Fishing Report - Snook & Trout 6-6-14

Friday June 6, 2014   Launched 7:00PM
Weather: Hot 87 deg.
Clear with scattered storms in the distance
wind: SSE winds, 10-12mph +/-
Tide: incoming High at 8:30PM
Target Fish: Redfish, Trout Fish

caught: (1) Trout- short, (2)  Snook

There was not a whole bunch of planning for this trip. Basically, I had some time and have been receiving some good reports so we grabbed our boats and gear and headed to Flagler for some topwater action. 

The wind was blowing pretty hard and right down the river. It held the tide down a little and we had to fish the tail end of the incoming which is less than ideal but there was a little action going on. There was plenty of bait around though.

We fished a natural creek drain that had a bunch of small drains and forks, etc. We picked up one trout, 2 Snook and had one other fish on that tore off.

We were using a 5m18 Mirrolure. Had the tide been right I feel like we would have had some real action. We were at least able to get out of some of the wind and work some of the bugs out of the equipment.

Here's a little video from the trip.......

Larry S.

Latest Florida Sportsman Article 7-12

Well, It's finally out on the shelf!

The highly anticipated July issue of the Florida Sportsman Magazine publication just arrived in my mail box today. The reason for all the excitement is, well, I'm in it!

"TARPON QUEST!" By Larry Stephens

I have been anxious to see what pictures they selected to include with the article. To tell you the truth, all the best pictures with a tarpon were of my fishing partner, Rick Edwards. Actually, I was a little worried that there might not even be a photo of me in the article. The very best picture was of Rick with a 144# tarpon that I had actually caught,. However, we did not end up with a decent picture of me with that monster.

By the way Ricky....I still haven't forgiven you for that!

The worst part and how all this started was I had posted that picture on a forum and the editor of another magazine discovered it and contacted me about possibly using it for the cover shot!  Wow, my first thought was...how can I photoshop my face on Rick's body!

That deal ended up falling through but I was able to work out a little assignment with the editor of Florida Sportsman for a short, kind of photo/essay article. 

This is in the July 2012 issue, page 32, 33 & 34. If you don't have already have a subscription to FS, pick up a copy for the whole story. In the mean time here's the photo pages:

I am not quite sure why that awesome picture of Rick with my tarpon drug up on the kayak wasn't used or even one of the other really good pic's of his own tarpon catch. I know they planned to use some of the photo's I submitted in a kayak fishing book that has just been published. I expect those pic's will show up there and I might get left out of the book, well see. I have it on order.

The book is "Sportsman's Best, Kayak Fishing" and comes with a dvd. It Should be available on Amazon shortly.

Thanks to Jeff Weakly, Editor of Florida Sportsman Mag. for working with me and including my photographs in both projects.

Tight lines,

Larry S.

Indian River Lagoon Fishing Trip 5-27-12

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My Bride and I loaded the kayaks in the dark this morning and headed for the North Indian River Lagoon. It's a pretty good haul from where we live in Flagler to the launch in Scottsmoor. I took the time to net a little bait for Tammie to fish with, a few finger mullet and mud minnows. This is the first time I have been out this year due to hunting season so this was a voyage to shake out the Cob webs and get back to fishing.

We got on the water about 7:15AM which was about an hour later than I wanted. The Sailflow wind forecast was for 0-2 mph for most of the morning but when we launched it was already 6-7 mph and building.

We paddled out to the edge of the grass line and fished the 2'8" to 3'4" depth and hooked up with about10-12 trout by 8:15 AM. About half of them tore off before I got them in the boat but it was some pretty good action. By this point the wind was getting up to about 12-15 mph and made it tough to fish as I had not brought a stake pole or anchor thinking there would be no wind to deal with.

I pick up about (3) lady fish after that but the trout bite had slacked off it appeared. Although with the wind, I really could not stay on them when I did find a few.

I did have one real good trout on that immediately started stripping drag but pulled off. All of fish were caught on a Mirrolure 17MR except one fish that Tammie had on. She spent most of her time sight seeing and just enjoying the morning.

The trout were a little on the small side but there are some decent keeper mixed in. I felt that had we launched an hour earlier or if the wind had been lighter that we would have easily each had a limit to bring home.

The water was clear and reasonably high. The best part was that there was no floating grass to deal with. Also, though it was a holiday weekend, apparently the looming storm kept most everyone at home.

As soon as this weather breaks I be back on them!

Larry S.

Fishing Report - Flagler Beach Surf 7-29-11

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Fishing Report - Flagler Beach Surf 7-29-11

July 29, 2011
Weather: sunny
Wind : light winds
Water was pretty smooth early 1-2’ swell

Friday morning: I made a plan to meet Len just after daylight at the beach this morning. I got there ahead of him to scout and locate our launch point.

It was 7:30 and there was no sign of Len yet. Man, I‘m ready to! I had just seen a big tarpon strike in the bait pod I planned to put in on. I grabbed my phone and called Len….”Where you at man“…..”Larry, I couldn’t find my paddle leash but I just located it and I’ll be on my way”. I had to give him a reprimand! “You should have got all that squared away last night”.

Well, while I was talking to him another tarpon busted in the bait sending pogies flying….”I’ve got to go Len! I’ll see you when you get here, I’m at N. 15^th Street“……click!

I made it thru the surf pretty easily and paddled for the bait pod with tarpon striking and rolling. I probably saw 25-30 strikes in about 30-40 minutes.

The bait pod was so large you could not see the end of it. It is hard to comprehend the numbers.

If you can believe this....everything in the photo is bait! except the little sliver

of water on the left......

Once again the Tarpons were quite elusive and I could not get one hooked up. By the time Len arrived after eight AM, the tarpon action was all but over and we only saw a couple strikes after that. I was fighting a small 36” shark when I noticed Len on the beach getting ready to launch. I had a bait or two bit in two here and there but there just did not seem to be many fish under the bait. I was not even seeing anything on the fish finder. I was in about 28 to 30’ of water most of the time.

Len & I were slowly moving ahead with my pogie on about a 3-4’ lead when all the sudden the rod almost got yanked over board! I got my hand on it before the fish stole it. I could hardly believe it. He turned out to be another small, maybe 42” sharkie. He pulled off after a short fight.

At this point the bait pods were almost gone with just a few scattered, thin pods visible.

It was getting late and I had not seen any striking action for a while so we called off the hunt so we could both get back and get some work done.

                                                        Len, just outside the bait school.

Maybe I can make something happen tomorrow!

Good Luck,
Larry

All the dark water is bait, there are a couple jumpers, middle left.

Everything that is dark is bait!!! Unbelievable!

Isolated bait pod (The dark line in the middle)

Len, just outside the edge of the bait.

Len getting rolled on the way in!

Len, after a roll-over! I love it!

To be honset I ended up upside down myself the day before, it's

just a matter of time so consider yourself warned!

Fishing Report 5/29/11 - Pellicer Sheepshead (Part Two)

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Pellicer Fishing Report
Sun.  May 29, 2011
Moon - 3 days to new moon
M.F.=  8:55 am
Temp.:  72 L-82 H. (felt hotter to me)
wind: E @ 0-7AM-10-9AM  mph, (light winds early) steady at 10 mph after 9am
pressure: 30.08

Humidity: 73 avg.(60-91)  

Rain: 0

Sunny

I made the mistake of thinking I would go back after some more of that sheepshead action at pellicer this morning. The boat traffic was unbelievable!!! The Palm Coast Navy was out in full force. It was one boat after another, after another, after another.......I've never seen the boat traffic so bad. I decided to leave around 2:30 before they all started back in...best decision I made all day.

Well, I did manage to catch about 8 of those little bait stealer's but it was a struggle and they were smaller than the fish I caught on Friday. I have a little trick I'm gona put on em' next trip....we'll see how that works!

The tide was still comin' up when I got there so I had a little trouble catchin' some crabs but I wrangled up enough to get started. After the tide started out I had to go catch some more and I had one bucket of fine bait. Too bad the fishin' was so slow.

That's fiddler crabs all around the boat!

There has been a bunch of dolphins feeding on mullet here and one of them bastards snuck up behind me and damn near jumped in the boat with me. A little spooky when something moves that much water so close to your plastic boat! I saw another one actually chase a 12" mullet into the air and grab it right out of the air about 30yds in front of my yak as I was paddling back to the hill.

That was pretty much the story....a little slow but I put enough fish in the boat to make a couple messes.

Larry S. 

Fishing Report 5/21/11 - Mosquito Lagoon

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Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Report
Sat.  May 21, 2011
Moon - 4days past Full
M.F.=  2:15 am +/- (moon at 2:00 position+/- at daylight)
Temp.: mid 60's to low 80's in afternoon
wind: SW @ 5-7  mph early, built to 10+ and died about noon then switched out of E at 10 mph
pressure: 29.75

humidity: 55%avg.(41-83)   

rain: 0

sunny

I know what everybody's thinking........Larry, where's all the fish, you lost your touch or what? I've been thinking the same thing. I have just recently started fishing for this year since Spring Gobbler season has ended and have not really been able to get on any fish to speak of.

I 've mostly been trying new places but today I decided to go back to a spot I fished a few times last year that seemed to always have a good number of fish on the east side of Mosquito Lagoon. I dubbed the spot the "Sink Hole" after my friend Lou flipped his yak there on its maiden voyage last summer. He would have got a kick out of seeing me go over today. I was polling with the paddle standing when I thought I saw fish lying in a sand hole. I grabbed a rod and made a cast but the wind pushed me on. I twisted around and next thing I know I'm in the water. Good thing it was real shallow or I would have got real wet. As it was I was only half wet and was back in the boat before anyone saw it!

As far as the report, I should have just taken a picture of my shirt at the end of the day.  I was covered in fish blood and poop. That would have told the whole story and I could have forgone all the rest. I thought my professional fishing shirt was ruined! A wash in cold water followed by a liberal amount of hydrogen peroxide with a follow up wash, pretty much got all the stains out. It's a good thing half the lady fish get off before you have to handle them. Man those things get nasty. I had them hooked every way possible, even had one hooked in the mouth and tail at the same time! That was was wantin' some relief!

There were some Redfish there but not in the numbers I expected. What was there in numbers were Ladyfish!! I fished some sand pot holes where every cast brought a strike. I know I caught over 45 of them before the day was over. As for the redfish I caught 4 or 5 fish in the low end of the slot, 18-19" range.

I had four rods on the boat, (2) plug rods and to spinning outfits. I had a Mirrolure "Top Pup" on one and a "MirrOdine twitch bait on the other. On the spinners had an Assassin Jerk Shad in pearl and the other had a "Tsunami bucktail flats jig."  Nothing would touch the top water plug. The MirrOdine however, killed the ladyfish, they loved that thing. Watch the hooks on these things, they are the sharpest treble hooks I have ever seen.  I
had ladyfish hooked every way possible, even had one hooked in the mouth and tail at the same time! That was was wantin' some relief! I caught one of the reds on the soft jerk bait and the others on the jig. The ladyfish loved the jerk bait but had trouble getting it in their mouth so I couldn't hardly hook one on it but I could see them knocking the crap out of it. I have had no luck at all in this clear water with a top water plug.

Well, I pushed off from the hill before sun up but I wanted to have actually made the mile plus paddle to the flat I wanted to fish, in the dark. I couldn't get into the park before 6 AM however.

I stopped on the way at a little point that looked fishy. It had a few dead mangrove stumps and some slick water next to some 2-3 feet deep stuff. The first cast with the jerk bait drew a strike from a ladyfish. Just after that I noticed a redfish tail pop up between me and the bank. I pitched to him but nothing. That one and another fish were moving down the bank and disappeared. I moved around the point and saw them again. I made a cast at the one I could see. As the bait got to him he spooked off but instantly I felt a hard thump and my Okuma started giving up line. Apparently, the second fish saw the bait and rushed it, spooking the first fish as it was right beside him. He was a nice 19" fish.

Since I was only a few casts into the trip and I was fixin' to really spank'um I decided to turn that red back and hold out for a bigger fish that was sure to come. A couple hours later with no big redfish on the stringer I was question that decision.

I finally caught a replacement for him on a little bucktail flats jig tipped with a piece of ladyfish in one of my favorite sand holes. I had paddled over a mile to get to this spot and there was a boat anchored, fishing the very hole I wanted to fish, out of all the others around! I never saw him catch a fish out of it but I felt there had to be something there. A while after they poled off, I paddled over and caught that red on the first cast! That was some pretty good justice!

The wind was a little troublesome. It was around 10 mph on up in the morning but died around noon and the water slicked off. In about a half hour it changed directions and started coming off the ocean. I mostly used the stake pole  to hold my position but that made for a few poor pictures with the sun at my back. It was just to much trouble to  re-position the boat so I just did the best I could.

I had my camera remote quit on me when I caught that first red and ended up paddling back to the truck for a spare since I was not that far away. There were 3 other yaks putting in as I paddled away. They headed south behind me but stayed further out. I kept to shallower water looking for a tailing fish. I got into a decent group of reds tailing past that same point I had caught the first at. They were filtering by a few at a time so I staked down and casted to them as they came by. I could not get one of them to eat anything I offered though they were actively feeding.

I did see one more small school of reds at mid day that were moving south and I could see some tails but They were not really feeding they had just pushed up into some shallow grass. They were moving along pretty good actually. I couldn't do anything with them either.

Later, when I got back to the launch, two of the trio of yak fishermen showed up and one of the guys came over and said "what were you catchin', ladyfish? Every time I looked over at you, you were fight another one!"

They had not caught no where the numbers I had but each had caught a red or two that were 24-26" and one had caught about 5 or 6 trout that were all short except one 15"er. I had not seen a trout all morning myself. They had caught the trout in deeper water.

There's probably more ladyfish pictures here than necessary but you get the idea a pile of fish!

Larry S.