NE Florida, Where The Fishing Action Is

Ahoy there Anglers,

JETTIES:
Well, here is where the action is right now. I'm talking bull redfish, slot-sized redfish, black drum to 17 pounds and loads of sheepshead up to 8 pounds so far. If you want action and lots of it then head to the Mayport Jetties. There is also whiting, nice, legal-sized black sea bass, ring-tail porgies and black margates and guess what, there are a few nice sized croakers around too. Yes, the action picked up at the rocks just like an early Christmas present. So get em while the action is good. Now the sheepshead should be around until around two weeks after Christmas, (unless we have a mild winter) and they'll head offshore then they'll be back the first week of March just like clockwork, every year on time. If we have a mild winter and the water temperatures do not drop under 60 degrees then we can catch them throughout February again. The black drum should stick around until about the first week or so of May but not as thick as they are now. We're catching our limit including the one per person over 24". So far up to 17 pounds each. You just can't beat that. A few flounder are still around but not like a few weeks ago when we were catching 15 to 37 per day averaging 4 to 7 pounds each. This was the best flounder run I've seen in 4 to 5 years. THAT was a blast!

RIVER:
Bull reds, a few slots and a few croakers left and some pretty nice spotted trout are being caught in the rivers around Jacksonville. Nice yellow mouth trout are hitting best on the outgoing tides on cut croaker. I've seen them to 4 pounds so far and for yellow mouths that's nice. Whiting in the sandier areas of the rivers including the St. Johns, Ft. George Inlet and Nassau River. Black drum around the mouth of Trout River, around the Dames Point area, the White Shell area, the docks at Sister's Creek and at the Little Jetties. Sheepshead on the rocks and docks in the rivers and the older the docks the better they are. Flounder here and there but not in abundance.

CREEKS:
Now here is some fun fishing. The reds have been schooled up in tight areas lately and we've been seeing schools of 15 to 30 fish per school. Now you just gotta love this. I even took my friend Larry Finch out to check out the schools and he's fished here for about 30 years now and he even said he's never seen anything like that. Since the wind has calmed down, finally!, we've been seeing more and more reds in the shallows and that's pretty exciting. Spotted trout are getting better and better in the creeks and they're hitting top waters real good now. If you haven't caught these guys on some top waters you just don't know what you're missing. Spotted trout are just built for top water lures. A few flounder are still being caught but in the creeks most of them are pretty small, especially after this year's fall flounder run we went through.

SURF:
My surf fishing buddy tells me there are so many black drum in the surf right now that he can hardly catch any whiting or pompano so he traveled down south of St. Augustine and caught a few pompano and some whiting down that way but then the drum moved in down there also. I hear the Jacksonville Beach Pier anglers are catching loads of whiting and some black drum along with bluefish and a couple of pompano.
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Remember, it takes all of us anglers to protect our rivers and waterways so help all you can.
I want to thank all my Fishing Report e-mail subscribers for wanting to be included in receiving my reports. I hope you all enjoy reading them as much as I enjoy writing them. Keep up the good work on keeping the trash out of the water and I hope you ALL have a MERRY CHRISTMAS and a GREAT new fishing year!!!

You can say what you want about the South but, you never hear of anyone retiring and moving up North,,,,,

Capt. Vic Tison
VIC2FISH &ADVENTURES, INC.
Web site:http://vic2fish.com/
904-699-2285
P.O. Box 28208
Jax., Fl. 32226-8208

Neither Captain Vic nor Vic2Fish & Adventures, Inc. claims any responsibility for any injury or loss of property arising out of any party using these Fishing Reports.If you no longer wish to receive Capt. Vic's Fishing Reports, please e-mail me to unsubscribe and I'll remove your address from the lists.

Nice Big Fish In Apalachicola

Ralph Orlovick on 11/14 with Capt. David Heinke

December has been a quiet month here so far with fishermen few & far between, although the weather has been absolutely gorgeous - more like April or October. It feels funny Christmas shopping in flip flops and short sleeves in North Florida though. Tommy was able to dive 6 days out of the last 12 or so days and reports that they found grouper closer inshore, in around 70 feet of water. Visibility at the Empire Mica was so good they could see the entire ship from the surface and it sits in about 120 feet of water.

Capt. Tommy Holland tells me that they are catching large numbers of fish while bayfishing and are limiting out quickly, whenever they do have an opportunity to take clients fishing. I just now spoke to Capt. Jason Rucker who was in the process of pulling his skiff out of the water after flats fishing today - according to him there are NICE BIG fish EVERYWHERE and to tell y'all they're On Fire! (Tell me he doesn't love HIS job!) It can be challenging this time of year with low winter tides and the occasional low light conditions - sometimes the fog just rolls in for no apparent reason - but if you can get to the fish, they're there for the catching.

Have we talked about Oysters lately? The last 2 weeks for "Date Night" Tommy took me to Papa Joe's at the Scipio Creek Marina where the local oysters are the best we've ever tasted. Hopefully the governors of FL, GA & AL will be able to work things out at their meeting this month so the oysters beds will get enough fresh water to continue to thrive while still taking care of our neighbors upriver.

FISHING FORECAST

January can normally be hit or miss with fishing here. We always have some warm sunny days the first month of the year and if you are lucky enough to be able to suit up and go it is well worth doing. Most of our fishing guides double as hunters - all are true outdoorsmen - so a little notice is normally necessary to pin one down to go fishing but I know where they live & over the years I've learned how to track them down!

Real Estate Report - Just listed! A private, fully furnished new home with a genteel, old south flavor at RiverCrest at Scipio Creek. For the details click here http://www.robinsonrealestatecompany.com/property.cfm?listing_id=20
Also listed: one Tri-Plex (fully rented & income producing) two affordable newer 3 bedroom homes also in Apalach and some St. James Bay lots located between the 1st & 18th holes. Please call or email for more info as these properties have not yet been added to our website but I'm working on it as fast as I can!

If we don't see you in the next 13 or so shopping days until Christmas, HAPPY HOLIDAY's from the Robinson's!!

Kathy Robinson
Robinson Brothers Guide Service
118 Commerce St.
Apalachicola, Florida 32320
850-653-8896 850-653-7196 (cell)
www.FloridaRedfish.com

Robinson@Flaredfish.com

REALTOR - Robinson Real Estate Company
www.RobinsonRealEstateCompany.com
850-653-1653

Member:
Apalachicola Bay Area Chamber of Commerce www.apalachicolabay.org
Carrabelle Chamber of Commerce www.carrabelle.org
Gulf County Chamber of Commerce www.gulfchamber.org
Florida Guides Assn. www.Florida-Guides.com
Florida Realtors Assn. www.floridarealtors.org
Realtors Assn. of Franklin & S. Gulf Counties www.rafsg.com

A Variety Of Fish Make The Season Merry

12/7/07
I've been getting calls from people asking about how the fishin may be around Christmas. The weather so far has been on the warm side, the water is warmer than it normally is, if the major cold fronts stay away it's going to seem more like fall than winter. Bait fish are still around, some Kingfish, Mackerel, Bonita and even a couple Tarpon have been jumped while fishing for the Mackerel. Snook are still chewing pretty good but as it gets colder it will slow down some. Don't fret Redfish and Sea Trout will take up the slack. Fishin at night has been great on the really strong tides, with Snook, Redfish, Sea Trout and some Grouper being caught. Water Temp is 69.
Snook : Night dock Snookin has been very good with white flies, artificial and live baits. Daytime fish points or near mangroves with deep water nearby or around bridges.
Redfish : Have been found in schools where you catch one you'll catch more. On incoming tides, the fish move up the grass flat to the mangroves and oyster bars. Sand potholes hold fish on the lower tides. Look for schools of Mullet for places to start. Don't over look docks as they will hold fish too.
Seatrout : Are really making a strong showing now that the water is cooler. Drift the grass flats in 1-4 feet of water throwing D.O.A. shrimp, plugs and jigs/jerk baits, topwaters have caught some of my largest Seatrout in the morning, that's a fun way to catch any fish in my book.
Others: Spanish Mackerel, Bonita, and Bluefish are tearing it up on the beaches and in the bay. Look for schools of bait being slammed by them. Some Mango snapper on rock piles and near bridges and docks.
If you have any questions about my charters, fishin reports or fishing in general send me an email.

Tight Lines,
Captain Jazz
727-409-6733

Picture Perfect Planning

By Capt. Jim Stoner

I can’t tell you how many times I have fished a spot, caught a bunch of fish and asked myself, "Are there any other places like this?" While it has taken me many years of fishing the Ten Thousand Islands to learn my spots, I think I have a better way to explore the area without even leaving the dock - aerial maps.
For those of you that don’t know me, in addition to being a captain, I am also licensed professional land surveyor. During the course of my surveying career I have utilized aerial mapping on many projects as a planning tool and as a basis for large surveys. With this knowledge in hand I have been utilizing aerial maps for several years to look for promising fishing spots. Yes, it works and I have found a bunch of them.
I know that the internet is loaded with mapping sites but two of the easiest to use (for me anyway) are Google Earth and TerraServer-USA. Both of lease sites are free and both are useful for planning a trip to the remote back country of Everglades National Park.
Google Earth has recent color aerial maps and TerraServer-USA has older black and white maps. At first glance it would seem like the Google Earth color images would give it the edge but in reality I like the older black and white aerial maps because they have better resolution and the contrast is great.
It’s easy to zoom down on an area of interest and look at the various features like creek mouths and oyster bars. That secret spot that you have been coveting may have a hidden creek coming into it and that creek may be the reason for the fish you have been catching. From the water you cannot see the creek mouth because it’s overgrown but with an aerial view its sticks out like a sore thumb. Look at these aerial maps of Gopher Creek and it doesn’t take a lot of imagination to understand why it’s a great place to fish. Just look at the creeks feeding into those bays. I can hear the Snook and Tarpon popping right now!
The beauty of these maps is that they are available 24 hours a day and you can view them to your hearts’ content. You can plan your next outing days in advance utilizing the aerials. I print them out and use them to navigate and explore an area. In the case of Google Earth you can extract latitude and longitude from the map but honestly I just keep it simple and navigate around like I always have without GPS.
After a successful trip I take a few minutes to look over the aerial maps and try to indentify the spots I have fished. This way I can commit them to memory and see if any other interesting features exist (like a creek or oyster bar).
With some of the many software packages that are available you could download your GPS trails into the maps and save the data for a future trip.
Finally, one of the best reasons to use the aerial maps is so you can day dream about your next trip or call your buddy to say, "See that point? I caught a big Snook right there yesterday but don’t tell anyone".

Everglades Pro Fishing Charters

Captain Jim Stoner

Captain Doug Stoner

954-444-9995

http://www.evergladespro.com/

snook4341@yahoo.com

Grouper Glory Days Are Here

Report Date: December 10, 2007
For the last six months I have been sparsely targeting Gag Grouper in water from 5-30 feet, but with so many other species more accessible and just as much fun to catch I’ve often found myself overlooking many Grouper areas and techniques in order to catch more Redfish, SeaTrout, Spanish Mackerel and Sheephead. But with the cooling temperatures of late November and December many of the inshore species have left their summer and fall hiding areas in search of warmer water. When these inshore fish begin heading towards their winter hideouts, the fishing can be awesome one day and average another. The inshore and offshore Grouper fishing still remains the most consistent fishing for this time of year and typically is what I like to concentrate on.

It's Grouper time along the Nature Coast. Nancy Allen dropped a live pinfish in 30ft of water and brought up this 10lb+ beauty.
By far and away the most consistent and heart pounding fishing action the Nature Coast has to offer is its Inshore and Offshore Grouper fishing. On a recent charter I took my clients Jay and Nancy Allen from Leesburg out to a wreck that I’d marked 6 years ago in 25 foot of water. To my amazement, the first pass we made over the wreck revealed tons of bait fish suspending 10-20 feet around the wreck. When we saw all of that bait hovering over the top of the wreck we all had one idea why they didn’t want to go down any further, Grouper! Our first few drops on this spot revealed plenty of healthy small Groupers and even a few mangrove Snapper. However, after we had drifted about 30-50 feet past the wreck all hell broke loose. Once away from the wreck immediately all 3 of us hooked up. Jay brought up a 21” small grouper, I brought up a keeper 25”, and Nancy brought up this beautiful 15 pounder.

Mackerel on FLY!!!!
Later on that same week my fishing buddy Dan Kramer and I went out to scout a few 8-12 foot shallow rocks for Mackerel on a fly and just for the HaHa’s we brought a pair of light BerkleyTactix and Shimano BaitRunner 3500 combos to throw for a few shallow water Grouper. After breaking off a few Clausers and landing a couple of Mackerel, Dan picked up his BaitRunner and threw a Bomber Long A down the same piece of bottom we’d previously been fly fishing on. His first couple of cast resulted in a couple of small grouper, but as soon as the tide began rising the bigger Grouper started to show themselves. After one big Grouper schooled my partner and his lure he quickly got back by landing a beautiful 15 pounder using 6lb SpiderWire. After landing one other keeper for dinner we played catch-and-release with over a dozen other Grouper before calling it a day.

Dan Kramer is showing off a beautiful keeper Gag Grouper he caught in less than 5 feet of water.

Beautiful Weather and Awesome Fishing, “Life is Good!”

Capt Kyle Messier

(352) 634-4002

kylemessier@yahoo.com

http://www.redhotfishingcharters.com/