Luck,
Zippyjr

Tide : Rising
Water Clarity : Clear
Moon Phase: 13 % full
Temp: 92 F
Water Temp :84 F
Wind: 5 mph NE - 15mph W
Bait: Whitebait
Results: 4 Trout, 1 Cobia, 3 Grouper, 2 Sea Bass, 1 Mangrove Snapper, 10 Jacks, 5 blue runners, 12 bluefish.

Sunday Fishing

Typically I try not to fish on the weekends, but a friend was down and we only had Sunday to fish.

We picked up plenty of whitebait from the Bayport channel near the new turn marker. The whitebait has been thick around Bayport, but have all but disappeared from the Hernando Beach Channel.

The first stop was the Hernando Beach cuts, near marker 5 and 9. Of course there was plenty of boat traffic but we could not get back to Centipede Bay for another hour. We fished for about an hour and caught jacks, lady fish and a bluefish. I have noticed catching more jacks as fall approaches.

FYI Jacks are god for bait, especially a strip bait for trolling, Kingfish can not resist them. Basically you fillet both sides (include the bones ) and make tear a drop shape fillet. Depending on the size of the jack you can get one or two baits from each side. If you get a big jack you can make a belly strip bait as a bonus. Also if you do not use them for kingfish, they also make great grouper bait. You can lay them flat and freeze them in pairs. Then thaw and they a ready for use. The next batch of jacks I catch I'll post a how to on the offshore blog.

We headed back to Centipede bay on a ripping incoming tide and caught some more jacks, a shark and one 25" redfish. Then headed home to beat the rains.

Tide : -.01 10:32 am Rising
Water Clarity : clear
Moon Phase: New
Temp: 91 F
Water Temp : 88 F
Wind: 10 mph NE - 15 mph W
Bait: Whitebait
Results: 1 Redfish - 5 jacks - 1 Bluefish - 3 Lady Fish - 1 Bonnethead shark

Snook Season Is Approaching.

In a week snook season will open for the Gulf and it could not come soon enough. Earlier today my neighbor reported 3 nice size snook cruising past his dock. Almost every trip I took out to the Hernando Beach channel I ran across several snook, some over slot size. Over the past summer we encountered a great snook feeding frenzy. Based on the reports this should be a pretty good fall for snook.

Bait:

• Live bait: White bait, pin fish, sand perch, ballyhoo and shrimp work well
• Lures: Long A boomer, Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnow, D.O.A. and MirrOlure.

Live bait of course is the best bet for snook fishing. Lures work well but are a lot of work.

Finding snook:

The easiest place to find snook would be the Hernando Beach channel. Day time fishing is best early or late in the day. You really can not fish on weekends, due to boat traffic, unless you fish at night. Night fishing is not for everyone and if you are not an avid boater and have good night vision, then you really should not attempt night fishing. At night the Hernando Beach channel becomes a very different place and at times pretty spooky. The best nights to fish is Sunday and Monday since many of the shrimpers take those day off. When I fish at night, I start out near market 3 then work my way back in. This way I have the back drop of the Hernando Beach lights to provide me with shadows of the cuts and islands help guide me. I also have every cut marked on my GPS and night vision goggles help out too. The snook tend to hang around the north side of the channel near the cuts and on the backside of the cuts at marker 23 out to marker 3.

Other good place for day time snook fishing is Centipede bay, its more of a challenge to find them, since there is a lot of area to cover. The snook tend to stay in deep in the creeks or in where the water runs fast and they are very spooky. Most of the time they start to move out before you can even get close. The way I solved this problem, is when ever I see a snook, I make a mental note of the location and tide phase. When I go back out to fish for snook, I first look at the area and see if there is anyway to keep the grass or a small island between me and the area I want to fish. This way I can see the fish from the casting platform, but the fish can not see the boat. One important note, if you move around they will see you standing, so when you make a cast make sure it is with as little movement as possible. Most of the time a simple pitch works. When sight fishing for snook live bait is a must. With the amount of effort it takes to sneak up on snook you don't want to risk your one shot with a lure that may spook the snook as soon as the lure hits the water.

Going south around dinner point is also a good place to look for snook. The water is very shallow, so don't venture there on a falling tide. Unless you packed a tent. The snook tend to hang just inside the many creeks in the area. White bait works great in this area, anchor up near the mouth of the creek a chum with live white bait. If the fish are there you will know it with in a few minutes. Typically if I fish that area, I also plan on fishing Aripeka. From Aripeka south you can find plenty of snook, trout and redfish.

Tackle:
You will want to use a 7 ft med action rod and matching reel. A good drag system is a must. I use a Shimano Stradic 2500 spooled up with moss green 15# power pro. I use about 3 feet of 30# fluorocarbon tied to the power pro with a uni to uni knot. Depending on the bait size will determine the what size live bait hook I use. I tend to use the smallest hook I can. If you plan on bait and wait fishing, you should use a circle hook. Only use live bait hook when you know you will be able to set the hook when the fish hits. This will reduce the number of gut hooked fish.

Even through I use 15# power pro, I typically only use 2 or 3 lbs of drag. Snook have a soft mouth (not as soft as trout) and many anglers lose fish due to the hook pulling. Take your time, wear out the fish and enjoy the challenge. Just make sure you properly handle and revive the snook before you release them. Take a look at the Floida Sea Grant web site on proper fish handling


Good Luck
Zippyjr.

Whitebait Report 08/12/09

With limited time, I decided to head out to the Hernando Beach Channel where we caught a lot of over sized redfish last time. Since it was late we decided not to work to hard too catch bait and use lures. I checked all the normal places and the only place I found the white bait was at the tri-pod. Millions of them, the only draw back was that they we about the size of my thumbnail.

That makes it official the white bait have spawned.

We did do a little ornamental fishing and caught 5 nice pipe fish, about a dozen sea serpent (starfish), about 50 ghost shrimp and about 25 stick shrimp. The seahorse and pipe fish really like to eat the stick and ghost shrimp.

If anyone knows what kind of shrimp this is please post a comment.



Tide : Incoming 1:04pm 0.6 L
Water Clarity : Clear
Moon Phase: 54 % full
Temp: 94 F
Water Temp : 86 F
Wind: 6 mph W
Bait: None
Results: None

Sight Fishing For Redfish.

One of my favorite types of fishing is sight fishing. Fishing the shallow water offers a great opportunity to sight fish. I fish a lot in Centipede bay where there are many winding creeks and redfish. But if you look at most of the west coast of Florida, Centipede bay looks about the same as most other areas. So this sight fishing methodology would apply to almost any shallow water area in Florida.

The number one thing you have to remember when you are sight fishing, is that you are really stalking; not fishing. This means you have to be very quiet and stealthy. So before you begin, take a look at your boat and see what you can do to make it more stealthy. Some things you will want to look are;

• Where you keep your tackle. Your tackle should be easily accessed with out having to open any hatches or move anything to get to your tackle. I use a small divided box with a lid that will hold everything I need and keep near my casting platform.
• Tools should be kept in a safe but easily accessible area. One thing that many anglers will do is to toss their pliers down on the floor. This will spoke most redfish that are near by.
• Where you stand while fishing, you will want to make sure that there are no creeks when you move around in this area. You may need to tighten screws or put down a foam mat. I built a casting platform and attached the deck using rubber cushion to limit any noise.
  
• Rocking the boat, this is almost as bad as bang the side of the boat. Fish are pressure sensitive and when your boat rocks it sends out pressure waves that the fish can pick up. While they may not take off running, they may spoke enough to make them wary of any bait you offer them.
• If you are going to use live bait, make sure you can get to the bait easily without making noise. Also make sure you have a net near the live well. On my live well I have a latch that will hold the hatch door open and out of the way.
• If you are using lures, have a couple of extra lures in a small box to keep with you while you are fishing.
• Keep the deck clear, you will want to be able to move from bow to stern without having to step over or on anything besides the deck.
• Your landing net should be out and ready to be used.

Now that you have stealtherized your boat, you are ready to sight fish. The best bait to use is shrimp. They are easy to keep and redfish love them and you do not need a live well. You can put them in a bag or small bucket with some ice and they will keep for hours and still be lively a few minutes after you take them off the ice.

The best place to start looking is in the creeks.

View Sight Fishing in a larger map

As you start to move in to the creek, take you time and go slow. If you rush through you will only see the redfish running scared. If you have a trolling motor set it to the slowest speed, or if you're lucky and can find someone to pole you around, make sure they are quiet. Typically I look for areas where there will be grass between the boat and the area I want to look.
This is an area that is not too far in and will typically hold fish. Once hooked the redfish will run out of this cove, so you will need to be ready to move which ever direction the redfish takes you. Other areas are much larger and still offer a protected spot you can peak in and see if any redfish are home, with out the redfish seeing the boat. You do have to be careful they can see you and if you make any fast movements and the redfish will run.

Next time you have a few hours to fish, pick up some live jumbo and give sight fishing a try. Once you experience sight fishing it's hard to go back to the bait and wait method.

Good Luck
Zippyjr

Trout fishing in the cuts

The weather has been bad, for the last week or so. This morning we had some big thunder storms then it cleared up nicely, so I decided that I would go trout fishing around 10am.

Live well full of bait.

Since I knew the whitebait was in the Hernando Beach Channel, I figured it would be a quick stop for bait then hit the cuts. I found bait at the first turn in the channel.

Whitebait on the other side of the cut.

On the way out just before the first turn, I saw two big snook laying in against the bank. I thought about going back and fishing for snook, but there was a bit of boat traffic in the channel.

I saw more bait at marker 19 and decided to make that my first stop. I had a couple a strikes and lost a few hooks, I would guess is was Spanish mackerel. So I move out to the marker 3 and saw a couple of tarpon about 75# each chasing bait. I tossed out a bait but the where not interested. Of course I was not really too interested, since I only had 10# mono and 20# leader, it would have been a short fight.

I fished each cut back to marker 9. I saw trout and redfish swimming around and tossed out some bait. I lost on bait on a rock, which the only redfish I saw went over and ate the bait that I just broke off. So I'm sure the redfish felt the hook and headed out to try to dislodge the hook. A short while later I caught the first trout. I fished there for about an hour and picked up 4 trout and couple of catfish and ladyfish. The trout did not hit the bait aggressively, rather they slowly nibbled at it. I had several trout pop the top of the water only to allow the bait to get away. I also saw the tarpon rolling in the channel near marker 10.


Over a good short day fishing....

Storms Brewing Inland

Turned out to be a very nice day.

Tide : Raising 3.5H @ 2:57pm
Water Clarity : Clear
Moon Phase: Waning Gibbous 89% full
Temp: 88 F
Water Temp : 82 F
Wind: 0-5 v mph
Bait: Whitebait
Results: 4 trout

Perfect Day - Tuff Fishing.

The day started out perfect. We got an early start, found bait quickly and had plenty of water to run with out too much worry about hitting rocks or running aground. Since today was going to be the hottest day of the year, I wanted to catch a few fish then spend the rest of the day swimming.

The first stop is a very dependable redfish area on an incoming tide. I had the boat in the perfect position. Given the perfect conditions I thought we would have our 2 fish within the hour. Normally when there are predatory fish (like redfish or snook) in the area the bait will let you know, by trying to swim back to the boat. But today the bait swam around like they where swimming in the hotel pool. That's a big warning sign, so we sat around for about 30 minutes as the bait remained lackadaisical. The tide was a very high tide, so I thought maybe the fish will be further back in the creeks. So we moved back a little more with the same bait reaction. Finally one of the baits swam all the way to back of the bay. Where I noticed a wake coming out of the grass.
While there where no fireworks or thrashing around, the line slowly pulled tight and the hook set. They was not too much of a fight, so I figured it was a small red.
Just barely legal size, I decided to release the small red. I typically keep fish that fall in the 21-25 inch range, since they make the perfect size meal for two.
The tide continued to rise and I move further and further back. Finally we where as far back as we could go, I tossed out a few live baits for chum and hoped to see a reactions, but nothing happened. I saw the baits I tossed out swimming around like they did not have a care in the world. Which again is a bad sign. After about 30 minutes I finally hooked a redfish that took drag with ease.
After a short battle the fish was in the boat. And a perfect 25 inch size.

What made today so strange is that the redfish where nowhere to be found. Every place I stopped, I know very well and I know where the redfish will stay when they are in that area. After fishing for about an hour at each stop (7 stops total) , I used the trolling motor to investigate, if the redfish where in that area. If they where there, I would have to think about why they did not feed on the tasty whitebait. Each place I looked there where no redfish, I did not spook any out of the grass nor see any on the run.

The only unusual thing about today was the upper atmosphere high pressure system over the area. This caused the heat index to reach about 110 degrees inland. Which leads me to believe that the redfish must move to a different type of location. I guess I will need to do more sight fishing during the next upper level high pressure.


Good Luck
Zippyjr

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Tide :Raising, 11:32am 3.6H
Water Clarity : Clear
Moon Phase: 14% full
Temp: 95F
Water Temp : 86F
Wind: 5-10mph W
Bait: Whitebait ( bayport near the two poles )
Results: 2 Redfish

Interesting Day Fishing for Redfish

I had the chance to go check out an area that I know holds redfish near the top of the tide. There is nothing really special about this place and it looks like a hundred other places. I went back at low tide (1.3ft L) and there was about 4 inches of water. Which means this place is dry on dead low tide (0 ft L) for years I wondered why the fish always show up here.

High Tide

Low Tide (1.3 ft L)

This is where I usually anchor the boat. The boat drug the bottom, but I got it anchored up in the same place as always.
Just as I thought there where no redfish, typically they hang in the back near the saw grass. At low tide there was a raccoon wondering around where the redfish hang around at high tide. But I also noticed there where big schools of mud minnows swimming around out in the open. And that answered my question about why the redfish always show up here when the tide is near the top. The way it looks is the red fish hang out in the back. When the tide is near the top the mud minnows go deep into the grass and that's why I do not ever see them at high tide. As the tide begins to drop the mud minnows have to leave the safety of the grass and the redfish positions themselves to take advantage of the situation.

Once the tide started moving in so did the redfish and this one wanted to come home for dinner. And it was an outstanding dinner guest.



Good Luck
Zippyjr

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Tide : 1.3 L 1:00pm Rising
Water Clarity : Clear
Moon Phase: 68% Waning Gibbous
Temp: 92 F
Water Temp : 84 F
Wind: W 10 mph
Bait: Mud minnows
Results: 1 - Auto Release, 1 - 24 Redfish

Full Moon

One of the benefits of this blog is that I can keep track of my fishing trips. While my last trip was not really a regular fishing trip, I did check with a few others anglers in area. All the reports I heard where the same. We saw fish but they would need bite. This pattern seems to occur around the the full moon.

We left at the top of the tide which makes it difficult to catch mud minnows and we really did not have time to catch whitebait, but I did net a few pin fish. When using live bait you can tell when there is something close by that the bait fears. This did happen a couple of time and I did see a couple swirls around the bait.As well as seeing several redfish in the area. The anglers that I did talk where seasoned, so I would have to take them as valid reports. A few more full moon reports like the past reports and I will have to conclude that during the daylight hours the redfish and snook do not feed aggressively if at all around the full moon.

The next step will be to see how the redfish and snook feed at night around the full moon. That was the plan for this full moon but the storms are not falling into the summer weather pattern, maybe next month.

Any comments on inshore fishing around the full moon I would love to here them.

Good Luck
Zippyjr

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Tide : Falling 3.5 @ 1:19pm
Water Clarity : Clear
Moon Phase: 100% full
Temp: 87 F
Water Temp : 78F
Wind: 10 WSW mph
Bait: Pin Fish
Results: Boat Ride