It's been a busy week. There are so many fish species chewing right now, I'm staying on the water every day to feel them out. The Fall pattern is progressing and fish are chewing. The Sheepshead bite is hot right now. Most fish are smaller but there are plenty of 2-3 pound fish available to fill a cooler. They are biting pretty much all over the place but the Inlet, Little Jetty's, Dames Point Bridge and river markers are offering the best bite for me.
The slot Reds are thick at the Little Jetty's. You can find slot fish on both sides of the rocks. They seem to be eating Finger Mullet the best but cut bait has been working well for us as well.
The Croaker spawn has started. We are catching nice sized fish with bigger croaker coming in daily. I expect the big "Virgina Croaker"(big girls) to be here by next week. These fish are 2-3 pounds and can pull some line. These are a great fish for the kids. The minute the bait hits the bottom, you can expect to get hit. These jokers hit hard and the action is fast and furious. Croaker fishing is easy on the wallet, all you need is a pound or two of fresh dead Shrimp and you can be busy for hours.
Croakers like a lot of moving water. The faster, the better. They tend to be in deeper river water with rocky bottom and structure. They are aggressive feeders but once the tide slows down, they vanish. The key is to fish the middle of each tide cycle. Imo, both the incoming and out going produce good Croaker. They are showing up pretty thick between Trout River and Sisters Creek. The industrial areas are great spots to target them with Trout, Mangrove Snapper and Flounder opportunities around. Not to mention the occasional Bull Red.
We just completed our second episode of "Fishing The Flats" this week. The days leading to the day of the shoot were troubling. Between scheduling conflicts, bad weather, Full Moon, Spring tides and finding a Boston Whaler with a Mercury outboard, I was stressing out. Days before Henry arrived in Jax, Marine Max(sponsor of FTF) was robbed. Thieves made off with $200,000 worth of Outboards and parts from the Arlington location. This also included the boat that we were scheduled to film on. Without a sponsor boat, things were looking bad. Fortunately, my new friend Tim had a brand new Boston Whaler Conquest with twin Mercury Verado's handy for us to use. Talk about saving the day! Once we got on the water, Henry decided to have me do a segment on Rigging and dressing the Blue Crab for bait. First off, we had a 4 rod spread set up. 2 Longs and 2 shorts. I get half way into going over the rig and BAM, the starboard long rod gets hammered! The camera is in the perfect angle to catch the action as it happened. After landing and releasing the Bull, we go back to the segment. Not 10 seconds later and again, the starboard long rod goes full over screaming! Caught the scene again! This happens a total of 3 times. In all, we ended the show with 5 Reds. Henry only wanted 4 but the last one was a double. A good problem to have. We were even able to get Tim in the episode fighting his personal best. That was pretty sweet. The shoot was a success. later that night, we all celebrated over at my buddy Teds place and everyone got to party with Henry and his crew. What an amazing experience.
A big thanks to Leon(Sluggo) for filling in at the last second to operate the camera boat. Another thank you to Steve(pylinjunky) and Ted. You guys are true friends. Thanks for all the help.
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Danny Pardue