Ditch fishing is fine; offshore shut down

Ditch fishing is fine; offshore shut down

JIM SUTTON FISHING REPORT

**The St. Johns River and area lakes:** It looks as if the shrimp run is officially over for the year. Most of the reports are of enough shrimp in the river to catch bait. Always the optimist, one friend casting south of Palatka reported catching five … but he said they were “real big. The best shrimping around is down around the condos in Welaka. If you catch the right tide, you could put together a decent shrimp fry.

What has been on fire is the bluegill and catfish bite. The bluegills are big for this time of year, probably fattened up on river shrimp for the past two months.

You can tell it good when the mullet cane-polers on the Shands Bridge are catching them. The mullet runs remain real strong. Even if you dont participate, it worth the drive over to the bridge just to watch the show. Seriously.

I heard nothing about bass fishing this week, but with the shrimp mostly gone, theyre probably getting hungry.

Striper hybrids are being caught down around Lake George. Theyre still ganging up at the Croaker Hole and in the mouths of the three spring runs on the west side of the lake.

The Intracoastal Waterway: Fishing has been pretty good and very good. The sheepshead bite is red-hot right now. Elaine at the Vilano Bait Shack reports selling out 10,000 fiddler crabs in two days over the weekend. There more on the way.

Black drum are still under the bridges, along with sheepshead.

The creeks are crammed with rat reds, but the keepers are being caught on the State Road 206 flats and along the edges of the ICW in the North River. There are tons of small trout as well. But youll more than likely get near a limit of keeper fish on a higher tide.

The fishing seems to be better the nearer to the inlets you stay. The water temperature up in Palm Valley is pushing 80 degrees while it in the mid-70s inside the inlets.

An overlooked fish is the mangrove snapper. Theyre all over the river now. Theyre not big, but great eating and you can probably catch them wherever you can find a dock or rocks. Mud minnows are their favorite snack, but if you can catch some smallish finger mullet, youll catch bigger fish. The size limit is 10 inches. Bits of shrimp work well, but use light line and small wire hooks because theyre savvy little scrappers. Get live shrimp because theyre fresh. You wont need many. And while youre at it, offer to take any of the dead shrimp in the tank away with you. Toss a small handful out and youll find out quickly if the mangroves are there. Chumming fires them up.

**The Atlantic:** There are no reports from offshore this week. It been rough and ugly. The only report came from the Majesty head boat out of Mayport. Captain Scott Reynolds went out Friday and Sunday. He beat the customers nearly to death, but they caught six cobia one day and eight the other. With so few boats out, it could be a red-hot bite inside 100 feet when weather permits getting outside the inlet  which looks like it will be a good while. He also caught big, illegal red snapper and limits of beeliners. They iced a few keeper sea bass as well. Amberjack were thick.

Surf fishing has been slow because the water been so churned up. A few small whiting and the occasional pompano were caught.

There has been a decent sheepshead and black drum bite at the county pier. It a nice way to spend a morning, afternoon or evening with the cooler weather. Cheap too.

The weather: Northeast winds blow again with seas to 8 feet Saturday and 6 feet Sunday. That will be nasty even inside.

**CONTRIBUTED PHOTO :**

Katie Alexander came all the way from Montreal to catch her first flounder, and a pretty one it was, with the help of Captain Rob Bennett of Coastal Fishing Charters.

**Calendar:** The Ancient City Gamefish Association Pink up the Spots tournament is Nov. 19 out of Camachee Cove Yacht Harbor. There is both a grownup and junior competition. For all the info go to acgfa.com.

Jim Sutton provides a weekly fishing report for The Record. Contact him at [email protected]