Gators, cuberas and swordfish

***Gators, cuberas and swordfish***

**The St. Johns River and area lakes:**

The big question is “what going on with the shrimp? The answer is that theyre getting thicker, but not much bigger. The term “bait shrimp remains a kind description. Theyre edging toward “pileau shrimp, after which they morph into “find your cast net in the garage shrimp. But most of the guys “who know all agree were in for a very good shrimp run this year. Everything salty in the St. Johns River.

For the past couple of years, there been a miraculous occurrence at the venerable Croaker Hole in the river down by Welaka. It happened again last week. Mobs of flounder showed up there. The Croaker Hole is actually a small saltwater spring in the middle of the river. Everyone (who knew) was catching them about as fast as they could toss live bait at them. One guide limited four times in four days, and when he couldnt go back on the fifth, his wife took his boat and headed back herself. The fish were between 2 and 4 pounds and they tossed back fish under 16 inches. Capt. Adam Delaney does not have to lie about his fishing  or admit when his wife commandeers his boat. But the flounder are gone now, and no knows where or why.

The croaker bite gets better the farther north you fish. They were thick from Julington Creek north.

Bass fishing is slow, but the buck bass are beginning to school up. The larger bass are tough to tempt with anything but fresh, live river shrimp. And they are full of them.

The panfish bite remains fine. The bluegill and shellcracker spawn is on again down in Lake George. There a full moon tonight. But the trick is that these fish are bedding in 7 and 8 feet of water, where you cant see the fanned-out beds. The guys with the side-imaging sonar stuff are just killing them down there with the technology. There ought to be a law.

Gator season opened up Monday and we heard of a couple of 9-plus-footers being taken around Crescent Lake. I got a half-a-picture sent late Wednesday from a buddy, Ben Williams, along with and a broken-up phone message that he got one. The half I saw looked big.

**The Intracoastal Waterway:**

Temperatures are fluctuating in the ICW. Most of the guides are still heading north, starting around Pine Island, looking for lower temperatures and bigger numbers of slot reds. There plenty of finger mullet to go around for bait.

The flounder bite is pretty good. It still the jetties, docks and creek mouths where theyre concentrating. Maybe the very best bet for a stinger full of fish is targeting mangrove snapper around pilings, oyster bars and under docks (especially those with well-used cleaning tables). Theyre stacking up under the Matanzas Inlet Bridge, too, but theyre hard to fish on anything but slack tides. Small mud minnows are candy to these toothy little guys.

Seatrout are tough to locate. Jack crevalle and ladyfish are not. Some nice black drum are coming from the ICW, as well in the deeper channels. Fishing any of the deeper bridge pilings is always a decent bet and, perhaps more importantly in this heat, a shady spot.

**The Atlantic:** There were some nice fish taken this week. Drew Castle swordfish is pictured. Capt. Guy Spear had a pretty sailfish and there was a cubera snapper shot by a diver in 55 feet of water pushing 70 pounds. The photos didnt get in time for this week, but well get a shot for you next week.

The fishing turned upside down Tuesday with water temperatures shooting up by as much as eight degrees. The guides figure it scattered all the baitfish schools out around Nine-Mile bottom, thus scattering the scads of snake kinfgish that had been competing with amberjack, bonito, barracuda and sharks for your baits in preceding days. I could not find anyone who fished outside Wednesday, so I cant tell you much. Most of the guides stayed inside the inlet because fishing was so cruddy Tuesday.

It weird, but the surf temperatures are jumping around all over the place, too. One day it was cool enough that a few pompano showed back up. A few days later the sharks and stingrays are back. Dont know what to tell you. There were a few whiting caught at the county pier, along with some black drum, Spanish mackerel and ribbonfish. But if youre looking to fill the freezer with ribbons, head down to the Flagler Pier  where they are thick. Avid Angler Randy Guy said he brined 75 … but … yeah, that Randy.

The beach kingfish bite was dead the past few days, but pogy pods are reported north of the inlet around Serenata Beach Club. The offshore bottom bite is good, but you need to skip the mid-bottom stuff and go out to 21 fathoms because there a big thermocline out there that has shut fishing slap down, according to Capt. Robert Johnson on the Jodi Lynn. He reported good catches of mangrove snapper, a few muttons, a few gag grouper, a couple of cobia and plenty of vermillion snapper.

**The weather:** It southwest winds 10-15 and seas 2-3 feet.

**CONTRIBUTED PHOTO :** Drew Castle with a chubby swordfish caught in around 1,700 feet of water southeast of the St. Augustine Inlet. The crew missed a couple of other bites.