John A. and Chipper

Wow, what a day. The weather is perfect, no winds and not a cloud in the sky. Still a little hot though. We started off the day catching some pigs and pins. The tide was incoming and was switching around 1 p.m. We were ready with a few baits. Th bite went off as suspected. I hooked up and landed my Snook first. It was a perfect 32 inch Snook. Chipper caught the second keeper another nice 31″ Snook. I was on fire, catching a few more Snook. Before I knew it we had our limit of 3 Snook. We continued to fish even though we had limited. John turned on catching his share of Snook. We did have to leave twice and go catch a few more croakers. It was quite ridiculous, I was even catching Snook twice on the same bait. It was on FIRE! If you want to catch fish, you should book your Snook trip now!

George and Mike,

George and his friend Mike showed up around 6 p.m. George claimed to know were the bait was hanging. There have been tons of catfish in the river right now and a lot of my spots have been nothing but cat’s. So, I was listening and decided to let him navigate the way. Well, nothing but catfish there as well. What was I going to do? It was getting dark. There was one spot that I have been wanting to try lately. With about 45 mins. of light left we made it back and got anchored up on a great little spot. Mike found them at first and then the three of managed to put 3 dozen pins and pigs in the well.

The moon is almost full. The tides are strong. The wind has finally laid down. Once we started to fish, Mike was the first one to catch a fish. It was a 25 inch Snook. I think he caught the first three, all a little short. George got his Snook and a few more. Tons of action, the bite was on, just a lot of small fish. Maybe when we get away from this full moon. I’m not a fan of the full moon. Thanks again George and Mike.

Thom, Justin, and Suzie

Bait is still a problem. A lot of small pins and pigs. The tide was incoming till 9:30 p.m. The weather was decent winds were still quite strong out of the south. We played with a few small Jacks that were hitting the schools of mullet. We tried the back of the inlet for Snook and did not have much luck. As it got dark we moved into channel and began to work the fenders. Thom was on fire he caught his share of small Snook and a decent Redfish. Justin and Suzie each caught a few Snook as well. Overall, there was some action but they were a lot of small fish, no keepers. Oh yea, only 20+boats in the inlet.

Jay, John, and Glenn

These three, Jay, John, and Glenn are from my old stomping grounds, Pinellas County, Fl. They are staying at the oyster point time share next to Capt. Hiram’s. I picked them up at 5 p.m. and the winds were strong 15 to 20 out of the SSW. The tide was incoming at the Inlet and slack was around 8 p.m. Bait, that is the question it’s tough. Catfish were thick, they were everywhere it seemed like we couldn’t get out of them. We managed to get about a dozen baits. Luckily, Capt. Curtis was just finishing fishing and gave us his left over baits. All together, we had about 2 dozen.

We tried a few spots before dark and no luck. I noticed a few schools of mullet moving through and seen some fish popping on them. We made a few drifts threw and Glenn hooked up with a Snook. It was a smart fish swimming right at the boat it managed to give a gill plate. Glenn also had another good fish on and was doing everything correctly. I can’t explain it but, it got off some how. The line came back like have never seen. Maybe a rock or structure of some sort? Once it got dark we moved to the fenders and the tide was starting to slow. John missed a nice snook. Well, the fished jump ran and jumped about the same time the boat Signed In pulled into close and ran John’s line over. Enough said on that. On the first drift on the new tide Jay and John doubled up. I thought for sure it was two nice keeper Snook. John landed his first and it was a 31′ Snook. Jay was a few seconds later and pulled in a nice 17-18lb. Red.

It was a tough night overall, the winds were strong the bait situation was limited and the water is still high and dirty. Thanks again Jay, John, and Glenn. Glenn you will get that trophy you just got keep fishing and don’t let it bother you’ That is just the way it goes sometimes. Every fisherman goes through there hot and cold cycles. You know the saying, it’s fishing not catching. I say, what fun would it be if fishing was easy.

Thom (2nd night of Snook season)

The fishing was hot on the first night and hopefully it would be the same this night. We went right back to the inlet to catch bait. Once again I am the bait champ. Thom almost had me but I made strong comeback near the end and finished with a dozen first. The real skill is in the bait catching. Just kidding, but it is fun! The tide was was slacking at dark and incoming after dark. We were ready and I had the rods ready to go. we just needed the tide to turn.

Once the tide started to come in, Thom began to hook up. He put a nice 32″ keeper on the boat right off. He also caught a Redfish that was 29″. He caught a few more Snook that were a bit short, one of them was just 28″, but I decided to release it in hopes of a bigger keeper. Thom pulled it off, he was on fire. He landed another 32″. That was it 2 keeper’s. We even made it back to Capt. Hiram’s for a quick dinner. That was another great night. I love that inlet when the fishing is good. Thanks again Thom for everything!

Thom (opening night)

Snook season is open! The weather was pretty windy. We were going to fish Sunday night but the weather was bad. The tides are still really strong and the water is still dirty. There are hurricanes popping up everywhere. The bait was my main worry with all the fresh water in the river, would we be able to find bait. We moved around a bit and found a few small pins and pigs near the inlet. I won the bait race to 12, although Thom tried to shave points. The tide was outgoing before dark and slack at dark.As the tide began to flow in, the Snook began to hit. The tide picked up pretty strong. Thom was having a hard time feeling the bait with a ounce split on. I would of never thought but he convinced me to put 1 more ounce on and just like that he hooked up. I believe that one was a bit short. On the next drift, Thom put a keeper on the boat, 28 inches. The bite was on every drift he hooked up. Thom finished with a nice fat 32″ Snook. That was a good night, only a few boats in there as well. Opening night was a success.

John, Nate, and Adam

John and Nate are good friends and neighbors. They split the trip with Adam who is a friend of mine and has fished with me before. The weather was perfect all day, no winds. The sun was shining the whole day. We met at the S.B.I. boat ramp. I was wondering what type of day we would have with John wearing his Boston Red-Sox hat.  When we started off, we went right to catch some Croakers. The Croakers were , we loaded up in about 1 hr.

We took off and headed towards our fishing spot for the day. No one was there and it was to be ours for the day. John was first to put a fish on the boat. After missing a good Snook hit he hooked up and it was a monster Jack. John definitely got a work out on that one. Adam caught the next fish. A Redfish that was just over the limit. It took Nate a few times to get a hang of setting the hook but when he did, Nate put the first keeper Redfish in the box. There were a lot of blue runners caught. Nate caught a big Snook that was his biggest fish ever. Adam caught 2 more Reds. John got one nice Red as well. This was a good day, perfect weather, good fishing, and good people. Thanks again, John and Nate it was a pleasure to meet you and fish with you. It was a lot of fun.

Dave and Jerry

Dave and Jerry are two good guys originally from Florida but now reside in North Carolina. Dave is a artist lots of Ceramic Art. Snow Creek Pottery . Jerry is a big Bass fisherman. They were in town to help out Dave’s parent’s with there flood damage caused from Faye. Well, we met up at the Sebastian Inlet State Park’s boat ramp. The wind had turned out the south, blowing about 10kts. The tide was incoming at the inlet at 4 p.m.

We went to the Croakers spot and caught about 3 and half dozen in about two hours. The tide was still incoming and we tried the north jetty and no luck. As the tide slowed and the sun set, the bite picked up. There were some Tarpon feeding on schools of mullet. I had Dave and Jerry fishing through them and had a few hook ups. I think Redfish were in there as well. We fished the fenders and Jerry and Dave each hooked up at the same time with nice Snook. Dave lost his but Jerry did a great job and landed his. It took about 45 mins. for Dave to finally land his nice size Snook. The fishing was not on fire , but we had some good chances and plenty of fun. The water is still really dirty and the tides are very long and fast on the outgoing. Dave, I wanted to say thanks again for the fish bowl it is definitely one neat piece of art. You guys take care and hopefully we can all fish again!

Chipper and I

Well it felt great to be back on the water again. Sorry folks with the weather and working on the boat lately, it’s been tough to fish. The water is still dirty from the storm. Mostly freshwater from the river’s. The tides have been longer on the outgoing. Tides are unusually high. The weather today was perfect. Sunny and calm. No wind until around 2 p.m.  when it picked up to 10 mph. S.E.
We looked for the Crabs this morning but no luck. Mullet are everywhere. We did fish for the Croakers and they were there, we caught about 2 dozen in 30 minutes. We made our way over to the Inlet. We landed a few nice keeper size Snook. After some Snook action we made our way to another spot. When we got arrived there wasn’t much going on. We fished for a bit and then it just turned on. We caught 3 Reds in the 30″ range, a few Red Snapper just short, 4 Black drum in the 20″ range, 2 Cobia that were around 20lbs. and 1 monster Jack. We also lost some really nice fish. The Cobia was fun Chipper got his first on a croaker. It had a second Cobia trailing, I threw out on it and hooked it up. The Cobia threw the hook and I couldn’t get him to hit again. About an hour later I hooked the same Cobia with a live shrimp and on lighter tackle. That fish was tons of fun. I needed that!….

Jennifer

The weather was perfect. Clear, calm, and sunny. I was wanting to just do some Snook fishing at the Inlet. The tide was outgoing in the morning. We had no problems with catching Croakers. It is that time of year, if you got a Croaker and the tide is outgoing you are getting a Snook hit. We set up anchor and Jennifer hooked up first. She landed the first Snook which was approx. 33 inches. We took turns flipping our baits into the spot. I caught the biggest Snook which was 25lbs. But Jennifer caught the most. She also got to catch her first fish on a bait caster. That was quite the site, she burned her thumb. Everyone does that at least once. Well that was a lot of fun, a good short trip.