Fishing Reports
21 July 2024
Welcome to Fish Whisperer Charters in Jacksonville, FL!
Water surface temperatures range from 83.4° - 87° nearshore to 25nm out from the Mayport area and fluctuate along with the rainfall. Water clarity has been pretty good unless it is near the beaches restoration project that has the beach water seriously murky for obvious reasons. There are plenty of theories of how this is affecting the lack of menhaden this year along the shoreline in that area. When the bait has shown up, it’s been short-lived bliss. Most of the summer, though, it has either been non-existent or simply too hard or time consuming to gather due to the “cold water” like behavior of erratic and fast-moving schools. Best bet for bait is have sabiki rigs ready to jig somewhere and a net just in case. You never know!
Once the bait challenge is solved, offshore fishing has been fairly steady with only a handful of days of “limits in minutes”. Frankly, I prefer a paced chew so that I can teach the fight and enjoy each fish. I haven’t really noticed a better bite consistently on downrigger or flatline, skirted or naked, but have gotten better bites on jigged bait (sardines, cigars, and threadfins).
If you have fished out there lately, you’ve probably noticed that the sharks have been entirely out of control from the jetties on out. It seems as if they are keenly aware that when a boat is in the area, it’s mealtime and are on our fish within seconds of hooking up. As aggravating as it is, the only real solution is to move around until a few fish can be collected before the sharks start taking them again. A couple of other things to do is to have a big Boston mackerel or something available and toss it in the water in the vicinity of your fish to see if the shark can be distracted long enough to get your fish out the water. The other, start shark fishing! I’ve landed a few fish with a shark on the other line with a heavy rod.
The bottom bite seemed to be better starting around the 16nm point and working out. One day of Atlantic red snapper slapping isn’t enough to thin out the aggravating amount of the species but there is more fishing ground further out that offers a chance to catch other species before the red snapper move in to the action and take over. Vermillion, triggers, & AJs are the species we caught this past week.
TTPs (Tactics, Techniques, Procedures)
Sometimes, the trolling bite slows down and it’s tough to figure out what to do to get it back. Since I’m not a fish, I can’t state this as a fact, but my theory is that the fish tend to feed more up top in low light or steeply angled sun conditions such as morning/evening or overcast days. I’ve paid close attention to this over the years and it seems to hold true with some anomalies. Could be barometric pressure, clarity or temperature. As a general rule though, I’ll place the downrigger baits a bit more shallow in the morning and lower it deep enough so that it avoids the red snapper (if that’s possible) but attracts the attention of a spooky striking fish because of the high sun angle. Sometimes, I can get it back on track quickly!
Hope that helps!
If there are ever any questions, just post them up on my Facebook Page and I'll get back with you.
Catch em' up and stay safe!
Until next time...
Fair Winds & Following Seas,
Capt Kris Kell
