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

Feb 17 – 23

This past week the weather was the best we’ve had in quite some time.  With the weather stable all week through Thursday, and fishing the best tides in the afternoon the redfish bite was on fire! All four days produced some nice numbers of fish between 24 – 30 inches.  Moving around and working the tides these fish came out of water between 12 and 20 inches deep.  

Friday was a rainy day and brought a cancellation.  Sunday was a morning trip with the first stop of the morning being the only stop for the day.  It’s very unusual for me to do that but there was no reason to leave.  The redfish were stacked up in this location and we sat and caught fish in the 25 “ class for the entire ½ day trip.  

The black drum and sheepshead that had been mixed in with redfish on the hard bottom drop offs for the last month really didn’t show up this week.  This could have been a problem.  But the redfish bite was so good – nobody cared! With the water and air temps warming and spring right around the corner, the fishing should just keep getting better

Feb 10 – 16

This week the fishing has been great!  Monday brought light winds, bright skies and temps in the 70’s!  The fish were turned on and we had a really good day with redfish between 4 – 6 lbs.  The black drum were 2 – 8 lbs and sheepshead from 2 – 8 lbs. 

Tuesday brought a little cold front on the way.  When we left the dock it looked like it was going to be a really nice day.  By the time we started back it was overcast, foggy and cold with a 20 knot wind.  Evidently the fish knew the cold front was coming in, because the bite was going OFF.  We finished the day with around a dozen redfish, plenty of back drum and sheepshead between 2 – 10 lbs.  

All these fish have come off hard bottom drop-offs in 6 –10 feet of water.  This is the only time of year that we have sheepshead in the back country in these numbers.  The place to find them is on these hard bottom drop-offs, which just so happens to be holding the redfish and black drum as well. When I got back on the water on the weekend I went back to fishing the same pattern as the first of the week with the same results – good numbers of really nice fish.  

Next week the weather forecast is for an extended warm up and I expect a week of some really awesome fishing.  From now through April is my favorite time of year.  The fishing is GREAT, my customers happy and my job easy!  

January 27 – Feb 2

This week started out with knowing Monday and Tuesday were going to be the last days to fish until the weekend due to the cold and rain on the way. Monday we made a few stops close to town without a bite.  As the tide started to fall we made the move up to the north and had good luck on the redfish in the slot size, fishing a little deeper water – about 4 to 8 feet.  We continued in this pattern, catching one after the other until the water got so low it was time to move.  

We moved out onto the flats to target a couple schools of redfish.  They were there in big numbers, but not too interested in eating anything we threw to them. You know its time to move on when the whole school just camps out on top of a quarter blue crab and won’t eat it! 

Tuesday was fairly good weather early, but as the day progressed it began to get worse with the temperatures dropping and the wind picking up.  The visibility was low with fog setting in.  During the higher tide we were targeting trout with the fly rod.  My “go to” set up for trout is a sinking tip line with a chartreuse and white clouser minnow.  But on this day the trout just didn’t want to play.  The plan was to swap up to a floating line and go pole the flats for redfish.  But with the wind picking up I decided to change up and go with spin tackle.  

With the barometer falling and the cold weather on the way – the fish were feeding up.  In the end, we […]

January 6 – 12

This week with the cold weather I really didn’t get on the water much.  Monday through Thursday we had a mixed bag of weather.  Monday was windy and rainy, Tuesday and Wednesday were very cold and windy.  Thursday was warm, but with wind and rain. 

I did get out on the water Friday, but the bite was a little slow.  I was reading water temps as low as 52°, which is very cold water for this area.  The fish seemed lethargic and slow to eat.  We ended up with a few keeper redfish in the 24” range with quite a few short fish under 18”.  Saturday was a complete blow out with overcast skies and high winds around 25 mph. 

Sunday turned out to be a nice day, and with rising water temps the fish were fired up and eating.  We were doing a half day trip and every place we stopped we caught fish.  I didn’t keep count of exactly how many fish we caught but I know we had over a dozen nice slot fish in the 24” – 27” range with lots of small fish 16” – 17”, along with a nice flounder around 4 lbs.  This is my favorite time of year to be on the water, and with some more normal weather days the fishing is going to be on fire. 

Jan 13 – 26

The week of the 13th gave us some pretty warm weather compared to what we have had.  The redfish bite was good but not what you would expect this time of year.  Out of 20 spots you fish and do really well, there may be 2 of those spots holding fish that will actually eat.  […]

January 6 – 12

This week with the cold weather I really didn’t get on the water much.  Monday through Thursday we had a mixed bag of weather.  Monday was windy and rainy, Tuesday and Wednesday were very cold and windy.  Thursday was warm, but with wind and rain.  

I did get out on the water Friday, but the bite was a little slow.  I was reading water temps as low as 52°, which is very cold water for this area.  The fish seemed lethargic and slow to eat.  We ended up with a few keeper redfish in the 24” range with quite a few short fish under 18”.  Saturday was a complete blow out with overcast skies and high winds around 25 mph.  

Sunday turned out to be a nice day, and with rising water temps the fish were fired up and eating.  We were doing a half day trip and every place we stopped we caught fish.  I didn’t keep count of exactly how many fish we caught but I know we had over a dozen nice slot fish in the 24” – 27” range with lots of small fish 16” – 17”, along with a nice flounder around 4 lbs.  This is my favorite time of year to be on the water, and with some more normal weather days the fishing is going to be on fire.

Jan 1, 2014

Happy New Year!  Well, I haven’t done a fishing report in quite a while.  With the holidays and a lot of fishing, I just haven’t slowed down long enough to take the time.

The month of November was the windiest I can remember.  We averaged one northeaster every week.  There were days that just weren’t fishable, days the we got out but were limited to where we could run to, and days that we could run and fish where we wanted.  Windy days we stayed within a couple miles of town and fished hard.  Every day we did this we actually had pretty good day, catching lots of black drum in the 2 – 3 lb range and a few slot reds and lots of under sized reds.  On the days the weather allowed us to move about, we caught a mixed bag of fish.  Higher tides put us on some trout, running from 14” to 19” inch fish.  This time of year we typically don’t catch the bigger trout – that’s normally a spring catch. 

As the tides got lower we moved into areas that hold the redfish and did really well on them along with the black drum.  The black drum seemed to be in the 2 – 3 lb range with the redfish running from 17” up to 25”. 

The month of December seemed to get a little more back to normal weather and the fishing was about what you would expect.  The trout bite left town but the redfish bite got really hot. We started these trips in the backcountry creeks catching redfish  between 17” – 25”, with a few nice black drum and sheep head mixed in the 2 – […]

Fishing started out pretty slow the first of the week.  With the cold front coming in we really had to work hard for the fish we caught.  As the front pushed through and the air temperature dropped the fishing really got hot. From midweek through the weekend we had plenty of action on the trout, redfish, flounder and black drum.  The trout we caught were all on artificial and fly, running from just undersized up to 20”.  Redfish this week were all live bait or fly, with a few flounder also on live bait and fly.  Black drum were caught on bait. 

 Friday I fished a flat I have only been on once since last winter.  As soon as we got up on it and started fishing I realized the redfish were back in their regular spots.  There were quite a few small groups of fish 20” – 22”.  There was one large school of around 50 fish in the 25” – 30” range, and they were feeding hard.  Being a live bait trip, we power poled down and threw quartered up crab to them, getting hook-ups one after the other until the tide stopped running. 

 Saturday I went back to this spot with a fly angler and were on these fish for 2 hours or more, ending up with 2 nice upper slot fish out of the school with a few pull-offs.  By the end of the trip the angler had the “northeast slam” – some nice trout, a flounder and some redfish on the fly.  It was a great trip.  And with the air and water temps dropping, the fishing should do nothing but get better!

The first of the week started out with rain and hard northeast winds.  I didn’t get back out on the water until Wednesday.  The tides were right this week for afternoon fishing and the redfish bite was really good.  I have started out a little early in the afternoon for the redfish bite, and made a few stops at some normal trout hangouts with no luck.  

As the oyster beds started showing it was game on for the redfish in the 23” to 27” size!  We averaged about six to eight of this size fish per person on the afternoon half-day trips.  As the air and water temperatures start dropping the fishing will get better and better with all the inshore species such as redfish, trout and black drum.  

The main ingredient to a good predictable bite is some stable weather. When that isn’t happening, I adjust my strategy to follow the fish’s behavior.  For example, the last couple of weeks, we have had a lot of northeast winds that have been holding the water in and not letting it fall out like it normally does. When this happens the fish change their normal habits and are hard to find.  During this time, my typical hot spots haven’t been producing, so I’ve hit the areas we don’t typically fish to find them.  Understanding and following these fish and their behaviors is the best way to have a productive trip.   

The week of Sept 30th through October 6th brought some pretty strong Northeast winds that held the water in the river to the point where our low tides never truly got low.  When the water never gets low it has a bad effect on our traditional outgoing low tide fishing.  The baitfish spread out, and don’t get bunched up in the regular places they’re forced to go on extremely low tides.  Fishing up in the river and backcountry creeks was tough with few fish caught in the places we normally fish.  Fishing for redfish was pretty good around the bridges and docks near the inlet.  This is common during this time of year on the slower ends of the tide. 

Toward the end of the week we had flood high tides that occur this time of year, on the new moon and full moon.  The redfish normally get up in the spartina grass, tailing. But due to the west wind and the smaller tides, the fish didn’t really move into the grass as they normally do.   So we changed our strategy and caught fish in the creek fingers just adjacent to the grass flats, pushing around the edges slurping shrimp. 

 October 7th – 13th the tides seemed to get somewhat back to normal and the fishing did as well.  The river and backcountry creeks this week were full of 15” – 17” redfish.  You could probably catch 50 of these in a half-day trip if you want.  The trick has been to find the places that are holding the slot fish.  The bigger fish have been concentrated in several places I fish.  When we found them, there was plenty of fun to be had!  […]

For the most part the fishing has been great this month. A typical day has been starting out close to town, catching plenty of mangrove snapper between 10 and 13 inches. These little snapper are fun to catch and even better to eat! We’ve been spending about an hour doing this type of fishing, then moving up north into the back country creeks catching quite a few slot redfish and lots of Black drum in the 2 – 3 lb range.

As the tide gets lower we have been moving out onto the flats fishing for schooling reds. These fish have been running between 22 inches up to 30 inches. Then as the tide starts in we have been getting a consistent redfish bite on a couple of Rip lines in deeper water out on the intercoastal. These fish have been running between 22 and 24 inches. This last week, the 16th through the 22nd, these trips have been starting about 2 hours before high tide. Some trips have been spin cast and the others have been fly tackle.
The fall mullet run is in full swing and the inlet is full of jacks in the 8 to 15 lb class. We’ve been starting the day out pulling on some of these big Jacks. Whether throwing spin or fly tackle, these fish are a handful!

As the tide gets near high at the inlet we run to the north and fish the redfish in the grass on this full moon flood tide. The flood tide fishing has been excellent! We fish the redfish in the grass the way I always have during flood tide – getting out of the boat and walking the grass flats. I had […]