Beach Tarpon Report - Flagler County 8-4-13

For the second Saturday in a row I loaded up the yaks and beaded to flagler beach to look for some Tarpon. Last saturday morning there was a decent amount of pogies but they were scattered to thin to really fish effectively. Water clarity was great however. I probably saw 10 tarpon strikes all morning but never got a bit. By 10:30 AM the pogies had all but disappeared.

This saturday my brother joined me but there were so few pogies we did not even launch the boats. We saw no striking fish action at all.

The west winds have started and it is time the things to be kicking off here.

That's it...not much to tell for now.

Larry S.

Fishing Report- Mosquito Lagoon Area

Sat. May 18, 2013
Weather: 74 deg. at launch, 88 at landing Mostly clear to partly cloudy later in the day
Wind: moderate east winds, 8-10mph at launch, 15-18 +/- at noon
Water: Water has turned to a stained tea or brown color. I expect it’s due to the brown tide issues.
Target Fish: Redfish, Trout
Fish caught: (1) Ladyfish, (4) Redfish -mid- slot

We went back to the lagoon this morning to fish the spot we had all the action at last weekend.
We couldn't resist going back for more! We had a pretty good crew this morning....it was Myself, Rick Edwards and Dr. TR.

Unfortunately, the wind was forecasted to be 10 mph at 6 am and building to 16 mph by noon.

We decided to go ahead and chance it and hope against hope the forecast was wrong.

It wasn't!

 

 

We caught our live bait in a little creek on the paddle in and quickly fished as couple spots with top water as we made our way to "The Hole."

Unlike last weekend where the water was really clear we found it to be pretty dirty, probably due to the brown tide issues the area has been experiencing. We had to set up differently due to the wind direction.

It was some pretty slow fishing and most were caught well up into the morning. 

We caught a total or (4) mid slot redfish and one small lady fish all morning. The three reds I caught were on live pin fish and mullet and Rick caught his on a Gulp shrimp again. I had (2) others on but only briefly. I think Rick missed one as well. The conditions were difficult with the chop, making it difficult to see the sandy area. 

 

 

 

All the redfish were quality mid-slot fish and all pulled beyond what their size would suggest.

By noon we decided we had best start the paddle back. We were in a flat that was a little protected compared to the large open bay we had to cross. When we paddled out of the mouth of the creek we were met by some angry water and 15-18 mph winds.  It was no fun but we made it...just a little wetter than we started out.

 

 

Larry S.

Fishing Report - Mosquito Lagoon Area 5-18-13

Sat. May 18, 2013
Weather: 68 deg. at launch, 85 at landing
Mostly clear to partly cloudy later in the day
wind: light east winds, 8-10mph +/- at noon
Target Fish: Redfish, Trout
Fish caught: (2) Trout- short, (13-14)  Redfish -upper slot

I fished with my friend Rick Edwards this morning. He has never fished any grass flats, sand holes, etc. and was depending on me to put us on the fish.  We paddled over a mile and a quarter to get to a big grass flat that turned out to be basically dead! The flat was really skinny and the sand holes had a skim of dead grass or some kind of fungus that is growing on the grass, covering the bottom. We paddled all the way to the far end and it was all the same. The worst part was that there was no bait and we did not even jump a red in all our travels there.

We headed to another flat from there and eventually found a decent school of tailing reds. I pulled one 20" fish out of them before they quit tailing.I caught that one on a live bait.

Eventually we moved to the other side of an island and found a big sand hole and the bite was on! We ended up catching three doubles and somewhere around 13-14 upper slot Redfish. We caught them on just about everything we had but I think the gulp shrimp produced the best. Rick caught one on a top water mirrolure. I caught one on a 17MR. We caught a number of them on live bait fish, both finger mullet and one I don't know the ID of. I caught two on live pin fish. Basically, anything that flashed got bit. It was a pretty aggressive bite.

It was a tremendous trip! It started slow and being Rick's first real flats adventure, he was having serious doubts until I finally found the fish.......Now he's all about Mosquito Lagoon!

Check out these photo from the trip.

Larry S.

Waving Rick over to a school of tailing Reds!

That's a tail in the upper left corner.

 

Fishing Report - High Bridge / Tomoka Basin

Thursday May. 16, 2013
Weather: 69 deg. at launch time
Clear skys
wind: light
Target Fish: Redfish, Trout

My fishing partner, Rick Edwards wanted to fish the area between High Bridge and the Tomoka River this morning. I had selected the location for our last adventure so it was his turn to be captain today. I had reservations about his selection due to all the recent rain runoff washing into the area.

We were joined by Dr. TR on this trip. We launched about 7:00 AM at high bridge and headed south.
We split up at the mouth of a creek and I paddled in to see what I could find. Just as I entered the creek I spotted a large school of mullet in the mouth of a small drain. This would be my first cast of the morning. I was fishing a 5M51 MirrOlure (floater) on one rod and a 17MR on another. When the 5M landed in the mullet school it was almost immediately smashed by a nice Snook.



Catching a fish on the first cast is usually not a good sign and that would be the case today. I hooked up with one more fish on the 17MR that I think was another snook but did not get to ID it before it pulled off. That would be it for the morning for me. I did not see any top water action, no pushing, no nothing. There was a little bit of bait here and there but not to much in the way of predator fish.

I decided to head back to the launch about 8:45 and left Rick and TR on their own. They did manage to catch a few fish themselves but they fished until noon to do it. Together they landed (3) reds, (2) trout and a jack. Most were caught on live shrimp but one of the reds attacked a gold spoon.

I think the area just need some time for the salinity to build back up.

Larry Stephens

Speck Fishing Report - Palm Coast Area

Wednesday, Jan. 9, ,2013
Weather: high 80 deg, Mostly cloudy to overcast later, Barometer has been trending down
Winds: light
Water temp.: ?

Target Species: Crappie (Specks) Method: Drifting with jigs Location: local canal, Palm Coast, Fl.
Catch: (6) Specks (kept), (3) Bass, (1) Mud Fish, lost (2) Bass & (2) Specks

My wife and I headed to Palm Coast again this afternoon to try a new spot I have been
wanting to speck fish.

 

It started off slow with 3 small Bass and a Mud Fish before we ever caught our first speck. We hooked up with 8 in total and put 6 on the stringer. All of the specks today were pretty decent fish and a step above the size we were catching on Sunday, we just did not have nearly as many.

The barometer is trending down and I feel that might have slowed the bite. Besides that, there is a lot more bait in this waterway as well as cover at the bank compared to the canal we fished Sunday.

 

Good Luck,
Larry S.

Fishing Report-Speckled Perch 1-6-13

Sun. Jan. 6,2013
Weather: 80 deg.
Partly to mostly cloudy
wind: light
Target Fish: Specks (Crappie)

I fished a local waterway in Palm Coast this afternoon for Specks. The plan was to float some jigs below corks and do some drifting or slow trolling.

We fished with a variety of jig colors though a green tube body produced the most fish. I also did pretty well on a pink jig head with a white curly tail body.

The specks were not overly large but what they lacked in size, they made up for in numbers. We ended up catching about 50 in all and kept 38.

The water clarity is pretty good so getting your baits back a ways beyond the kayak really made a big difference.  My fishing partner for the day fished with spinning reels with a clip on cork to suspend the jig about 3' below the water surface. I fished fiberglass cane poles and they were far less effective in the clear water.

Here's a few pic's from the trip.

Good luck on the water!
Larry S.