Fishing Report - Jack Crevalle, Trout, Sheepshead, Mangrove Snapper 8-25-12

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Tide: fished last of incoming then beginning of Out-going
Time Fished: 7:00 am - 10:00m
M.F.-6:20 AM
Partly Cloudy
Wind: NE at 8-12 mph

Other Observations: The water was pretty clear coming in but one it started out it turned red brown from the freshwater runoff. It does not seem to be bothering the fish.

Catch:
-(1) Jacks Crevalle
-(0) Trout  (3 Trout short strikes)
-(4) Mangrove Snapper
-(2) Sheepshead, small

Though I got into some pretty good action with dad Friday morning in Ormond, I couldn't stop thinking about the great top water bit that I found up near Marineland the morning before. My plan was to be on the water about daylight and work them over before the bite turned off.

Unfortunately, the fish were not striking bait on top like I had hoped . In fact I saw only a little top water striking action but I managed to get a good bit of attention on my 5M51 MirrOlure. I had three trout strikes where the trout came completely out of the water. I caught a Jack first thing and had one real good fish on that ran for deep water and really pulled, only to tear off 10 feet from the boat.

I had another 4-5 fish on that came off pretty quick and a number of other strikes and follows.

Though I love to fish top water I have to admit that you will not catch nearly as many fish that you will sub-surface. That's just the way it is. Many end up foul hooked outside the mouth and end up tearing off the hook.

I did catch 3-4 Mangrove Snapper and 2 sheepshead on fiddler crabs but all were small and below the legal minimum so they received a stay of execution.

 

 

One more interesting thing was the Ribbon fish were still around and I got to see them chasing bait and leaping completely out of the water. I clipped a photo out of the video of a ribbon fish in mid air. Pretty wild!

There is a ton of bait in the river right now and it looks like there is no shortage of fish feeding on them.

The wind was a pain in the neck but all in all it was a decent trip.

 Trout strike that also missed the plug!

 

 Trout strike, jumped completely over the plug! Never even touched it!

Larry S.

Fishing Report - Jack Crevalle, Trout & Ladyfish 8-31-12

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Tide: fished incoming 
Time Fished: 6:45 am - 9:00am
M.F.11:20 AM
Mostly Sunny
Wind: Light N

Other Observations: Small finger mullet were everywhere and the Jacks and Lady fish were hammering them pretty good

Catch:
-(5) Jacks Crevalle
-(1) Trout (several Trout short strikes)
-(2) Ladyfish
I had a number of other hook-ups and strikes

I have just completed the design and fabrication of the new mount of my GoPro camera on my Kayak. I couldn't wait to get on the water with it to video a fishing adventure. Friday ended up being the day, though I could only fish until 9:00AM due to a scheduled meeting with a client.

The action was really good and I had a stretch where I was hooking up a fish on every cast! Though the fish were running a little small the action made up for it.

I did catch one of the biggest Ladyfish I can remember. I was fishing a 5M51 floating MirrOlure and this thing inhaled the whole bait and only had about 3/4"of the plug visible. Of course, being a ladyfish, she made some impressive leaps right at the boat. I also fished a 27MR MirrOdine which is a suspending twitch bait that is an outstanding lure.

The bulk of the action was small Jacks but even the little ones can pull pretty good.

I did a basic edit with Windows Live Movie Maker so I could post it for everybody. It is incredible how sharp the footage is from the tiny GoPro Camera when watched in HD.

I cut the action down to about 15 minutes to fit on Youtube so there is a lot missing but all the main action is there.

Hope you enjoy it! Larry S. If you want some more info on the incredible GoPro Video Camera or are interested in one to video you own adventures, Amazon has a great price on them, here is a link:

GoPro has recently released the Hero 3 and comes with some significant upgrades in an even smaller package if you can believe that. Here's a link to Amazon for more info:

Fishing Report - Sheepshead- Mangrove Snapper 8-21-12

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Tide: Tail end of Out-going (almost low)
Time Fished: 8:30 am - 11:00m
M.F.-2:55 PM
Sunny
Wind: SW at 2-5 mph

Other Observations: The water still looks like tea from the tanic acid runoff from all the rain we have been having? tide was almost bottomed out when I started fishing and I had to fish through a slack tide so the timing was poor to say the least.

Catch:
-(4) Pinfish?
-(6) sheepshead, all just under legal size at 11".
-(4) small mangrove snapper, one just legal.

Again this morning I started off looking for pogy schools at the beach but came up empty so I headed to try some sheepshead.

The tide was real low so catching fiddler crabs was no problem.

However, it was right at the bottom of the tide and I had to fish through a slack tide hoping the bite would pick up after it changed. The fish never really fed very strong and I only ended up catching 6 sheepshead. that would have been great except they were all just a grunt under sized. They looked like they were all out of the same mold. Don't know where the big one were.

Also caught some small mangrove snappers but that was about it, nothing to get excited about.

It sure was a pretty morning on the water.....slick calm and no wind early. A fish striking some finger mullet along the rocks got me wishing I was plugging in the flats. It will be a few days before the tide is right for that.

Here's some pic.'s of the little scrappers!

Larry S.

Fishing Report - Sheepshead 8-19-12

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Tide: Tail end of incoming nearly full
Time Fished: 9:00 am - 11:00 am
M.F.-1:05 PM
Partly Cloudy
Wind: SSW at 10-12 mph

Other Observations: The water is very brown right now. I assume it it tanic acid runoff from all the rain we have been having? tide was so high I had trouble catching some crabs but did not seem to be very many? used up all my bait and quit.

Catch:
-(1) unknown mystery fish?
-(4) sheepshead on, lost two largest.
-(2) small mangrove snapper

I started out on the hunt for some bait schools at the beach this morning but after driving all the way North to Marineland without seeing a single pogy or any birds diving, I decided to hit one of my sheepshead spots where I could at least find something that would pull on my line.

Tide was real high when I arrived at marineland but I was able to catch a dozen or so fiddler crabs.
I almost did not put in due to the wind blowing right down the river but launched anyway.

The Sheepshead were biting when I arrived and I lost a real good one right off the bat that cut me off on a pile.

I lost a few baits and then hooked a fish that I don't think I have ever caught before. If anyone knows what this thing is, please post me a comment.

I also caught a couple small mangrove snappers that were under size.

Then I hooked up with a really good Sheepshead that was the strongest fish I had on all day. That one cut me off on a pile also. I was not as prepared for this trip as I should have been.

The smallest of the sheepshead was just a 1/2" short of the minimum so I tossed him and ended up with the one good keeper. That one should make a meal for me and my bride.

I feel like the fish are there! I just needed more bait and a better tide. It was close to topping out.

I will probably hit them again in a few days.

unknown fish, If anyone knows what this thing is, please post me a comment.

Look at that rod, That's what I like to see!!

Larry S.


P.S.,  I discovered the species of the mystery fish....it is a "Rock Sea Bass"! That's a first for me, maybe even a record, that's about as large as they get.

Kayak Surf Fishing Report 7-21-12

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The pogy schools have been passing by us here at Flagler Beach for about two weeks now. The only problem is there has been only a little tarpon action in them that we can find. Several were caught off the Flagler Beach Pier this week.

Pogy bait school with a fish strike

One of my fishing partners Rick, scouted Flagler Beach for pogies Friday afternoon and came back with some good reports. There was a pile of bait pods and even got to see a few tarpon strikes.

Of course that meant were would be fishing Saturday morning and we planned to meet at the beach at 8:00 AM.

As soon as I rolled up on the beach I could see bait schooled up on the surface. I scouted and glassed the North end but only saw a couple tarpon bust into the pods.

Rick arrived and we decided to go ahead and launch at the aliki condo and see what we could do. Strangely enough, no sooner did we get in the water and the bait  A L L  went down at the same time! It was a checker board of small and medium sized pods all the way down the beach but all at once, they disappeared.

We were able to catch a pod on top here and there and probably saw 8-10 tarpon but it was tough fishing. We got a few baits bit off's by small sharks but did not officially catch a fish other than the bait we snagged.

The highlight of the day was the exit from the surf. There were some good size breaker rolling in and we couldn't resist a little romp in the waves.

T.R. lost his custom rod when he got dumped right at the beach after expertly surfing his yak right past me, upside down in the breakers. A do gooder found it washed up on the beach about 50-60 yds north of the accident and returned it!

No injuries, no losses but no fish!

I am very confident that the action will heat up shortly however.
Larry S.

Kayak Fishing Report, Flagler Beach Surf 7-7-12

I scouted North Flagler Beach Friday afternoon and found at least a dozen small pogy pods about 3:00 PM. There were likely more but it was cloudy inland and shading large parts of the surf making them difficult to see. I did not see any strikes in them. Still, I was glad to see some decent bait activity finally turning up.

I made a plan for this morning to fish with Rick Edwards. We met at the beach about 8:00 AM and fell right into bait at our first stop. Much of the bait was not schooled very tight.

We ended up putting in up by the Aliki Condo on some scattered bait but it was not looking promising for a tarpon. There was absolutely nothing striking into them on the surface.

Rick did have one tarpon roll about 15' from his boat and I saw something large boil the water but could not see it for an ID.

Rick ended up catching one 3' or so black tip shark and that was about it. We had a couple baits bit off but overall it was really slow.

The surf was starting to get pretty large at the beach so we decided to call it about 11:30. Other than the large breakers at the beach the conditions were pretty good. Luckily, I timed it coming in just right and missed all the big breakers and rode it in all the way to the beach without so much as a splash.

That's some angry breakers right there!

Where are the Tarpon?

My dad whooped up on some big Black Drum in the Halifax River yesterday evening just before dark. He had a limit and three were over 10 lb. I might have to hit the drum and take out some frustration on them!

Larry S.

Famed Fishermen Injures Self While Catching Bait!

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This horrific injury happened this morning while we were attempting to catch some pin fish to troll behind our Kayaks on the big water.

Edwards (my fishing partner) just had to take a picture of my bloody big toe!

"You take a picture of everything else Stephens, I want to see a picture of this on your blog!" Well, here it is:

You wouldn't have been laughing if that was your life's blood draining into you flip flop Edwards!

Though I quickly returned to fishing without immediate medical attention, my sense is, Edwards would have cried. 

Down but not out!

Larry S.

N. Indian River Lagoon Fishing Report 6-2-12

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After finding some trout last Sunday in the NIRL I was chomping at the bit to get back on them. I got a call from one of my fishing partners Rick, looking to make a plan for a fishing trip this morning. I told him my plan was to put in at Scottsmoor at 6:00 AM and whoop up on some trout! He was in!

The wind forcast was for very light winds out of the west but it was already stirring the tops of the cabbage palms when we arrived. We hurried and got our boats launched and paddled for deeper water. We probably launched about 6:30.

The trout have been hanging out in the deeper water just outside of the grass flat in about the 2'8"-3'6" depth.

We fished top water first and there was some action but I switched over to the old reliable 17mr pretty quickly. I probably had not made 10 casts before I hooked up a trout.

I ended up catching about 8 trout and loosing that many more along with 2 or 3 ladyfish. Rick caught about the same but the problem was they were all pretty small and we could not put one on the boat that would make the slot.

The other strange thing was the lack of ladyfish activity and the lack of bait. Later in the morning we pushed up onto the flat and headed south looking for a redfish but there was no activity at all on the flat. We did not even jump a redfish and there was almost no bait activity. I guess that's a good reason for the reds not to be there either.

Well, here's some pictures from the trip I just wish they had been a little bigger.

Larry S.