FISHING REPORT, Kingfish on wrecks, pogies on beach 6/11/15

**FISHING REPORT**

**Kingfish on wrecks, pogies on beach**

**JIm SUTTON**

**St. Johns River and area lakes**

The panfish bite has slowed all over the river but remains good in area lakes.

The report from Lake George was “horrible. They have a weeks-long issue with an algal bloom. This week, fish camps report a blind mosquito hatch so bad “it blocks out the lights at night. These are fishermen, so that may be a stretch, but it truly bad down there.

The only decent reports are from Lake Lochloosa, where some speckled perch are being targeted in around six feet of water, where the little lake and the big lake converge. The best reports from the river are from Welaka to Palatka, where the hybrid striper bite has been good on top of sandbars and points all week. Theyre generally a couple pounds or less but good sport. The redfish bite seems to have slowed down, but theyre still being caught all the way down to Lake George. Though Green Cove Springs to Welaka is where the bulk of the action is.

There was a report of good schooling bass activity in Rodman Reservoir, with some fish weighing up to 4 pounds.

The river mullet runs is picking up, judging from the numbers of anglers on the Shands Bridge in Green Cove Springs. There a light bite of croakers and yellowmouth trout around the bridge as well, but mainly out in the channels in deeper water.

**The Intracoastal Waterway**

Flounder fishing continues to pick up. There was one report of a couple dozen fish being caught in Salt Run by one family. The bulk of the fish were small, but legal. They culled lots of fish but weighed three more than 3 pounds at Avid Angler. The San Sebastian River has been good as well. The docks from Porpoise Point up to Cap in the North River were good spots to hit for the larger fish.

**[Avid Angler][1]** does a lot of the weighing and measuring of local fish, mainly for the Ancient City Game Fish Association. Randy reports a catch of five redfish that would make tournament redfish anglers choke. OK, here what he said (but this is Randy): “The five slot fish weighed 4.5, a couple around 6.5, a 7.5-pounder and … a 26-inch red that leveled the scale out at 8 pounds. That a heifer.

Reds have been caught mainly along the grass lines of the ICW. The ones just mentioned were reportedly picked up from Cap up to the Guana River on both sides of the ditch.

Black drum fishing is a good bet, and a shady effort, under the bridges in 20-plus feet of water.

A few nice trout were weighed, but generally the bite is off, as we should expect with rising water temperatures.

The Palm Valley Fish Camp reports decent flounder fishing but says the trout bite early and late is picking up in the shallows adjacent to Pine Island.

**The atlantic**

The big news is the return of king mackerel to local waters, just in time for the first kingfish tournament of the season this weekend, the King-buster 400. It is not out of St. Augustine anymore but Jacksonville Beach. There still time to sign up to fish it. Go to king- ° buster.com ° .

Locally most of the fish are being caught on the reefs and wrecks. The Nine-Mile area has been very good. Captain Chuck Stearn says there are “miles of pogies on the beaches and suspects the kingfish are under them, but he hasnt fished the beach himself. He says the sharks have returned to the beaches with a vengeance. He fished a charter Wednesday behind the shrimp boats and says there were plenty of blacktips and spinners to keep everyone busy on the boat all morning long.

[Captain Guy Spear][2] fished a half-day Wednesday out on Nine-Mile. He iced two kings down and pulled the hook on another; and had action on bonito and cudas. He said if you want to play with big amberjack, drop live pogies down in 75 feet of water and hold on. He heard of three or four cobia being caught on the reefs and wrecks as well that day.

In the deeper water, most of the boats that set out trolling lines came home with a couple wahoo, three or four dolphin and a blackfin tuna or two. It exactly what wed expect as summer nears.

But the bottom fishing has been excellent out there, especially for jumbo mangrove snapper, generally between 6 and 10 pounds  but getting up to 15. It should only get better through the July full moon. Vermillion snapper and triggerfish are biting in 100 feet of water.

Probably everyone heard by now that NOAA has decided not to open a red snapper season for even a weekend in 2015 (see editorial Page 8A for more info). Theyre allowing 10 open days in the Gulf for recreational anglers and 44 days for commercial. Make sense?

Not much more to say than that. Except perhaps that the scientists use admittedly bogus and outdated numbers in their calculations and the folks in charge know nothing about fishing and everything about crooked politics and where the money comes from.

**The weather**

Southeast winds will blow Saturday and Sunday at 10-15 knots with seas 2-3 feet. Highs will be right at 90 degrees and the sun will shine.

**Calendar**

**June 12-13**  The Florida Antique Tackle Collectors meeting this weekend at the Holiday Isle Oceanfront Resort. The show is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. There are some beautiful displays of lures, rods, reels and other old fishing equipment. If you have some old tackle youd like to sell or have appraised, bring it with you.

**June 13**  The **Ancient City Game Fish Association** hosts its annual membership party and awards dinner at the St. Augustine Shrine Club, beginning at 5 p.m.
 with a steak dinner at 6. There no charge for members, and guests can eat for $8. For more information, go to [acgfa. ° com][3] ° or call **Matt Morse** at 940-7745.

Jim Sutton provides a weekly fishing report for The Record.

Reach him at jim.sutton@stau ° gustine.com ° .

[1]: http://www.avidanglerinc.com/
[2]: http://www.misstresscharters.com/
[3]: http://acgfa.com/