No American Shad, Just Bass!

Saturday afternoon I decided to wet a line but since Peacocks Pocket Road is still closed to vehicle traffic until April, I decided to do some freshwater fishing for American Shad instead.

Since most of my fishing is saltwater, I had to do some searching to find some freshwater lures that I could use for shad but I finally dug out a fly rod tied with a Lefty's Deceiver and a couple of light spinning rods tipped with a small spoon and a Mepps type spinner.

 

It was late in the afternoon so I didn't take the Ghenooe.  I opted instead to do some bank fishing at the closest freshwater location which for me is near Loghmans Lake at Hatbill Park off of SR 46.

This stretch of the St. Johns River holds American Shad this time of the year and from talking to some of my freshwater fishing buddies, I thought it to be a good place to start fishing.

After only a short drive I was at the Hatbill boat launch where there were a bunch of airboat enthusiasts enjoying the day.

 

I parked and started fan casting the Mepps spinner around the short floating dock.

It took about ten minutes before I got a hit and a miss.  Several casts later and I picked up a small bass.

I was hoping for an American Shad but I wasn't going to be picky.  A fish is a fish.

Anyway, the air boaters started racing up and down the area where I was fishing making wakes that kept the water roiled up.

I didn't particularly mind the boats running up and down the area but I did mind the noise.

In the airboat, they were using ear protection.  On the bank, I didn't have that privilege.

Finally the boats headed up Loghmans Lake and I picked up a couple more small bass on the Mepps and on a small unnamed silver spoon that I found in my tackle box.

When the airboats came back, I decided to head out and call it a day rather than tolerating the noise.

Several bank fishermen arrived while I was flipping lures and all appeared to be fishing minnows or grass shrimp.  I didn't bother asking if they had any luck, I just wanted to leave the noisy airboats.

Anyway, it was after 5:00 pm and a little too late to hit Catfish Creek loop to see if I could pick up a redfish or sea trout, so I headed for home and some pork chops instead.

Although there were no American Shad caught in the area today, I know from past experience that they do inhabit the deeper areas of this stretch of water.

A few years ago on the way home from work, I caught five shad in about 45 minutes on a small 1- 1/2" silver spoon and a light Garcia Mitchell spinning outfit.

Maybe next week I'll give it a try.  They are out there!

Till next time, Tight Lines.

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Cool Day For Reds

Saturday was a cool day for reds but I did manage to spot a few in the shallow water flats around East Gator Creek road this afternoon.

I've been busy taking care of my wife after her surgery and working around the house in general, but I decided to make a quick trip around Catfish Creek Loop road to see if anyone was catching anything.

Late Friday afternoon, I got a chance to chat with a saltwater fly fisherman who drove down from the Chicago area to sample the fishing in the Mosquito Lagoon. 

I met up with him in the parking lot of Bennet's Auto Supply as I was taking care of a radiator hose in my truck.  His flats boat was parked in the middle of the lot and as I was leaving I decided to stop and see if he had any luck.

I forgot his name (must be getting old!) but when I asked him if he caught anything, he said he saw only one redfish but had no hits.

He was fishing outside of the no motor zone in the Mosquito Lagoon in an area where he should have had better luck, but prior to the cold front; who knows.

Anyway, when I asked him if he intended to fish Saturday, he told me he was driving back to Chicago and hoped to beat the bad weather that was forecast in the area.

Sometimes I take for granted how blessed we are to live next to some of the best saltwater fishing in the United States.  It only takes me about 15 minutes to be on the water fishing.

Anyway, this afternoon I took my Nikon CoolPix and a spinning rod tipped with an "almost alive" shrimp and headed for the shallow flats around east Gator Creek.

It was cold and breezy but the sky was clear.

I expected the fish to be on the dark bottom shallow flats and true to my expectations, they were.

I spotted this red and two others tailing in the same area where almost nobody fishes.

I took the pic with my Nikon and swapped the camera for my spinning rod.

Several casts in front of the fish and one almost on top of the fish didn't produce a bite so I moved on up the road to Catfish Creek Loop.

I talked to a couple of fishermen but nobody was catching anything so I took a couple more pics of the area and headed back home to my wife.

Although I was only out for a half hour or so,  I saw three redfish but no sea trout or black drum.

Guess, it was just a cool day for reds.

Till next time, Tight Lines.

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Another Beautiful Day At Playalinda Beach

It was another beautiful day at Playalinda Beach this afternoon.

I had planned on going shad fishing on the St. Johns river this afternoon but at the last minute I decided to hit Playalinda Beach instead.

A friend of mine said the blues were sporadic but that there were some nice black drum and pompano hitting, so I opted for the surf.

Except for the wind the weather was great.

When I drove up to the check in booth and asked the ranger about the fishing, he told me that the pompano were hitting sand fleas and shrimp.  He also confirmed that there were some nice black drum being caught in the surf at the first few parking lots.

I thanked him for the information and decided to hit lot #4 where the surfers hang out.

There are some deep troughs located in that area and as long as it wasn't overly crowded, it should be a good place to start.

As I started to unload my surf rods, a surf fisherman and his family were leaving.  I asked him how the fish were biting and he said the current was bad and he hadn't caught any fish.

He decided to head for the river instead and try for some redfish.

I thanked him and proceeded up the walkway to the beach.

As I got to the top of the walkway, I noticed that there were no fishermen on the beach.  Only surfers and a couple of groups of sunbathers.

The surf was rough.  Perfect for surfing but not so great for surf fishing.  Anyway, I decided to try for some pompano.

I was using some fresh dead shrimp that I picked up at the local bait shop along with some frozen finger mullet I had in the freezer at home.

I baited up one rod with a chunk of finger mullet and heaved the rig out with a 4 oz. weight to hold bottom.

I baited the other rod with a couple of small shrimp, peeled for good measure and cast that rig out past the second set of breakers. 

After I finally got the drag on the Okuma bait runner set up to the right tension, it took only a few minutes before I had the first fish on, an undersize juvenile black drum which I promptly tossed back in.

The tide was full and I expected to catch a bunch more fish, but that wasn't what happened.

I picked up a couple of small bluefish that kept for dinner and then the bite suddenly stopped.

I fished for another 45 minutes without another hit and as a family with three kids set up right next to where I was fishing, I decided to move up the road.

I packed up and headed for lot #8 where I had some luck last week.

There were three other surf fishermen at this spot but they didn't seem to be having much luck.

The one serious fisherman caught a few bluefish on live finger mullet as I was setting up and the other two guys seemed to be just out for a good time.

I fished this spot for about an hour and only picked up a small catfish and another blue for my efforts.

The blues were hitting live finger mullet but they didn't seem interested in shrimp this afternoon.

It was about 4:30 pm when I finally decided to give it up and call it a day.

Although I didn't "knock em dead", it was a beautiful day at Playalinda Beach.

Maybe next time I'll head up to Puzzle Lake and try for some American Shad.

Till next time, Tight Lines.

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A Rainy Day At Playalinda Beach

It was a rainy day at Playalinda Beach this afternoon but I just had to try some surf fishing.

From the reports I was getting from the locals and guides in the area, the surf fishing this year is top notch.

I loaded up a couple of 9 foot surf rods and stopped down at Mosquito Lagoon Bait and Tackle to get some bait and an up to date fishing report.

The owner said `that the guys in the surf were catching whiting, bluefish, pompano and some Spanish mackerel, so I picked up a bag of fresh dead shrimp and another of cut mullet to dunk in the surf.

The weather was balmy, it was raining sporadically but the air temperature was in the low 70s.

I normally fish lots #9 thru #11 but I decided to stop at #4 to see what was happening.

The workers from the State who were attending to the walkway told me that the fish weren't biting today.  They said the seaweed was making the fishing a real pain and nobody was catching anything.

I filed the information and took a couple of pics of the beach to see what was going on.

The beach at lot #4 was almost deserted.  There was a family trying to get some sun through the clouds and a group of kids playing farther down the beach but nobody was fishing.

After looking at how the waves were breaking I decided to move on down beach and check out the other areas.

I stopped at lot #8 just as it started raining again.  Since it wasn't coming down very hard I decided to "rough it" and set up a rod or two.

There were two areas with an abundance of shells on the beach that looked "fishy" so I decided to start there.

The tide was coming in and the wind was at my back.  This created a rough surf and true to what the workers told me, there was some seaweed in the surf.

I baited up a homemade tandem rig with shrimp on the small circle hooks and clipped on a 3 oz. pyramid sinker.

Today I was after some whiting for dinner.  I've had enough turkey for this holiday season.

A long cast to the second trough hooked me up with a small whiting on the first cast.

The fish wasn't big but good enough for dinner so I flipped it into the cooler and put on two more shrimp.  Actually, I was peeling a shrimp and putting half on each of the two hook rig.

My second cast into the same area produced another whiting a little bigger than the first fish.

It started raining again and some nasty looking clouds were coming in fast but I thought it would pass by so I continued fishing the same trough.

I caught a total of six more whiting and a small bluefish in the area before the rain finally drove me to the car.  I didn't bring any rain gear along and it was starting to get chilly.

It was around 4:00 pm when I finally left lot #8 with my dinner.

All the time I was fishing the area, I only saw one couple walking down the beach and they weren't interested in fishing.

That is what I love about Playalinda Beach.  It is almost desolate during the week, and especially during the winter.

Although it was a rainy day at Playalinda Beach, it turned out to be a productive day fishing.

Maybe next time I'll pick up a pompano or two.

Tight Lines.

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