Moon, weather coming together

**THE ST. JOHNS RIVER AND AREA LAKES**

The fishing outlook is about as good as it gets. Water temperatures are quickly rising under these unfamiliar sunny skies, and there more of that coming.

Reports from the river are that bass are moving. Youll see this when both the males and females are preparing for a spawn. Theyre checking out the digs and planning their moves.

Lots of bass are being caught right now along the vegetation lines, especially on Lake George, one of the consistently early spawning areas. Another place to intersect them is at the entrances to shallower coves of some of the canals leading off the river.

With water temperatures shooting up and a full moon rising Tuesday, this should be an amazing time to target spawning bass all over the river basin, but especially from Palatka south to Welaka. Count on it.

The bluegill bite is excellent, and the fish being caught are big  known locally as copperheads.

Find a sandbar and drop a small chunk of shrimp on a 2/0 hook and a half-ounce of weight, and the catfish should be on fire. If you use a smaller hook, smaller than a 1/0, youll find feisty redbellies mixed in. Youll catch a few on the bigger tackle, but youll lose a bunch.

One guide reported dropping a chunk of shrimp down on a 16-foot cane pole and hanging on for dear life when an 18.5-pound channel cat contested for ownership of the rod. The fish lost, but barely.

Some of the die-hard speckled perch fishermen are predicting a big spawn in the coming days. The moon is right and the temperatures are getting there. The few specks caught this week were full of roe in the area around Crescent Lake. Reports were good from Dead Lake this week by those slow-trolling jig-and-minnow combinations off the grass edges.

**THE INTRACOASTAL**

**WATERWAY**

It changing quickly. The larger redfish remain in the flats in shallow, warmer water. But that could change by the weekend  again because of warming water.

The sheepshead bite is good, but fiddler crabs are a tough commodity right now. But with all this sun heating up the mud, they should be out of their winter funk and holes for those who want to catch their own bait.

Black drum are being caught under most of the bridge pilings. Speckled trout are still schooling in deeper water, along drop-offs. They seem to be a lot thicker north of Pine Island than downtown or farther south.

The bluefish are getting thicker, which can be a blessing or a curse, depending upon your fondness for the toothy fish and your ability to buy new jigs and stick-baits that the blues are cutting off.

A few wayward pompano were caught in the inlet by those dropping shrimp down for yellowmouth trout, ringtail porgies and redfish.

**THE ATLANTIC**

I tried but wasnt able to find anyone who had fished the deep water out on the ledge over the past four or five days. It just been that snotty out there.

Avid Angler did report that a customer came in Wednesday, saying that theyd iced three wahoo and lost what they think was a monster, dumping at 50-wide. They brought in the empty reel for a refill.

With the pretty weather, perfect warming water and the weekend two days before a full moon, it could be a banner couple of days for targeting striking fish out there. That includes a slew of king mackerel and good numbers of chubby blackfin tuna.

A couple of the local head boats did full-day charters this week and caught near limits of black sea bass “that you didnt have to measure  which means 2-pounders. The beeliners bit hard, too.

We got no reports from the local reefs and wrecks but expect all that changed Wednesday  a little too late for today press run.

Surf fishing has been generally poor. The whiting are scattered. With all the south winds upcoming, the best bet is to find the cleanest water you can. Youll find conditions can be very different on one side of an inlet or the other. So Crescent Beach may be ugly, but Flagler could be clean  same with St. Augustine Beach and North Beach.

There have been a few fish caught, mostly early, on the county pier. If nothing else, itll be a pretty place to be if you get some spare time. A fried whiting supper is a bonus.

**GIRLS JUST WANNA HAVE FUN**

Here a neat little story. The Florida Wildlife Commission and Anastasia State Park are co-hosting a women fishing clinic all day Saturday. I phoned a lady at the Tallahassee office to get a little more info  thought wed share it here. She said thanks, but no thanks. Seems she maxed out the class, which she says is a rarity around the state. She filled 25 spots and is contacting those who didnt make the cut to see if she can put together a second event the following day. I said I could help. She said thanks, but no thanks. She has more than 25 women on a waiting list. That unheard of, she said. She also said that this is the first time she done the class in St. Augustine, but it definitely will not be the last. See all you girls on the beach?

**THE WEATHER**

It going to be a beautiful four days with highs in the low 70s and bright skies. It will be a little bumpy outside with southerly winds at 5 to 10 knots and seas at 2 to 3 feet.

**Jim Sutton provides a weekly fishing report for The Record.**

Reach him at [email protected].