Black bass in the river, red bass in the ICW

**Black bass in the river, red bass in the ICW**

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

What should be the last of the speckled perch spawn for the year is tapering off in Dead Lake, Haw Creek, the eastern shore of Lake George and Lake Lochloosa. The fish being caught are full of roe but just dont seem predisposed to drop the eggs; at least not en masse.

The panfish are firing up a few weeks early. You may have noticed that I talk a lot about Dunn Creek, and that because I have spies all over it. But one of them brought in a mix of 81 bluegill and shellcracker, with a smattering of redbellies. They also caught a flounder pushing 3 pounds on a cane pole with a little, live bluegill on it. They might have caught more but brought only shrimp for bait. Shellcracker generally wont eat shrimp, preferring wigglers of various descriptions.

The largemouth bass bite is, of course, as good as it gets  as it should be in March and April  as they fan beds and spawn up and down the river. Only one over 10 pounds was reported this week, but several in the 8-pound range were.

There is supposed to be a hot bite of bluegill and shellcracker in the spillway of Rodman Dam. There are some big stripers and small croaker being caught up around the Shands Bridge in Green Cove Springs. The stripers are hanging on the bridge piling; the croakers are in the channels.

**THE INTRACOASTAL WATERWAY**

There been good fishing tucked in around the bad weather. The redfish bite is the best, with a lot of slot-sized fish and over-slot being taken farther north. The rat reds seem to be concentrating closer to the inlet.

The inlet, by the way, is a very good bet right now for both redfish and big catches of pompano. But it is a place where you really have to pay attention to tides, wind, big boats and undersized anchors. The rocks are sharp and the water deep.

Flounder fishing remains marginal at best  except for smartaleck kids like the one in the photo. Bluefish are moving out of the ICW at just about the rate the jacks are moving in; so it one step forward, one step back. That really not fair. Both species are wonderful fun, especially on topwater plugs  though considerably less tasty. What you dont want to be doing is yanking treble hooks out of the extra-tough mouths of jacks. If it doesnt ruin your hooks, it will ruin your day when the very strong fish ends up sharing a treble with your favorite finger.

Try this. Pull both trebles off the plug. Put a J-hook on the front split ring and mash down the barb. Put no hook on the rear. Instead attach a spinner blade, Colorado preferably, to the rear split ring. The blade flutters and flashes, might I describe as “seductively, even when the plug is at rest. And trust this: if the jack wants the plug, hell find the front hook (as will seatrout; redfish a little less so).

The big, spawning drum are being caught farther up the river this week  Little Pine Island seems to be ground zero. They are also being caught on the Barge off St. Augustine Beach.

Sheepshead are most certainly chewing, but the fiddler crab purveyors havent made the trip across the state in a week. So dig them or do without.

**THE ATLANTIC**

The striking fish are still out in deep water, but most everyone says theyre scattered. So high-speed lures are beating slow-trolled ballyhoo. The flip side is that the dolphin are getting thicker and theyll rarely chase down a lure the size of a Pringles can at 15 knots  but they will eat the stink baits slowly trolled. It up to you. The blackfin tuna are still out there and they have the same aversion to big, fast plugs.

**The bottom fishing** is good, especially for grouper, red snapper and black sea bass. The only problem is that grouper is closed, snapper is perpetually so, and one charter captain told me Wednesday that recreational sea bass closes today. Do your homework before you come in with $5,000 worth of 14-inch fish.

The triggerfish and pink porgies are biting hard. All of this is in 180 to 240 feet.

**The cobia** bite remains good in 100 feet of water. Word is you may as well not fish the Nine-Mile Bottom because it covered up with marauding red snapper. It makes little sense to catch them and risk hurting them in any way on the release, although that is much less common than the federal regulators want everyone to believe  especially that shallow.

**Surf fishing** has been off and on. Pompano are about as predictable as whiting. The one thing to remember about the whiting is that theyre scarce in the surf, but thick out in 30 feet of water. So long casts at low tides are your best bet, unless they jump a bar and come inside on high water.

**THE WEATHER**

Saturday were looking at lot of rain with northeast winds and seas 2 to 4 feet. It lays down a little Sunday to 2 to 3 feet, with northwest winds.

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

Reach him at jim.sutton @staugustine.com.

**CONTRIBUTED Photo :**Jordan Rollie made the trip down from Atlanta with his family for a visit. The trip paid off in spades when he caught this pretty flounder fishing with Captain Rob Bennett of Coastal Fishing Charters. The fish was caught south of the S.R. 206 Bridge in the Devil Elbow area of the Intracoastal Waterway.