8/28 fishing report
It’s been a fun week of flood tides with tailing Redfish crawling through the low country marshes from Palm Coast North through the Carolina’s. Many people here low country and think of Georgia and the Carolinas but the First Coast is right at the southern edge of where Spartina marshes make the transition into Mangrove habitat.
The weather has been pretty nice over this week with our normal occasional storms that tend to pass as quickly as they come. The forecast for the end of the week into the weekend is looking great for local anglers with both inshore and offshore fishing on the table.
Inshore the days are getting shorter and the bites been getting better. The Flounder bites been picking up, there’s plenty of small fish around and some bigger ones being caught as well. The Sheepshead bites been kinda slow through summer but it’s starting to improve in the inlets. There are still plenty of Tarpon around, reports have been better upriver in the St. John’s and on the beach South towards Vilano and Matanzas compared to Mayport.
Offshore the forecast looks pretty nice for the weekend. Capt. Oz on the Mayport Majesty has been on consistent Vermilion Snapper bite with a few Triggerfish, Mangrove Snapper, Amberjacks, and Cobia mixed in. Out deeper the bites been good as well with lots of Triggerfish and some Mutton’s hitting the docks.
The Redfish have really been feeding hard on the high tides over the last week. With a little onshore flow the water was running higher than forecasted and the fish really moved up onto the flats in numbers. During these big water windows the fish have one thing on their mind and that’s food. They aren’t in the grass to loaf around, they’re feeding on all the crabs, baitfish, crickets, snails, and other creatures that call those usually dry flats home.
For fly anglers this is the time of year to get out and get on the water. The floods are the most pure sight fishing that we have locally, it’s a fully visual experience with no blind casting. The only time you’re casting is when you see a fish in front of you. This is addictive. It’s a rush watching the fish eat, or watching it flee after you dropped a bait too close, hit it with the line, or just made a little too much noise in the excitement of seeing one pop up right under your feet already in casting distance.
There are two main presentations for fly fishing the flood. Crabs and Gurglers. There’s an old adage about fly anglers enjoying fishing more than catching fish. A crab fly is the fly for the fly angler that wants to catch a fish. The weighted crab pattern will settle down into the grass and matches the size of the small crustaceans the fish are foraging for. The reason you see the tails waving on the flats is the fish are nose down digging around for crabs.
The gurgler on the other hand is the hero fly, for that topwater eat we all crave. Nothing beats watching a Redfish stick its face out of the water to slurp down that little piece of foam with your hook tied into it. The Gurgler is far more likely to be inspected and denied. Fish will come up right under and nose it out of the water without eating. They will often miss it when they do try to eat it. They will aggressively follow it then spook at the last second when they come up to eat and instead make eye contact with you grinning in the background. They will also inhale it, with an audible slurp off the surface as the line comes tight. The Gurgler eat is the dopamine dump that keeps many familiar faces in micro skiffs showing up to the same ramps each flood season.
As always wishing y’all tight lines, fair winds, and following seas going into the weekend! If you’re looking to book a charter, submit a photo, or have a report to share reach out to me directly at chris@fishjax.org or visit www.fishjaxcharters.com.
Spent a day on the water slinging gurglers with the man Capt. Chris Herrera, owner of Captains BBQ in Palm Coast. If you’re looking for a good way to spend a day make the drive to Bings landing for an amazing meal and some great fishing.
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