Cast Netting For Shrimp

Cast netting for shrimp is a common practice in the Jacksonville, Fl. area and many other areas of Northeast Florida.  

Apparently it is catching on in our area as well.  

About 7:30 pm I decided to drive down to the fishing piers under the A. Max Brewer Causeway bridge to see if anybody was braving the low 50 degree temperatures to net some shrimp.

There was a full moon out, a good breeze over the water, and a lot of people on the fishing piers.

I was surprised to see the sea wall and the first section of the lower fishing pier loaded with sport shrimpers cast netting for shrimp.

I took a bunch of pics and a couple of short videos before talking to the guys to see what they were catching. (Click on pic above.)

There were other sport shrimpers along the rails with lights in the water dip netting shrimp but they were not doing that great this evening.

I conversed with three gentlemen who were weekly visitors to the fishing piers and all three said that the winter shrimp run has started, but that so far tonight it was slow.   

Only a handful of shrimp were in their buckets; so far.

I started conversations with several cast netters and discovered that they had been netting anywhere from 2 to 5 pounds of shrimp for the past few nights.  

The guy below in the yellow rain slicker said he netted a black drum last night that was about 20 pounds but it broke through his net as he was trying to pull it up to the deck of the pier.  

He also said that he had been netting 2 to 3 pounds of shrimp per night, until this evening.  However, the night is yet young.

 I noticed that no fish were yet attracted to the shrimp lights, but I spent some time tossing a Tsunami paddletail bait around anyway, just in case a big trout was in the area.  After about a dozen half hearted casts, I packed in the rod and gave up fishing tonight.

Although the air temperature in the truck read 52 degrees, the wind on the fishing pier made it feel like 40 degrees or lower.

I walked past several other people who were staring into the water looking for a drifting shrimp but after getting nothing but negative vibes when I asked them about how many they were netting, I decided to head back to the warmth of the hacienda.

I was told that the shrimping can pick up at any hour during the night and a good number of the guys said they stay out well past midnight.

More power to them.  I was cold, chilled, and didn't want to get sick.

Till next time,
Tight Lines.

Fishing Peacocks Pocket Road

Fishing Peacocks Pocket Road is something I occasionally do to get some exercise, and since it was an awesome afternoon, I decided to pack  couple of rods and go on a walkabout.

When I drove into East Gator Creek, I stopped a couple of times to toss a Creme Spoiler Shad and a couple of topwater baits around the dropoffs in the shallow flats.

I missed a couple of small trout and hooked and released three nice ladyfish that gave me a quite a show of jumping.

When I finally meandered to the barrier at Peacocks Pocket road, I parked and took two rods, a bottle of Pro Cure, a Chug Bug, a few extra Spoiler Shads, and a small MirroLure suspending bait with me in case I lost some lures along the bank.

I got to the first pond and managed to hook into a small dink trout that I released.

It hit the spoiler shad as I pulled it off the very shallow flat into the deeper canal along the bank.

Feeling good about the bite, I continued up the way and heard a large fish busting bait along the bank.  I tried to cast to the fish when I got into range but the brush along the bank made a good cast impossible.

After fishing two more spots without another bite or even a followup, I decided to walk back to the truck and try another area.

It was around 4:30 pm and some clouds were overhead that looked like rain.  The air temperature dropped and as I got close to the culvert at the wire rope barrier, I noticed a lot of activity around the flowing culvert.

I stood back from the culvert and started casting the paddletail bait to the opposite bank  and pulling it slowly back towards the flowing water.

Almost immediately I got a bump and then a solid hookup with a small sea trout.

I landed the fish, took a quick pic and released it to grow up.

I continued fishing the culvert until dark and managed to hook and release at least a dozen more under slot sea trout before the bite stopped and it was too dark to cast.

There is a magic hour or so right before sunset when the sea trout bite turns on, and this afternoon I hit it perfectly.  Too bad the fish were so damn small.

A front is coming through tonight and will probably put the fish down but I still hope to get out again tomorrow to try another area.  

Till next time,

Tight LInes.

Horseshoe Crabs Spawning

This afternoon my wife wanted to get something to eat from Arby's so we loaded up Elmo and Odie and headed to the local fast food store to pig out. 

We decided to take a drive around Gator Creek road to eat our sandwiches and to see if the work crews from the wildlife refuge had improved the road. 

As we crossed the A. Max Brewer bridge we saw that the kite surfers were out in force and I knew it wouldn't be a great day for bank fishing. 

 As I drove past the barrier into Gator Creek road, we saw the sandy shoreline covered with horseshoe crabs spawning and water birds stuffing themselves on their eggs.  

Click on the first pic below for a short video of the action.

I hadn't seen horseshoe crabs gather like this for quite a while, so I stopped eating my two for $6.00 fish sandwich and took a few pics of the crabs. 

 After we got through eating our lunch, we drove around to see if anybody was catching any fish before heading home.

We saw three groups of people dunking shrimp for black drum but the only thing they were catching was catfish and stingrays.

I wanted to see if there was any topwater action along East Gator Creek road so we headed into it on the way home.

There were no signs of any topwater action but we did spot a ton of gators on the bank and in the shallow flats.

One particular bruiser on the bank was in the 12 to 14 foot category, so I took a pic before heading out of the area.  Gators like this on is why you should never get in the water in this area.

Before we got out of East Gator Creek, Karen and I counted a total of 14 gators.

Good reason to name the area "Gator Creek".

Till next time,

Tight Lines

Morning Space X Launch

Got up in time for the morning Space X Launch that went off without a hitch and planned to go fishing, but I forgot that I had to perform water changes on several aquariums that we have.

I parked along the Indian River at about 9:35 am and immediately struck up a conversation with a guy from Canada who was visiting his daughter in Orlando.

We started discussing politics and the world situation to the point that I almost missed the launch (click on pic below).

The morning was perfect for fishing topwater lures but unfortunately, I didn't have the time to wet a line.  

With any luck, I'll make it tomorrow.

Till next time,

Tight Lines.

Tough Fishing On Bio Lab

Since it was raining and I hadn't had a chance to wet a line in awhile, I decided to scout out some areas and possibly snag a sea trout or two.

I got some gas and headed out to Shiloh Road off of US 1.

When I got to the first culvert, I noticed a KSC officer with binoculars checking something out so I continued to the barrier at the shallow kayak launch.,

Other than a lot of water birds in the area, I saw no sign of fish activity.  

Undaunted, I pulled on my Frog Toggs and started tossing a topwater Chug Bug around the shallow marsh.    It took me about 20 casts or so before I was convinced that no fish were in the area and moved on.

On the way out, the KSC vehicle was gone so I pulled out another rod with a Creme Spoiler Shad and tossed it around both sides of the road, again with no results.

The rain slacked up a bit so I headed to Patillo Creek Road to check it out.

There were two fishermen in kayaks fishing the mangrove shoreline and two other groups of fishermen dunking shrimp for black drum.  None of the bank fishermen had any luck and after tossing a Johnson Sprite, the Creme Shad, and an XPS topwater around several areas without a single follow up or hit; I decided to move on to greener pastures.

I drove up to the north barrier and fished the small pond and cove on both sides of the road with several lures and again, no luck.  

Another guy who was walking back to his car with a bucket of live shrimp told me he was also getting skunked.

I left Patillo and drove around the north bank of Haulover Canal to see how those guys were doing. 

There were plenty of people fishing from boats and from the bank but nobody seemed to be catching anything.  The rain had stopped and everybody seemed to be having a good time just enjoying the day.

I stopped along the bank to take a pic of some buzzards competing with a Blue Heron and tossed around a gold Johnson Sprite spoon for about a half an hour, but never got a hit.

I decided to give Bio Lab road a shot just for the hell of it before heading home so I pulled into the first culvert and spotted a medium size tarpon floating along the bank at the culvert.  

I took a couple of pics of the decaying fish and a buzzard trying to figure out how to get a meal from the fish before pushing on.

There were a few anglers fishing the banks on the Mosquito Lagoon side of the road for black drum and reds, but the two guys I spoke with said the bite today was dismal.  I agreed, wished them luck and kept on the road to a spot I usually am able to pick up a few snook.

As I was driving down the narrow unimproved one way road, I almost got run over by an EMS vehicle and a couple of KSC (Kennedy Space Center) patrol cars.  

I pulled over and took a video of the action wondering what was going on as three more KFC vehicles rushed down the road.

As I pulled into the spot I wanted to fish, two more KSC vehicles drove past me before I had a chance to park.

A couple who were crabbing at the culvert where I planned to fish were leaving so I asked them if they caught anything.  The guy said the fishing was horrible and the crabs weren't cooperating either.  

He also told me that the KSC officer who he spoke with said a boat had capsized and if I heard a whistle to call 911 and report where it was coming from.

I never heard a whistle and after tossing several artificial baits around several areas, never got a hit.

At this point I finally decided that I was skunked, so I packed all the rods into the back of the truck and headed home to get something to eat.

The launch scheduled for this morning was rescheduled for tomorrow at 10:00 am so I may give it another shot after the launch, if it goes up.

Till next time,

Tight Lines.

A Windy New Year

Today was the beginning of a windy new year, but I still had to get out to wet a line.

I left the house around 10:00 am with high hopes of hooking into a snook, sea trout, or redfish.  

The weather was great, 83 degrees when I got to the A. Max Brewer Bridge, but when I got to the top and saw the number of people kiteboarding along the causeway, I knew it was going to be tough fishing.

I originally planned on fishing East Gator Creek but with the number of people out today, I decided on driving down Bio Lab Road instead.

As I hoped, there were not as many people fishing off of Bio Lab.  A few guys were dunking baits for black drum and reds but it was not near as crowded as it was a couple of days ago.

I stopped to fish around several culverts using various sizes of Creme Spoiler Shad paddletail baits but I only had one small bite on the smallest size.

I gradually made my way to the southernmost part of the lagoon, south of Pelican Island, and pulled in near a culvert where three other vehicles were parked.

I expected to see fishermen but the people were walking along an unimproved trail enjoying the day. 

The wind was blowing like crazy making casting tough.  I pulled out a light weight spinning reel with 6 pound test mono and started casting the Creme baits around again.

After many casts in the water around the open culvert, I finally caught the only fish of the day.  A very small ladyfish that I took a pic of and quickly released.  The fish was almost as long as the bait.

A couple of fly fishermen came by and we talked a bit about the bite.  It was way too windy for me to use my fly rods but they both managed to find areas to cast in the wind.   

I remembered one of the gentlemen who also remembered me and my wife Karen, when we used to fish Peacock Pocket Road on a regular basis.  I'm horrible with names, but I did remember his face. 

One of the fly fishermen was using a topwater popper and the other a brown pattern that looked like a Muddler Minnow.   I was told that neither had hooked up with any fish today.

We parted ways and after they left,  I decided to fish farther up the road where I found this juvenile Manatee in the shallows.

I switched baits and started tossing a Rapala X-Rap around the mangroves until the wind managed to blow it into a stickup that looked like a Christmas tree with all the lures on it.

Not happy about losing the lure, I started walking back to the truck to head home and spotted a bloated dead gator along the bank.  

It was rotting away in the water but there's not much you can do about moving it out of the area.

I loaded up my rods and headed back to the truck to make my way home.  Saying it was a windy new year is an understatement.

Till next time,

Tight Lines