Captain's Report: Fishing Conditions & Recent St. Augustine Fishing Charters

This week we had good tides starting the week in the early afternoon and moving into the late afternoon by the end of the week.  We also have been in a weather cycle where every afternoon the rain showers have moved in.  Two days this week it just wasn’t going to happen and we had to cancel, but the rest of the week we got the fishing trips in – dodging rain storms and at times fishing in the light stuff.  

The fishing in the backcountry creeks was pretty slow this week but the redfish on the flats have been schooled up in good numbers of fish from 22” up to the largest of the week at 34”. These fish have been sitting in their regular spots on outgoing low tide and acting like they do in a winter pattern. With the overcast rainy and cooler conditions in the afternoon this week these fish have been very aggressive and not the least bit spooky.  You just have to stay back off them, make long casts and hold on until they try to take the rod out of your hand.

This week has been a really good week of fishing without a tough day where we really had to work hard to catch fish.  The creek fishing this week has produced very few redfish in the areas where we were catching so many last week.  But the black drum in the keeper size have moved in.  Fishing the right tide has produced easy limits in a short amount of time.

Last week we were catching redfish both deep and shallow, but this week the fish we have been catching are schooled up on flats in a foot of water or less, acting like wintertime fish.  We have been going in the creeks catching a limit of black drum then moving out on to the flats and finish up on the redfish.  All of these fish have been in the 22 inch – 31 inch range.  When you find these fish like this catching them is not rocket sicience.  Just stay back of them, make long casts and just hold on till something tries to take your rod out of your hand!

August 11, 2013

During the past two weeks I took some vacation time and went to Montana.  I stayed with a very old friend that now has a house in the southwest corner of thestate.  This is some of the most beautiful country in the world.  The house is located 10 miles off the hard road, between Custer National Park and Yellowstone.  I spent 7 days fishing for brown and rainbow trout.  We fished four days on Clark’s Fork of the Yellowstone, two days on the Yellowstone River itself, and 1 day on the Stillwater.  I had a great time and hope to go back in the spring next year. 

 This week started out with early afternoon low tides, and we really had to work hard to catch redfish.  WE fished a lot of water from downtown, north to Palm Valley.  As the week went on and the tides got later in the afternoon, the redfish really picked up and by Friday we were catching up to 15 fish in the 22 inch range, with three or four in the 30 – 32 inch range. 

 We really got lucky with the afternoon thunderstorms this week with the easterly sea breeze.  It kept all the bad weather inland so we had no problem with the storms.  Next week we will be having good early morning tides.  We’ll be starting the trips at daylight and I expect the fishing to stay good with the early starts and good tides. 

July 8 – July 14

 This week Mon – Wed the fishing was pretty consistent fishing the afternoon tides. We were catching a good bag of redfish in the 20” range with a couple over slot fish in the 28” – 33” range each day.  It seemed like every day we were catching 1 trout, but these trout were big – ranging from 5 pounds up to 8 ½ pounds.  We also caught a few nice flounder. 

Thursday we switched to morning tides and the bite really fell off. We worked hard for a couple redfish and a nice trout.  Friday through Sunday on the morning tide the fishing got hot again.  These three days we were catching 10 to 15 reds in the 21” range, with a couple upper slot fish and some nice over slot.  These 3 days we also caught a few of those really nice trout with a few flounder in the mix.

The consistent redfish bite that had been so predictable slowed down a little this week, along with the trout bite that had been going off.  Mon, Tuesday and Thursday we didn’t have to work hard to find plenty of over slot and slot fish but Wednesday, Friday and Saturday we had to move around and fish very hard to find fish. With the big afternoon thunderstorms we were getting the end of last week and the first of this week a few of the areas that had been so consistent really got dirty with the fresh water influx into the system. The weather forecast for the next 10 days looks like a dry one, and I expect everything to get back to normal very soon.

The flounder bite around the inlet this week has been very good with some nice fish in the 2 – 4 lb range.  Any of your typical spots that should hold flounder (creek mouths, rocky structure and docks) are productive.

This week has been another great week of red fishing in the backcountry for my clients.  Monday we fished afternoon outgoing tide and had a really good redfish bite with four fish over the keeper slot limit between 28” and 30” with double-digit numbers in the keeper slot between 19” and 24”. 

The rest of the week was all early morning trips.  Tuesday through Thursday we fished the first of the incoming tide, catching 3 to 4 over slot fish in the 30” range with double digit numbers of keeper slot fish in the 19” to 24” range with a few right at 26”.  Friday through Sunday we were fishing the last of the outgoing catching double-digit numbers of keeper slot fish in the 19” to 21” range but no more over slot fish. 

 Throughout the week we caught a few undersize drum, a few nice trout and a couple small flounder.  Overall it was a very good week of fishing!

June 17 – 21

This week of fishing has been as good a week as you could ask for.  Monday started out with a fly rod first thing catching some real nice trout on the fly, then taking out the spinning rod.  For about three hours we stayed hooked up on upper slot redfish 24” – 26”, and over slot fish 27” – 32”. Then we finished the 6 hour trip at the inlet and back on the fly rod catching Jack Crevelle up to 5 lbs. 

The rest of the week was all redfish  – big numbers of slot fish and again averaging 2 – 3 over slot fish in the 28” – 32” range. The only day we didn’t catch the big numbers was Thursday’s half day trip, where about the time the tide was getting right we got run off the water by thunderstorms. We ended up with three slot redfish 18” – 27”, one over slot 28” fish, and one flounder about 3 lbs.  

June 4 – 15

Our water has recovered from the large amount of rain we had in the first part of May and the redfish have returned to the backcountry creeks that they like to live in. Fishing the back country has been pretty predictable and productive.  It has been so productive that I haven’t fished the Intracoastal waterway in a couple of weeks.  We have been catching good numbers of redfish in the keeper size slot between 18” – 27” and averaging 2 – 3 fish a day over slot between 28” and 32”. 

The black drum have been around in big numbers in the areas I’ve fished, but they have been mostly undersized.  Some of the guides I’ve talked with have been having success on the Intracoastal with speckled trout, but for me to go trout fishing when the redfish bite is on is hard for me to do unless the customer insists on catching trout

The first week of May brought ten plus inches of rain to the area. That much rain in a short amount of time turned the water fresh and muddy. The farther from the inlet you went the worse the quality of water you had. We had to adapt to the conditions by staying out of the backcountry and fishing areas on the intracoastal and close to the inlet. These areas produced plenty of redfish, trout, & black drum but you had to stay on your toes and keep moving because the fish were either moving around a lot or biting one day and not the next. By the third week of the month the water started getting back to normal and the red fish started moving back into areas of the backcountry were we normally fish for them. As of today June 3rd the fishing is on fire. Today we fished a half-day trip and did not keep count but I would guess we had at least a dozen black drum in the 2lb to 3lb range and probably 20 red fish between 20in and 32in long.

It was a week of great fishing. The weather was in the mid 70s with sun every day. This was probably one of the best weeks of weather we’ve had in awhile in the Northeast Florida area. As the water warms, our large school of fish on the flats are separating and getting smaller every day. We’ve been targeting most of the fish in the last couple of weeks in surrounding backcountry creeks.

Jerry Ivans and I fished 4 days this week. We caught a big number of redfish every day. Jerry is from Joplin, Missouri and had never experienced salt water fishing. He was amazed by the tide swings we had in this St. Augustine, Florida area.

On Friday, April 26 and 27, I fished with Bob Lachance from Quebec. He brought his girlfriend down to Florida to enjoy our great weather and fishing. This was a half day fishing trip. At the 3 and half hour mark, Bob had caught so many fish and he was ready to call it a day. The catch included numerous redfish, one trout that weighed 8 and a half pounds. Bob was very happy and will be back soon.

Here are more pics from this week’s fishing