Jacksonville and Surrounding Areas

October 27th, 2009

The weather has been great this week. A little wind a few days but mild temperatures and the water temp has cooled a few degrees also.

If you like loading the cooler up with fish the Croakers are everywhere in the river. There are no limits on them so when you find them you can usually load the cooler. Dead shrimp and cut bait work fine. I usually take a big rod or two and put out a few live croakers for the big Reds while I’m croaker fishing.

The Flounder are bunching up a little more now as they start moving towards the ocean. If you come across a good concentration of Flounder you should fish that area hard for a few days because they will be on the move. You might go back the very next day and they will be gone. Live finger mullet is my favorite bait for the fall Flounder but big mud minnows will work as well as plastics.

There are still plenty of nice Trout in the river also and the Sheepshead are starting to bite good at the jetties. The big breeding Reds are in the river in the deep hole with some structure. Cut mullet or crabs work fine and cut Croaker is always a good bait. The bad thing about crabs is that the trash fish will clean them out quick.

Reds in the creeks are also feeding on a regular pattern now. The lower tides have been better and the bait really doesn’t matter. I use shrimp and mud minnows on a quarter ounce jig head and work the oyster mounds.

Tight lines Capt. James Howard Jacksonville Florida